us Napoleon's society had been to him, and declared that if
England did not yield the two allies would compel her. To the formal
introductory communications of Russia concerning peace, Canning
replied by a demand for the secret articles of Tilsit, and despatched
the fleet to the Baltic. The successful stroke made in September at
Copenhagen filled the Czar with solicitude; for, like his ally, he had
hoped to gain time, and such promptness in imitating Napoleon's
contempt for neutral rights dismayed him. It looked as though this
were the first event in a maritime war which would end by destroying
the shipyards at Cronstadt, or perhaps even St. Petersburg itself. But
instead of further aggression came a new mission from the London
cabinet asking for Alexander's good offices in appeasing Denmark, and
offering every indemnity to that power except the restoration of the
fleet. Great Britain, commanding the Baltic, could be magnanimous.

[Illustration: From the collection of W. C. Crane. Engraved by
Langier.

QUEEN HORTENSE.

Painted by Girodet.]

This conjunction of affairs destroyed Alexander's self-control. He had
played the friend of England to no advantage, and England now asked
for new and impossible proofs of his friendship. He could neither
disclose to her the secret articles nor mediate in her behalf with a
country which had already joined his own system. On the other hand,
Savary, the French ambassador, and Lesseps, the French consul-general,
were daily reminding him of his engagements to Napoleon. There was
little need, for the alliance meant to him the attainment of his most
cherished ambitions: the acquisition of Finland to the westward, and
of the great Danube principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia to the
south. In all contingencies he had to reckon with the wealthy Russian
proprietors, whose prosperity demanded the easy export of their
enormous produce in timber and grain by the same British ships which
supplied them with essential articles that were not manufactured in
Russia. To them the continental blockade was a horror, and many in the
army declared they would not shed their blood to undermine the
national prosperity.

This tension could not last. The English secretly introduced into
Russia a pamphlet charging that the peace of Tilsit had separated the
Czar from both his people and his troops. Savary, mindful of his old
detective arts, discovered its origin and adroitly laid the facts
before Alexand