Note 83 — Chapter X
Albert D. (Albert Dresden) Vandam translation
La Garde exaggerates. Napoleon merely expressed a desire, and overtures were eventually made at Erfurth. The veto of the dowager-empress nipped the affair in the bud. Later on, there was an attempt to reopen the question, but the Emperor of Austria had almost immediately replied to Talleyrand’s pourparlers, and arrangements were concluded at the moment when Russia seemed inclined to yield. See on those long hesitations the first volume of M. Albert Vandal’s Napoléon et Alexandre, vol. I. ch. xii.—French Editor.
M. Vandal is as misleading as La Garde, and for the truth of that episode no French author of any kind should be consulted, and least of all those who have written on Russia during the last twenty years. The German works are much more trustworthy, for the refusal of Napoleon’s hand was inspired by Germany.—Transl.