During the 19th century, Prince Klemens Von Metternich was one of the most hated man in Austria-Hungary and the one responsible for the 1848 Revolution. The words of Prince Metternich meant that the idea of change and reform had already been planted by the French Revolution and it was a matter of time for a new revolution to sprout.
It would be frightening because it best fits the sentence and also because of the phrase still haunted the minds of many.
