text:  Men of merit would have been placed in their proper positions; the troops would have emulated the exploits of their forefathers in the age of Ferdinand and Isabella; and instead of receiving a king from France we should have given her one; while instead of seeing a French emperor carrying off our princes as the hawk carries off pigeons or as a gipsy picks your pocket under pretence of telling your fortune we should have been garrisoning Paris with our battalions and sending a viceroy to the Tuileries