dear to play the gallant'

"On this subject an anecdote was related in the salon of Josephine.
It was said that the Queen of Prussia one day had a beautiful rose
in her hand, which the Emperor asked her to give him. The Queen
hesitated for a few moments, and then presented it to him, saying,
'Why should I so readily grant what you request, while you remain
deaf to all my entreaties?' (She alluded to the fortress of
Magdeburg, which she had earnestly solicited)." (Memorial de St.
Helene).]--

The treaty of peace concluded at Tilsit between France and Russia, on the
7th of July, and ratified two days after, produced no less striking a
change in the geographical division of Europe than had been effected the
year preceding by the Treaty of Presburg. The treaty contained no
stipulation dishonourable to Russia, whose territory was preserved
inviolate; but how was Prussia treated? Some historians, for the vain
pleasure of flattering by posthumous praises the pretended moderation of
Napoleon, have almost reproached him for having suffered some remnants of
the monarchy of the great Frederick to survive. There is, nevertheless,
a point on which Napoleon has been wrongfully condemned, at least with
reference to the campaign of 1807. It has been said that he should at
that period have re-established the kingdom of Poland; and certainly
there is every reason to regret, for the interests of France and Europe,
that it was not re-established. But when a desire, even founded on
reason, is not carried into effect, should we conclude that the
wished-for object ought to be achieved in defiance of all obstacles? At
that time, that is to say, during the campaign of Tilsit, insurmountable
obstacles existed.

If, however, by the Treaty of Tilsit, the throne of Poland was not
restored to serve as a barrier between old Europe and the Empire of the
Czars, Napoleon founded a Kingdom of Westphalia, which he gave to the
young 'ensigne de vaisseau' whom he had scolded as a schoolboy, and whom
he now made a King, that he might have another crowned prefect under his
control. The Kingdom of Westphalia was composed of the States of
Hesse-Cassel, of a part of the provinces taken from Prussia by the
moderation of the Emperor, and of the States of Paderborn, Fulda,
Brunswick, and a part of the Electorate of Hanover. Napoleon, at the
same time, though he did not like to do things by halves, to avoid
touching the Russian and Austria