This is the irony of his career, that, though he preferred the career of Alexander the Great to that of Caesar; though he placed his victory at Austerlitz far below the triumph of the great Macedonian at Issus which assured the conquest of the Orient, yet he felt himself driven to the very measures which tethered him to _cette vieille Europe_ and which finally roused the Continent against him.
Among his errors of judgment, assuredly his behaviour to Austria in 1805 was not the least.

The recent history of Europe supplies a suggestive contrast.

Two generations after Austerlitz, the Hapsburg Power was shattered by the disaster of Koeniggraetz, and once more lost all influence in Germany and Italy.

But the victor then showed consideration for the vanquished.

Bismarck had pondered over the lessons of history, because, as he said, _history teaches one how far one may safely go_.