ture of the capital would not have decided the
contest. Napoleon seems to have thought it would. In his voyage to St.
Helena he said: "I put all to the hazard; I entered into no
calculations as to the manner in which I was to return; I trusted all
to the impression the occupation of the capital would have
occasioned."[337]--But, as has been shown above (p. 441), plans had been
secretly drawn up for the removal of the Court and the national treasure
to Worcester; the cannon of Woolwich were to be despatched into the
Midlands by canal; and our military authorities reckoned that the
systematic removal of provisions and stores from all the districts
threatened by the enemy would exhaust him long before he overran the
home counties. Besides, the invasion was planned when Britain's naval
power had been merely evaded, not conquered. Nelson and Cornwallis and
Calder would not for ever be chasing phantom fleets; they would
certainly return, and cut Napoleon from his base, the sea.

Again, if Napoleon was bent solely on the invasion of England, why
should he in June, 1805, have offered to Russia and Austria so
gratuitous an affront as the annexation of the Ligurian Republic? He
must have known that this act would hurry them into war. Thiers
considers the annexation of Genoa a "grave fault" in the Emperor's
policy--but many have doubted whether Napoleon did not intend Genoa to
be the gate leading to a new avenue of glory, now that the success of
his naval dispositions was doubtful. Marbot gives the general opinion
of military circles when he says that the Emperor wanted to provoke a
continental war in order to escape the ridicule which the failure of
his Boulogne plans would otherwise have aroused. "The new coalition
came just at the right moment to get him out of an annoying
situation." The compiler of the Fouche "Memoirs," which, though not
genuine, may be accepted as generally correct, took the same view. He
attributes to Napoleon the noteworthy words: "I may fail by sea, but
not by land; besides, I shall be able to strike the blow before the
old coalition machines are ready: the kings have neither activity nor
decision of character: I do not fear old Europe." The Emperor also
remarked to the Council of State that the expense of all the
preparations at Boulogne was fully justified by the fact that they
gave him "fully twenty days' start over all enemies.... A pretext had
to be found for raising the troops and bringing them toge