On the other side, the French emperor urged the matter no further; the Spanish insurrection diverted his attention, and imperiously required his presence with all his forces.  Even previous to the interview at Erfurt, after Sebastiani’s return from Constantinople, although Napoleon still seemed to adhere to the idea of dismembering Turkey in Europe, he had admitted the correctness of his ambassador’s reasoning:  “That in this partition, the advantages would be all against him; that Russia and Austria would acquire contiguous provinces, which would make their dominions more complete, while we should be obliged to keep 80,000 men continually in Greece to retain it in subjection; that such an army, from the distance and losses it would sustain from long marches, and the novelty and unhealthiness of the climate, would require 30,000 recruits annually, a number which would quite drain France:  that a line of operation extending from Athens to Paris, was out of all proportion; that besides, it was strangled in its passage at Trieste, at which point only two marches would enable the Austrians to place themselves across it, and thereby cut off our army of observation in Greece from all communication with Italy and France.”

Here Napoleon exclaimed, “that Austria certainly complicated every thing; that she was there like a dead weight; that she must be got rid off; and Europe must be divided into two empires:  that the Danube, from the Black Sea to Passau, the mountains of Bohemia to Koenigsgratz, and the Elbe to the Baltic, should be their lines of demarcation.  Alexander should become the emperor of the north, and he of the south of Europe.”  Abandoning, subsequently, these lofty ideas, and reverting to Sebastiani’s observations on the partition of European Turkey, he terminated the conferences, which had lasted three days, with these words:  “You are right, and no answer can be given to that!  I give it up.  Besides, that accords with my views on Spain, which I am going to unite to France.”—­“What do I hear?” exclaimed Sebastiani, astonished, “unite it!  And your brother!”—­“What signifies my brother?” retorted Napoleon; “does one give away a kingdom like Spain?  I am determined to unite it to France.  I will give that nation a great national representation.  I will make the emperor Alexander consent to it, by allowing him to take possession of Turkey to the Danube, and I will evacuate Berlin.  As to Joseph, I will indemnify him.”

The congress at Erfurt took place just after this.  He could have no motive at that time for supporting the rights of the Turks.  The French army, which had advanced imprudently into the very heart of Spain, had met with reverses.  The presence of its leader, and that of his armies of the Rhine and the Elbe, became there every day more and more necessary, and Austria had availed herself of the opportunity to take up arms.  Uneasy respecting the state of Germany, Napoleon was therefore anxious to make sure of the dispositions of Alexander, to conclude an alliance offensive and defensive with him, and even to engage him in a war.  Such were the reasons which induced him to abandon Turkey as far as the Danube to that emperor.