into mourning, and Alexander expressed both to the German Diet and to the French Government his indignation at the outrage.  It was ever Napoleon’s habit to return blow with blow; and he now instructed Talleyrand to reply that in the D’Enghien affair he had acted solely on the defensive, and that Russia’s complaint “led him to ask if, at the time when England was compassing the assassination of Paul I., the authors of the plot had been known to be one league beyond the [Russian] frontiers, every effort would not have been made to have them seized?” Never has a poisoned dart been more deftly sped at the weak spot of an enemy’s armour.  The Czar, ever haunted by the thought of his complicity in a parricidal plot, was deeply wounded by this malicious taunt, and all the more so because, as the death of Paul had been officially ascribed to a fit, the insult could not be flung back.[3] The only reply was to break off all diplomatic relations with Napoleon; and this took place in the summer of 1804.[4]

Yet war was not to break out for more than a year.  This delay was due to several causes.  Austria could not be moved from her posture of timid neutrality.  In fact, Francis ii. and Cobenzl saw in Napoleon’s need of a recognition of his new imperial title a means of assuring a corresponding change of title for the Hapsburg Dominions.  Francis had long been weary of the hollow dignity of Elective Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.  The faded pageantry of Ratisbon and Frankfurt was all that remained of the glories of the realm of Charlemagne:  the medley of States which owned him as elected lord cared not for the decrees of this ghostly realm; and Goethe might well place in the mouth of his jovial toper, in the cellar scene of “Faust,” the words: 

                    “Dankt Gott mit jedem Morgen
  Dass Ihr nicht braucht fuer’s Roem’sche Reich zu sorgen!”

In that bargaining and burglarious age, was it not better to build a more lasting habitation than this venerable ruin?  Would not the hereditary dominions form a more lasting shelter from the storm?  Such were doubtless the thoughts that prompted the assumption of the title of Hereditary Emperor of Austria (August 11th, 1804).  The letter-patent, in which this change was announced, cited as parallels “the example of the Imperial Court of Russia in the last century and of the new sovereign of France.”  Both references gave umbrage to Alexander, who saw no parallel between the assumption of the title of Emperor by Peter the Great and the game of follow-the-leader played by Francis to Napoleon.[5]