tercourse of the Emperors
assumed by degrees the appearance of a brotherlike intimacy. They spent
their mornings in reviewing each other's troops, or in unattended rides;
their evenings seemed to be devoted to the pleasures of the table, the
spectacle, music, dancing and gallantry. Meanwhile the terms of a future
alliance were in effect discussed, and settled much more rapidly than
could have been expected from any of the usual apparatus of diplomatic
negotiation.

The unfortunate King of Prussia was invited to appear at Tilsit; but,
complying with this invitation, was admitted to no share of the intimacy
of Napoleon. The conqueror studiously, and on every occasion, marked the
difference between his sentiments respecting this prince and the young
and powerful sovereign, for whose sake alone any shadow of royalty was
to be conceded to the fallen house of Brandenburg. The beautiful and
fascinating queen also arrived at Tilsit; but she was treated even more
coldly and harshly than her husband. Involuntary tears rushed from her
eyes as she submitted to the contemptuous civilities of Napoleon. His
behaviour to this admirable person rekindled with new fervour the wrath
and hatred of every Prussian bosom; and her death, following soon
afterwards, and universally attributed to the cruel laceration which all
her feelings as a woman and a queen had undergone, was treasured as a
last injury, demanding, at whatever hazard, a terrible expiation.

The Treaty of Tilsit, to which, as the document itself bore testimony,
the King of Prussia was admitted as a party solely by reason of
Napoleon's "esteem for the Emperor of Russia," was ratified on the 7th
July. Napoleon restored, by this act, to Frederick William, Ancient
Prussia, and the French conquests in Upper Saxony--the King agreeing to
adopt "the continental system," in other words, to be henceforth the
vassal of the conqueror. The Polish provinces of Prussia were erected
into a separate principality, styled "the Grand Duchy of Warsaw," and
bestowed on the Elector of Saxony; with the exception, however, of some
territories assigned to Russia, and of Dantzick, which was declared a
free city, to be garrisoned by French troops until the ratification of a
maritime peace. The Prussian dominions in Lower Saxony and on the Rhine,
with Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, and various other small states, formed a new
kingdom of Westphalia, of which Jerome Buonaparte, Napoleon's youngest
brother, was reco