"Now," said Napoleon, loudly, "I know what you want! Not only
Illyria, but the half of Italy, the return of the pope to Rome,
Poland, and the abandonment of Spain, Holland, and Switzerland! This
is what you call the spirit of moderation! You are intent only on
profiting by every chance; you alternately transport your alliance
from one camp to the other, in order to be always a sharer in the
spoil, and you speak to me of your respect for the rights of
independent states! You would have Italy; Russia, Poland; Prussia,
Saxony; and England, Holland and Belgium: in fine, peace is only a
pretext; you are all intent on dismembering the French empire! And
Austria thinks she has only to declare herself, to crown such an
enterprise! You pretend here, with a stroke of the pen, to make the
ramparts of Dantzic, Custrin, Glogau, Magdeburg, Wesel, Mentz,
Antwerp, Alessandria, Mantua, in fine, all the strong places of
Europe, sink before you, of which I did not obtain possession but by
my victorious arms! And I, obedient to your policy, am to evacuate
Europe, of which I still hold the half; recall my legions across the
Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees; subscribe a treaty which would be
nothing but a vast capitulation; and place myself at the mercy of
those of whom I am at this moment the conqueror! It is when my
standards float at the mouths of the Vistula, and on the banks of
the Oder; when my army is at the gates of Berlin, and Breslau; when
I am at the head of three hundred thousand men, that Austria,
without drawing a sword, expects to make me subscribe such
conditions! This is an insult, and it is my father-in-law that has
matured such a project; it is he that sends you on such a mission!"
[Footnote: This whole speech contains only Napoleon's words.
Pages:
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555