Russia and Prussia, he said, had more need of peace than France.

If he began by giving up towns, they would demand kingdoms, whereas by yielding nothing he would intimidate them.
And if they did form a league, their forces would be thinly spread out over an immense space; he would easily dispose of their armies when they were not aided by the climate; and a single victory would undo the clumsy knot (_ce noeud mal assorti_).[282] In truth, if he left Spain out of his count, the survey of the military position was in many ways reassuring.

England's power was enfeebled by the declaration of war by the United States.

In Central Europe his position was still commanding.

He held nearly all the fortresses of Prussia, and though he had lost a great army, that loss was spread out very largely over Poles, Germans, Italians, and smaller peoples.