Now believing that she
sees her own interest, she immediately resumes a hostile attitude
toward me. She will open the passes of Bohemia to the allies, and
thereby permit them to turn the positions of the French army, attack
us in the rear, and cut us off from France. In a word, Austria ia
unable to forget any thing! She will remain our enemy, not only so
long as she has losses to make up, but so long as the power of
France might threaten her with new humiliations. This instinct of
jealousy is more powerful than her attachment; she will always
strive to aggrandize herself and to weaken France, and if I should
grant her Illyria to-day, she would, perhaps, to-morrow claim the
whole of Lombardy, and her former provinces in the Netherlands.
[Footnote: Napoleon's words.--Vide "The Emperor Francis and
Metternich," p. 80.] Do not deceive yourself about it, Maret, and
do not think that Austria wants peace with us because the Emperor
Francis is my father-in-law. I must dictate peace to them sword in
hand, and then they will hasten to remind me that I am the son-in-
law of the emperor, and in consideration of this relationship they
will ask of me favorable terms."
"But this, it seems to me, is the very situation in which your
majesty is placed now," exclaimed Maret. "Your majesty has recently
achieved two new victories."
"But what victories!" said Napoleon, gloomily; "they have cost me as
many soldiers as the enemy, and procured me no advantages.
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