Archduchess Maria Louisa. This, it was explained, was to be considered
only in case the divorce should take place, and the Austrian minister
declared that his master knew nothing of the project. There is no
reasonable doubt that Laborde's statement was substantially true, for
as long as there was glory in being the author of the suggestion
Metternich claimed the credit of it, and, in a letter of September
eleventh, 1811, categorically asserted that it was his; but after
Napoleon's fall he declared that the scheme originated in France, and
it was then said that Napoleon had himself taken the initiative, on a
hint from Schwarzenberg, the new Austrian ambassador in Paris. Whether
Napoleon or Francis was the suitor, it soon transpired that both were
willing. When, therefore, the former learned that the fate of the
Russian alliance was in the hands of the empress-dowager, he gave the
surly answer already quoted, and turned toward Austria. During the
pathetic scene of the divorce he formally asserted that having lost
hope of offspring by his well-beloved spouse, he was about to
sacrifice the tenderest emotions of his heart for the welfare of his
people. Being but forty years old, he might still hope to bring up
children and train them in his own ideas. Josephine gave her consent
to the dissolution of her marriage, because it was an obstacle to the
well-being of France, in that it stood in the way of her country's
future government by the descendants of a great man.

To emphasize this thought, the Emperor employed two devices. The first
was to produce an effect intended for home consumption. After the
battle of Wagram, Stadion, the Austrian minister of foreign affairs,
who had advocated the war, resigned; Metternich, who had been called
from the embassy at Paris to negotiate the peace on his master's side,
remained in Vienna to succeed Stadion, and Prince Schwarzenberg was
appointed to France. But the Countess Metternich was still in Paris.
The Beauharnais family--Eugene with the Austrian ambassador, Josephine
and Queen Hortense with Frau von Metternich--opened the negotiation
for securing Maria Louisa as the second Empress of France. To remove
all religious scruples, the bishops' court of Paris met, and on
January fourteenth pronounced Napoleon's first marriage null.

The second device was to lay before an extraordinary council the two
alternatives and ask their decision. Murat, Cambaceres, and probably
Fouche, voted for Ru