“If anyone but myself had treated with you I should have thought him bought over by you; but, let me confess to you, the treaty was due to your talents and merit.  You were in my eyes the first statesman in Europe, and covered yourself with immortal glory.”

Before that interview, forsooth, he had decided to make war on Prussia; and only Haugwitz had induced him to offer her peace and the gift of Hanover.  Why, then, had that treaty been so criticised at Berlin?  Why had the French ambassador been slighted?  Why was Hardenberg high in favour?  Why had not the King dismissed that tool of England?  Here the envoy strove to stem the rising torrent of the Emperor’s wrath; his words were at once swept aside; and the deluge flowed on.  As Prussia had not ratified the treaty pure and simple, she was in a state of war with France; for she still had Russian and English troops on her soil.  Here again Haugwitz observed that those forces were withdrawing, and that the Prussians were entering Hanover in force.  The storm burst forth anew.  What right had Prussia thus to carry into effect a treaty which she had not ratified?  If her forces entered Hanover, his troops should forthwith occupy Ansbach, Cleves, and Neufchatel:  if Frederick William meant to have Hanover, he should pay dearly for it.  But he would allow Haugwitz to see Talleyrand, so as to prevent an immediate war.[75]

The calm of the Foreign Minister was as dangerous as the bluster of the Emperor.  Talleyrand was no friend to Prussia.  He had long known Napoleon’s determination to press on a war between England and Prussia, and he lent himself to the plan of undermining the Hohenzollerns.  The scales now fell from the envoy’s eyes.  He saw that his country stood friendless before an exacting creditor, who now claimed further sacrifices—­or Prussia’s life-blood.  The Emperor’s threats were partly fictitious; and when Haugwitz was thoroughly frightened and ready to concede almost anything, Napoleon came to the real point at issue, and demanded that the whole of the German coast-line on the North Sea should be closed to English commerce.  With this stringent clause superadded, Hanover was now handed over to Prussia.  Never was a Greek gift more skilfully offered.  The present of Hanover on those terms implied for the recipient Russia’s disapproval and the hostility of England.[76]

This was the news brought by Haugwitz to Berlin.  Frederick William was now on the horns of the very dilemma which he had sought to avoid.  Either he must accept Napoleon’s terms, or defy the conqueror to almost single combat.  The irony of his position was now painfully apparent.  In his longing for peace and retrenchment he had dismissed his would-be allies, and had sent his own soldiers grumbling to their homes.  Moreover, he was tied by his previous action.  If he accepted peace from Napoleon at Christmas, when 300,000 men could have disputed the victor’s laurels, how much more must he accept it now!  He not only gave way on this point:  he even complied with Napoleon’s wishes by keeping Hardenberg at a distance.  He did not dismiss him—­the friendship of the spirited Queen Louisa forbade that:  but Hardenberg yielded up to Haugwitz the guidance of foreign affairs, and was granted unlimited leave of absence.