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Memoirs of Napoleon — Volume 16 by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
page 57 of 60 (95%)
breast. At some distance was the silver vase containing the heart and
stomach, which were not allowed to be removed. At the back of the head
was an altar, where the priest in his stole and surplice recited the
customary prayers. All the individuals of Napoleon's suite, officers and
domestics, dressed in mourning, remained standing on the left. Dr.
Arnott had been charged to see that no attempt was made to convey away
the body.

For some-hours the crowd had besieged the doors; they were admitted, and
beheld the inanimate remains of Napoleon in respectful silence. The
officers of the 20th and 66th' Regiments were admitted first, then the
others. The following day (the 7th) the throng was greater. Antommarchi
was not allowed to take the heart of Napoleon to Europe with him; he
deposited that and the stomach in two vases, filled with alcohol and
hermetically sealed, in the corners of the coffin in which the corpse was
laid. This was a shell of zinc lined with white satin, in which was a
mattress furnished with a pillow. There not being room for the hat to
remain on his head, it was placed at his feet, with some eagles, pieces
of French money coined during his reign, a plate engraved with his arms,
etc. The coffin was closed, carefully soldered up, and then fixed in
another case of mahogany, which was enclosed in a third made of lead,
which last was fastened in a fourth of mahogany, which was sealed up and
fastened with screws. The coffin was exhibited in the same place as the
body had been, and was also covered with the cloak that Napoleon had worn
at the battle of Marengo. The funeral was ordered for the morrow, 8th
May, and the troops were to attend in the morning by break of day.

This took place accordingly: the Governor arrived first, the Rear-Admiral
soon after, and shortly all the authorities, civil and military, were
assembled at Longwood. The day was fine, the people crowded the roads,
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