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.