August
ninth made vice-grand elector, while Champagny, an excellent and
laborious official, took his seat at the council-board as minister of
external relations. Talleyrand's withdrawal had not the slightest
influence on the Emperor's foreign policy; in fact, the quidnuncs at
Fontainebleau declared that he was seen limping into Napoleon's office
almost every evening.[18] But he was so well known in every court, his
circle of personal acquaintances was so large, so timorous, and so
reverential, that superstitious men believed his retirement augured
the turn of Napoleon's fortunes.

[Footnote 18: Sorel, Vol. VII, pp. 191-2.]

CHAPTER VIII

THE EMPIRES OF LAND AND OCEAN[19]

[Footnote 19: References as before, and Mahan: Influence of
Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire. Loir: Etudes
d'histoire maritime. Clowes: The Royal Navy. Stanhope: Life
of Hon. William Pitt.]

Diplomacy at St. Petersburg -- Internal Politics of Russia --
Alexander's Perplexities -- War between Great Britain and Russia
-- New Orders in Council -- The Milan Decree -- Position of the
United States -- The Regeneration of Prussia -- Napoleon's
Repressive Measures -- Austria's New Army -- Diplomatic Tension
between Russia and France -- Designs of Napoleon as to Egypt --
He Temporizes with Alexander -- Caulaincourt and Tolstoi -- The
Czar's Demands -- Napoleon's Visit to Italy -- Limitations of his
Ambition -- Visions of Oriental Empire -- Control of the
Mediterranean -- His Proposition to Russia -- His Complete
Program.

The diplomatic intrigues at St. Petersburg were intensely amusing
after the peace of Tilsit. Alexander coquetted with the English
agents, and concealed his plans from the conservative Russians. His
lips were sealed about what had occurred at the meeting with Napoleon,
and the charge has been disproved that some of his suite blabbed
enough to the British diplomats to enable them to divine the rest.
Canning's acuteness and his conviction that Napoleon and Alexander had
reached an understanding hostile to England sufficiently account for
the bombardment of Copenhagen, and place the responsibility for it on
his shoulders. But in the interval before that event the Czar cajoled
the English embassy until they felt assured of a triumph, while
almost simultaneously he assured Lesseps, the French consul-general,
how precio