But, unlike the
supremacy of Robespierre, that of Napoleon could not be disputed; for
the general, while guarding all the material boons which the
Revolution had conferred, conciliated the interests and classes
whereon the civilian had so brutally trampled. The new autocracy
therefore possessed a solid strength which that of the terrorists
could never possess. Indeed, it was more absolute than the dictatorial
power that Rousseau had outlined. The philosopher had asserted that,
while silencing the legislative power, the dictator really made it
vocal, and that he could do everything but make laws. But Napoleon,
after 1802, did far more: he suppressed debates and yet drew laws from
his subservient legislature. Whether, then, we regard its practical
importance for France and Europe, or limit our view to the mental
sagacity and indomitable will-power required for its accomplishment,
the triumph of Napoleon in the three years subsequent to his return
from Egypt is the most stupendous recorded in the history of civilized
peoples.

The populace consoled itself for the loss of political liberty by the
splendour of the fete which heralded the title of First Consul for
Life, proclaimed on August 15th: that day was also memorable as being
the First Consul's thirty-third birthday, the festival of the
Assumption, and the anniversary of the ratification of the Concordat.
The decorations and fireworks were worthy of so remarkable a
confluence of solemnities. High on one of the towers of Notre Dame
glittered an enormous star, and at its centre there shone the sign of
the Zodiac which had shed its influence over his first hours of life.
The myriads of spectators who gazed at that natal emblem might well
have thought that his life's star was now at its zenith. Few could
have dared to think that it was to mount far higher into unknown
depths of space, blazing as a baleful portent to kings and peoples;
still less was there any Cassandra shriek of doom as to its final
headlong fall into the wastes of ocean. All was joy and jubilation
over a career that had even now surpassed the records of antique
heroism, that blended the romance of oriental prowess with the
beneficent toils of the legislator, and prospered alike in war and
peace.

And yet black care cast one shadow over that jubilant festival. There
was a void in the First Consul's life such as saddened but few of the
millions of peasants who looked up to him as their saviour. His wife