JOURNEY TO THE BANKS OF THE RHINE


Before having himself crowned by the Pope, after the example of
Charlemagne, Napoleon was anxious to go to meditate at the tomb of the
great Carlovingian Emperor, of whom he regarded himself as the worthy
successor. A journey on the banks of the Rhine, a triumphal tour in the
famous German cities which the France of the Revolution had been so proud
to conquer, seemed to the new sovereign a fitting prologue to the pomp of
the coronation. Napoleon was desirous of impressing the imaginations of
people in his new Empire and in the old Empire of Germany. He wished the
trumpets of fame to sound in his honor on both banks of the famous and
disputed river.

The Empress, who had gone to Aix-la-Chapelle to take the waters, arrived
there a few days before her husband. Napoleon wrote to her, August 6,
1804:--

"MY DEAR: I have been here at Calais since midnight; I am thinking of
leaving this evening for Dunkirk. I am satisfied with what I see, and I am
tolerably well. I hope that you will get as much good from the waters as I
get from going about and from seeing the camps and the sea. Eugene has
left for Blois. Hortense is well. Louis is at Plombieres. I am very
anxious to see you. You are always essential to my happiness. A thousand
kind messages."

The Emperor wrote again from Ostend, August 14, 1804:--

"MY DEAR: I have not heard from you for several days, though I should have
been glad to hear that the waters have done you good and how you pass your