gemony, he was determined to perpetuate
the rivalries of petty potentates, and regain Austria's ascendancy in
Germany as well as in Italy. This, too, would strip Napoleon of his
German troops, and confine France to the west shore of the Rhine, even
though it left Westphalia and Berg under French rulers. Such a
contingency was abhorrent to one still pretending to Western empire, and
Napoleon in turn procrastinated until the evening of the ninth, when, as
a final compromise, he offered the dismemberment of Warsaw, the freedom
of Dantzic and Illyria, including Fiume, but retaining Triest. But by
this time dynastic jealousy had done its work at Prague, and when these
terms were communicated to the plenipotentiaries unofficially,
Cathcart's bellicose humor, which was heightened by the news from
Wellington, served to complement Alexander's jealousy of Austria's
rising power. The Prussian nationalists, too, saw their emancipation
indefinitely postponed; and since the communication of Napoleon's
ultimatum was unofficial, and an official notification had not arrived
at midnight on the tenth, the commissioners of Russia and Prussia rose
at the stroke of the clock, and informed Metternich that, their powers
having expired, he was bound by the terms of Reichenbach.

Metternich kept up his mask, and continued to discuss with
Caulaincourt the items of Napoleon's proposition, but the other
diplomats gave vent to their delight. Humboldt lingered until
Austria's formal declaration of war was under way to Dresden;
simultaneously beacons, prearranged for the purpose on Bohemian hills,
flashed the welcome news to the expectant armies of Russia and
Prussia. Napoleon still stood undismayed by forms, for under the terms
of the armistice a week's notice must be given before the renewal of
hostilities. On the thirteenth he offered Austria everything except
Hamburg and Triest; on the fifteenth he offered even these great
ports. But technical right was on the side of war, and his proposals
were refused.

Where the blame or merit for the renewal of hostilities rests will
ever remain a matter of opinion. Amid the tangles of negotiation, it
must be remembered that on March twenty-fourth, 1812, Russia and
Sweden began the coalition; that Russia and Prussia were forced into
union on February twenty-eighth, 1813, by the element of interest
common to Alexander's dynasty and the Prussian people; that Great
Britain entered on the scene in her commercial