gether
welcome to Napoleon. It suited him best to have a strong but friendly
neighbour in Russia, and victory promised him but the half-hearted
friendship of a power to which he could no longer dare to leave much
strength. Besides it was necessary to make far more extensive
preparations than had been required for any of his previous campaigns.
Russia was too poor and too thinly peopled for it to be possible for war
to support itself, and immense supplies with correspondingly large
transport arrangements were needed for a large army which would have to
fight at so vast a distance from its base. It would have been impossible
to be ready in time for a summer campaign in 1811; the country was not
favourable to transport on a large scale during winter, and the war was
therefore postponed till the summer of 1812. The end of May or beginning
of June was the date originally selected for the beginning of
operations, as it was expected that the difficulty of providing fodder
would be greatly reduced when the grass had grown. But the preparations
were not sufficiently advanced by that date, and hostilities were only
opened on June 24.

The interval was spent by both powers in securing allies and pacifying
enemies. Early in the year 1812 Prussia had made a last attempt to avert
a French alliance by inviting Russia to join in a peaceful compromise.
After the failure of this negotiation her position was helpless, and
resembled that of Poland before its national extinction. Russia could
not become her active ally without exposing her own army to destruction
at a second Friedland, and Prussia could not fight France alone.
Frederick William, therefore, accepted the terms dictated by Napoleon.
By a treaty concluded on February 24 he agreed to supply the emperor
with 20,000 men to serve as a part of the French army, and was to raise
no levies and give no orders without his consent. The king was also to
afford a free passage and provide food and forage for the French troops,
payment for which was to be arranged afterwards. In return for this a
reduction was made in the war indemnity due to France. This was probably
as much as Napoleon could have obtained without authorising a dangerous
increase in the Prussian army.

[Pageheading: _RUSSIAN ALLIANCES._]

Austria was more fortunate, because an Austrian war would have been a
serious diversion, not a step towards the invasion of Russia. She was in
consequence able to impose her own terms on