vessels,
and upon which I have sworn to inflict summary punishment. I shall not
now speak of America and Australia. That is a world which has first to
pass through the children's disease of republicanism; after it has
recovered from it, both of us will be ready to inoculate it with
monarchical principles. But here is Europe! Your majesty, look at this
motley chaos of colors and states, of big and little thrones, lying
between France and Russia. We are their bulwarks on the east and west;
why should we not rule over them? We are able to do so by joining hands
over the heads of all these states. If Russia desires to be the sincere
ally of France, nothing will be more easy; we shall change the face of
this part of Europe; we shall break the chains separating these states
and nations from each other in the east as well as in the west. There
will be but one shepherd and one flock, and the Emperor of the Occident
and the Emperor of the Orient will give laws to the world!"

"Ah," exclaimed Alexander, enthusiastically, "the will of my ancestor,
Peter the Great, revives in the mouth of Napoleon the Great!"

Napoleon smiled. "And what Catharine the Great planned," he said, "will
be accomplished by Alexander the Great--the consolidation of the empire
of the East! Sire, a courier brought me important news this morning. My
ally and friend, Sultan Selim, has been hurled from his throne by the
daggers of conspirators. His overthrow has just set me at liberty in
regard to my alliance with the Porte."

"I also heard this intelligence to-day," said Alexander, smiling; "the
sultan's throne is vacant; Turkey awaits a new sovereign."

"Yes," exclaimed Napoleon, "but it is not necessary that this sovereign
should be a Mussulman. The crescent on St. Sophia's accuses the
Christian powers of cowardice and perfidy, and it is time to reestablish
the cross on it. I did think that one might make something of those
Turks, restore to them some energy, teach them to make use of their
national courage; but it was an illusion. It is time to put an end to an
empire which can no longer hold together, and to prevent its spoils from
contributing to increase the power of England. I ask but a small part of
Turkey for myself; she is too remote from France, she does not belong to
the empire of the Occident. But I remember that Catharine the Great had
placed her on the map of the new world she was constructing, and I read
in the eyes of your majesty that you