But Napoleon did not call them back; standing on his throne, haughty
and defiant, he looked after the disappearing deputies in anger; and
only when the door of the anteroom closed, did he turn his eyes
toward those who surrounded him. As if by a magician's wand his face
resumed its former expression of august calmness. He slowly left the
throne, and, dropping here and there a few condescending words,
crossed the hall. Suddenly he noticed Baron Fontaine, the architect
of the imperial palaces. "Ah," exclaimed Napoleon, quickly advancing
toward him, "you are here, Fontaine? I intended to send for you to-
day. Did you bring your plans with you?"
"Yes, sire."
"Well, then, come; and you, ministers, Duke de Rovigo, Duke de
Vicenza, Duke de Bassano, pray follow me into my cabinet."
The officers and cavaliers who remained in the hall looked after the
emperor with anxious glances. "A cabinet meeting on this holiday!
and at which the imperial architect has to be present!" they
whispered. "What means this? Will the emperor commission M. de
Fontaine to transform the Tuileries into a fortress, and construct
ramparts and ditches? Are we, if all should be lost, to defend
ourselves? Or will the emperor convert Paris into a fortress? Is M.
de Fontaine to erect outworks and fortifications? Or will the
emperor have a new Bastile built for the purpose of confining the
traitorous legislature and several hundreds of these new-fangled
royalists who are now springing up like mushrooms?"
But the emperor did not think of all this when, followed by the
three ministers and Baron Fontaine, he entered his cabinet.
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