egin it--that, at the royal palace of Berlin, you took a
solemn oath to punish her, and to take revenge for her warlike spirit,
and for the oath over the tomb of Frederick the Great! Ah, the queen,
with Frederick William and the Emperor Alexander, would exult at your
tender-heartedness; the world would wonder at the weakness of the great
captain who allowed himself to be duped by the sighs and seeming
humility of the vanquished, and--"

"Enough!" interrupted Napoleon, in a powerful voice--"enough, I say!" He
walked several times up and down, and then stood still again in front of
Talleyrand. "Send immediately for Count Goltz," he said imperiously,
"and inform him of our ultimatum! Tell him in plain words that all I
said to the queen were but polite phrases, binding me in no manner, and
that I am as firmly determined as ever to fix the Elbe as the future
frontier of Prussia--that there was no question of further
negotiations--that I had already agreed with the Emperor Alexander as to
the various stipulations, and that the king owed his lenient treatment
solely to the chivalrous attachment of this monarch, inasmuch as,
without his interference, my brother Jerome would have become King of
Prussia, while the present dynasty would have been dethroned. You know
my resolutions now; proceed in accordance with them, and hasten the
conclusion of the whole affair, that I may be annoyed no more. I demand
that the treaty be signed to-morrow."

Prussia's fate was therefore decided. The great sacrifice which the
queen had made, and with so much reluctance, had been in vain. On the
9th of June, 1807, the treaty of Tilsit was signed by the
representatives of France and Prussia.

By virtue of it King Frederick William lost one-half of his territories,
consisting of all his possessions beyond the Elbe: Old Prussia,
Magdeburg, Hildesheim, Westphalia, Friesland, Erfurt, Eichsfeld, and
Baireuth. The Polish provinces were taken from him, as well as a portion
of West Prussia, the district of Kulm, including the city of Thorn, half
of the district of the Netze, and Dantzic, which was transformed into a
free city. Besides, the king acknowledged the Confederation of the
Rhine, the Kings of Holland and Westphalia, Napoleon's brothers, and
engaged to close his ports against England. And, as was expressly stated
in the document, these terms were obtained only "_in consideration of
the Emperor of Russia_, and owing to Napoleon's sincere desire to a