In fact, in the previous month a plan of a popular insurrection had been secretly discussed by Stein, Scharnhorst, and other patriotic Ministers.  The example of the Spaniards was everywhere to be followed, and, if Austria sent forth her legions on the Danube and England helped in Hanover, there seemed some prospect of shaking off the Napoleonic yoke.  The scheme miscarried, and largely owing to the interception of a letter in which Stein imprudently referred to the exasperation of public feeling in Germany and the lively hope excited by the events in Spain and the preparations of Austria.  Napoleon caused the letter to be printed in the “Moniteur” of September 8th, and sequestered Stein’s property in Westphalia.  He also kept his grip on Prussia; for while withdrawing most of his troops from that exhausted land, he retained French garrisons in Stettin, Glogau, and Kuestrin.  Holding these fortresses on the strong defensive line of the Oder, he might smile at the puny efforts of Prussian patriots and hope speedily to crush the Spanish rebels, provided he could count on the loyal support of Alexander in holding Austria in check.

To gain this support and to clear away the clouds that bulked on their oriental horizon, Napoleon urgently desired an interview with his ally.  For some months it had been proposed; but the Spanish Rising and the armaments of Austria made it essential.

The meeting took place at Erfurt (September 27th).  The Thuringian city was ablaze with uniforms, and the cannon thundered salvoes of welcome as the two potentates and their suites entered the ancient walls and filed through narrow streets redolent of old German calm, an abode more suited to the speculations of a Luther than to the world-embracing schemes of the Emperors of the West and East.  With them were their chief warriors and Ministers, personages who now threw into the shade the new German kings.  There, too, were the lesser German princes, some of them to grace the Court of the man who had showered lands and titles on them, others to hint a wish for more lands and higher titles.  In truth, the title of king was tantalizingly common; and if we may credit a story of the time, the French soldiery had learnt to despise it.  For, on one occasion, when the guard of honour, deceived by the splendour of the King of Wuertemberg’s chariot, was about to deliver the triple salute accorded only to the two Emperors, the officer in command angrily exclaimed:  “Be quiet:  it’s only a king.”

The Emperors at Erfurt devoted the mornings to personal interviews, the afternoons to politics, the evenings to receptions and the theatre.  The actors of the Comedie Francaise had been brought from Paris, and played to the Emperors and a parterre of princes the masterpieces of the French stage, especially those which contained suitable allusions.  A notable incident occurred on the recital of the line in the “Oedipe” of Voltaire: 

  “L’amitie d’un grand homme est un bienfait des dieux.”