Finally, the interests of Saxony and Prussia were settled, ‘not to the satisfaction of the one and the other, but by agreement between them,’ i.e. Prussia acquired the two Lusatias, part of Thuringia, and Torgau and Wittemberg (Treaty of 18th May 1815).
[82] I have suppressed the particulars of the story, which I considered unfit for publication.—Transl.
[83] La Garde exaggerates. Napoleon merely expressed a desire, and overtures were eventually made at Erfurth. The veto of the dowager-empress nipped the affair in the bud. Later on, there was an attempt to reopen the question, but the Emperor of Austria had almost immediately replied to Talleyrand’s pourparlers, and arrangements were concluded at the moment when Russia seemed inclined to yield. See on those long hesitations the first volume of M. Albert Vandal’s Napoléon et Alexandre, vol. I. ch. xii.—French Editor.
M. Vandal is as misleading as La Garde, and for the truth of that episode no French author of any kind should be consulted, and least of all those who have written on Russia during the last twenty years. The German works are much more trustworthy, for the refusal of Napoleon’s hand was inspired by Germany.—Transl.
[84] She became, in fact, the fourth wife of Emperor Francis.
[85] Alexis Orloff, born in 1786, grand-nephew of the famous favourite of Catherine II., had a magnificent military record. He had specially distinguished himself during the campaign in Russia, having been wounded in seven different places at Borodino, and during the campaign in France. After that he performed many remarkable feats of courage in the Turkish war, fulfilled several missions, and, in 1830, negotiated the marriage of Alexander II. with a princess of the House of Hesse. He died in 1861.
[86] Transformed into a Prince de Monte-Nuovo.
[87] This must be the son of Zawadouski, who was the favourite in 1776 and 1777.
[88] The word ‘heads’ was invariably used in all the stipulation of exchanges, divisions of territory, and dismemberment of states.
[89] The famous speculator.