It is impossible briefly to describe the various conflicts between Pius VII. and Napoleon.  Though now kept in captivity by Napoleon, the Pope refused to ratify these and other ukases of his captor; and the credit which Napoleon had won by his wordly-wise Concordat was now lost by his infraction of many of its clauses and by his harsh treatment of a defenceless old man.  It is true that Pius had excommunicated Napoleon; but that was for the crime of annexing the Papal States, and public opinion revolted at the spectacle of an all-powerful Emperor now consigning to captivity the man who in former years had done so much to consolidate his authority.  After the disasters of the Russian campaign, he sought to come to terms with the pontiff; but even then the bargain struck at Fontainebleau was so hard that his prisoner, though unnerved by ill-health, retracted the unholy compromise.  Whereupon Napoleon ordered that the cardinals who advised this step should be seized and carried away from Fontainebleau.  Few of Napoleon’s actions were more harmful than this series of petty persecutions; and among the influences that brought about his fall, we may reckon the dignified resistance of the pontiff, whose meekness threw up in sharp relief the pride and arrogance of his captor.  The Papacy stooped, but only to conquer.

For the present, everything seemed to favour the new Charlemagne.  Never had the world seen embodied might like that of Napoleon’s Empire; and well might he exclaim at the birth of the King of Rome, “Now begins the finest epoch of my reign.”  All the auguries seemed favourable.  In France, the voice of opposition was all but hushed.  Italians, Swiss, and even some Spaniards, helped to keep down Prussia.  Dutchmen and Danes had hunted down Schill for him at Stralsund.  Polish horsemen had charged up the Somosierra Pass against the Spanish guns, and did valiant service on the bloody field of Albuera.  The Confederation of the Rhine could send forth 150,000 men to fight his battles.  The Hapsburgs were his vassals, and only faint shadows of discord as yet clouded his relations with Alexander.  One of his Marshals, Bernadotte, had been chosen to succeed to the crown of Sweden; and at the other end of Europe, it seemed that Wellington and the Spanish patriots must ultimately succumb to superior numbers.

Surely now was the time for the fulfilment of those glowing oriental designs beside which his European triumphs seemed pale.  In the autumn of 1810 he sent agents carefully to inspect the strongholds of Egypt and Syria, and his consuls in the Levant were ordered to send a report every six months on the condition of the Turkish Empire.[240] Above all, he urged on the completion of dockyards and ships of war.  Vast works were pushed on at Antwerp and Cherbourg:  ships and gunboats were to be built at every suitable port from the Texel to Naples and Trieste; and as the result of these labours, the Emperor counted on having 104 ships of the line, which would cover the transports from the Mediterranean, Cherbourg, Boulogne and the Scheldt, and threaten England with an array of 200,000 fighting men.[241]