"Sire, what are you coming here for?
It is for you to save Europe, and you will only succeed in that by resisting Napoleon.

The French are civilized, their sovereign is not.

The sovereign of Russia is civilized, her people are not.
Therefore the sovereign of Russia must be the ally of the French people."[201] We may doubt whether this symmetrical proposition would have had much effect, if Alexander had not received similar warnings from his own ambassador at Paris; and it would seem that too much importance has been assigned to what is termed Talleyrand's _treachery_ at Erfurt.[202] Affairs of high policy are determined, not so much by the logic of words as by the sterner logic of facts.

Ever since Tilsit, Napoleon had been prodigal of promises to his ally, but of little else.

The alluring visions set forth in his letter of February 2nd were as visionary as ever; and Romantzoff expressed the wish of his countrymen in his remark to Champagny: "We have come to Erfurt to set a limit to this conduct." It was evident that if Napoleon had his way completely, the partition of Turkey would take place at the time and in the manner desired by him; this the Czar was determined to prevent, and therefore turned a deaf ear to his ally's proposal that they should summon Austria to explain her present ambiguous behaviour and frankly to recognize Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain.