บทที่ บทที่ 106 · 第106章

In 1809 the intimacy between “the world’s two arbiters,” as

Napoleon and Alexander were called, was such that when Napoleon declared

war on Austria a Russian corps crossed the frontier to co-operate with

our old enemy Bonaparte against our old ally the Emperor of Austria, and

in court circles the possibility of marriage between Napoleon and one

of Alexander’s sisters was spoken of. But besides considerations of

foreign policy, the attention of Russian society was at that time keenly

directed on the internal changes that were being undertaken in all the

departments of government.

Life meanwhile—real life, with its essential interests of health and

sickness, toil and rest, and its intellectual interests in thought,

science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, and passions—went on

as usual, independently of and apart from political friendship or enmity

with Napoleon Bonaparte and from all the schemes of reconstruction.