all the more so because it is so vast. War will last as long as he reigns; it is in vain to reduce him, to confine him at home, to drive him back within the ancient frontier of France; no barrier will restrain him, no treaty will bind him; peace with him will never be other than a truce, he will use it simply to recover himself, and, as soon as he has done this, he will begin again; he is in his very essence anti-social. The mind of Europe in this respect is made up definitely and unshakeably. One petty detail alone shows how unanimous and profound this conviction is. On March 7th, the news reached Vienna that he has escaped from the Island of Elba without its being yet known where he would land. M. de Metternich, before eight o'clock in the morning, brings the news to the Emperor of Austria, who says to him, 'Lose no time in finding the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Russia, and tell them that I am ready to order my army to march at once on France.' At a quarter-past eight M. de Metternich is with the Czar, and at half-past eight with the King of Prussia; both of them reply instantly in the same manner. 'At nine o'clock,' says M. de Metternich, 'I was back. At ten o'clock aides flew in every direction countermanding army orders. . . . Thus was war declared in less than an hour.'"
