ctual attempts to engage Frederick in their third coalition
against France. The court of Berlin, the queen, the princes, the
minister Hardenberg, and all the young Prussian military, excited by the
ardour of displaying the inheritance of glory which had been left them
by the great Frederick, or by the wish of blotting out the disgrace of
the campaign of 1792, entered heartily into the views of the allied
powers; but the pacific policy of the king, and of his minister
Haugwitz, resisted them, until the violation of the Prussian territory,
near Anspach, by the march of a corps of French troops, exasperated the
passions of the Prussians to such a degree, that their cry for immediate
war prevailed.

Alexander was then in Poland; he was invited to Potsdam, and repaired
thither immediately; and on the 3d of November, 1805, he engaged
Frederick in the third coalition. The Prussian array was immediately
withdrawn from the Russian frontiers, and M. de Haugwitz repaired to
Bruenn to threaten Napoleon with it. But the battle of Austerlitz shut
his mouth; and within a fortnight after, the wily minister, having
quickly turned round to the side of the conqueror, signed with him the
participation of the fruits of victory.

Napoleon, however, dissembled his displeasure; for he had his army to
re-organize, to give the grand duchy of Berg to Murat, his
brother-in-law, Neufchatel to Berthier, to conquer Naples for his
brother Joseph, to mediatize Switzerland, to dissolve the Germanic body,
and to create the Rhenish confederation, of which he declared himself
protector; to change the republic of Holland into a kingdom, and to give
it to his brother Louis. These were the reasons which induced him, on
the 15th of December, to cede Hanover to Prussia, in exchange for
Anspach, Cleves, and Neufchatel.

The possession of Hanover at first tempted Frederick, but when the
treaty was to be signed, he appeared to feel ashamed, and to hesitate;
he wished only to accept it by halves, and to retain it merely as a
deposit. Napoleon had no idea of such timid policy. "What!" said he,
"does this monarch dare neither to make peace nor war? Does he prefer
the English to me? Is there another coalition preparing? Does he despise
my alliance?" Indignant at the idea, by a fresh treaty, on the 8th of
March, 1806, he compelled Frederick to declare war against England, to
take possession of Hanover, and to admit French garrisons into _Wesel_
and _Hameln_.

The