But there was no French inefficiency that weighed a hair in the balance compared with the huge and hostile efficiency of Prussia; the tall machine that had struck down Denmark and Austria, and now stood ready to strike again, extinguishing the lamp of the world.
There was a hitch before the hammer stroke, and Bismarck adjusted it, as with his finger, by a forgery--for he had many minor accomplishments.
France fell: and what fell with her was freedom, and what reigned in her stead only tyrants and the ancient terror.

The crowning of the first modern Kaiser in the very palace of the old French kings was an allegory; like an allegory on those Versailles walls.

For it was at once the lifting of the old despotic diadem and its descent on the low brow of a barbarian.

Louis XI.

had returned, and not Louis IX.; and Europe was to know that sceptre on which there is no dove.
The instant evidence that Europe was in the grip of the savage was as simple as it was sinister.