The terms finally arranged in the Treaty of Pressburg (December 26th, 1805) may be thus summarized:  Austria recognized the recent acquisitions and changes of title made by Napoleon in Italy, and ceded to him her parts of Venetia, Istria, and Dalmatia.  She recognized the title of King now bestowed by Napoleon on the Electors of Bavaria and Wuertemberg, a change which was not to invalidate their membership of the “Germanic Confederation.”  To those potentates and to the Elector (now Grand Duke) of Baden, the Hapsburgs ceded all their scattered Swabian domains, while Bavaria also gained Tyrol and Vorarlberg.  As a slight compensation for these grievous losses, Austria gained Salzburg, whose Elector was to receive from Bavaria the former principality of Wuerzburg.  The domains and revenues of the Teutonic and Maltese Orders were secularized, so as to furnish appanages to some other princes of the Hapsburg House; and another blow was dealt at the Germanic system by the declaration that Napoleon guaranteed the full and entire sovereignty of the rulers of Bavaria, Wuertemberg, and Baden.  In fact, as will appear in the next chapter, Napoleon now usurped the place in Germany previously held by the Hapsburgs, and extended his influence as far east as the River Inn, and, on the south, down to the remote city of Ragusa on the Adriatic.

But it is one thing to win a brilliant diplomatic triumph, and quite another thing to secure a firm and lasting peace.  The Peace of Pressburg raised Napoleon to heights of power never dreamt of by Louis XIV.:  but his pre-eminence was at best precarious.  When by moderate terms he might have secured the alliance of Austria and severed her friendship with England, he chose to place his heel on her neck and drive her to secret but irreconcilable hatred.

And his choice was deliberate.  Two months earlier, Talleyrand had sent him a memorandum on the subject of a Franco-Austrian alliance, which is instinct with statesmanlike foresight.  He stated that there were four Great Powers—­France, Great Britain, Russia, and Austria:  he excluded Prussia, whose rise to greatness under Frederick the Great was but temporary.  Austria, he claimed, must remain a Great Power.  She had opposed revolutionary France; but with Imperial France she had no lasting quarrel.  Rather did her manifest destiny clash with that of Russia on the lower Danube, where the approaching break-up of the Ottoman Power must bring those States into conflict.  It was good policy, then, to give a decided but friendly turn of Hapsburg policy towards the east.  Let Napoleon frankly approach the Emperor Francis and say in effect:  “I never sought this war with you, but I have conquered:  I wish to restore complete harmony between us:  and, in order to remove all causes of dispute, you must give up your Swabian, Tyrolese, and Venetian lands:  of these Tyrol shall fall to a prince of your choice, and Venice (along with Trieste and Istria) shall form an aristocratic Republic under a magistrate nominated in the first instance by me.  As a set-off to these losses, you shall receive Moldavia, Wallachia, and northern Bulgaria.  If the Russians object to this and attack you, I will be your ally.”  Such was Talleyrand’s proposal.[51]