nemies.
Konigs-burg now surrendered to the French ruler. Beningsen retreated
beyond the Niemen; but the French soon reached that river in the
pursuit. The Russians now demanded an armistice, and this was conceded,
and preparations made for an interview between the emperors on a
raft moored in the middle of the river. There they met and embraced,
conversing for a considerable time in sight of their armies on the
opposite banks. In the course of their conversation, Alexander having
expressed resentment against the British ministry--his reason being that
they had departed from Pitt's system of subsidies--Napoleon replied, "In
that case, the conditions of a treaty will be easily settled." On the
following day Alexander crossed the river to Tilsit, where the two
emperors where soon on terms of equality and friendship. But not so
was the fallen monarch of Prussia: he was treated by his conqueror with
harshness and disrespect, and even Alexander became cold in his manners
towards his late ally.

THE PEACE OF TILSIT.

A peace was concluded between France and Russia on the 7th of July. The
conditions of this peace were various. The King of Prussia was restored
to about one half of his dominions as far as the Elbe, but all the
Prussian fortresses and sea-port towns were to remain in the hands of
the French until England should be compelled to sign a treaty of peace.
All the Polish provinces which Frederic William had acquired in the
partition of 1772 were disunited from his kingdom, and erected into a
separate territory, to be called the Duchy of Warsaw, and were placed
under the rule of the King of Saxony, who was to be allowed an open road
through the Prussian province of Silesia. The circle of Cotbuss, also,
was taken from Prussia and annexed to Saxony, and Dantzic was to be
under the control of both kingdoms, only until a general peace it was
to be garrisoned by the French. As a matter of course, the czar was not
called upon to make any sacrifice. On the contrary, he was gratified
with the cession of a part of Prussian-Poland, which materially
strengthened his own frontier. France allowed Russia also to take
Finland from Sweden; and Russia on her part engaged to close her
ports against British ships, and to place herself at the head of a new
northern coalition. Both Russia and Prussia acknowledged the thrones
which Napoleon had erected, and recognised the confederation of the
Rhine, and every other league which he had