Indeed, it remains surprisingly, temptingly easy to identify with Napoleon-and therefore to focus on his personality rather than on a political record that was, on balance, enormously destructive. And there, standing in the nave, he turned to his older brother Joseph and allegedly whispered, in their native Corsican dialect, “if only Dad could see us now!” It is moments like this-in which Napoleon seemed as amazed as anyone else by the heights to which he had risen-that help to explain the peculiar fascination that he continues to exert over modern imaginations. Napoleon himself was wearing a thick, heavy mantle of ermine and crimson velvet, and a laurel wreath on his head. Hundreds of musicians were playing hymns and ceremonial marches. The pope had arrived to bless the ceremony. On December 2, 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte was preparing to crown himself Emperor of the French in Notre Dame Cathedral.
