painting the official representation of the coronation. He carried his
gallantry so far as to choose for his subject, not the moment when
Napoleon crowned himself, but that of the coronation of the Empress; and
when a critic accused him of making Josephine too young, he said: "Go and
say that to her!" When the picture was finished, the Emperor and the court
went to see it in the artist's studio. Napoleon walked up and down for
half an hour, bareheaded, before the canvas, which is about twenty feet
high, about thirty long, and contains one hundred portraits. (It is now at
Versailles in the Hall of the Guards, at the top of the marble staircase.)
The Emperor examined it with the closest attention, while David and all
who were present maintained a respectful silence. This long waiting made
the artist very anxious. At last Napoleon turned towards him and said:
"It's good, David, very good. You have divined all my thought; you have
made me a French knight. I thank you for transmitting to ages to come the
proof of affection I wanted to give to her who shares with me the pains of
government." Then taking two steps towards the artist, he raised his hat
and said, in a loud voice: "David, I salute you."

Sometimes at Notre Dame in Holy Week, at evening service, when the
Cathedral is lit up as at the coronation, I recall the various ceremonies
of this church: the royal baptisms and marriages there celebrated; the
banners hung from its roof; the _Te Deums_ and _De Profundis_ so often
sung there; Bossuet uttering the funeral oration of the Prince of Conde;
the shameless goddess of Reason profaning the sanctuary. I close my eyes
in meditation, and seem to be present at the coronation, to see Pius VII.
on his pontifical throne, and, before the altar, Napoleon crowning
Josephine with his own hands, I hear the echo of distant litanies, of the
trumpets, of the organ, and of the applause. Then I think of the
nothingness of all human glory and grandeur. Of all the illustrious
persons who have knelt in this old basilica, what is left? Scarcely a few