But while the princes of the earth were jostling each other to honor
this new monarch of monarchs, the underground currents of feeling were
doing his work. Already the "Empire" meant war; but the war so far was
with England alone, and must necessarily be either a maritime conflict
or else a costly and risky invasion. Pitt's return to power on May
twelfth signified the resistance of a united Britain to Bonaparte and
all his works: on her own soil, if necessary, but preferably by the
renewal of the premier's old policy of continental coalition against
France. It was the irony of fate that, thanks to the intricacies of
party politics and the King's imbecility, the strong man was brought
back to power with a contemptible and feeble cabinet. For the first,
therefore, he could only fortify the island kingdom. Signs soon began
to appear, however, that his enemy would meet him at least half-way in
provoking a new coalition; the union of western Europe for war would
give Napoleon the Emperor a new hold on France, that second string to
his bow which he always intended to have by him, and of which he now
had greater need than ever. Moreover, success would mean to him the
immediate realization of a French empire so transcending the
boundaries of France herself that men would forget the old nation in
the splendors of a new inclusive French political organism,
destructive of nationality as an influence in the world.
In July, Russia, whose ruler in reality had cared little for the death
of Enghien, and was actuated by an unbounded ambition for Oriental
empire, made a formal protest against France's foreign policy,
demanding the evacuation of Naples and an indemnity for the King of
Sardinia. Talleyrand replied roughly that France had asked no
explanation of the suspicious death of the Emperor Paul; that Russia
had naturalized notorious French emigrants; that she had sent to Paris
in the person of Markoff a distasteful diplomat, who, by the sarcastic
disdain of his manners, clearly showed his master's animus toward
France; and that, moreover, she had occupied the Ionian Islands. "The
Emperor of the French wants peace," said Talleyrand, "but with the aid
of God and his armies he need fear no one." Taken in connection with
certain high-handed acts already committed by Napoleon,--as, for
example, the expulsion from their posts, by his command, of the
English envoys at Stuttgart and Munich, who had imprudently plotted
with Méhée de la Touche; and the much more arbitrary seizure at
Hamburg of Rumbold, the recently appointed minister of England to
Saxony, while on his way to assume his diplomatic duties,--these
words of Talleyrand meant nothing less than defiance to the whole
Continent, as well as to England. Russia had protested in vain against
the violation of Baden's neutral territory by the seizure of Enghien;
Prussia was successful in her remonstrance with regard to Rumbold, but
in view of the continued occupation of Hanover by a strengthened