is secret machinations in Vienna; there was but a final
step in the evolution of complete hostility, the declaration of
military war. Austria, too, had done her utmost to bring on a
conflict, hoping to find her account in the dissensions of the two
empires. Her policy demanded her territorial aggrandizement at the
expense of Turkey; in a war between France and Russia she was sure to
find her account, and there was nothing in Metternich's dealings
with Napoleon which tended to preserve the peace of Europe.

Sweden, under Bernadotte, was manifestly anxious to find a cause of
offense, being defiant in temper, and ready to do anything for the
purpose of strengthening the hands of Alexander and escaping from
French protection. So feeble was the titular King of Sweden that the
adoptive crown prince speedily became the real ruler, and his personal
desires were soon the public policy. It was a strange transformation
which took place in the man. He had been generous and kindly in the
difficult positions he held as a French general. Avowedly a
revolutionary democrat of the most radical stripe, he was nevertheless
a true Gascon and failed to display his great abilities wherever his
heart was not engaged. He had, moreover, basked in the sunshine of
imperial favor, and in an age of atheism had remained in the fold of
the Roman Church. Having himself schemed against Napoleon under the
promptings of personal ambition, he often gave aid and comfort to the
Emperor's enemies. When adopted into the royal family of Sweden it
cost him little effort to profess Lutheranism; his republican
sympathies were quenched, and he developed into a beneficent despot
anxious to put Sweden in line with Russia. He never was able to win
the affections of his people, and when before the close of his life
they demanded a liberal constitution, this democratic sovereign,
brought up under the illumination of French revolutionary doctrines,
held back until the paper had to be wrung from him. The phases of
Napoleon's life are scarcely more startling than those of this rather
commonplace actor on a stage which was provincial when compared with
the cosmopolitan scene of the Emperor's life-drama.

In the spring of 1811 all Europe knew that war was inevitable. "It
will occur," wrote Napoleon on April second of that year, "in spite of
me, in spite of the Emperor Alexander, in spite of the interests of
France and those of Russia. I have already so often seen this that