?"

"Yes, but I shall somewhat extend the boundaries, which are too narrow
as proposed by you. How much of Hesse, for instance, did you incorporate
with the new kingdom?"

"Sire, the entire northern part of Hesse, so that the cities of Marburg
and Hersfeld would form the southern boundary of the new kingdom, and
that Cassel would be a good capital for the new king."

"And you would leave Hanau and Fulda to that perfidious elector?" asked
Napoleon. "No, no, you are too generous. The Elector of Hesse and his
whole family deserve to be annihilated, and I am not willing to have
mercy on him or on the other petty tyrants. Brunswick, Nassau, Cassel,
are all friends of England; they never will be faithful allies of ours;
it is best, therefore, to depose them."

"The elector has already sent hither two ambassadors, whom he has
authorized to give us the most fervent assurances of unwavering fealty,"
said Talleyrand, smiling.

"I know the promises of these legitimate princes!" exclaimed Napoleon,
shrugging his shoulders. "I know what they are worth. So long as they
are in prosperous circumstances, their heart is full of haughtiness and
malice. There are, in their eyes, no rights of man--only rights of
princes; no subjects--only slaves. But no sooner are calamities
approaching than they grow discouraged, and in their cowardice they
degrade themselves before their people so far as to flatter them in the
most fulsome and abject manner, making promises to them which they are
neither able nor willing to fulfil. I have been told that these
loquacious Germans, in their impotent wrath, have called me the 'Scourge
of God!' Well, then, they shall be right. To these petty princes who are
playing the part of great sovereigns, and perverting the _role_ of
royalty and of the throne into a miserable farce--to these caricatures
of sovereignty--I will be a 'scourge of God!' I will scourge them to
death! Who are now waiting in the anteroom?"

"Sire, there are the two ambassadors of the Elector of Hesse, M. de
Malsburg and M. de Lepel; Chancellor von Mueller, ambassador of the
Duchess of Weimar; M. de Muenchhausen, ambassador of the Duke of
Brunswick; and, finally, a deputation of Poles, who have come to do
homage to your majesty."

"I shall bid the Polish ambassadors welcome," exclaimed Napoleon,
emphatically, "and make to these gentlemen many promises representing
the most brilliant prospects. An insurrection in Poland just now would
be