ome letters at Berlin,
Wherein King Carlos offered to attack me.
A Bourbon, minded thus, so near as Spain,
Is dangerous stuff. He must be seen to soon!...
A draft, then, of our treaty being penned,
We will peruse it later. If King George
Will not, upon the terms there offered him,
Conclude a ready peace, he can be forced.
Trumpet yourself as France's firm ally,
And Austria will fain to do the same:
England, left nude to such joint harassment,
Must shiver--fall.

ALEXANDER [with naive enthusiasm]

It is a great alliance!

NAPOLEON

Would it were one in blood as well as brain--
Of family hopes, and sweet domestic bliss!

ALEXANDER

Ah--is it to my sister you refer?

NAPOLEON

The launching of a lineal progeny
Has been much pressed upon me, much, of late,
For reasons which I will not dwell on now.
Staid counsellors, my brother Joseph, too,
Urge that I loose the Empress by divorce,
And re-wive promptly for the country's good.
Princesses even have been named for me!--
However this, to-day, is premature,
And 'twixt ourselves alone....

The Queen of Prussia must ere long be here:
Berthier escorts her. And the King, too, comes.
She's one whom you admire?

ALEXANDER [reddening ingenuously]

Yes.... Formerly
I had--did feel that some faint fascination
Vaguely adorned her form. And, to be plain,
Certain reports have been calumnious,
And wronged an honest woman.

NAPOLEON

As I knew!
But she is wearing thready: why, her years
Must be full one-and-thirty, if she's one.

ALEXANDER [quickly]

No, sire. She's twenty-nine. If traits teach more
It means that cruel memory gnaws at her
As fair inciter to that fatal war
Which broke her to the dust!... I do confess
[Since now we speak on't] that this sacrifice
Prussia is doomed to, still disquiets me.
Unhappy King! When I recall the oaths
Sworn him upon great Frederick's sepulchre,
And--and my promises to his sad Queen,
It pricks me that his realm and revenues
Should be stript down to the mere half they were!

NAPOLEON [cooly]

Believe me, 'tis but my regard for you
Which lets me leave him that! Far easier 'twere
To leave him none at all.

[He rises and goes to the window.]

But here they are.
No; it's the Queen alone, with Berthier
As I directed. Then the King will fo