VI
AT THE ZENITH OF POWER
After Tilsit it was plain that Napoleon was no longer a French monarch; his schemes of conquest were now not made in the interest of France, for France, like the other powers of central Europe, was to be only a province of a vast territorial empire, managed for the personal profit of a single individual, who bestowed and took away power and territory, according to his caprice. England still stood in his way after his diplomatic success at Tilsit, but no armies were left to oppose him. It seemed, therefore, a comparatively easy matter to master England by cutting her off from the sources of her wealth. No power or state was allowed to be neutral, for those who declared themselves so were proscribed along with England (decree of Milan, 1807). A hard fate awaited any refractory nation, for nationalism now lived only on sufferance. To suspend the economic life of millions of people, to transform habits of industry peculiar to sea-going populations was to Napoleon’s mind no greater task than to annihilate armies and partition kingdoms. From Tilsit dates the effort to attain the impossible, and with it begins, in a succession of rapid changes, the decline of the imperial system, the strain being greater than any such artificial construction could bear. Externally the establishment of peace consolidated Napoleon’s power and influence at home; the last campaigns had been a severe drain, but the diplomatic success of Tilsit compensated for the losses in the battlefield.
Napoleon’s familiar method of using a period of peace for extending his power at every weak point of contact was now resumed. Portugal, as a state closely connected with England, was to be detached from British influence by force of arms. Nor was any consideration to be paid to Spain, loyal though she had been to France, her ally. A loyalty which had cost her dear already became more fatal still when Napoleon began to plan for a cession of Spanish territory and the substitution of a member of his own house for the Bourbons. In the north, Denmark was to be required to renounce her position of neutrality and to hand over her valuable fleet of twenty ships to coöperate with the French. It was in anticipation of this step, that an English fleet, outdoing the lawless code of their adversaries, bombarded, in July, 1807, Copenhagen, the capital of a state with which it was at peace, and seized the Danish ships in the harbor.
This was the act which drove Alexander into closer relations with Napoleon, who adroitly used the opportunity for arranging a formal alliance, by which common action against the English in the East, as well as the West, might be secured. His plans in their full scope are given in the following letter addressed to the Czar of Russia in February, 1808: “An army of 80,000 men, Russian and French, perhaps a few Austrians, which will advance on Asia by the road of Constantinople, will not have to reach the Euphrates, to make England tremble and bring her to our feet on the continent. I am ready on the spot in Dalmatia, your Majesty is on the Danube. A month after we have agreed to act, the army can be on the Bosphorus. The news of it will be heard in India, and England will give in. I do not refuse to accept any of the preliminary stipulations necessary to attain an end so great. But the mutual interest of our two states should be well combined and balanced. All can be signed and decided before the 15th of March. On May 1, our troops can be in Asia, and at the same time your Majesty’s troops in Stockholm. Then the English, threatened in India, chased out of the Levant, will be broken under the weight of the events by which the atmosphere will be charged. Your Majesty and myself would prefer the enjoyment of peace and to pass our life in the midst of our vast empires, busied in vitalizing them and making them happy by the methods and benefits of our government. The enemies of the world will not have it so. We must be greater in spite of ourselves. It is the part of wisdom and policy to do what fate ordains and to go where the irresistible march of events is leading us.... In these few lines I am expressing to your Majesty my whole mind. The work of Tilsit will regulate the destinies of the world. Perhaps so far as your Majesty and I are concerned, a little pusillanimity would have us prefer a certain actual good to a better and more perfect condition. But since, after all, England does not wish it, let us recognize that the time for great events and for great changes has come.”
This vision Alexander desired to transform into hard realities without delay; the first step was to divide the dominions of Turkey. The question arose as to what disposition should be made of Constantinople and the Dardanelles. But while the Russians were arguing as to the proposed increase of territory in the Orient, Napoleon, without consulting his correspondent at St. Petersburg, was manipulating the situation in the West by the virtual annexation of Spain to France. The haggling with Russia was dropped, and Napoleon hastened to embark in the adventure which was ultimately to lead to his downfall.
Disgust with Godoy, the court favorite, had brought about a revolutionary movement in Spain, which aimed to substitute for the reigning monarch, Charles IV, his son Ferdinand. These family difficulties were laid before Napoleon, who traveled to Bayonne, post haste from Paris, to act as arbitrator. With a duplicity worthy of a profound student of Machiavelli, he caused to be placed in his hands an abdication, signed by both the royal father and his son; the impartial arbiter handed over the crown to a third party, his brother Joseph, King of Naples. So, by a juggle that a sporting gamester might have envied, a Bonaparte came to reside in the royal palace of Madrid, and if kingships went by personal capacity, and not by descent, it must be said that, mediocre as was Napoleon’s elder brother, he was far better fitted for governing Spain than either the feeble Charles IV or his scoundrelly son and heir, Ferdinand.
Alexander heard of these transactions from the pen of his assiduous correspondent, but he cared for none of these things; his mind was filled with the spoliation of Sweden and Finland as a preliminary step to realize his dream of Oriental conquest. It was arranged that the two emperors should meet at Erfurt to settle the terms of their proposed dual domination of the world; only by a personal interview could the question as to the possession of Constantinople be decided. In the meantime there were elaborate plans for the sailing of fleets to Egypt, and around the Cape of Good Hope, to overawe the English.
Events in Spain put an awkward stop to this program. The population of the country had never been awakened by the French Revolution; they hated foreign interference, and, when their Bourbon king was dethroned, they rose en masse in revolt, with the spirit of the Vendée. News soon came to Paris of the defeat of a French army in which 18,000 men surrendered. This defeat, the capitulation of Baylem, was soon followed by a disaster to the army corps which was operating in Portugal against a combined Portuguese and English force. The effect of the Spanish resistance was enormous; in all parts of central Europe it revived the hope of successful revolt against the domination of the French system. It stirred Prussia and Austria to renewed efforts; there was great activity of secret societies in Prussia, directed against the French occupation, and Austria was busy in reorganizing its military forces for a fresh struggle.
Napoleon realized the critical situation; antedating his letter to Alexander, to give the impression that it was written before the bad news from Spain had reached him, he announced his purpose to withdraw the French troops from Prussia, and promised to give up the Danubian principalities, without compensation, provided Russia would be willing to see that the Germans were kept quiet, and would influence Austria to abandon her warlike preparations. Alexander showed much complacency, even going so far as to express his sympathy for the eclipse of the French arms in Spain.
Nothing was spared at Erfurt, where the two emperors met, to impress upon the world the security and the extent of Napoleon’s rule. It was the fête of a cosmopolitan society, where men of distinction in all spheres of life were brought together at the bidding of the Emperor of the French. Goethe was present, also Talleyrand, who left on record his impression of the atmosphere of adulation that prevailed. The two central figures, Alexander and Napoleon, showed marked cordiality to each other. Alexander spoke of his friend as not only the greatest but the best of men. Yet there were visible rifts in the friendship; Alexander refused to show hostility to Austria, an attitude which was secretly encouraged by Talleyrand, who had begun to fear the result of Napoleon’s grandiose schemes, and wished to make friends before fortune turned. Napoleon proved obdurate, when Alexander urged upon him a more generous treatment of Prussia.