Councillor Laumond proposed the adoption of the Elephant instead; with for a motto “_Mole et Mente_.” The Elephant had a great vogue at that day among European heraldic authorities as being pre-eminently a royal beast. There was a widely prevalent belief, on the authority of old writers on natural history, that an Elephant could not be made to bow its knees. Further, too, the elephant typified resistless strength as well as magnanimity. And had not Caesar himself once placed the effigy of the Elephant on the Roman coinage? Nobody else at the Council, however, seemed to care for the Elephant. Councillor Simon objected to Ségur’s proposition, on the score that the Lion was essentially an aggressive beast. Cambacérès, ex-Consul and Arch-Chancellor of the Empire, suggested a swarm of Bees as the most suitable national emblem. It would represent the actual situation of France, he explained--a republic with a presiding chief. Councillor Lacuèe supported Cambacérès. The Bee, he added, was the more suitable, in that it possessed a sting as well as being a maker of honey. Cambacérès remarked that he favoured the idea of the Bee as typifying peaceful industry rather than offensive power. The other members took no interest in the idea of the Bee, and after some discursive talk the Council fell back on the Committee’s original suggestion of the historic Gallic Cock. The general voice favoured the adoption of the Cock, and they unanimously voted for it. That, however, would not do for Napoleon. He sharply refused once more to hear of the Cock in any circumstances. He had for some minutes sat silent, listening to the discussion until the vote was taken. On that he rose and banned the Cock absolutely and finally. “The Cock is quite too weak a creature,” he exclaimed. “A thing like that cannot possibly be the cognisance of an Empire such as France. You must make your choice between the Eagle, the Elephant, and the Lion!” The Eagle, however, did not commend itself to the Council. That emblem, it was pointed out by several members, had been already adopted by other European nations. For France, such being the case, the Eagle would not be sufficiently distinctive. The German Empire had the Eagle for its cognisance. So had Austria. So had Prussia. So had Poland even--the White Eagle of the Jagellons. The Council was plainly not attracted by the Eagle. Lebrun, the other ex-Consul, Arch-Treasurer of the Empire, now put in a word again for the Fleur-de-Lis. It had been, he said, the national emblem of France under all the previous dynasties. The Fleur-de-Lis, declared Lebrun, was the real historic emblem of France, and he proposed that it should be adopted for the Empire. Nobody, though, supported him, one member, Councillor Regnaud, condemning the idea of the Fleur-de-Lis as utterly out of date. “The nation,” added Regnaud, with a sneer, “will neither go back to the cult of the Lilies nor to the religion of Rome!” [Sidenote: “YOU MUST CHOOSE THE LION!”]