IX. 1813. CHAP. personal interview, which the latter received at Gitschin, within a few hours after his return from the conferences at Oppontscha. Metternich immediately accepted the invitation, and set out at once for Dresden, bearing with him a second autograph letter from the Emperor Francis to Napoleon, in which he again conjured him, in the warmest and most affectionate terms, to make peace "the last and only glory which it remained for him to acquire.” 1 Fain, ii. 32, 33; Thiers, xvi. 61, 62. 22. Interview nich with June 26. of Metter Maret. The Austrian minister arrived at Dresden on 25th June, and on the following day had his first interview with the Duke de Bassano (Maret). Skilfully anticipating his adversary's attack, the French minister, after the first ceremonies of politeness were over, began lamenting the delay which had already taken place in the negotiations, which he ascribed to the ambiguous declarations and dubious character of Austria. He renewed again all the objections already stated to the same party being an ally and a mediator, and to the propositions of the contending parties being addressed to the mediating power instead of being communicated directly to each other. M. de Metternich recapitulated all the answers already repeatedly made to these objections, and listened patiently to Maret's replies; but though no result followed from this discussion, the object of the French Emperor was gained, for two days more were lost in this trifling dispute. When this preliminary point was exhausted rather than decided, and delay was no longer practicable, the Emperor agreed to receive M. de Metternich in person, and the interview took place in the Palace Marcolini, at two o'clock in the afternoon, on the 28th June. It proved the most important and interesting of the many important and interesting xvi. 62, 63; interviews which Napoleon had during his eventful career, and fortunately its particulars were recorded at the time by persons of the very highest credit and authority.2* 2 Thiers, Fain, ii. 34, 35, * The substance of this memorable conference is given by Baron Fain, Napoleon's private secretary, in his work on the German Campaign, from what he collected at the time at the French headquarters; and again by M. Thiers, in his 66 CHAP. IX. 1813. 23. Metternich leon. June 28. M. de Metternich, on this memorable occasion, was ushered in through an antechamber filled with foreign ministers and officers of all grades, all in the deepest state of anxiety and suspense, to the Emperor's private apartment. Berthier, Interview of who ushered him in, said as he did so, in a whisper-with Napo'Well, do you bring us peace? Be reasonable let us terminate this war, for we have much need it should stop, as well as yourself." From these words the Austrian diplomatist instantly drew the conclusion, which was not ill founded, that whatever the Emperor himself might wish, those around him ardently desired an accommodation. When he entered the inner room he found Napoleon standing with his hat under his arm, and his sword by his side-calm and polite, but having the look of one who was boiling over with feelings which he had the greatest difficulty in restraining. His first words were" Here you are, then, M. de Metternich, at last. You have come very late; for twenty-four days have elapsed since the armistice was signed, and nothing has yet been done. All this has arisen from the delays of Austria. I have long been sensible that I could not rely on my relations with that power. No extent of obligation or kind deeds has been able to overcome your inveterate hostility towards me. I have three times restored his throne to the Emperor Francis. I have even committed the fault of espousing his daughter in the hope of attaching him; but nothing has been able to awaken in him more favourable sentiments. Last year, reckoning on him, I concluded a treaty by which I guaranteed his dominions as he did mine. If he had told me that such a treaty did not suit his views, I should not have insisted on it, and I should not have engaged in the war of Russia. In fine, however, he did sign it, and I engaged, in consequence, in the Russian war, which the elements rendered unfortunate, and now seventeenth volume of the Consulat et l'Empire, from a copy of notes made at the same time by M. de Metternich himself. The account in the text is taken from a comparison of both, with some additional matter gleaned by Lord Londonderry. CHAP. IX. 1813. 24. answer. he is the first to hesitate; he no longer desires what he seemed formerly most anxiously to wish, and interposes between my enemies and myself, as he says, to effect a negotiation-in effect, to arrest the course of my victories and to snatch from my hands adversaries whom I was on the point of destroying. If you no longer desire my alliance, if it hangs heavy on you, if it is dragging you towards a war which is repugnant to you, why not tell me so at once? I would no longer insist on the alliance-your neutrality would suffice; and in the hour when it is announced, the Coalition is dissolved. But, under pretence of inducing peace by interposing your mediation, you have armed; and, now that your armaments are terminated, or nearly so, you pretend to dictate conditions to me, which in effect are those of my enemies. In a word, you come forward as those who are ready at a moment's warning to declare war against me. Explain yourself! Is it war which you desire? Are men, then, utterly incorrigible? Are the lessons of experience wholly lost upon them? The Russians and Prussians, in spite of the cruel experience they have had, have dared to confront me; and I have beaten them-beaten them well, whatever they may say to the contrary. Are you determined, you too, to have your turn? Well, be it so I assign you a time and place for the encounter, and it is Vienna in October next.” This impassioned harangue, which Napoleon poured forth Metternich's with great and increasing violence, did not for a moment shake the coolness of the Austrian diplomatist. "Sire!" replied he, "we have no wish to engage in war, but we desire to put a period to a state of things which has become intolerable to Europe-to a state of things which menaces every one, and your Majesty at every moment, with a universal bouleversement. Your Majesty is as much interested in it as we are; for, if fortune should one day prove treacherous-and in that fatal mutability of things there is no saying how soon she may do so it is by no means impossible that you may incur fatal chances." 66 IX. 1813. "But what do you wish," replied Napoleon-" what have CHAP. you come to ask of me?" "A peace," replied Metternich, necessary, indispensable, of which you have as much need as we; which secures your situation as well as our own." He then, with infinite delicacy, and insinuating, rather than openly demanding, expressed the terms proposed-viz., the abandonment of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, and the reconstitution of Prussia from it; the relinquishment of Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bremen; and the relinquishment of the title of Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. It was with the utmost difficulty that Napoleon heard it out. "Oh!" said he, when the Austrian minister concluded, "I see what you would be at. To-day you demand only some ports of Illyria, to furnish harbours to Austria; parts of Westphalia and the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, to reconstitute Prussia; the towns of Lubeck, Hamburg, and Bremen, to restore the commerce of Germany, and to re-establish its pretended independence; the abolition of the Protectorate of the Rhine-a vain title, as you call it. But I know what you desire in secret. You Austrians desire to get Italy entirely to yourselves; your friends the Russians desire Poland; the Prussians are set on Saxony; the English on Belgium and Holland. And if I yield to-day, you will to-morrow demand of me those the objects of your most ardent desires. But before you get them, prepare to raise millions of men, to shed the blood of many generations, and to come to treat at the foot of Montmartre. O Metternich! how much has England given you to propose such terms to me?" 25. When Napoleon pronounced the last words he was in such a state of indignation and passion that he was in a Continued. manner beside himself. Without losing his presence of mind at the Emperor's anger, Metternich replied: "There is no question put now of such demands, nor could they be insisted on but after a disastrous war imprudently prolonged. There may be a few heads turned in St Petersburg, London, and Berlin, in which such thoughts may CHAP. be germinating, but there are none at Vienna. IX. 1813. There nothing is asked but what is really desired, and nothing more; and the true way to extinguish the pretensions of those madmen is to accept peace-an honourable peacefor that which I offer to you is not only honourable, but glorious." A little mollified by these words, Napoleon replied: "If the question is only the cession of a few territories, I may be induced to yield; but if the Coalition pretends to dictate the law to me, to constrain me to submit, to deprive me of my prestige, to tarnish my glory, I tell you at once I would rather die than consent to such terms. Your sovereigns have not the feelings of soldiers; they cannot conceive what they are. If they are defeated, they retire beaten to their capitals, and that is an end of it. I am a soldier. I have need of honour and glory. I cannot reappear lessened in the midst of my people. I must remain great, glorious, admired." "But if that is the case, when is war ever to terminate,” replied Metternich, "if your defeats, equally with your victories, are a motive for continuing the conquest? Victorious, you wish to reap the fruit of your victories; vanquished, you must strive to raise yourself again! Sire! are we then for ever to remain with arms in our hands; for ever depending, as you do, on the chance of battles?" But," replied Napoleon, “I do not belong to myself alone, but to that noble nation of which I admire the courage, and which at my voice has with generous prodigality poured forth its blood. Can I requite such devotion by personal calculations, by weakness? I must, on the contrary, strain every nerve to preserve for it the greatness it has so nobly bought by such heroic efforts." "But, Sire," replied M. de Metternich, “that brave nation, whose gallantry all admire, has itself need of repose. I have just traversed your army; your regiments are composed of children; you have anticipated the regular levies, and called to arms a generation not yet formed; if that generation is destroyed by the war in which you are engaged, where will you find a new one |