seized, with respectful
violence, the object of their choice, guarded Julian with drawn swords
through the streets of Paris, placed him on the tribunal, and with
repeated shouts saluted him as their emperor. Prudence, as well as
loyalty, inculcated the propriety of resisting their treasonable
designs; and of preparing, for his oppressed virtue, the excuse
of violence. Addressing himself by turns to the multitude and to
individuals, he sometimes implored their mercy, and sometimes expressed
his indignation; conjured them not to sully the fame of their immortal
victories; and ventured to promise, that if they would immediately
return to their allegiance, he would undertake to obtain from the
emperor not only a free and gracious pardon, but even the revocation
of the orders which had excited their resentment. But the soldiers, who
were conscious of their guilt, chose rather to depend on the gratitude
of Julian, than on the clemency of the emperor. Their zeal was
insensibly turned into impatience, and their impatience into rage.
The inflexible Caesar sustained, till the third hour of the day, their
prayers, their reproaches, and their menaces; nor did he yield, till he
had been repeatedly assured, that if he wished to live, he must consent
to reign. He was exalted on a shield in the presence, and amidst the
unanimous acclamations, of the troops; a rich military collar, which was
offered by chance, supplied the want of a diadem; [8] the ceremony was
concluded by the promise of a moderate donative; and the new emperor,
overwhelmed with real or affected grief retired into the most secret
recesses of his apartment. [10]

[Footnote 7: Most probably the palace of the baths, (Thermarum,) of
which a solid and lofty hall still subsists in the Rue de la Harpe.
The buildings covered a considerable space of the modern quarter of the
university; and the gardens, under the Merovingian kings, communicated
with the abbey of St. Germain des Prez. By the injuries of time and the
Normans, this ancient palace was reduced, in the twelfth century, to a
maze of ruins, whose dark recesses were the scene of licentious love.

Explicat aula sinus montemque amplectitur alis;
Multiplici latebra scelerum tersura ruborem.
.... pereuntis saepe pudoris Celatura nefas,
Venerisque accommoda furtis.

(These lines are quoted from the Architrenius, l. iv. c. 8, a poetical
work of John de Hauteville, or Hanville, a monk of St. Alban's, ab