But he felt that always in them too much depended upon one man.

When an emperor fell an empire fell, when a king was killed a kingdom went down.
He applied many of the lessons from those old, old wars to the great war that was now raging, and he was confirmed in his belief that England and her colonies would surely triumph.

The French monarchy, to judge from all that he had heard, was now in the state of one of those old oriental monarchies, decayed and rotten, spreading corruption from a poisoned center to all parts of the body.

However brave and tenacious the French people might be, and he knew that none were more so, he was sure they could not prevail over the strength of free peoples like those who fought under the British flag, free to grow, whatever their faults might be.

So, old Monsieur Rollin, who had brought tedium to many, brought refreshment and courage to Robert.
But he did not bury himself in books.