They spent the evening at the chateau of Compiegne and a religious marriage was celebrated on the 1st of April at St. Cloud amidst every circumstance of splendor; the next day they made their entry into the capital. Napoleon in his exile said that "the Spanish ulcer" and the Austrian match were the two main causes of his ruin;—and they both contributed to it largely, although by no means equally. The Exile's own opinion was that the error lay, not in seeking a bride of imperial birth, but in choosing her at Vienna. Had he persisted in his demands, the Czar, he doubted not, would have granted him his sister; the proud dreams of Tilsit would have been realized, and Paris and St. Petersburg become the only two capitals of Europe. Possibly, then, he would not have had occasion to say that he "set his foot upon an abyss of roses" when he married Marie.
Had he married a daughter of France, or even an imperial princess of Russia, he could have done so without the sacrifice of the prestige of the nobility, and even the divinity of the people he had so gloriously contended for; but when it was announced that he had contracted an alliance with the House of Hapsburg,—that hated race against whom and whose principles he had fought a hundred battles, they were convinced that no good would come of it—and they were right.
The war, meanwhile, continued without interruption in the Peninsula; whither, but for his marriage Napoleon would certainly have repaired in person, after the peace of Schoenbrunn left him at ease. So illy was that Spanish campaign conducted during Napoleon's absence that not an inch of soil could be counted by the French beyond their outposts. Their troops were continually harassed and thinned by the indomitable guerrillas who acted singly or in bands as occasion offered.
The Emperor's marriage was speedily followed on the 20th of April, 1811, by the birth of a son and heir whom Napoleon announced to the waiting courtiers in these words: "It is a King of Rome!" The happy event, announced to the populace by the firing of one hundred and one guns, was received with many demonstrations of loyal enthusiasm. Even Josephine joined in expressing her satisfaction at the event which seemed to portend so much for the founding of a Napoleonic dynasty which the Emperor now saw possible by direct lineage.
When the Emperor of Russia was informed of Napoleon's approaching nuptials with the Austrian princess his first exclamation was, "Then the next thing will be to drive us back into our forests." In truth the conferences at Erfurt had but skinned over a wound which nothing could have cured but a total alteration of Napoleon's policy. The Russian nation suffered so much from the continental system that the Czar soon found himself compelled to relax the decrees drawn up at Tilsit in the spirit of those previously declared at Berlin and Milan. Certain harbors were opened partially for the admission of colonial produce and the export of native productions; and there ensued a series of indignant reclamations on the part of Napoleon, and haughty evasions on that of the Czar, which, ere long, satisfied all near observers that Russia would not be slow to avail herself of any favorable opportunity of once more appealing to arms.
During the summer of 1811 the relations of Russia and France were becoming every day more dubious and when towards the close of it the Emperor of Austria published a rescript granting a free passage through his territories to the troops of his son-in-law, England, ever watchful of her great enemy, perceived clearly that France was about to have an ally. Alexander had long since ceased to regard the friendship of the great man as a blessing of heaven. Of the solemn cordiality of Tilsit, and the more recent meeting at Erfurt, there remained in the soul of the Czar naught but the displeasure and resentment arising from extinct affection and deceived hopes.
From the moment in which the Russian government began to reclaim seriously against certain parts of his conduct, Napoleon increased by degrees his military force in the north of Germany, and the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, and advanced considerable bodies of troops nearer and nearer to the Czar's Polish frontier. These preparations were met by similar movements on the other side; yet, during many months, the hope of terminating the differences by negotiations was not abandoned. The regulations of the Continental System were especially objected to by Russia, and the Czar having lent his ear to the representations of the English cabinet, asked that they be dispensed with as he declared he could no longer submit to see the commerce of an independent Empire trammeled for the purpose of serving the policy of a foreign power.
Napoleon admitted that it might be necessary to modify the system complained of, and expressed his belief that it would be found possible to devise some middle course by which the commercial interests of France and Russia might be reconciled. A very considerable relaxation in the enforcement of the Berlin code was at last effected, and a license system arranged which admitted Alexander to a share in the pecuniary advantages. Had there been no cause of quarrel between these powers except what appeared on the face of their negotiations, it is hardly to be doubted but a new treaty might have been effected. The Czar, however, from the hour of Marie Louise's marriage, felt a conviction that the diminution of the Russian power in the north of Europe would form the next great object of Napoleon's ambition. The Czar therefore assured himself that if war must come, there could be no question as to the policy of bringing it on before Austria had entirely recovered from the effects of the campaign of Wagram, and, above all, while the Peninsula continued to occupy 200,000 of Napoleon's troops.
As concerned the Spanish armies, it might still be said that King Joseph was in military possession of all but some fragments of his kingdom. The English had been victorious in Portugal and the French troops in Spain lost more lives in this incessant struggle, wherein no glory could be achieved, than in any similar period spent in any regular campaign; and Joseph, while the question of peace or war with Russia was yet undecided, became so weary of his situation, that he earnestly entreated Napoleon to place the crown of Spain on some other head. Such were the circumstances under which the eventful year of 1812 began.