of the
Turks at Aboukir in Egypt. There was work to do before he reached the
summit whence he might justly claim such admiration. He found court
life at St Cloud very wearisome after the peace of his residence at
Malmaison.

"I have not a moment to myself, I ought to have been the wife of a
humble cottager," Josephine wrote in a fit of impatience at the
restraints imposed upon an Empress. But she clung to the title
desperately when she knew that it would be taken from her. She had
been Napoleon's wife for fourteen years, but no heir had been born to
inherit the power and to continue the dynasty which he hoped to found.
She was divorced in 1809, when he married Marie Louise of Austria.

Peace could not last with Napoleon upon the throne of France,
determined as he was in his resolution to break the supremacy of the
foe across the Channel. {178} He had not forgotten Egypt and his
failure in the Mediterranean. He resolved to crush the English fleet
by a union of the fleets of Europe. He was busied with daring projects
to invade England from Boulogne. The distance by sea was so short that
panic seized the island-folk, who had listened to wild stories about
the "Corsican ogre." Nelson was the hope of the nation in the year of
danger, 1805, when the English fleet gained the glorious victory of
Trafalgar and saved England from the dreaded invasion. But the hero of
Trafalgar met his death in the hour of success, and, before the year
closed, Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz destroyed the coalition led by
the Austrian Emperor and the Tsar and caused a whole continent to
tremble before the conqueror. The news of this battle, indeed,
hastened the death of Pitt, the English minister, who had struggled
nobly against the aggrandisement of France. He knew that the French
Empire would rise to the height of fame, and that the coalition of
Russia, Prussia, and Austria would fall disastrously.

"The Prussians wish to receive a lesson," Napoleon declared, flushed by
the magnificence of his late efforts. He defeated them at Jena and
Auerstadt, and entered Berlin to take the sword and sash of Frederick
the Great as well as the Prussian standards. He did honour to that
illustrious Emperor by forbidding the passage of the colours and eagles
over the place where Frederick reposed, and he declared himself
satisfied with Frederick's personal belongings as conferring more
honour than any other treasures.

By the Treaty of Tilsit