English Translation

Napoleon, who realized that England was not confined by the mainland alone, had resumed his old plan to take action against India. On February 2, 1808, he wrote to Alexander: "An army of 50 O00 men from Russians, French, perhaps even a small number of Austrians operating on Asia via Constantinople, would not have arrived at the Euphrates before she had England tremble and kneel before the continent... On May 1st, our troops may be in Asia and at the same time the (other) troops of Your Majesty in Stockholm. In India, threatened by the Levant, the English will then be united under the weight of the events with which the atmosphere is loaded.1 Spain's elevation prevented the realization of this plan. Napoleon's situation became more difficult, and on Erfurt's Prince's Day in 1808 Alexander was no longer the admirer and obedient disciple of the Corsican. The hard-to-see, closed and amiable, double-tongue and idealistic "Byzantine Greek" on the Russian throne has been able in the next few years to outwit an opponent such as Napoleon himself. After the Erfurt days, he writes to his sister Katharina Pavlowna: "Bonaparte claims I'm just a fool. Those who laugh last laugh best. And I put all my hope in God."2) The hopes that Napoleon Alexander had made of a division of Turkey and the profits of Constantinople and the Dardanelles, who for Russia constituted the main value of the French alliance, proved to be deceptive. Napoleon, who always had to expect Alexander to become his enemy one day, did not seriously think of making Russia Lord of the eastern Mediterranean by handing over Constantinople and the straits. France's position in Illyria and on the Ionian Islands threatened Russia's Balkans- 1) Stählin 3, pp.142-143. 2) Stählin 3, p.148.