The Armed Head

Napoleon while dying beheld an Arméd head...

He thought upon his son, weak and suffering:

The Head, that was thus his France so well-beloved,

Decapitated, at the feet of Cæsar expiring.

God, who judged that man and the fame he bred,

Called to Jesus Christ; but the abyss, opening,

Gave only a vain breath, a smoke as of the dead:

The demigod, conquered, taller yet was standing.

Now you saw depart from deep in purgatory

A young man streaming with the tears of Victory,

Who held out his pure hand to the monarch of the sky;

Stricken in the flank by twofold mystery both,

One spilled out his blood to fecundate the Earth,

The other poured to Heaven the seed of Gods on high!

Gérard de Nerval