54 Nineteenth Century Peace Congresses
came to Vienna in person to make sure that Russia received
as an independent kingdom the whole of Poland which was
already occupied by his armies, and to see that his friends, the
kings of Sweden and of Prussia, were properly rewarded for
the sacrifices which he had called on them to make. He was
determined that Bernadotte should not fail to get Norway,
and that Prussia should be rewarded for the loss of her
Polish provinces at the expense of the unlucky King of Sax-
ony. For bargains are bargains, and doubtless Alexander
had learned from La Harpe that honor is a duty even among
kings.
The Czar found all Europe gathered at Vienna when he
arrived,—all Europe, it must be said, with three or four
quite significant exceptions. For example, among the ab-
sent there was the protector of the faithful, Mahmoud II,
Sultan of Turkey, who was not concerned at all with the
business in hand, since Alexander had already got Bessa-
rabia by the treaty of Bucharest in 1812. Then there were
those who were quite too intimately concerned to be com-
fortable companions. Conspicuous by their absence from so
brilliant an assembly of more than a hundred kings, princes,
and great diplomats were the King of Saxony, for he was
confidently expected to furnish the entree for the gathering,
and the King of Denmark, an old friend of Napoleon’s who
was counted on to supply the dessert. For our diplomats
were distinctly not there for their health. In much the same
class was Murat, the King of Naples, whose plebeian origin
and family connection with the deposed Emperor would be
especially hard to tuck safely under Talleyrand’s warm bed-
quilt of legitimacy. And among the exceptions we must not
forget the King of Elba, late Bonaparte, master of the
destinies of Europe, now busy with his gardening. He was