Napoleon with the words: 'Sire, I hate the English as much as you do.'
'In that case,' replied Napoleon, 'peace is established.' The initial ease
between the thirty-eight-year-old Emperor and the thirty-year-old Czar
had deepened into something like friendship by the end of the interview.
Qu ite apart from other considerations, each man was physically drawn to
the other. Alexander fell under the spell of a charismatic Napoleon,
exerting himself to exude all his well-known charm. Napoleon, as he later
acknowledged, was much affected by the physical beauty of the Czar and
described him as an Apollo: Alexander was tall and handsome, with blue
eyes and blond curls. Both men later went on record that they 'loved'
each other.
Napoleon also thought Alexander highly intelligent, but some nagging
internal voice gave him pause. As he said later: 'There is something
missing. I have never been able to discover what it is ... a decadent
Byzantine ... a Talma of the north.' By referring to his favourite actor,
Napoleon was actually revealing more about himself than the Czar.
Alexander's problem was not histrionic but psychological. Debate has
raged about his exact mental state. Some have thought him schizophrenic
while others opt for 'depressive mania'. His frequent mood swings have
even led some to posit the multiple personality model of 'dementia
praecox'. At the very least, Alexander was disturbingly neurotic. He liked
to think of himself as a simple soldier, but this was bunk. He was actually
a physical coward who had stayed well clear of the fighting in the
Austerlitz campaign and would do so again during the stirring days of
r8rz.
Next day, 26 June, the two sovereigns met at 12.30 and spent the day
together until 9 p.m. Thereafter the protocol-conscious courtiers on
either side devised an elaborately 'egalitarian' programme. On the 27th
Napoleon visited the Czar for a review and dinner and next day the
Emperor played host to Alexander. This was the day Napoleon chose for
his elaborate 'Ottoman' charade. An obvious barrier to an accord between
France and Russia was Napoleon's incitement of Turkey. The opportune
removal of Selim III in the coup of z8 May gave Napoleon the excuse he
needed: he could now pretend that his entente with Selim had been
purely personal and that it lapsed with a change of Sultan. Although he
already knew the news from Constantinople - as did Alexander -
Napoleon pretended that his intelligence service was lackadaisical and had
only just got word of the coup. As he sat with the Czar around fo ur in the
afternoon of z8 June, a courier arrived with an 'urgent' dispatch.
Napoleon opened it, read it and jumped up with feigned astonishment.
To Alexander he said excitedly that he no longer had debts of honour to
marcin
(Marcin)
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