the Baltic Powers for the overthrow of England's
navy, and outstrips Bonaparte's wildest hopes by proposing a
Franco-Russian invasion of India with a view to "dealing his enemy a
mortal blow." This plan, as drawn up at the close of 1800, arranged
for the mustering of 35,000 Russians at Astrakan; while as many French
were to fight their way to the mouth of the Danube, set sail on
Russian ships for the Sea of Azov, join their allies on the Caspian
Sea, sail to its southern extremity, and, rousing the Persians and
Afghans by the hope of plunder, sweep the British from India. The
scheme received from Bonaparte a courteous perusal; but he subjected
it to several criticisms, which led to less patient rejoinders from
the irascible potentate. Nevertheless, Paul began to march his troops
towards the lower Volga, and several polks of Cossacks had crossed
that river on the ice, when the news of his assassination cut short
the scheme.[147]

The grandiose schemes of Paul vanished with their fantastic contriver;
but the _rapprochement_ of Russia to revolutionary France was
ultimately to prove an event of far-reaching importance; for the
eastern power thereby began to exert on the democracy of western
Europe that subtle, semi-Asiatic influence which has so powerfully
warped its original character.

The dawn of the nineteenth century witnessed some startling
rearrangements on the political chess-board.

While Bonaparte brought Russia and France to sudden amity, the
unbending maritime policy of Great Britain leagued the Baltic Powers
against the mistress of the seas. In the autumn of 1800 the Czar Paul,
after hearing of our capture of Malta, forthwith revived the Armed
Neutrality League of 1780 and opposed the forces of Russia, Prussia,
Sweden, and Denmark to the might of England's navy. But Nelson's
brilliant success at Copenhagen and the murder of the Czar by a palace
conspiracy shattered this league only four months after its formation,
and the new Czar, Alexander, reverted for a time to friendship with
England.[148] This sudden ending to the first Franco-Russia alliance
so enraged Bonaparte that he caused a paragraph to be inserted in the
official "Moniteur," charging the British Government with procuring
the assassination of Paul, an insinuation that only proclaimed his
rage at this sudden rebuff to his hitherto successful diplomacy.
Though foiled for a time, he never lost sight of the hoped-for
alliance, which, with a deft