synarchy movement of empire book ii - Pierre Beaudry's Galactic ...

"{I found him with no illusions about what the consequences
would be of the Marshal's taking power, and, on the other hand, like
one relieved of an intolerable burden. He gave me the impression of a
man who had reached the limit of hope. Only those who were
eyewitnesses of it can measure what the ordeal of being in power meant
during that terrible period. All though days without respite and nights
without sleep, the Premier could feel the entire responsibility for the
fate of France weighing upon him personally. For a leader is always
alone in face of ill fortune. He it was who received in their full force the
reverses that marked the stages of our fall: the German breakthrough
at Sedan, the Dunkerque disaster, the flight from Paris, and the collapse
at Bordeaux. Yet he had assumed the leadership only on the very eve of
our misfortunes, with no time in which to confront them and after
having, for a long time, advocated the military policy, which could have
averted them. He faced the storm with a steadfastness, which did not
waver. Never, during those days of drama, did M. Paul Reynaud cease
to be master of himself. Never was he seen to lose his temper, give way
to anger, or complain. The spectacle of that man's high value, ground
down unjustly by a too great weight of events, was a tragic one.
"At bottom, the personality of M. Paul Reynaud was the right one
for conditions where it would have been possible to conduct the war
within a state in running order and on the basis of traditionally
established data. But everything was swept away! The head of the
government saw the system collapsing all around him, the people in
flight, the Allies withdrawing, and the most illustrious leaders failing.
From the day when the government left the capital, the very business of
exercising power became merely a sort of agony, unrolling along the
roads amid the dislocation of services, disciplines, and consciences. In
such conditions M. Paul Reynaud' s intelligence, his courage, and the
authority of his office were, so to speak, running free. He had no longer
any purchase upon the fury of events.
"To seize the reins once more he would have had to wrench
himself out of the whirlwind, cross over to Africa, and start everything
afresh from there. M. Paul Reynaud saw this. But it involved extreme
measures: changing the High Command, getting rid of the Marshal and
half the Ministers, breaking with certain influences, resigning himself to
the total occupation of Metropolitan France -- in short, striking out at
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