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.
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