The marriage took place at Vienna by proxy; the bride was conducted to Paris; and the final ceremony took place at Notre Dame on April 2nd, but not until the union had been consummated.  Such were Napoleon’s second wooing and wedding.  Nevertheless, he showed himself an attentive and even indulgent spouse, and he remarked at St. Helena that if Josephine was all grace and charm, Marie Louise was innocence and nature herself.

The Austrian marriage was an event of the first importance.  It gained a few years’ respite for the despairing Hapsburgs, and gave tardy satisfaction to Talleyrand’s statesmanlike scheme of a Franco-Austrian alliance which should be in the best sense conservative.  Had Napoleon taken this step after Austerlitz in the way that his counsellor advised, possibly Europe might have reached a condition of stable equilibrium, always provided that he gave up his favourite scheme of partitioning Turkey.  But that was not to be; and when Austria finally yielded up Marie Louise as an unpicturesque Iphigenia on the marriage altar, she did so only as a desperate device for appeasing an inexorable destiny.  And, strange to say, she succeeded.  For Alexander took offence at the marriage negotiations; and thus was opened a breach in the Franco-Russian alliance which other events were rapidly to widen, until Western and Central Europe hurled themselves against the East, and reached Moscow.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXXI

THE EMPIRE AT ITS HEIGHT

Napoleon’s star had now risen to its zenith.  After his marriage with a daughter of the most ancient of continental dynasties, nothing seemed lacking to his splendour.  He had humbled Pope and Emperor alike:  Germany crouched at his feet:  France, Italy, and the Confederation of the Rhine gratefully acknowledged the benefits of his vigorous sway:  the Czar was still following the lead given at Erfurt:  Sweden had succumbed to the pressure of the two Emperors:  and Turkey survived only because it did not yet suit Napoleon to shear her asunder:  he must first complete the commercial ruin of England and drive Wellington into the sea.  Then events would at last be ripe for the oriental schemes which the Spanish Rising had postponed.

He might well hope that England’s strength was running out:  near the close of 1810 the three per cent. consols sank to sixty-five, and the declared bankruptcies averaged 250 a month.  The failure of the Walcheren expedition had led to terrible loss of men and treasure, and had clouded over the reputation of her leaders.  After mutual recriminations Canning and Castlereagh resigned office and fought a duel.  Shortly afterwards the Premier, the Duke of Portland, fell ill and resigned:  his place was taken by Mr. Perceval, a man whose sole recommendation for the post was his conscientious Toryism and powers of dull plodding.  Ruled by an ill-assorted Ministry