slavery, and of the tyrannical government of the pashas. I reach
Constantinople with armed masses. I overthrow the Turkish Empire; I
found in the East a new and grand empire, which fixes my place with
posterity, and perhaps I return to Paris by the way of Adrianople, or
by Vienna, after having annihilated the house of Austria." [75]

Become consul, and then emperor, he often referred to this happy
period, when, "rid of the restraints of a troublesome civilization,"
he could imagine at will and construct at pleasure.[76]

"I created a religion; I saw myself on the road to Asia, mounted on an
elephant, with a turban on my head, and in my hand a new Koran, which
I composed to suit myself."

Confined to Europe, he thinks, after 1804, that he will reorganize
Charlemagne's empire.

"The French Empire will become the mother country of other
sovereignties. . . I mean that every king in Europe shall build a
grand palace at Paris for his own use; on the coronation of the
Emperor of the French these kings will come and occupy it; they will
grace this imposing ceremony with their presence, and honor it with
their salutations."[77] The Pope will come; he came to the first one;
he must necessarily return to Paris, and fix himself there
permanently. Where could the Holy See be better off than in the new
capital of Christianity, under Napoleon, heir to Charlemagne, and
temporal sovereign of the Sovereign Pontiff? Through the temporal the
emperor will control the spiritual,[78] and through the Pope,
consciences."