gents of
hostile powers should be banished from the Papal States, and that the
papal ports should be closed to England. The Emperor was weary, too,
of the petty squabbles in connection with the Church, of the threats
to excommunicate him and declare his throne vacant. Did they mean to
put him in a convent and whip him like Louis the Pious? If not, let
the full powers of an ambassador be sent to the cardinal legate at
Paris; in any case, let there be an end to menaces. At the same time
Eugene showed to Pius a personal letter from his stepfather, which,
though marked confidential, was intended to be thus shown. It
contained the threat that the Emperor contemplated calling a council
of the Gallican, Italian, German, and Polish churches to liberate
those peoples from the domination of Roman priests. The Pontiff was
terrified, and hastened to yield the most pressing demands made in the
message which he had himself received, among them the nomination of a
negotiator. But he childishly refused the letter of the Emperor's
demand, and commissioned, not the French cardinal legate at Paris, but
an Italian cardinal. Napoleon notified the See that he would treat
only with Bayanne, the French cardinal at Paris, and that longer
dallying would compel him to annex Ancona, Urbino, and Macerata to
the kingdom of Italy. Pius yielded at once, nominating Bayanne,
agreeing to enter the federation with France, and promising to crown
Napoleon; but the annexation took place quite as expeditiously as the
surrender--was, in fact, complete before it!

Of the three minor sea powers, Denmark, commanding as she did the
gateway of the Baltic, was far the most important. Bernadotte was
already on her borders with an army. She was notified by him that she
must declare war against England immediately, or lose all her
continental possessions. Her government promised to obey, but
procrastinated. It has been claimed that English spies at Tilsit had
caught scraps of the bargain contained in the secret articles, and
that the Portland cabinet, in which Canning was secretary for foreign
affairs and Castlereagh for war and the colonies, had divined the
rest. It is now known that Canning believed there were no secret
articles, but was convinced that the two emperors had reached a secret
understanding hostile to England.[14] During the summer the ministry
received what they called the most positive information--what was its
extent and how it was obtained have neve