Erfurt the Austrian armaments; in reality, to observe what was
going on. Although he found no difficulty in winning the versatile
Talleyrand to his cause, he was treated with scant courtesy by
Napoleon, and sent back with a letter from him to Francis containing
bitter reproaches and menaces. Stein, after his withdrawal, found,
like Hardenberg, a refuge in Vienna. There he formed one of an
influential coterie composed of Alexander's envoy, Pozzo di Borgo, and
others of like mind, who were steadily consolidating the war
sentiment. The activity of these men explained a phrase in the letter
to Francis,--"The last rising in mass would infallibly have brought on
war if I could have supposed that that levy and those preparations had
been arranged with Russia,"--which hinted at Russia's possible
interest in the military preparations; and one day at Erfurt, as
Napoleon's grenadiers were marching by, the Czar had to listen while
their Emperor vaunted the courage they had displayed at Pultusk and
Friedland. Apropos of Napoleon's lack of delicacy, it is said that
once in the Tuileries he significantly addressed one of his court
ladies, not renowned for purity, with the words, "You are fond of men,
I understand." "Yes; when they are polite," was the rejoinder. At
Erfurt Talleyrand gave the same explanation of his master's vagaries.
"We French are more civilized than our monarch," he said to Montgelas,
the Bavarian minister of state; "his is only the civilization of Roman
history."

But there was another incident at Erfurt more pregnant of ultimate
changes than any of these. Thanks to Fouche's Mephistophelian
insinuations, and the details which leaked out concerning the quarrels
between Queen Hortense, representing her mother, and the Grand Duchess
of Berg, representing the Bonapartes, the subject of Napoleon's
divorce had become common talk. The new position at Tilsit as the
recognized head of Europe's kingly hierarchy seems as early as that to
have tempted the Emperor to a course distasteful to the man; but what
occurred there is uncertain, and did not commit him. At Fontainebleau,
the following autumn, his harsh and distant treatment of Josephine
gave color to the suspicion that he was again under temptation. Whom
would he choose? asked the gossips. Sometime during the year a list of
marriageable princesses was prepared by the Emperor's orders. It
included Maria Louisa of Austria, aged sixteen; Maria Amelia, niece of
the King of