60,000 French troops on Naples and Hanover, Napoleon
could face with equanimity the costs of the war. Gigantic as they were,
they could be met from the purchase money of Louisiana, the taxation and
voluntary gifts of the French dominions, the subsidies of the Italian
and Ligurian Republics, and a contribution which he now exacted from
Spain.

Even before the outbreak of hostilities he had significantly reminded
Charles IV. that the Spanish marine was deteriorating, and her
arsenals and dockyards were idle: "But England is not asleep; she is
ever on the watch and will never rest until she has seized on the
colonies and commerce of the world."[271] For the present, however,
the loss of Trinidad and the sale of Louisiana rankled too deeply to
admit of Spain entering into another conflict, whence, as before,
Napoleon would doubtless gain the glory and leave to her the burden of
territorial sacrifices. In spite of his shameless relations to the
Queen of Spain, Godoy, the Spanish Minister, was not devoid of
patriotism; and he strove to evade the obligations which the treaty of
1796 imposed on Spain in case of an Anglo-French conflict. He embodied
the militia of the north of Spain and doubtless would have defied
Bonaparte's demands, had Russia and Prussia shown any disposition to
resist French aggressions. But those Powers were as yet wholly devoted
to private interests; and when Napoleon threatened Charles IV. and
Godoy with an inroad of 80,000 French troops unless the Spanish
militia were dissolved and 72,000,000 francs were paid every year into
the French exchequer, the Court of Madrid speedily gave way. Its
surrender was further assured by the thinly veiled threat that further
resistance would lead to the exposure of the _liaison_ between Godoy
and the Queen. Spain therefore engaged to pay the required sum--more
than double the amount stipulated in 1796--to further the interests of
French commerce and to bring pressure to bear on Portugal. At
the close of the year the Court of Lisbon, yielding to the threats
of France and Spain, consented to purchase its neutrality by
the payment of a million francs a month to the master of the
Continent.[272]

Meanwhile the First Consul was throwing his untiring energies into the
enterprise of crushing his redoubtable foe. He pushed on the naval
preparations at all the dockyards of France, Holland, and North Italy;
the great mole that was to shelter the roadstead at Cherbourg was
hurri