ould create, had been thrown into the court-yard
and consumed by the infuriated populace. Royalty itself had been pursued
and insulted in its most sacred retreats.

By slow and cautious advances, Napoleon refurnished these magnificent
saloons. The emblems of Jacobin misrule were silently effaced. Statues
of Brutus and Washington, of Demosthenes, and of others renowned for
illustrious deeds, were placed in the vacant niches, and the Tuilleries
again appeared resplendent as in the days of pristine pride and power.

On the morning of the 19th of February, 1800, all Paris was in commotion
to witness the transfer of the embryo court of the first consul and his
colleagues from the Luxembourg to the Tuilleries. Already the colleagues
of Napoleon had become so entirely eclipsed by the superior brilliance
of their imperious associate that their names were almost forgotten. The
royal apartments were prepared for Napoleon, while those in the Pavilion
of Flora were assigned to the two other consuls. The three consuls
entered a magnificent carriage, drawn by six white horses. A gorgeous
train of officers, with six thousand picked troops in the richest
uniform, surrounded the cortege. Many of the long-abolished usages of
royalty were renewed upon that day. Twenty thousand soldiers, in most
imposing military array, were drawn up before the palace. The moment the
carriage appeared, the very heavens seemed rent with their cries, "Vive
le premier consul!" The two associate consuls were ciphers. They sat at
his side as pages to embellish his triumph. This day placed Napoleon in
reality upon the throne of France, and Josephine that evening moved, a
queen, in the apartments hallowed by the beauty and the sufferings of
Maria Antoinette.

The suite of rooms appropriated to the wife of the first consul
consisted of two magnificent saloons, with private apartments adjoining.
No French monarch ever sauntered through a more dazzling scene than
that which graced the drawing-rooms of Josephine on this occasion.
Embassadors from nearly all the courts of Europe were present. The army
contributed its utmost display of rank and military pomp to embellish
the triumph of its most successful general. And the metropolis
contributed all that it still retained of brilliance in ancestral renown
or in intellectual achievement.

When Josephine entered the gorgeously-illuminated apartments of the
palace, leaning upon the arm of Talleyrand, and dressed in the