allow us to suppose that the idea of an alliance with the Imperial house of Austria has not entered the mind of the Court of France. Following a very simple calculation, and bearing in mind the great publicity which has been given to the pretended demand made to Russia, and the secret steps taken in regard to us, we might almost be authorised to suppose that the real views are in our direction; but every calculation is brought to a stand-still in a transaction of this kind with Napoleon, and we can only pursue a very calm and very uniform course, the result of which must, in some way or another, turn to our advantage."

While the Court of Vienna thus maintained a prudent and noble reserve, Napoleon, chafing at the delays of the Russian Court, and only thinking of ridding himself of it, impatiently awaited the despatches from St. Petersburg. They arrived on the 6th of February, but without containing any definite information. The final delay of ten days asked for by the Czar from the Duke de Vicence expired on the 6th of January, and on the 21st there was still no reply from the Emperor. He went so far as to say that his mother no longer opposed the affair, but he mixed it up with political negotiations regarding Poland, and, undoubtedly in the hope of thus influencing the decisions of Napoleon, he protracted matters so as to induce further overtures being made to him. The Duke de Vicence at the same time announced in his

despatches that in the opinion of the doctors the very juvenile Grand Duchess was not yet capable of having children, and that as she did not wish to change her religion she intended having a chapel and Greek priests in the Tuileries.

Napoleon hesitated no longer. On the very same day he caused a communication to be made to Prince Kourakin, the Russian Ambassador, to the effect that not being able to brook any further delay, he broke off the negotiations, and the same evening he sent to the Prince de Schwarzenberg, the Austrian Ambassador, to know if the contract of his marriage with the Archduchess Marie Louise could be signed on the following day.

The Austrian diplomatist had never supposed that events would progress so rapidly. He knew that his Court was favourably disposed, but he had not yet received any authority to conclude anything. The general instructions which had been addressed to him dated as far back as the 25th of December, 1809, and had not since been modified. The Ambassador, so he was told in those instructions, could only approach the matter subject to the restrictions which the Count de Metternich had thus drawn up :

"1. Every overture is to be received by you without any official character. Your Highness will not even entertain it except by making it understood that your personal good will is to be the reason of its being broached to us.

"2. You will state as a remark coming from yourself, that if no secondary consideration, and no prejudice will ever influence the resolutions of the Emperor, there are still laws by which he must always abide. His Majesty will never compel a beloved daughter to take any step which she may detest, and she will never consent to any marriage which is not in accordance with the precepts of our religion.

"3. You will be careful, moreover, to obtain the most precise information in regard to the advantages which France would offer Austria in the event of a family alliance being concluded."

When, on the evening of the 6th of February, 1810, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Napoleon asked the Prince de Schwarzenberg if he was ready to sign the marriage contract at the Tuileries on the following morning, the Ambassador was rejoiced, but surprised and also, perhaps, perplexed for a moment. If he abided by the instructions contained in the despatch of the 25th of December, 1809, he was certainly without authority to sign anything. As a matter of fact, he was not only ignorant as to whether the Archduchess Marie Louise had given her consent to the marriage, but he did not even know if the project had been mentioned to her. On the other hand, he had no information whatever about the manner in which the Austrian Court regarded the recent dissolution of the religious marriage of Napoleon and Josephine by the

diocesan authorities in Paris, who had acted without reference to the Pope. Finally, he was not in a position to stipulate, on behalf of his Government, for any political advantage as the price of the conclusion of the alliance. A timid diplomatist would have hesitated. But might not a messenger arrive at any moment from St. Petersburg bearing the definite acceptance of the Czar? Would Napoleon, so impatient and so accustomed never to be kept waiting, brook the least delay on the part of Austria? The Prince de Schwarzenberg burnt his boats. He said to himself that if his action was disavowed he would retire and plant cabbages in his garden; but that if his action was approved he would attain the summit of his ambition. Throwing aside, therefore, all delay and diplomatic scruples, he unhesitatingly replied that he was ready, and he asked for an interview with the Duke de Cadore, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in order to sign on the following day, in the Palace of the Tuileries, the marriage contract of the Emperor of the French, King of Italy, with the Archduchess of Austria, Marie Louise.

CHAPTER IV.

THE BETROTHAL.

On the 7th of February, 1810, M. Champagny, Duke de Cadore, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Prince Charles de Schwarzenberg, the Austrian Ambassador, met at the Tuileries, and signed, without the slightest difficulty, the marriage contract of Napoleon and the Archduchess Marie Louise. The text was an almost literal copy of the marriage contract of Marie Antoinette, signed forty years previously.

On leaving the Tuileries the Prince de Schwarzenberg despatched a courier to Vienna to announce the great news which was calculated to produce more surprise than joy there. "Monsieur le Comte," he wrote to M. de Metternich, "in signing the contract of marriage, while protesting that I was not in any way furnished with powers ad hoc, I considered that I had simply signed a document which would guarantee to the Emperor Napoleon the resolution taken by my

H