h critical circumstances, all the need which he had of
this ally was unable to vanquish his pride, which revolted at a
proposition which he regarded as insulting; perhaps also in the new
prince of Sweden he still saw the same Bernadotte who was lately his
subject, and his military inferior, and who at last affected to have cut
out for himself a destiny independent of his. From that moment his
instructions to his minister bore the impress of that disposition; the
latter, it is true, softened the bitterness of them, but a rupture
became inevitable.

It is uncertain which contributed most to it, the pride of Napoleon, or
the ancient jealousy of Bernadotte; it is certain that on the part of
the former the motives of it were honourable. "Denmark" he said, "was
his most faithful ally; her attachment to France had cost her the loss
of her fleet and the burning of her capital. Must he repay a fidelity
which had been so cruelly tried, by an act of treachery such as that of
taking Norway from her to give to Sweden?"

As to the subsidy which Sweden required of him, he answered, as he had
done to Turkey, "that if the war was to be carried on with money,
England would always be sure to outbid him;" and above all, "that there
was weakness and baseness in triumphing by corruption." Reverting by
this to his wounded pride, he terminated the conference by exclaiming,
"Bernadotte impose conditions on me! Does he fancy then that I have need
of him? I will soon bind him to my victorious career, and compel him to
follow my sovereign impulse."

But the active and speculative English, who were out of his reach, made
a judicious estimate of the weak points of his system, and found the
Russians ready to act upon their suggestions. They it was who had been
endeavouring for the last three years to draw the forces of Napoleon
into the defiles of Spain, and to exhaust them; it was they also who
were on the watch to take advantage of the vindictive enmity of the
prince of Sweden.

Knowing that the active and restless vanity of men newly risen from
obscurity is always uneasy and susceptible, in the presence of ancient
_parvenus_, George and Alexander were lavish of their promises and
flattery, in order to cajole Bernadotte. It was thus that they caressed
him, at the time that the irritated Napoleon was threatening him; they
promised him Norway and a subsidy, when the other, forced to refuse him
that province of a faithful ally, took possession of