The cardinal droned on, and Napoleon’s gaze wandered round the interior of the cathedral, over the ranks of the military officers and politicians in the front rows of the seats facing the pulpit. He was well aware of the anger and resentment this treaty with the Pope had engendered in their ranks. It had been a closely calculated risk to appeal over their heads to the people of France, but it was more important to divide the royalists from the church than worry about the ideological concerns of the intellectuals and radicals of Paris society. Besides, he would need all the popular support he could muster in the months to come.

Napoleon frowned, and lowered his head as if bowing it in thoughtful reflection on the Pope’s message. In reality he sought only to hide his face from the other members of the audience since he feared that some amongst them might read his mind from his troubled expression. He was burdened with anxiety over the reaction of the tribunes’ assembly towards the peace he had brought to France.Talleyrand, Fouché, Lucien and their followers had been busy preparing the ground for a vote to make Napoleon First Consul for life. Instead the tribunes had offered to renew Napoleon’s current office for another ten years.

Was this his reward for bringing the first peace that France had known since the revolution? He fumed and clenched his fist, then thrust it inside his jacket to keep it out of sight. Did the fools really think he would quietly accept this sop when so much work still had to be done to drag France back to the summit of European power? Did they really think that there was anyone else who could have achieved as much as Napoleon had in the short time since he had risen to power? France needed him. More than she needed the ingrates of the tribunes’ assembly. When the time came for the people of France to make their feelings clear Napoleon would make sure that the spiteful and petty spirits who stood between him and the glorious realisation of France’s ambitions would be swept away with all the other dead weight that was holding the nation back.