y and haste of his journey, and hastened to pay
him homage. So great were the crowds and so intense was the feeling
that very soon his presence in France was considered dangerous. He was
therefore carried back to Savona, where he remained a state prisoner
under rigid supervision in decent but plain apartments until 1812,
when he was conducted to Fontainebleau and lodged like a prince.

CHAPTER XVIII

NAPOLEON'S FATAL DECISION[33]

[Footnote 33: See Welschinger: Le divorce de Napoleon.
Vandal: Negociations avec la Russie relatives au second
mariage de Napoleon, in the Revue historique, tom. 44, pp.
1-42.]

Napoleon's Explanations to Alexander -- His New Manner -- Sad
Plight of Josephine -- The Divorce Announced and Confirmed by the
Senate -- Negotiations for the Czar's Sister -- Napoleon's
Impatience -- His Desire for a Great Match.

The treaty of Schoenbrunn was a flagrant violation of the agreement
made between Napoleon and Alexander at Erfurt, inasmuch as it
materially enlarged the grand duchy of Warsaw and thus menaced Russia
with the reconstruction of Poland. "Clearly," said Rumianzoff to
Caulaincourt, "you want to be rid of the Russian alliance, and to
substitute for it that with the grand duchy." Alexander was very
angry, but, though in the strict observance of forms he had been
irreproachable, his conduct in the real support of his ally had not
been sincere. His people were more embittered with the French alliance
every day, and Napoleon knew how both the nation and the Czar would
feel when they were informed that provinces occupied by Russian troops
had been assigned to Poland. Francis, wroth as he was, had not dared
to disturb the popular joy so loudly expressed over Napoleon's
premature announcement of peace. Accordingly, on October twentieth,
1809, the very day in which the papers were signed and ratified, an
explanation was sent to Alexander by the Emperor of the French. It
pleaded that he could not abandon a friendly people to Austria's
vengeance, but declared that he would guarantee their good behavior
under Saxon rule; as for the names of Poles and Poland, for all he
cared, they might disappear from history. The Czar accepted the excuse
with what grace he could, for the partition of Turkey was not yet
accomplished. But the peace of Schoenbrunn marked the initiation of a
policy which dissolved the peace of Tilsit. There could now no long