After the terrible convulsions of the last years even this rest was a relief.

Whether it was to furnish more than a mere relief; whether the remarkable man, who had succeeded in the difficult task of vanquishing the public foe and in the more difficult work of subduing the revolution, would be able to meet satisfactorily the most difficult task of all-- the re-establishing of social and political order shaken to its very foundations--could not but be speedily decided.