The Emperor Alexander received Pozzo di Borgo at Kalisch, after a separation of five years. They had parted immediately after the interview of Tilsit, which had so greatly reconciled the Czar to the politics of Napoleon. Now, how different was the situation of affairs! Alexander had seen his empire invaded by his ancient ally, his cities in flames; and, according to the excited ideas of Alexander, it was the sainted spirits of the ancient Russians who had raised the stormy tempests, and engulfed the immense army of Napoleon in the icy floods of the Beresina. The language of Alexander to Pozzo di Borgo reminded him of his sagacious prophecies, and the colonel made great efforts to win him back to simple and positive plans against the power of Napoleon; for having been one of the patriots of 1789, Colonel Pozzo perfectly understood the importance of the conspiracy of Mallet, and of the discontent that was beginning to pervade France. He was opposed to all species of compromise, and his view of the case was to strive to effect a separation between the interests of France and her leader. Whilst Alexander, still prepossessed with the idea of the stupendous power of Napoleon, hesitated to plunge into the perils of a distant campaign, Pozzo di Borgo advised him to induce Prussia to take advantage of the secret societies, which proudly raised their heads at the cry of _Germania_ or _Teutonia_, and to assemble all Buonaparte's rivals in glory under their banners, so as to occasion confusion and disorder in his preparations for war.