l of darkness after Waterloo.
Something enormous remained long empty through Napoleon''s disappearance.
The kings placed themselves in this void.
Ancient Europe profited by it to undertake reforms.
There was a Holy Alliance; Belle-Alliance, Beautiful Alliance, the fatal field of Waterloo had said in advance.
In presence and in face of that antique Europe reconstructed, the features of a new France were sketched out.
The future, which the Emperor had rallied, made its entry.
On its brow it bore the star, Liberty.
The glowing eyes of all young generations were turned on it.
Singular fact! people were, at one and the same time, in love with the future, Liberty, and the past, Napoleon.
Defeat had rendered the vanquished greater.
Bonaparte fallen seemed more lofty than Napoleon erect.
Those who had triumphed were alarmed. England had him guarded by Hudson Lowe, and France had him watched by Montchenu.
His folded arms became a source of uneasiness to thrones.
Alexander called him "my sleeplessness."
This terror was the result of the quantity of revolution which was contained in him.
That is what explains and excuses Bonapartist liberalism. This phantom caused the old world to tremble.
The kings reigned, but ill at their ease, with the rock of Saint Helena on the horizon.