In November, 1811, unusually excited, he says to De Pradt:

"In five years I shall be master of the world; only Russia will
remain, but I will crush her.[79] . . . Paris will extend out to
St. Cloud."

To render Paris the physical capital of Europe is, through his own
confession, "one of his constant dreams."

"At times," he says,[80]"I would like to see her a city of two,
three, four millions of inhabitants, something fabulous, colossal,
unknown down to our day, and its public establishments adequate to its
population. . . . Archimedes proposed to lift the world if he
could be allowed to place his lever; for myself, I would have changed
it wherever I could have been allowed to exercise my energy,
perseverance, and budgets."

At all events, he believes so ; for however lofty and badly supported
the next story of his structure may be, he has always ready a new
story, loftier and more unsteady, to put above it. A few months
before launching himself, with all Europe at his back, against Russia,
he said to Narbonne:[81]

"After all, my dear sir, this long road is the road to India.
Alexander started as far off as Moscow to reach the Ganges; this has
occurred to me since St. Jean d'Acre. . . . To reach England to-
day I need the extremity of Europe, from which to take Asia in the
rear. . . . Suppose Moscow taken, Russia subdued, the czar
reconciled, or dead through some court conspiracy, perhaps another and
dependent throne, and tell me whether it is not possible for a French