The flags of Denain and Fontenoy, and those of the first campaign in Italy, were already suspended from the columns which supported the roof.
Two centenarian "Invalids" who had fought beside Marechal Saxe were standing, one to the right and one to the left of Berthier, like caryatides of an ancient world, gazing across the centuries.

To the right, on a raised platform, was the bust of Washington, which was now to be draped with the flags of Aboukir.

On another platform, opposite to the former, stood Bonaparte's armchair.
On each side of the temple were tiers of seats in which was gathered all the elegant society of Paris, or rather that portion of it which gave its adhesion to the order of ideas then to be celebrated.
When the flags appeared, the trumpets blared, their metallic sounds echoing through the arches of the temple, Lannes entered first.

At a sign from him, the Guides mounted two by two the steps of the platform and placed the staffs of the flags in the holders prepared for them.

During this time Bonaparte took his place in the chair, Then Lannes advanced to the minister of war, and, in that voice that rang out so clearly on the battlefield, crying "Forward!" he said: "Citizen minister, these are the flags of the Ottoman army, destroyed before your eyes at Aboukir.