to conquer, but to demolish--not one state, but all. He was going
to create an empire out of a federation of European kingdoms all held
in his own hand, and to tear in pieces the old map of Europe, precisely
as he had the map of Italy. He was going to break down the old
historic divisions and landmarks, and create new, as he had created a
kingdom of Italy out of Italian republics. So, while he was fighting a
combined Europe, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Saxony had become kingdoms,
and the West German States, seventeen in number, were all merged in a
Confederation of the Rhine, "the Rheinbund," under a French
Protectorate.

Then Austria felt the weight of his hand. Francis Joseph wore the
double crown created by Charlemagne a thousand years before, and was
Emperor of Rome as well as of Germany. It had become an empty title;
but it was the sacred tradition of a Holy Roman Empire, the empire
which had dominated the world during the Middle Ages, and while Europe
was coming into form. Napoleon was ploughing deep into the soil of the
past when he told Francis Joseph he must drop the title of Emperor of
Rome! And it is a startling indication of his power that the emperor
unresistingly obeyed; the logical meaning, of course, being that he,
already King of Italy, was the successor to Charlemagne and the head of
a new Roman Empire.

England, never having felt the touch of this insolent conqueror upon
her own soil, was still the bitterest of all in the coalition, and was
more indignant over the humiliation of Germany than she seemed to be
herself. Prussia, at last reluctantly opposing him, was defeated at
Jena, 1806, a time during which the beautiful Queen Louise was the
heroine, and the one brave enough to defy him; and then the peace of
Tilsit, 1807, completed the humiliation of the kingdom created by the
great elector.

It would seem that the people as well as the armies of Germany were
captured by this man, when we hear that ninety German authors dedicated
their books to him, a servile press praised him, and one of Beethoven's
greatest sonatas was inspired by him. But a man so colossal and
dazzling could only be accurately measured at a distance. Even yet we
are too near to him for that, and the world has not yet come to an
agreement concerning him, any more than as to the true analysis of the
character of Hamlet.

There was now scarcely an uncrowned head in Napoleon's family. His
brother Louis, who had married his