French army.... From all the ranks of the army, from the Garde
Nationale and from the people, there arose but one cry, powerful,
unanimous, drowning the sound of the cannon of the Invalides which
announced the entrance of Napoleon III into this ancient palace still
resonant with the glory of his name. His Majesty, followed by his suite,
traversed on horseback the Pavillon de l'Horloge and passed in review,
on the Place des Tuileries and the Place du Carrousel, the troops of all
arms there drawn up. He rode along the front of all the lines, receiving
everywhere the most enthusiastic acclamations. After the review, the
Emperor, followed by the generals who had formed his staff, ascended
into the grand apartments of the palace," etc.

The renewal of the traditions of the First Empire was incessantly
pursued. On the 21st of March, the President reviewed the garrison of
Paris and distributed the military medal which he had just instituted,
addressing the troops in a discourse in which he explained his object in
creating this badge of distinction; on the 10th of May, there was a
great military display on the Champ-de-Mars and the distribution of the
eagles of the colors to the army. A decree of the 12th of August, 1857,
instituted the medal of Saint Helena, given to those old soldiers of the
first Napoleon who had served in the campaigns from 1792 to 1815. The
Imperial Guard for the army, a reserve corps and corps d'elite, and the
Cent-Gardes a cheval for the service of the Imperial palace, had been
organized two years earlier. In 1867, at the culmination of the prestige
of the Empire, when "the whole _Almanach de Gotha_ passed through the
salons of the Tuileries," these crowned heads were honored with a grand
review of sixty-two thousand men in the Bois de Boulogne;--"the honors
were carried off by the artillery of the Guard; the chasseurs, the
zouaves, the _guides_, and the cuirassiers divided these
acclamations, ... all these soldiers, presenting the most brilliant
appearance, defiled before the King of Prussia, the Count Bismarck, the
general Baron von Moltke, the major-general Count von Goltz! And three
years later!..."

At the present day, the great number of these very red and blue
soldiers, officers and privates, always to be seen promenading in the
streets of Paris, the sentries on duty before all the principal public
buildings, the mounted dragoons, or _estafettes_, riding about the
streets with official messages,