winter campaign and decimated by the
diseases which Napoleon's ghastly array scattered broadcast in its
flight, ever hope, even with the help of Prussia's young levies, to
cope with the united forces of Napoleon and Austria?

For at present it seemed that the Court of Vienna would hold fast to
the French alliance. There Metternich was all-powerful, and the
keystone of his system was a guarded but profit-seeking subservience
to Napoleon. Not that the Emperor Francis and he loved the French
potentate; but they looked on him now as a pillar of order, as a
barrier against Jacobinism in France, against the ominous
pan-Germanism preached by Prussian enthusiasts, and against Muscovite
aggandizement in Turkey and Poland. Great was their concern, first at
the Russo-Turkish peace which installed the Muscovites at the northern
mouth of the Danube, and still more at the conquering swoops of the
Russian eagle on Warsaw and Posen. How could they now hope to gain
from Turkey the set-off to the loss of Tyrol and Illyria on which they
had recently been counting, and how save any of the Polish lands from
the grip of Russia? For the present Russia was more to be feared than
Napoleon. Her influence seemed the more threatening to the policy of
balance on which the fortunes of the Hapsburgs were delicately poised.

Only by degrees were these fears and jealousies laid to rest. It
needed all the address of a British envoy, Lord Walpole, who repaired
secretly to Vienna and held out the promise of tempting gains, to
assuage these alarms, and turn Austria's gaze once more on her lost
provinces, Tyrol, Illyria, and Venetia. For the present, however,
nothing came of these overtures; and when the French discovered
Walpole's presence at Vienna, Metternich begged him to leave.[283]

For the present, then, Austria assumed a neutral attitude. A truce was
concluded with Russia, and a special envoy was sent to Paris to
explain the desire of the Emperor Francis to act as mediator, with a
view to the conclusion of a general peace. The latest researches into
Austrian policy show that the Kaiser desired an honourable peace for
all parties concerned, and that Metternich may have shared his views.
But, early in the negotiations, Napoleon showed flashes of distrust as
to the sincerity of his father-in-law, and Austria gradually changed
her attitude. The change was to be fatal to Napoleon. But the question
whether it was brought about by Napoleon's obstinacy,