I went to Germany to chastise and force into submission and obedience the insolent German princes who wished to oppose me.

I know that they are conspiring, that their treacherous designs are directed toward robbing France of her sovereign, who was summoned to his authority by the will of the French nation.

But they, like all who venture to rebel against me, must learn that God has placed in my hand the sword of retribution and of vengeance, and that it will crush those who blasphemously seek to conspire against me and dispute my power.

Austria has done this, Prussia would fain attempt it, but I will deter Prussia by chastising Austria.

To work, gentlemen! In six weeks, at latest, we must give Austria a decisive battle which will make it depend solely on my will whether I permit the house of Hapsburg to reign longer or bury it in the nonentity of inglorious oblivion!" After the emperor, standing among his silent generals, had spoken in a voice which rose louder and louder till it finally echoed like menacing thunder through the hall, he nodded a farewell, by a haughty bend of the head, and returned to his office, whose door he now not merely left ajar, but closed with a loud bang.
With his hands behind his back, an angry expression upon his face, and a frowning brow, the emperor paced up and down his room, absorbed in gloomy thought.