#tilsit

by A. V. Nikolaev for the novel "War and Peace"

EUGÉNE, VICEROY OF ITALY

Tilsit, July 8, 1807

My son, peace was signed here today between Russia and France by Prince Benevento and by Princes Kourakine and Labanoff. The ratifications will be exchanged tomorrow.

Napoléon

——

JOSEPH, KING OF NAPLES

Tilsit, July 8, 1807

My brother, peace was signed here today between France and Russia by Prince Benevento, and Princes Kourakin and Labanoff. The ratifications will be exchanged tomorrow. Russia has recognized you as King of Naples.

The conferences at Tilsit gave Grand Duke Constantine the opportunity to meet frequently with the Emperor of the French, whom he disliked but whose great qualities he admired; the latter treated the Grand Duke with consideration and even with a kind of friendship. Napoleon knew the delicacy and humanity with which the prince had always treated the prisoners who had fallen into his hands, and he was grateful for it. He always addressed him as "young man" and affected a tone of familiarity and jest with him. One day, when Grand Duke Constantine had accompanied his brother to a troop review which Napoleon also attended, the latter asked him, after the maneuvers, to demonstrate a few lancer maneuvers, the uniform of which the prince was wearing that day. Immediately, the Grand Duke began to prance about, brandishing his lance, then he charged, lance first, at Napoleon and brought his horse to a complete halt just two paces away, in the manner of the Poles and Turks. The Emperor, who had not expected such a maneuver, could not hide his fear; he turned deathly pale, his chin trembled, and to avoid showing his weakness, he turned the reins and galloped away.

(google translation)

Mémoires du comte de Moriolles sur l'émigration, la Pologne et la cour du grand-duc Constantin, 1902.

She drew Napoleon from Jean-Baptiste Debray's painting "Napoleon awards Grenadier Lazarev with the Cross of the Legion of Honor in Tilsit".