step-daughter, Hortense Beauharnais,
was king of Holland. His brother-in-law Murat he made king of Naples;
Eugene Beauharnais, his step-son, viceroy of Italy; his brother Jerome,
King of Westphalia; and then his brother Joseph was placed upon the
throne of Spain, from which an indignant people drove him ingloriously
away.

In an hour's interview with Alexander, Emperor of Russia, Napoleon had
by the magic of superiority secured that emperor's friendship and
co-operation in his plans against England. All this excellent man was
fighting for was the peace of Europe! And he disclosed to Alexander
his plan that they two should be the eternal custodians of that peace;
which was to be secured by restraining the arrogance of England, and
that was to be done by ruining the commercial prosperity of that nation
of shop-keepers. There was to be organized a continental blockade
against England. Europe was to be forbidden to trade with that country.

A plan was forming in the mind of Napoleon which was destined as the
turning-point in his astonishing career. It was of vast importance to
him that he should have an heir to the great inheritance he was
creating. By repudiating Josephine, and marrying the daughter of
Francis Joseph, there might be an heir who would also be the legitimate
descendant of the Caesars; thus immensely fortifying the empire after
his own death.

When this thought took possession of his mind, the psychological moment
had arrived. The tide had turned toward disaster. The marriage with
Maria Louisa took place at Paris in 1810. The marriage of Napoleon
with a Hapsburg was not pleasing to the French people, who took pride
in the simple origin of their emperor and empress. This hero of
Marengo, and Austerlitz, and Jena, and Wagram, the man before whom
Europe trembled, was he not, after all, only a crowned citizen? And
was this not a triumph for the revolutionary principle which offset the
existence of an empire, as its final result?

[Illustration: Josephine crowned Empress, December 2, 1804, in Notre
Dame Cathedral. From the painting by David.]

Alexander had broken away from his agreement and his friendship with
the emperor, and had joined the allies. So in 1812 the
long-contemplated invasion of Russia began. Of the 678,000 souls
recruited chiefly from conquered states, only 80,000 would ever return.
Never before had Napoleon fought the elements, and never before met
overwhelming defeat! The