ight hundred thousand
rubles ($600,000), as an indemnity to England for the loss the English
merchants had incurred by the embargo placed by Paul upon their ships.
Every day the partiality of the young emperor for England became more
manifest. In the meantime Napoleon was unwearied in his endeavors to
secure the good-will of a monarch whose sword would have so important
an influence in settling the quarrel between aristocracy and democracy
which then agitated Europe. Napoleon was so far successful that, on
the 8th of October, 1801, a treaty of friendly alliance was signed at
Paris between France and Russia. The battle of Marengo had compelled
Austria to withdraw from the coalition against France; and the peace
of Luneville, which Napoleon signed with Austria in February, 1801,
followed by peace with Spain and Naples in March, with the pope in
July, with Bavaria in August and with Portugal in September, left
England to struggle alone against those republican principles which in
the eyes of aristocratic Europe seemed equally obnoxious whether
moulded under the form of the republic, the consulate or the empire.

The English cabinet, thus left to struggle alone, was compelled,
though very reluctantly, by the murmurs of the British people, to
consent to peace with France; and the treaty of Amiens, which restored
peace to entire Europe, was signed in March, 1802. A few days after
this event, peace was signed with Turkey, and thus through the
sagacity and energy of Napoleon, every hostile sword was sheathed in
Europe and on the confines of Asia. But the treaty of Amiens was a
sore humiliation to the cabinet of St. James, and hardly a year had
elapsed ere the British government, in May, 1803, again drew the
sword, and all Europe was again involved in war. It was a war, said
William Pitt truly, "of armed opinions."

The Russian embassador at Paris, M. Marcow, who under Catharine II.
had shown himself bitterly hostile to the French republic, was
declared to be guilty of entering into intrigues to assist the
English, now making war upon France, and he was ordered immediately to
leave the kingdom. Alexander did not resent this act, so obviously
proper, but rewarded the dismissed minister with an annual pension of
twelve thousand rubles ($9,000).

During this short interval of peace Alexander was raising an army of
five hundred thousand men, to extend and consolidate his dominions on
the side of Turkey. His frontiers there were d