It would seem that the people as well as the armies of Germany were captured by this man, when we hear that ninety German authors dedicated their books to him, a servile press praised him, and one of Beethoven’s greatest sonatas was inspired by him.  But a man so colossal and dazzling could only be accurately measured at a distance.  Even yet we are too near to him for that, and the world has not yet come to an agreement concerning him, any more than as to the true analysis of the character of Hamlet.

There was now scarcely an uncrowned head in Napoleon’s family.  His brother Louis, who had married his step-daughter, Hortense Beauharnais, was king of Holland.  His brother-in-law Murat he made king of Naples; Eugene Beauharnais, his step-son, viceroy of Italy; his brother Jerome, King of Westphalia; and then his brother Joseph was placed upon the throne of Spain, from which an indignant people drove him ingloriously away.

In an hour’s interview with Alexander, Emperor of Russia, Napoleon had by the magic of superiority secured that emperor’s friendship and co-operation in his plans against England.  All this excellent man was fighting for was the peace of Europe!  And he disclosed to Alexander his plan that they two should be the eternal custodians of that peace; which was to be secured by restraining the arrogance of England, and that was to be done by ruining the commercial prosperity of that nation of shop-keepers.  There was to be organized a continental blockade against England.  Europe was to be forbidden to trade with that country.

A plan was forming in the mind of Napoleon which was destined as the turning-point in his astonishing career.  It was of vast importance to him that he should have an heir to the great inheritance he was creating.  By repudiating Josephine, and marrying the daughter of Francis Joseph, there might be an heir who would also be the legitimate descendant of the Caesars; thus immensely fortifying the empire after his own death.

When this thought took possession of his mind, the psychological moment had arrived.  The tide had turned toward disaster.  The marriage with Maria Louisa took place at Paris in 1810.  The marriage of Napoleon with a Hapsburg was not pleasing to the French people, who took pride in the simple origin of their emperor and empress.  This hero of Marengo, and Austerlitz, and Jena, and Wagram, the man before whom Europe trembled, was he not, after all, only a crowned citizen?  And was this not a triumph for the revolutionary principle which offset the existence of an empire, as its final result?

[Illustration:  Josephine crowned Empress, December 2, 1804, in Notre Dame Cathedral.  From the painting by David.]

Alexander had broken away from his agreement and his friendship with the emperor, and had joined the allies.  So in 1812 the long-contemplated invasion of Russia began.  Of the 678,000 souls recruited chiefly from conquered states, only 80,000 would ever return.  Never before had Napoleon fought the elements, and never before met overwhelming defeat!  The flames at Moscow, followed by the arctic cold, converted the campaign into a vast tragedy.