sign the treaty. It is very good. I am content with it." He stepped to
his desk and hastily affixed his signature. He then cast the pen aside,
and his features assumed an expression of proud scorn. "Henceforth
Austria is nothing but a vassal of France, and I can annihilate her
whenever I please. Her frontiers are open and unprotected on all sides;
she is weakened within and without, and hemmed in everywhere by French
territories. She dares no longer breathe freely, or raise her arm
against us. If, however, she should, we shall crush her, and reconstruct
the throne of Charlemagne on the ruins of Austria. His crown belongs to
me already; I have it at Aix-la-Chapelle, and I do not see what should
prevent me from placing it on my brow in Vienna."

"Sire," said Champagny, smilingly, "it would, perhaps, be more desirable
for your majesty to allow the throne of the Hapsburgs to exist, and to
render Austria harmless, not by destroying her, but by attaching the
imperial family to your majesty by intimate and sacred ties. A
vanquished enemy is always dangerous; but an ally, even though weak,
will strengthen your own power, and Austria is able to give to the
throne of your majesty the last and only jewel that, to the infinite
regret of your subjects, it still lacks."

"Ah!" exclaimed the emperor. "You do not mean to say that Austria,
bleeding from a thousand wounds that I have inflicted upon her, could
make up her mind to put an end to her hatred by concluding an alliance
of love with me?"

"Sire," said Champagny, "I do not believe that your majesty is hated by
all the members of the imperial family of the Hapsburgs."

"What do you mean?" asked Napoleon, casting a quick glance on the
smiling countenance of the minister.

"I suppose your majesty still remembers that, during the bombardment of
Vienna last May, a flag of truce was sent with the request that no more
bombshells be fired at the palace, because one of the archduchesses had
remained there, having been prevented by sickness from leaving the
capital with the imperial family?"

"I remember the incident," said Napoleon. "A few shells had already
struck the palace, and I gave orders that it should be spared. One of
the little daughters of the emperor, the Archduchess Maria Louisa, then
a mere child, had been left there with her nurse."

"Sire, this child is seventeen years old, and, as everybody assures me,
she is very beautiful, with light hair, blue eyes, and charmi