The Russian embassador at Paris, M. Marcow, who under Catharine II. had shown himself bitterly hostile to the French republic, was declared to be guilty of entering into intrigues to assist the English, now making war upon France, and he was ordered immediately to leave the kingdom.  Alexander did not resent this act, so obviously proper, but rewarded the dismissed minister with an annual pension of twelve thousand rubles ($9,000).

During this short interval of peace Alexander was raising an army of five hundred thousand men, to extend and consolidate his dominions on the side of Turkey.  His frontiers there were dimly defined, and his authority but feebly exerted.  He pushed his armies into Georgia and took firm possession of that vast province extending between the Black Sea and the Caspian, and embracing some eighteen thousand square miles.  At the same time the blasts of his bugles were heard reverberating through the defiles of the Balkan, and his fortresses were reared and his banners planted there.  The monarchs of Russia, for many generations, had fixed a wistful eye upon Constantinople, but no one had coveted the possession of that important city so intensely as now did Alexander.  “Constantinople,” said he often, “is the key of my house.”

The arrest of the Duke d’Enghien, in the territory of the Duke of Baden, and his execution as a traitor for being in arms against his own country, excited the indignation of Alexander.  Napoleon, immediately after the arrest, had made an apology to the Duke of Baden for the violation of a neutral territory, and this apology was accepted by the duke as satisfactory.  Nevertheless, Alexander through his embassador, sent the following message to the court of the First Consul: 

“The Emperor Alexander, as mediator and guarantee of the continental peace, has notified the States of the German empire that he considers the action of the First Consul as endangering their safety and independence, and that he does not doubt that the First Consul will take prompt measures to reassure those governments by giving satisfactory explanations.”

Napoleon regarded this interference of Alexander as impertinent, and caused his minister to reply,

“What would Alexander have said if the First Consul had imperiously demanded explanations respecting the murder of Paul I., and had pretended to constitute himself an avenger?  How is it, that when the sovereign of the territory, which it is said has been violated, makes no complaint; when all the princes, his neighbors and his allies, are silent—­how is it that the Emperor of Russia, least of all interested in the affair, raises his voice alone?  Does it not arise from complicity with England, that machinator of conspiracies against the power and the life of the First Consul?  Is not Russia engaged in similar conspiracies at Rome, at Dresden and at Paris?  If Russia desires war, why does she not frankly say so, instead of endeavoring to secure that end indirectly?”