t first the evacuation of both Breslau and Hamburg,
with a cessation of arms for a month. This stand they took in reliance
partly on England, partly on Austria. The compromise, as mutually
accepted, was reached in spite of British influence when Francis,
apparently nervous and anxious, arrived at Gitschin, near the Bohemian
frontier, and opened a conference with Nesselrode.

At Vienna men had said, when the news of Bautzen came, that the
conqueror was perhaps an angel, perhaps a devil--certainly not a man.
The cabinet had seen with alarm his attempt to negotiate directly with
the Czar. Success in winning Russia would put Austria again at
Napoleon's mercy; Alexander must be kept in warlike humor at all
hazards. Nesselrode demanded nothing less than Austria's adherence to
the coalition; Francis was still unready to fight; and Metternich,
displaying all his adroitness, finally wrung from Nesselrode a basis
for mediation comprising six articles: the extinction of Warsaw, the
enlargement of Prussia by her Polish provinces and Dantzic, the
restoration of Illyria to Austria, the independence of the Hanseatic
towns, the dissolution of the Rhenish Confederacy, and the restoration
of Prussia's western boundaries to the lines of 1806. This was a
"minimum" considerably smaller than that proposed before Bautzen; but
the allies could well accept it if Austria would promise never to take
sides with France, as Metternich is said to have verbally assured the
Czar in a secret meeting would be the case. On June twenty-seventh it
was formally arranged that a congress to pacify the Continent on this
basis should be held preliminary to a general peace including England;
and the treaty binding Russia, Prussia, and Austria to alliance in
case of Napoleon's refusal was signed that day in secret at
Reichenbach. Should Napoleon reject Austria's articles of mediation,
she was, on July twentieth, to join the coalition, and fight not only
until he was driven behind the Rhine, but until the fortresses on the
Oder and the Vistula were evacuated, Italy liberated, Spain restored
to the Bourbons, and Austria reenlarged to her boundaries of 1805.

"If the allies do not in good faith desire peace," said Napoleon on
June fifth, as he left his headquarters for Dresden, "this armistice
may prove fatal to us." Late in life he believed that if he had in his
great crisis marched right on, Austria would not have declared against
him. Shrewd as he was, he was a t