The material of it was originally rich and heavy crimson silk, bordered with gold fringe.

It is faded, tattered, shot-torn, bullet-ridden, wind-whipped; parts of it have disappeared.

It has been carefully mounted, and is stretched out so as to present its face to the beholder.

In dull, defaced letters of gold may be read inscriptions--the imagination piecing out the missing parts.

Here is a line that runs as follows: _Napoleon, Empereur des Francais, au 5e Infanterie de la Ligne._ And underneath, in smaller and brighter letters, as if a later addition: _Grenadiers du Garde Imperiale._ There has been some sort of device in the middle, but most of it has disappeared.