in sending a minister to Memil to
take part in a congress of France, England, Sweden, Russia, Prussia
and Turkey. But as such a congress may last many years, which would
not suit the present condition of Prussia, your majesty will, I am
persuaded, be of the opinion that I have taken the simplest method,
and one which is most likely to secure the prosperity of your
subjects. At all events I entreat your majesty to believe in my
sincere desire to reestablish amicable relations with so friendly a
power as Prussia, and that I wish to do the same with Russia and
England."

These advances were haughtily rejected by both Prussia and Russia;
and Napoleon returned to the Vistula to wait until the opening of
spring, when the question was again to be referred to the arbitrament
of battle. Both parties made vigorous preparations for the strife.
Alexander succeeded in gathering around him one hundred and forty
thousand soldiers. But Napoleon had assembled one hundred and sixty
thousand whom he could rapidly concentrate upon any point between the
Vistula and the Niemen.

In June the storm of war commenced with an assault by the allies.
Field after field was red with blood as the hosts of France drove
their vanquished foes before them. On the 10th of June, Alexander,
with Frederic William riding by his side, had concentrated ninety
thousand men upon the plains of Friedland, on the banks of the Aller.
Here the Russians were compelled to make a final stand and await a
decisive conflict. As Napoleon rode upon a height and surveyed his
foes, caught in an elbow of the river, he said energetically, "We have
not a moment to lose. One does not twice catch an enemy in such a
trap." He immediately communicated to his aides his plan of attack.
Grasping the arm of Ney, he pointed to the dense masses of the
Russians clustered before the town of Friedland, and said,

"Yonder is the goal. March to it without looking about you. Break into
that thick mass whatever it costs. Enter Friedland; take the bridges
and give yourself no concern about what may happen on your right, your
left or your rear. The army and I shall be there to attend to that."

The whole French line now simultaneously advanced. It was one of the
most sublime and awful of the spectacles of war. For a few hours there
was the gleam and the roar of war's most terrific tempest and the
Russian army was destroyed. A frightful spectacle of ruin was
exhibited. The shattered bands rushed