The _coup d'etat_ asserts, what is doubtful, that we have gone back to the time of the _Jacqueries_; but this much is certain, that it takes us back to the time of the Crusades.

Caesar goes crusading for the Pope.

_Diex el volt._ The Elysee has the faith, and the thirst also, of the Templar.
To enjoy and to live well, we repeat, and to consume the budget; to believe nothing, to make the most of everything; to compromise at once two sacred things, military honour and religious faith; to stain the altar with blood and the standard with holy water; to make the soldier ridiculous, and the priest a little ferocious; to mix up with that great political fraud which he calls his power, the Church and the nation, the conscience of the Catholic and the conscience of the patriot.

This is the system of Bonaparte the Little.
All his acts, from the most monstrous to the most puerile, from that which is hideous to that which is laughable, are stamped with this twofold scheme.

For instance, national solemnities bore him.