Grapevine Fires

"He had welcomed it before the Revolution,

he had pursued it under the Feuillant Government and under the Girondins,

from exile he had urged it upon Danton,

during the Directorate he had endeavoured to return to it,

and under the Consulate he had promoted it at the Peace of Amiens;

he had remembered it at Erfurt and supported it against Napoleon

in good and evil days.

This policy,

the alliance with England and Austria

based upon the common interest of those three Powers

in the maintenance of peace

and in the avoidance of any alteration of existing frontiers,

he believed to be in the best interests

of France as well as Europe."

One of my top 3 favourite European History figures.