day. In short, the armies of France were taken care of in
a way that had never before been seen.

But the Emperor, who knew that he was the emperor not only of the
soldiers but of all, remembered the bourgeois, and built wonderful
monuments for them, to suit their own taste, in places that had been as
bare before as the palm of your hand. Suppose you were coming from
Spain, for example, and going through France to Berlin. You would pass
under sculptured triumphal arches on which you'd see the common soldiers
carved just as beautifully as the generals.

In two or three years, and without taxing you people at all, Napoleon
filled his vaults with gold; created bridges, palaces, roads, schools,
festivals, laws, harbors, ships; and spent millions and millions of
money--so much, in fact, that if he'd taken the notion, they say, he
might have paved all France with five-franc pieces.

Finally, when he was comfortably seated on his throne, he was so
thoroughly the master of everything that Europe waited for his
permission before it even dared to sneeze. Then, as he had four brothers
and three sisters, he said to us in familiar talk, as if in the order of
the day: "Boys! Is it right that the relatives of your Emperor should
have to beg their bread? No! I want them to shine, just as I do. A
kingdom must be conquered, therefore, for every one of them; so that
France may be master of all; so that the soldiers of the Guard may make
the world tremble; so that France may spit wherever she likes; and so
that all nations may say to her,--as it is written on my coins,--'God
protects you.'"

"All right!" says the army. "We'll fish up kingdoms for you with the
bayonet."

We couldn't back out, you know; and if he had taken it into his head to
conquer the moon, we should have had to get ready, pack our knapsacks,
and climb up. Fortunately, he didn't have any such intention.

The kings, who were very comfortable on their thrones, naturally didn't
want to get off to make room for his relatives; so they had to be
dragged off by the ears. Forward! We marched and marched, and
everything began to shake again. Ah, how he did wear out men and shoes
in those days! He struck such tremendous blows with us that if we had
been other than Frenchmen we should all have been used up. But Frenchmen
are born philosophers, and they know that a little sooner or a little
later they must die. So we used to die without a word, because we had
the pleasure of