t concealed by the hallelujahs and hosannas of the populace
in the cities; victory bore no fruits; without Austria the next step
could not be taken, and hesitancy still marked that uneasy monarchy as
its own. Prussia, although the principal in the fight, was but a feeble
power. England, though reaping the harvest of Russia's commerce, had
become niggardly in regard to subsidies, and had delayed the
long-promised, much-vaunted Baltic expedition until it was useless. The
King of Sweden was so hated by his own subjects that his efforts as an
ally had been rendered almost futile. In Russia itself there was a
strong party, led by the Grand Duke Constantine, which steadily
denounced the war as one in the interest of strangers, and in it were
included most, if not all, the Russian officers. It was evident that
Alexander as an auxiliary would lose no prestige at home in withdrawing
from a quarrel which was not Russia's, and in which he had more than
paid any debt he owed to Prussia by the sacrifice in her behalf of his
guards and of the flower of his army. Moreover, misery abounded among
the survivors, and Russian finances were not exactly in a flourishing
condition. Such was the general discontent with the war that men of
importance--at least so it was said at the time--ventured to remind
Alexander of his father's violent death.

On the other side the urgency was becoming acute. As the strategists
say, Napoleon had won a battle, but not a victory, at Friedland. The
situation in Paris continued highly unsatisfactory. The threatened
English expedition to the Baltic might arrive at any time.
Contemptible as was Gustavus of Sweden, he was in Pomerania with an
Anglo-Hanoverian army of ten thousand men. Most disquieting of all,
there were movements both of intellectual agitation and of active
partizan warfare in Prussia that presaged a speedy convalescence on
her part. It is evident that an alliance with Russia was better for
France than one with Prussia as regards both the Oriental and European
plans of Napoleon. He therefore determined to suggest the most
glittering prospects to Alexander's messenger--nothing less than the
partition of Turkey, and the Vistula as the Russian frontier on the
Baltic.

[Illustration: Battle of Friedland.]

But all these reasons on both sides seem inadequate to explain the
extraordinary character of the events preliminary to the meeting of
the two emperors at Tilsit, of what occurred at that meeting