Page:A short history of France (IA shorthistoryoffr03parm).pdf/114

 rises beyond an Ossa. It was not enough to feel that he had re-estabhshed the prosperity and prestige of France, that fresh glory had been added to the Napoleonic name. Was there not after all a certain irritating reserve in the homage paid him, was there not a touch of condescension in the friendship of his royal neighbors? And had he not always a Mordecai at his gate — while the Faubourg St. Germain stood aloof and disdainful, smiling at his brand-new aristocracy?

War is the thing to give solidity to empire and to reputation! Neither France nor Europe can withstand the magic of military renown. And so, upon a quickly improvised pretext, the French Emperor started, amid the booming of cannon and the wild acclamations of a delighted people, upon a new career of conquest. The insolent Prussians were to be chastised; and, incidentally, Europe was to be made to tremble!

In a few months the bubble was pricked. The glittering French army proved to be a thing of tinsel and fustian. With no reality, no power to stand before the solid German battalions, it melted like hoar-frost. Napo-