n the eve of the last assault,
he added

"If I succeed I shall find in the town the pasha's treasure and arms
for 300,000 men. I stir up and arm all Syria.... I march on Damascus
and Aleppo; as I advance in the country my army will increase with the
discontented. I proclaim to the people the abolition of 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." [1175]

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.[1176]

"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."[1177] 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,[1178] and through the Pope, consciences."

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.[1179]... 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,[1180]"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 my