apoleon resolved to press hard on Prussia from the
west. While handing over to the Czar only the small district around
Bialystock, he remorselessly thrust Prussia to the east of the Elbe.

From this neither the arguments of the Czar nor the entreaties of
Queen Louisa availed to move him. And yet, in the fond hope that her
tears might win back Magdeburg, that noble bulwark of North German
independence, the forlorn Queen came to Tilsit to crave this boon
(July 6th). It was a terrible ordeal to do this from the man who had
repeatedly insulted her in his official journals, figuring her, first
as a mailed Amazon galloping at the head of her regiment, and finally
breathing forth scandals on her spotless reputation.

Yet, for the sake of her husband and her people, she braced herself up
to the effort of treating him as a gentleman and appealing to his
generosity. If she was able to conceal her loathing, this was scarcely
so with her devoted lady in waiting, the Countess von Voss, who has
left us an acrid account of Napoleon's visit to the Queen at the
miller's house at Tilsit.[149]

"He is excessively ugly, with a fat swollen sallow face, very
corpulent, besides short and entirely without figure. His great
eyes roll gloomily around; the expression of his features is
severe; he looks like the incarnation of fate: only his mouth is
well shaped, and his teeth are good. He was extremely polite,
talked to the Queen a long time alone.... Again, after dinner, he
had a long conversation with the Queen, who also seemed pretty
well satisfied with the result."[150]

Queen Louisa's verdict about his appearance was more favourable; she
admired his head "as that of a Caesar." With winsome boldness inspired
by patriotism, she begged for Magdeburg. Taken aback by her beauty and
frankness, Napoleon had recourse to compliments about her dress. "Are
we to talk about fashion, at such a time?" was her reply. Again she
pleaded, and again he fell back on vapidities. Nevertheless, her
appeals to his generosity seemed to be thawing his statecraft, when
the entrance of that unlucky man, her husband, gave the conversation a
colder tone. The dinner, however, passed cheerfully enough; and,
according to French accounts, Napoleon graced the conclusion of
dessert by offering her a rose. Her woman's wit flew to the utterance:
"May I consider it a token of friendship, and that you grant my
request for Magdeburg?" But he wa