After the promise was sealed and the kiss made, Napoleon II and Princess Elisabeth of Bavaria began walking down the aisle together.
The noise inside Notre-Dame rose in controlled layers. It wasn't chaos. It was applause, then voices, then the steady swelling of approval that spread from the front rows to the back. Men who rarely showed emotion stood and clapped anyway. Women lifted hands to their mouths, eyes fixed on the couple as if they were trying to lock the image into memory. Foreign dignitaries did not shout, but many nodded to their aides, already calculating what this marriage meant in treaties and trade.
Napoleon II kept his pace even. His posture didn't change. He did not rush, and he did not slow to feed the spectacle. Elisabeth stayed at his side, her hand in his arm. Her face remained composed, but she didn't look away from the crowd either. She acknowledged it without shrinking from it.
