. The outline of history : being a plain history of life and mankind. e announcedin Paris as a briUiant victory—and againat Eylau. Then the Russians were defeatedat Friedland (1807). As yet he had nevertouched Russian soil, the Russians were stillas unbeaten as the British ; but now camean extraordinary piece of good fortune forNapoleon. By a mixture of boasting, sub- 494 THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY tlety, and flattery he won over the youngand ambitious Tsar, Alexander I—he wasjust thirty years old—to an alliance. Thetwo emperors met on a raft in the middleof the Niemen at Tilsit, and there came to
. The outline of history : being a plain history of life and mankind. e announcedin Paris as a briUiant victory—and againat Eylau. Then the Russians were defeatedat Friedland (1807). As yet he had nevertouched Russian soil, the Russians were stillas unbeaten as the British ; but now camean extraordinary piece of good fortune forNapoleon. By a mixture of boasting, sub- 494 THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY tlety, and flattery he won over the youngand ambitious Tsar, Alexander I—he wasjust thirty years old—to an alliance. Thetwo emperors met on a raft in the middleof the Niemen at Tilsit, and there came toan understanding. This meeting was an occasion for sublimefoolishness on the part of both the prin-cipal actors. Alexander had imbibed muchliberalism during his education at the courtof Catherine II, and was all for freedom,education, and the new order of the world—subject to his own pre-eminence. Hewould gladly have everyone free, said oneof his early associates, provided thateveryone was prepared to do freely exactlywhat he wished. And he declared that he. isaxr Alcxanxler I. would have abolished serfdom if it had costhim his head—if only civilization had beenmore advanced. He made war againstFrance, he said, because Napoleon was atyrant, to free the French people. AfterFriedland he saw Napoleon in a differentlight. These two men met eleven days afterthat rout; Alexander no doubt in the stateof explanatory exaltation natural to histype during a mood of change. To Napoleon the meeting must have beenextremely gratifying. This was his firstmeeting with an emperor upon terms ofequality. Like all men of limited vision,this man was a snob to the bone, his con-tinual solicitude for his titles shows as much,and here was a real emperor, a born emperor,taking his three-year-old dignities as equiv-alent to the authentic imperialism of imaginations soared together upon theraft at Tilsit. What is Europe ? saidAlexander. We are Europe. They dis-cussed the affairs of Pr
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