panting breath and almost gasping words left on Bausset the impression that he was genuinely affected; and, consummate actor though he was, we may well believe that he felt the parting from his early associations.  Underneath his generally cold exterior he hid a nervous nature, dominated by an inflexible will, but which now and again broke through all restraint, bathing the beloved object with sudden tenderness or blasting a foe with fiery passion.  And it would seem that Josephine’s pangs had power to reawaken the feelings of his more generous youth.  The ceremony of divorce took place on December 15th Josephine declaring with agonized pride that she gave her assent for the welfare of France.

Already the new marriage negotiations had begun.  They are unique even amidst the frigid annals of royal betrothals.  The French ambassador, Caulaincourt, was charged to make definite overtures at St. Petersburg for the hand of the Czar’s younger sister; the conditions could easily be arranged; religion need be no difficulty; but time was pressing; the Emperor had need of an heir; “we are counting the minutes here,” ran the despatch; and an answer was expected from St. Petersburg after an interval of two days.[222] The request caused Alexander the greatest perplexity.  He parried it with the reply, correct enough in form as in fact, that the disposal of his sister rested with the Dowager Empress.  But her hostility to Napoleon was well known.  After the half overtures of Erfurt she had at once betrothed her elder daughter to the Duke of Oldenburg.  No similar escape was now possible for the younger one:  but, after leaving Napoleon’s request unanswered until February 4th, the reply was then despatched that the tender age of the princess, she being only twenty years old, formed an insuperable obstacle.

Some such answer had long been expected at Paris.  Metternich asserts in his “Memoirs” that Napoleon had caused Laborde, one of his diplomatic agents at Vienna, tentatively to sound that Court as to his betrothal with the Archduchess Marie Louise.  But the French archives show that the first hint came from Metternich, who saw in it a means of weakening the Franco-Russian alliance and saving Austria from further disasters.[223] A little later the Countess Metternich was at Paris; and great was her surprise when, on January 2nd, 1810, Josephine informed her that she favoured a marriage between Napoleon and Marie Louise.  “I spoke to him of it yesterday,” she said; “his choice is not yet fixed; but he thinks that this would be his choice if he were sure of its being accepted.”  Thereafter the Countess received the most flattering attentions at Court, a proof that the Hapsburg match was now favoured, even though the coyness of the Czar was as yet unknown.

At the close of January a Privy Council was held at the Tuileries to decide on the imperial bride.  The votes were nearly equal:  four voted for Austria, four for Saxony, and three for Russia.  After listening quietly to the arguments, Napoleon summed up the discussion by pronouncing firmly and warmly in favour of Austria.  The marriage contract was therefore drawn up on February 7th; and Berthier was despatched to Vienna to claim the hand of Marie Louise.  He entered that city over the ruins of the old ramparts, which were now being dismantled in accordance with the French demands.