The Ravishing of Lady Mary Ware by Dennis Wheatley Read Free Book Online

to our major demands. As you know, I am in secret communication with Prince Metternich, and I received the news from him only yesterday. The Peace Treaty will be signed at Schönbrunn in the course of a week or so.’
    â€˜Then Britain will be the only nation left in arms against the Empire,’ Roger remarked.
    â€˜Not quite. You forget Spain,’ the Prince smiled. ‘And I have considerable hopes that it is those ragged, nebulous hostilities in the Peninsula that will eventually break our little man’s back.’
    â€˜You really think that likely?’
    â€˜I do. It is just on two years since Junot was sent into the Peninsula, and there has been fighting there, with a constant drain on French forces, ever since. If Napoleon had not panicked after he had put his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain, and returned to Paris because he believed that Fouché and I had joined forces with the object of bringing about his downfall, he might long since have brought the Spaniards to heel. But, as he then became occupied with his war against Austria, he had to leave the Peninsula to his Marshals. Some of them are very able men, but they are not used to this type of warfare in which everywhere the common people have taken up arms against us and fight with furious fanaticism. Moreover, during the past year the British have established themselves firmly there, and now a verylarge army indeed would have to be sent to the Peninsula to drive them out.’
    â€˜Agreed. But now the war with Austria is over, that will have freed at least two hundred thousand men, and the Emperor could again go to Spain to direct operations.’
    Talleyrand shook his head. ‘I judge you wrong in that. The peace will, of course, free large numbers of troops, but so many must be retained to garrison the fortresses all over Europe and hold the Emperor’s conquests down, that I greatly doubt if a sufficient reinforcement to make any material difference could be sent to Spain. As for our little man going there himself in the near future, I’d wager my Principality against it. His mind is no longer occupied by war. It is entirely absorbed in this prospect of a new marriage.’
    â€˜Then the divorce has been definitely decided upon? I gathered at Erfurt that he was seriously contemplating ridding himself of Josephine; and I am greatly distressed for her.’
    â€˜You count her, I know, a dear friend.’ Talleyrand spread his long, beautifully-kept hands. ‘But what would you? As long as he believed himself incapable of fathering a child, her position as Empress was secure. Since there can be no reasonable doubt that Elenore Denudle’s son was begotten by him, the situation is entirely changed. His dearest wish has long been to found a dynasty, and he is now so powerful that he contemplates adding still further to his grandeur by an alliance with one of the great Imperial houses.’
    â€˜We may, then, have as Empress a Hapsburg or Romanoff Princess?’
    â€˜It will be one or the other. Which, is still in the balance. He sounded the Czar at Erfurt; but Alexander fobbed him off by saying that his sister’s marriage was a matter for her mother. Recently he has reopened the questionand is hoping that the Dowager Empress will give her consent. The alternative is Marie Louise of Austria, and both Metternich and I are pulling every string we can that would favour the match.’
    Roger smiled. ‘I know well Your Highness’ antipathy to the Russians; and a closer alliance with them could mean yet another series of ruinous wars. The project formed at Tilsit would be revived. The two Emperors would almost certainly march against Turkey and divide the Sultan’s dominions between them. Then Napoleon would set about his long-cherished plan for a descent on India.’
    â€˜That is exactly the danger as I foresee it, and whether or not he succeeded in driving the British out, the strain