‘If it be objected that Gustavus signed his abdication, I’ll answer that he was not a free man, that a father cannot sign away the rights of his son, that a sovereign cannot depose his dynasty. Ought not this descendant of the great Gustavus, of Charles XII., to inspire in this spot the interest inseparable from such magnificent memories? When on every side the principles of equity are loudly evoked, will they dare by the strangest contradiction to reject the most sacred, those of an inheritance founded on glory and hallowed by ages? In fine, if history is henceforth to be the sole judge of arbitrary acts, it is to history that Gustavus-Adolphus shall appeal. Posterity, more equitable than this Congress of kings, shall say of the prince that if certain brilliant peculiarities made him, perhaps, an object of envy and enmity, it is very rarely that vice does not avenge itself upon a brilliant destiny with calumny. As for myself,’ added the admiral, ‘a constant courtier to fallen grandeur, I shall remain true to my affections and to my principles, and defend until the end the rights of legitimacy and evil fortune.’ In vain they told him that the interest of the nations themselves, the pledges given, and the need for peace, had also to be considered; that Europe could not annul solemn acts, and perhaps least of all those secret treaties that assured to Bernadotte and his dynasty the peaceful possession of the throne of Sweden; that Europe would never reward the eminent services he had rendered to the common cause by a spoliation; that Europe would not expel him from the prominent place of honour to which the general wish of the Swedes had lifted him in order to impose upon them the monarch they had rejected; that the sad position of Gustavus-Adolphus rendered it imperative in him to bear his misfortunes with dignity; and that, finally, when a monarch is deposed, he could only arouse compassion by avoiding to draw attention to his case. In spite of the indifference of the Congress and of the public, Sidney Smith, nevertheless, did not leave a stone unturned in favour of a cause henceforth lost.