Alexander now implored peace.  It was all that Napoleon desired.  The Niemen alone now separated the victorious French and the routed Russians.  A raft was moored in the middle of the stream upon which a tent was erected with magnificent decorations, and here the two young emperors met to arrange the terms of peace.  Alexander, like Francis of Austria, endeavored to throw the blame of the war upon England.  Almost his first words to Napoleon were,

“I hate the English as much as you do.  I am ready to second you in all your enterprises against them.”

“In that case,” Napoleon replied, “every thing will be easily arranged and peace is already made.”

The interview lasted two hours, and Alexander was fascinated by the genius of Napoleon.  “Never,” he afterwards said, “did I love any man as I loved that man.”  Alexander was then but thirty years of age, and apparently he became inspired with an enthusiastic admiration of Napoleon which had never been surpassed.  At the close of the interview, he crossed to the French side of the river, and took up his residence with Napoleon at Tilsit.  Every day they rode side by side, dined together, and passed almost every hour in confiding conversation.  It was Napoleon’s great object to withdraw Alexander from the English alliance.  In these long interviews the fate of Turkey was a continual topic of conversation.  Alexander was ready to make almost any concession if Napoleon would consent that Russia should take Constantinople.  But Napoleon was irreconcilably opposed to this.  It was investing Russia with too formidable power.  He was willing that the emperor should take the provinces on the Danube, but could not consent that he should pass the Balkan and annex the proud city of Constantine to his realms.

One day when the two emperors were closeted together with the map of Europe spread out before them, Napoleon placed his finger upon Constantinople, and was overheard by Meneval to say, with great earnestness, “Constantinople! never!  It is the empire of the world.”

“All the Emperor Alexander’s thoughts,” said Napoleon at St. Helena, “are directed to the conquest of Turkey.  We have had many discussions about it.  At first I was pleased with his proposals, because I thought it would enlighten the world to drive these brutes out of Egypt.  But when I reflected upon its consequences and saw what a tremendous weight of power it would give to Russia, on account of the number of Greeks in the Turkish dominions who would naturally join the Russians, I refused to consent to it, especially as Alexander wanted to get Constantinople, which I would not allow, as it would destroy the equilibrium of power in Europe.”