rk, deposed
the still bellicose Gustavus IV.; and his successor, Charles XIII.,
made peace with those Powers, retaining Swedish Pomerania, but only at
the cost of submitting to the Continental System. Prussia seemed, to
official eyes, utterly cowed. The Hapsburgs, having failed in their
bold championship of the cause of reform and of German nationality,
now fell back into a policy marked by timid opportunism and decorously
dull routine.

The change was marked by the retirement of Stadion, a man whose
enterprising character, no less than his enthusiasm for reform, ill
fitted him for the time of compromise and subservience now at hand. He
it was who had urged Austria forward in the paths of progress and had
sought safety in the people: he was the Stein of Austria. But now, on
the eve of peace, he earnestly begged to be allowed to resign the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and the Emperor Francis thereupon
summoned to that seemingly thankless office a young diplomatist, who
was destined to play a foremost part in the mighty drama of Napoleon's
overthrow, and thereafter to wield by his astute policy almost as
great an influence in Central and Southern Europe as the autocrat
himself.

Metternich was born at Coblentz in 1773, and was therefore four years
the junior of Napoleon. He came of an old family of the Rhineland, and
his father's position in the service of the old Empire secured him
early entrance into the diplomatic circle. After acting as secretary
to the Imperial delegates at the Congress of Rastatt, he occupied the
post of Austrian ambassador successively at the Courts of Dresden and
Berlin; and in 1806 he was suddenly called to take up the embassy in
Paris. There he displayed charms of courtly tact, and lively and
eloquent conversation, which won Napoleon's admiration and esteem. He
was looked on as a Gallophil; and, like Bismarck at a later crisis, he
used his social gifts and powers of cajolery so as to gain a correct
estimate of the characters of his future opponents.

Yet, besides these faculties of finesse and intrigue--and the Miltonic
Belial never told lies with more winsome grace--Metternich showed at
times a manly composure and firmness, even when Napoleon unmasked a
searching fire of diplomatic questions and taunts. Of this he had
given proof shortly before the outbreak of the late war, and his
conduct had earned the thanks of the other ambassadors for giving the
French Emperor a lesson in manners, whil