Austrian mediation, he says that if Napoleon declines Austria will join the Allies.  If Napoleon accepts, “the negotiations will most certainly show Napoleon to be neither wise nor just, and then the result will be the same.  In any case we shall have gained the necessary time to bring our armies into such positions that we need not again fear a separate attack on any one of them, and from which we may ourselves take the offensive."]—­

All her amicable demonstrations were limited to an offer of her intervention in opening negotiations with Russia.  Accordingly, on the 4th of June, an armistice was concluded at Pleiswitz, which was to last till the 8th of July, and was finally prolonged to the 10th of August.

The first overtures after the conclusion of the armistice of Pleiswitz determined the assembling of a Congress at Prague.  It was reported at the time that the Allies demanded the restoration of all they had lost since 1805; that is to say, since the campaign of Ulm.  In this demand Holland and the Hanse Towns, which had become French provinces, were comprehended.  But we should still have retained the Rhine, Belgium, Piedmont, Nice, and Savoy.  The battle of Vittoria,

—­The news of this decisive battle increased the difficulty of the French plenipotentiaries at Prague, and raised the demands of the Allies.  It also shook the confidence of those who remained faithful to us.—­Bourrienne.]—­

which placed the whole of Spain at the disposal of the English, the retreat of Suchet upon the Ebro, the fear of seeing the army of Spin annihilated, were enough to alter the opinions of those counsellors who still recommended war.  Notwithstanding Napoleon’s opposition and his innate disposition to acquire glory by his victories, probably he would not have been inaccessible to the reiterated representations of sensible men who loved their country, France, therefore, has to reproach his advisers.  At this juncture General Moreau arrived; it has been said that he came at the solicitation of Bernadotte.  This is neither true nor probable.  In the first place, there never was any intimacy between Bernadotte and Moreau; and, in the next, how can it be imagined that Bernadotte wished to see Moreau Emperor!  But this question is at once put at rest by the fact, that in the interview at Abo the Emperor of Russia hinted to Bernadotte the possibility of his succeeding Napoleon.  It was generally reported at the time, and I have since learnt that it was true, that the French Princes of the House of Bourbon had made overtures to Moreau through the medium of General Willot, who had been proscribed on the 18th Fructidor; and I have since learned from an authentic source that General Moreau, who was then at Baltimore, refused to support the Bourbon cause.  Moreau yielded only to his desire of being revenged on Napoleon; and he found death where he could not find glory.