distinction, it was within his reach at
any time after he became First Consul. He had only to impart a hint
and there would have been a competition of available princesses, the
choice of which would have bewildered him. Assuredly he showed no
youthful impetuosity in this respect, and it may not be an overdrawn
hypothesis to conclude that his marriage with Marie Louise was neither
popular with the French people as a whole nor with other
nationalities. It excited jealousy and mistrust amongst the larger
Powers, and in France itself the memory of the last ill-fated union of
France with Austria--that of Marie Antoinette and Louis--had left
rankling effects in the minds of the people of the Revolution.[32]

Murat had urged on his brother-in-law and the grand dignitaries the
fact that a marriage with a relative of Marie Antoinette, who was an
abhorrence to the adherents of the Revolution, would alienate a large
public, but Murat's objections were suspected of having personal
colour and overruled. It is, however, beyond conjecture that the King
of Naples had diagnosed aright; whether from self-interest or not, the
warning proved accurate. The most loyal and devoted of his subjects
felt that their invincible hero was drifting into a vortex of trouble.
They had learned by bitter experience the duplicity of Austrian
diplomacy. The remembrance of the cruel wars they had been cunningly
trapped into, the bleached bones of Frenchmen that lay on Austrian
soil, and the denuded homes that resulted from Austria's odious policy
of greed, worked on them like a subtle poison. And the glory of their
conquests over her was nullified by the eternal suspicion that she was
ever hatching new grounds of quarrel. They thought, indeed, their
premonition of Austria's perpetual treachery was clear and definite,
and that the new Empress would be a useful medium of their enemies'
machinations.

We can never fully estimate to what extent these impressions
influenced their minds and actions and the part they played in
hastening the great national humiliation. It is a pretty certain
conclusion that it was only the colossal successes and magical
personality of the Emperor that kept subdued the spirit of resentment
which the marriage had caused.

And we have historic evidence before us which clearly shows that the
well-balanced mind of Napoleon was torn and tattered between doubt and
conviction, and he fell into the fatal error of allowing his judgment