A few days after he wrote again to Joseph from St. Cloud: "MY BROTHER,--I have just received the tidings that Mr. Fox is dead. Under present circumstances, he is a man who dies regretted by two nations. The horizon is somewhat clouded in Europe. It is possible that I may soon come to blows with the King of Prussia. If matters are not soon arranged, the Prussians will be so beaten in the first encounters, that every thing will be finished in a few days." Napoleon cautioned his brother against making the contents of his letters known to others, saying, "I repeat to you, that if this letter is read by others than yourself, you injure your own affairs. I am accustomed to think three or four months in advance of what I do, and I make arrangements for the worst." England, Russia, and Prussia entered into a new alliance to crush the Empire in France. The armies of Prussia, two hundred thousand strong, commenced their march by entering Saxony, one of the allies of Napoleon. Alexander of Russia was hastening to join Prussia, with two hundred thousand men in his train. England was giving the most energetic co-operation with her invincible fleet and her almost inexhaustible gold. Upon the eve of this terrible conflict, Napoleon, in the following terms, addressed Europe, to which address no reply was returned but that of shot and shell: "Why should hostilities arise between France and Russia? Perfectly independent of each other, they are impotent to inflict evil, but all-powerful to communicate benefits. If the Emperor of France exercises a great influence in Italy, the Czar exerts a still greater influence over Turkey and Persia. If the Cabinet of Russia pretends to have a right to affix limits to the power of France, without doubt it is equally disposed to allow the Emperor of the French to prescribe the bounds beyond which Russia is not to pass. "Russia has partitioned Poland. Can she then complain that France possesses Belgium and the left banks of the Rhine? Russia has seized upon the Crimea, the Caucasus, and the northern provinces of Persia. Can she deny that the right of self-preservation gives France a title to demand an equivalent in Europe. Let every power begin by restoring the conquests which it has made during the last fifty years. Let them re-establish Poland, restore Venice to its Senate, Trinidad to Spain, Ceylon to Holland, the Crimea to the Porte, the Caucasus and Georgia to Persia, the kingdom of Mysore to the sons of Tippoo Saib, and the Mahratta States to their lawful owners, and then the other powers may have some title to insist that France shall retire within her ancient limits." It was important to prevent the union of these mighty hosts, now combined to overthrow the new system in France. As Napoleon left Paris, to strike the Prussian army before it could be strengthened by the arrival of the Russians, he wrote to Joseph: