It would deprive me of the old hereditary
provinces which form the largest portion of my states."
"I will point out a way to get compensation for these losses," exclaimed
Napoleon. "Apply to the Emperor Alexander; let him sacrifice to you his
relatives, the Princes of Mecklenburg and Oldenburg. He can also give up
to you the King of Sweden, from whom you may take Stralsund and that
portion of Pomerania of which he makes such bad use. Let him consent
that you should have these acquisitions, not indeed equal to the
territories taken from you, but better situated, and, for my part, I
shall make no objection."
"Your majesty proposes to me a system of spoliation, to which I can
never agree," said the king, proudly. "I complain of the menaced loss of
my provinces, not only because it would lessen the extent of my
territories, but because they are the hereditary states of my house, and
are associated with my ancestors by indissoluble ties of love and
fealty."
"You see that these ties are not indissoluble after all," exclaimed
Napoleon, "for we shall break them, and you will be consoled for the
loss by obtaining compensation."
"Possibly others may be more readily consoled for such losses," said the
king: "those who are only anxious for the possession of states, and who
do not know what it is to part with hereditary provinces in which the
most precious reminiscences of our youth have their root, and which we
can no more forget than our cradle.
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