"Was it in the power of language to describe the evil! Wars which had raged for more than twenty years throughout Europe, which had spread blood and desolation from Cadiz to Moscow, and from Naples to Copenhagen; which had wasted the means of human enjoyment, and destroyed the instruments of social improvement; which threatened to diffuse among the European nations the dissolute and ferocious habits of a predatory soldiery ... had been brought to a close.... Europe seemed to breathe after her sufferings. In the midst of this fair prospect and of these consolatory hopes, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba; three small vessels reached the coast of Provence; their hopes are instantly dispelled; the work of our toil and fortitude is undone: the blood of Europe is spilled in vain." The bitterest ingredients in the cup of these nations was the humiliating overthrow of their own government and their subjection to the hated _republican_ despotism of France. It was a scorching sun that they could not endure. Still, they repented not to give God glory; they continued as before. After Napoleon had accomplished the purpose for which he was intended, God permitted this stupendous genius to be subdued; but it required the combined powers of Europe to secure his downfall. Creasy, in his Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, says concerning the battle of Waterloo, "The great battle which ended the twenty-three years' war of the first French revolution, and which quelled the man whose genius and ambition had so long _disturbed and desolated the world_, deserves to be regarded by us ... with peculiar gratitude for the repose which it secured for us and for the greater part of the human race." 10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, 11. And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.