magnificent, but most of them were shivering, with damp bodies and numbed fingers. [Sidenote: IN THE IMPERIAL PAVILION] The sleet had stopped for the time, but after the all-night’s downpour of rain and snow the seats everywhere were in a sad condition. Canopies and cushions, curtains, seats, carpets--everything had been drenched through and swamped during the night. The discomfort, however, was past helping and had to be borne. The Imperial Pavilion itself indeed had not escaped a wetting, and in parts it was in little better condition than the other places. “Only with the greatest diligence,” describes one of the suite, “had it been possible to keep the thrones dry.” Napoleon’s throne, with beside it the throne for Josephine, at a slightly lower elevation, stood at the front of the Imperial Pavilion. A gilt-framed crimson velvet Chair of State was provided for the Emperor, with a crowned eagle in gilt stucco perched on the back; made on the model of Dagobert’s chair on which Napoleon had sat during the ceremony of the distribution of the Crosses of the Legion of Honour at Boulogne. As on that day, so now, trophies of captured battle-flags adorned the back of the Imperial daïs, selected from the two hundred and odd standards taken in battle by the Armies of Italy and Egypt which Napoleon had led in person: trophies of Montenotte and Arcola, of Tagliamento and Lodi, of Rivoli and Castiglione; the red-and-white banner of the Knights of Malta; the green Horse-tail Standard of the Beys of Egypt; Austrian standards won by Napoleon at the crowning triumph of Marengo. To right and left of the Emperor, on richly decorated chairs of ceremony, Joseph and Louis Bonaparte and the Princesses were seated. The Imperial suites in attendance were grouped at the back together with a cluster of court grandees, filling most of the spacious platform behind the throne. In the forefront, at the Emperor’s right hand, stood a splendid galaxy of stalwart figures--the Marshals of the Empire. They stood forward prominently. For them that was the day of days. All must see on such a day the champion warriors of France, the renown of whose victories had filled the world! The whole eighteen were there--all except one. Marshal Brune alone was absent; on service out of France as Napoleon’s Ambassador at Constantinople. The group was completed by the four “Honorary Marshals”--the veteran Kellermann, the victor of Valmy; Perignon; Serrurier; and Lefebvre. [Sidenote: THE LIEUTENANTS OF THE WAR LORD] Glance for one moment round the main group of thirteen, the chosen lieutenants of Napoleon the War Lord, as they stand beside their Chief, with, arrayed in front, the serried columns of the destined victors of Austerlitz. Next to the Emperor and the Eagles it is they who on this Day of the Eagles are the principal objects of interest to the general spectator.