he Russian chancellor,
Rumianzoff, held protracted conferences, the former, as he confesses
in his memoirs, plotting against his master's interests, in order to
see that Austria should suffer no harm. Day after day Napoleon and
Alexander paced the floor of the great room in the palace which had
been fitted as an office, examining details and bringing matters to a
conclusion. There was intoxication in the very air. The kings of
Bavaria, Wuertemberg, and Westphalia were present with their consorts
and attendant courtiers; so, too, were the Prince Primate and the
minor rulers of Germany. The drawing-rooms, streets, and theaters of
Erfurt were filled with the splendors of their gorgeous apparel and
that of their bedizened attendants. On October fourth the "Oedipe" of
Voltaire was given at the playhouse before the assembled courts. At
the words, "A great man's friendship is a boon from the gods,"
Alexander rose, and, grasping Napoleon's hand, stood for a moment in
an attitude that typified a renewed alliance. The house thundered with
applause.

More memorable still was the appearance on the scene of Germany's most
transcendent genius, who came to lay the homage of his intellect at
the feet of him whom he considered at the moment, and long after, not
only to be the greatest power, but the greatest idealist, in the
world. Goethe and Napoleon met twice--once in Erfurt, once in Weimar.
On both occasions it was the man of arms who sought out the man of
letters--_par nobile fratrum_. They talked of Werther and his sorrows;
the Emperor appreciatively, and with a knowledge of detail. It is said
that the latter took exception to some one passage in particular;
which one is not known. The poet had probably just risen from penning
the "Elective Affinities," and seemed to recognize his dazzling host
as a creature familiar with such ties, transcending the bounds of
nations, the trammels of commonplace human limitations, the confines
of ordinary thought and speech. "A great man can be recognized only
by his peers," is one of Goethe's own sentences. What to the poet were
common men and the chains of political bondage, what were nations and
their ambitions, in comparison with a society where mind and morals
had the glorious license of Olympians and could follow the
unobstructed paths of inclination in realms controlled only by fancy!
Napoleon's greeting was laconic, "Vous etes un homme." This flattered
Goethe, who called it the inverse "ec