Talleyrand allowed the Tsar to expatiate on the various possibilities – a regency for the King of Rome, the choice of another Frenchman such as Bernadotte as King, even a republic. He then dismissed all of them, declaring that the problem demanded a more radical solution. He argued that the only institution that could successfully replace the Napoleonic regime was one built on a strong principle that would give it the power to endure. As the rightful King of France, Louis XVIII embodied a principle, the very principle on which the French state had been built. It followed that he was the only
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