To be a Majesty, to be a cousin of Sovereigns, to marry a Bourbon for diplomatic ends, to correspond with the Queen of England, to be very stiff and very punctual, to found a dynasty, to bore ambassadresses into fits, to live, on the highest pinnacle, an exemplary life devoted to the public service--such were his objects, and such, in fact, were his achievements.

The "Marquis Peu-a-peu," as George IV called him, had what he wanted.

But this would never have been the case if it had not happened that the ambition of Stockmar took a form exactly complementary to his own.

The sovereignty that the Baron sought for was by no means obvious.

The satisfaction of his essential being lay in obscurity, in invisibility--in passing, unobserved, through a hidden entrance, into the very central chamber of power, and in sitting there, quietly, pulling the subtle strings that set the wheels of the whole world in motion.