But we must not be too hasty in condemning a genius so great and
universal; we shall shortly hear from himself by what urgent necessity
he was hurried on; and even admitting that the rapidity of his
expedition was only equalled by its rashness, success would have
probably crowned it, if the premature decline of his health had left the
physical constitution of this great man all the vigour which his mind
still retained.

CHAP. II.

As to Prussia, of which Napoleon was completely master, it is not known
whether it was from his uncertainty as to the fate which he reserved for
her, or as to the period at which he should commence the war, that he
refused, in 1811, to contract the alliance which she herself proposed to
him, and of which he dictated the conditions, in 1812.

His aversion to Frederick William was remarkable. Napoleon had been
frequently heard to speak reproachfully of the cabinet of Prussia for
its treaties with the French republic. He said, "It was a desertion of
the cause of kings; that the negotiations of the court of Berlin with
the Directory displayed a timid, selfish, and ignoble policy, which
sacrificed its dignity, and the general cause of monarchs, to petty
aggrandizements." Whenever he followed with his finger the traces of the
Prussian frontiers upon the map, he seemed to be angry at seeing them
still so extensive, and exclaimed, "Is it possible that I have left this
man so large a territory?"

This dislike to a mild and pacific monarch was surprising. As there is
nothing in the character of Napoleon unworthy of historical remembrance,
it is worth while to examine the cause of it. Some persons trace back
the origin of it to the rejection which he experienced, when First
Consul, from Louis XVIII. of the propositions which he made to him
through the medium of the king of Prussia; and they suppose that
Napoleon laid the blame of this refusal upon the mediator. Others
attribute it to the seizure of Rumbold, the English agent at Hamburgh,
by the orders of Napoleon, and to his being compelled to give him up by
Frederick, as protector of the neutrality of the north of Germany.
Before that time, Frederick and Napoleon had carried on a secret
correspondence, which was of so intimate a nature, that they used to
confide to each other even the details of their household; that
circumstance, it is said, put an end to it.

At the beginning of 1805, however, Russia, Austria, and England, made
ineffe