Never before had he tasted the bitterness of defeat and humiliation.

Europe had bowed down before him as the Agamemnon among Kings.

He had saved Austria; had protected Prussia; he had made France feel the weight of his august displeasure.
Wherever autocracy had been insulted, there he had been its champion and striven to be its restorer.

But ever since 1848 there had been something in the air unsuited to his methods.

He was the incarnation of an old principle in a new world.