There began what was surely the longest funeral in history. The coffin was transferred to the steamer Normandie, which took it to Val de la Haye, on the Seine below Rouen; there it was transferred to a river barge, on which a small temple had been improvised; under this temple—guarded, one at each corner, by Bertrand, Gourgaud, Las Cases, and Marchand—the coffin was borne in leisurely state up the Seine,stopping at major towns for celebrations on the bank.16 At Courbevoie, four miles north of Paris, it was transferred to a decorated funeral coach, which was drawn in a procession of soldiers, sailors, and diverse dignitaries through Neuilly, and under the Arc de Triomphe, and along the Champs-Élysées lined on either side by applauding and rejoicing multitudes.17 Late on that bitter-cold day, December 15, 1840, the corpse at last reached its destination, the magnificently domed church of the Hôtel des Invalides. The aisles and nave were crowded with thousands of silent spectators as twenty-four seamen bore the heavy coffin to the altar,where the Prince de Joinville addressed his father the King: “Sire, I present to you the body of the Emperor of France”; to which Louis Philippe replied, “I receive it in the name of France.” Bertrand laid Napoleon’s sword upon the coffin; Gourgaud added the Emperor’s hat; a requiem Mass was sung to Mozart’s music; and the Emperor was at last where he had wished his remains to be—in the heart of Paris, on the banks of the Seine.

Durant, Will; Durant, Ariel. The Age of Napoleon