ation of
the border-line between Russia and Turkey and with further indefinite
promises, but he dared not. Accordingly he devised the plea that the
aggrandizement of the Eastern and Western empires must keep equal
pace, not in the West, for that was his by right, but in those
debatable lands wherewith Russia hoped to secure a permanent seat in
the councils of Europe. He was confirmed in his desire to postpone the
partition of Turkey by finding that Mustapha, the Sultan who had
overthrown Selim in defiance of France, was now ready in turn to make
friends with her and perform her behests. The hope of getting Egypt
was again awakened, but the times were not ripe and delay must be
secured.

In addition to these considerations there was that of immediate
safety. The last two campaigns had seen Napoleon a victor, once over
Austria and Russia combined, again over Prussia and Russia combined;
but in each there had been moments when the coalition of the three
would have overwhelmed him. For this reason he would gladly have
declared at Tilsit that the house of Hohenzollern had ceased to reign,
in order thereby to preclude any future danger from a triple alliance.
This idea he had abandoned for the time in order to gratify Alexander.
His ally secure, he now returned or pretended to return to it. Prussia
was regaining her strength too rapidly; her embittered hostility was
an ever-increasing menace. On the plea that she could never pay the
promised indemnity, and was therefore to be treated as a bankrupt,
Napoleon declared at last that Russia could have the Danube provinces
if France could take Silesia for the grand duchy of Warsaw. "Prussia,"
ran Napoleon's despatch on this subject--"Prussia would have but two
millions of inhabitants; but would not that be enough for the welfare
of the royal family, and is it not in their interest to place her
without delay and with perfect resignation among the inferior
powers, since all their efforts to restore the position she has lost
merely serve to distress their subjects and cherish idle regrets?"
"What the Emperor would prefer," said this same memorandum, "is that
the Turks should remain in peaceable possession of Wallachia and
Moldavia; still he would hand over these provinces to the Czar in
return for a just compensation from Prussian lands; and finally,
though far from wishing a complete partition of Turkey, he desires you
not to condemn utterly the plan, but rather to dwell on the moti