In 1806 Napoleon reconstructed the German Empire and secured the dependence of Naples and the Netherlands upon himself by placing his brothers on their thrones, and of other sections of Italy by granting their government to nineteen dukes of his own creation. Then followed the battles of Jena, Eylau, and Friedland which humbled Prussia, and the festivals which welcomed the conqueror to Paris surpassed in brilliancy any that had gone before. Two of the triumphal arches which beautify Paris were raised to commemorate these victories. The Triumphal Arch of the Carrousel, a reduced copy of the arch of Septimius Severus in Rome, was built as an entrance to the Tuileries from the small square of the Carrousel. It must be remembered that in the early nineteenth century the whole of the north wing of the Louvre was non-existent, its site being occupied by a tangle of small streets and mean houses, whose destruction was merely entered upon when Napoleon I began to build the section of the palace running east from the rue de Rivoli end of the Tuileries toward the ancient quadrangle of the Louvre. Upon the top of the arch was placed the bronze Quadriga from Saint Mark’s in Venice which Bonaparte sent home after his first Italian campaign. After Napoleon’s fall the horses were sent back to Italy and replaced on the arch by a modern quadriga. The Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, a mammoth construction begun by Napoleon on the crest of a slope approached by twelve broad avenues, is adorned with historical groups and bas-reliefs which repay a close examination, but the impressiveness of the monument rests in its dominating position which makes it one of the focal points in a panoramic view of the city. It is a majestic finish to the vista of the Champs Élysées seen from the Place de la Concorde. Although many different forms of decoration have been suggested for the top of the arch, and some have even been tried by models, none has been found satisfactory, and the great mass remains incomplete. Though France had returned from its Revolutionary wanderings and once again had an established religion, and though the Emperor went to mass as regularly as his army duties permitted, there was practically no building of new churches by Napoleon. It was a sufficient task to repair the mutilations of the Revolution. The church of Sainte Geneviève--the Pantheon--was consecrated in the early years of the Consulate. In 1806 the construction of the Madeleine, which had been begun some sixty years before, was renewed, not, however, as a church, but as a Temple of Glory. Before it was finished the Restoration had come and had turned it into a church again. [Illustration: TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF THE CARROUSEL.] [Illustration: TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF THE STAR.]