Excerpt from The Napoleon Gallery; Or Illustrations of the Life and Times of the Emperor of France: Engraved by Reveil, and Other Eminent Artists, From All the Most Celebrated Pictures, Etc, Produced in France During the Last Forty Years This imposing ceremony was performed, on the 2nd of December, 1804, in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, in the midst of all that was splendid and illustrious in the capital of France. With a view to shew his power rather than to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Pope, either temporal or spiritual, Napoleon summoned Pius VII. to be in attendance on the day of his inauguration at Paris. In compliance with this, the unresisting Pope left Rome on the 5th of November, and blessed the Emperor and Empress, and also consecrated the diadems. Napoleon, however, placed the crown on his own head, and then on the head of Josephine, who received it kneeling on a cushion at the foot of the Altar steps. We are told that "throughout the ceremonial his aspect was thoughtful; it was on a stern and gloomy brow that he with his own hands planted the symbol of successful ambition and uneasy power, and the shouts of the deputies present, sounded faint and hollow amidst the silence of the people." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.