The principles of Leopold could conciliate the Revolution, but his power as the arbitrator of Germany could not conciliate the conquering power of France.

His part was a double one, and his position false.

He died at a right moment for his renown; he paralysed Germany, and checked the impetus of France, and, by disappearing between the two, he left the two principles to clash together, and destiny to take its course.
V.
Opinion, already agitated by the death of Leopold, received another shock from the news of the tragical death of the king of Sweden, who was assassinated on the night of the 16th of March, 1792, at a masked ball.
Death seemed to strike, one after another, all the enemies of France.
The Jacobins saw its hand in all these catastrophes, and even boasted of them through their most audacious demagogues; but they proclaimed more crimes than they committed, and their wishes alone shared in these assassinations.
Gustavus, this hero of the counter-revolution, this chevalier of aristocracy, fell by the blows of his nobility.

When he was ready to set forth on the expedition he projected against France, he had assembled his diet to ensure the tranquillity of the kingdom during his absence.
His vigorous measures had put down the malcontents; yet it was foretold to him, like Caesar, that the ides of March would be a critical period of his destiny.

A thousand traces revealed a plot, and his intended assassination was rumoured over all Germany before the blow was struck.
These rumours are the forerunners of projected crimes: some indication escapes the heart of the conspirator, and it is by this means that the event is predicted before it happens.
The king of Sweden, warned by his numerous friends, who entreated him to be upon his guard, replied, like Caesar, that the stroke when once received was less painful than the perpetual dread of receiving it, and that if he listened to all these warnings, he could no longer drink a glass of water without trembling.