CHAPTER XXXII
CLIMAX AND DÉNOUEMENT
And where shall we find this Dramatic Monarch who shall have the courage to
allow himself to be installed by Regicides and Democrats, and to brave the shame,
the instability and the dangers of his dignity? In one of the Courts of Europe?
... Will France herself furnish this borrowed Monarch from the filth of the Revo-
lution, to succeed to the Throne of Charlemagne?
—MALLET DU PAN, LONDON, 1799
The French can no longer be governed except by me. I am persuaded that no one
but myself, were it Louis XVIII or even Louis XIV, could govern France at this
time.
—BONAPARTE, PARIS, 1800
Do you call this a Republic?... I know of no Republic in the world, except Amer-
ica, which is the only country for such men as you and I. It is my intention to get
away from this place as soon as possible.... I have done with Europe and its slavish
politics.
—THOMAS PAINE, PARIS, 1802
In the year 1799, with the War of the Second Coalition, there took place a gather-
ing and confrontation of the forces separately described in preceding chapters—a
confrontation in which the matter in question was the survival of the New Repub-
lican Order in Europe, as in 1793 it had been the survival of the Republic in
France itself. Neither side can be said to have won. Or rather, the Counter-
Revolution was certainly defeated, but the New Order prevailed only by being