em without
reference to Francis, unless the latter should disarm and recognize
Joseph as king of Spain. Tolstoi remained frigid throughout the long
harangue. It was he who had declared and repeated that eventually
Napoleon, having humbled Austria, would attack Russia. A fortnight
earlier, in an interview with the stern old Russian, the Emperor had
asseverated the contrary, but to no effect: Tolstoi had shown no
symptoms of faith or conviction. The address to Metternich was,
therefore, a second string to Napoleon's bow in case he should fail at
Erfurt to win Alexander. His general mien was undaunted and his tone
loftier than ever. The tenor of his private conversation with
Metternich and others was that he would rest content with what he had.
Spain would no longer be a danger in the rear, Austria and Russia
would be his allies, sharing in the mastery of the world, and England,
the irreconcilable enemy of them all, would be finally reduced to
ignominious surrender by the loss of her means of subsistence.

CHAPTER XII

NAPOLEON AND ALEXANDER AT ERFURT[27]

[Footnote 27: See Fischer: Goethe und Napoleon. Pingaud:
Bernadotte, Napoleon et les Bourbons. Rose: Napoleonic
Studies. Bernhardi: Geschichte Russlands und der europaeischen
Politik im XIX^ten Jahrhundert. Schilder: The Emperor
Alexander I, his Life and Reign.]

Napoleon's Imperial Hospitality -- The Interviews of Napoleon and
Goethe -- Meeting of Napoleon and Wieland -- Their Conversation
-- The Gains of Russia -- Dangerous Elements in the Dual League
-- Austria Menaced -- Napoleon's Marital Relations -- Fouche's
Machinations for the Divorce of Josephine -- Napoleon's Proposal
for a Russian Princess.

The second meeting of the two most powerful monarchs then living
occurred at Erfurt on September twenty-seventh, and their
deliberations lasted eighteen days. It was Napoleon's greatest
diplomatic engagement, and he was the victor. The town was his, and he
was, of course, the host. Such splendid hospitality as he lavished
would have touched a harder heart than Alexander's. The luxury and
military display were barbaric on the one hand, while, on the other,
Germany's greatest scholars and men of letters were summoned to
flatter the Czar's intellectual pretensions. There was the same
exhibition, too, of frank personal confidence and of imperial
magnanimity as at Tilsit. Talleyrand and t