, and of
the treaty there negotiated. When Bennigsen first proposed an
armistice, Napoleon demanded as a guarantee the three fortresses of
Pillau, Kolberg, and Graudenz. His messenger returned with the reply
that they were not Russia's to give. Soon Duroc was despatched to the
hostile camp. Would the Czar make a separate peace? To do so would be
to betray Prussia by expressly violating the Bartenstein treaty.
Technically the document was invalid, for Austria had never signed it,
although she would gladly have done so when brought to face a
Franco-Russian alliance. Morally it would be base for Alexander to
negotiate separately, for Frederick William had refused a similar
offer.[7] The young Czar, however, cared nothing for the royal Europe
of former days, and but little for the theory of a Western empire
under Napoleon. What he did care for was Russian influence in
geographical Europe under whatever name, for the dismemberment of
Turkey, and for the extension of his empire toward the west by the
acquisition of Finland from Sweden. Having failed to realize his
purpose by a coalition of so-called legitimate sovereigns, and having
heard the almost incredible suggestions which Napoleon had made to
Prince Labanoff, his messenger, he was overpowered by the temptation
thus held out, and, deserting Prussia, answered, "Yes." On the
twenty-first an armistice without serious guarantees was concluded
between France and Russia; but none was made with Prussia, for the
terms offered to her were so severe that, desperate as was her King,
he could not endure the thought of accepting them. She was no longer
an equal with either France or Russia, but a dependent on either and
on both; her nomad court was reduced to Frederick William, his
minister Hardenberg, and a few followers who were here to-day and
there to-morrow, wherever they felt most was to be gained from the
self-interest of either their former ally or their conqueror. The
Queen and royal family were at Memel, the farthest outpost of
Prussia's shattered domain.

[Footnote 7: On the character of Alexander, see Vandal:
Napoleon et Alexandre, Vol. I, Ch. I.]

The attitude of the Czar toward Napoleon was markedly different from
that of his predecessors in defeat. Frederick William's ancestor had
only a century before bought his title by supplying Prussian troops to
the German-Roman emperor, and, like Napoleon, had set the crown on his
own head. Francis I of Austr