handfuls of dust. I open my eyes. The days are silent; the crowd has
quietly withdrawn. The lights are out, and at the end of the church, in
the shadow, like a timid star in a cloudy day, burns a solitary lamp.




VI.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF FLAGS.


The coronation was the signal for a succession of festivities. Napoleon
was anxious that all classes of society should take part in the
rejoicings; that commerce should be benefited; that luxury should do
wonders; and that Paris should take the position of the first city in the
world, the capital of capitals. The day after the coronation was to be the
popular holiday, and the day when the flags were distributed was to be the
festival of the army. Monday, December 3, booths were open on every side
for the entertainment of the crowd. Adulation assumed every guise, even
the humblest; and every form of language, even that of the markets, was
employed to flatter the new sovereign. There was sung, "The joyous round
on the lottery of thirteen thousand fowls, with an accompaniment of
fountains of wine." It was a description of the food distributed to the
poor people of Paris. This song was sung in every street and place, as the
_Ca ira_ was sung in '93.

The compliment of the marketmen and of their ladies ran thus: "I have
reasoned it out with my wife that a house a thousand times as large as
Notre Dame would not be able to hold all those who have reason to bless