He has destroyed, apart from French lives, so many Spanish, Italian, Austrian, Prussian, Swiss, Bavarian, Saxon, and Dutch lives, he has slain so many men as enemies, he has enlisted such numbers at home, and slain so many under his own banners as auxiliaries, that nations are still more hostile to him than sovereigns.

Unquestionably, nobody can live together with such a character; his genius is too vast, too baneful, and all the more because it is so vast.

War will last as long as he reigns; it is in vain to reduce him, to confine him at home, to drive him back within the ancient frontiers of France; no barrier will restrain him; no treaty will bind him; peace with him will never be other than a truce; he will use it simply to recover himself, and, as soon as he has done this, he will begin again;[12123] he is in his very essence anti-social.

The mind of Europe in this respect is made up definitely and unshakably.

One petty detail alone shows how unanimous and profound this conviction was.