or now consigning to captivity the man who in former
years had done so much to consolidate his authority. After the
disasters of the Russian campaign, he sought to come to terms with the
pontiff; but even then the bargain struck at Fontainebleau was so hard
that his prisoner, though unnerved by ill-health, retracted the unholy
compromise. Whereupon Napoleon ordered that the cardinals who advised
this step should be seized and carried away from Fontainebleau. Few of
Napoleon's actions were more harmful than this series of petty
persecutions; and among the influences that brought about his fall, we
may reckon the dignified resistance of the pontiff, whose meekness
threw up in sharp relief the pride and arrogance of his captor. The
Papacy stooped, but only to conquer.

For the present, everything seemed to favour the new Charlemagne.
Never had the world seen embodied might like that of Napoleon's
Empire; and well might he exclaim at the birth of the King of Rome,
"Now begins the finest epoch of my reign." All the auguries seemed
favourable. In France, the voice of opposition was all but hushed.
Italians, Swiss, and even some Spaniards, helped to keep down Prussia.
Dutchmen and Danes had hunted down Schill for him at Stralsund. Polish
horsemen had charged up the Somosierra Pass against the Spanish guns,
and did valiant service on the bloody field of Albuera. The
Confederation of the Rhine could send forth 150,000 men to fight his
battles. The Hapsburgs were his vassals, and only faint shadows of
discord as yet clouded his relations with Alexander. One of his
Marshals, Bernadotte, had been chosen to succeed to the crown of
Sweden; and at the other end of Europe, it seemed that Wellington and
the Spanish patriots must ultimately succumb to superior numbers.

Surely now was the time for the fulfilment of those glowing oriental
designs beside which his European triumphs seemed pale. In the autumn
of 1810 he sent agents carefully to inspect the strongholds of Egypt
and Syria, and his consuls in the Levant were ordered to send a report
every six months on the condition of the Turkish Empire.[240] Above
all, he urged on the completion of dockyards and ships of war. Vast
works were pushed on at Antwerp and Cherbourg: ships and gunboats were
to be built at every suitable port from the Texel to Naples and
Trieste; and as the result of these labours, the Emperor counted on
having 104 ships of the line, which would cover the transport