"He's dead sure of it." "Oh, you don't really mean that!" "I don't know why I should have changed my mind." "Then it's as if we were in the presence of Charles II.

just before he was called back to England, or Napoleon in the last moments of Elba.
It's better than that.

The thing is almost unique; it's a new situation in history.

Here's a sovereign who has no recognized function, no legal status, no objective existence.

He has no sort of public being, except in the affection of his subjects.