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for Napoleon III, a deeper cause of hostility lay in thePolish question.Poland as a state had disappeared from the map in1795 as a result of the third partition between Russia,Prussia, and Austria. Twelve years later a nucleusreappeared under the name of the grand-duchy ofWarsaw, which in the first instance included only whathad been the Prussian share of the partitions. AtTilsit Napoleon was the victor; the grand-duchy couldnot fail to be the standard-bearer of Polish nationalism,and it became as well a military spearhead of theNapoleonic empire. Alexander genuinely desired abetter future for the Poles; but it must be his own doing.A French solution of the Polish question was fatal, forit opened vistas of a Polish reconquest of 'the westernlands' and a permanent French military threat on hiswestern frontier (cf. p. 214).In 1809, after Wagram, Alexander was still moreperturbed by Napoleon's extension of the grand-duchyto include Austria's share of the third partition, andespecially by Napoleon's refusal to pledge himselfagainst the use of the name Poland and against anyfurther enlargement of the grand-duchy. Alexander,spurred by this failure and piqued by Napoleon's preferenceof marriage with the daughter of the emperorFrancis, Marie Louise, to marriage with his sister Anna,turned again towards Czartoryski and schemes for therestoration of Poland with himself as king. Connexionswith the Poles were multiplied, military measures pressedon. In 1811, feeling that Napoleon was near a rupture,he cogitated forestalling him. If Alexander were sure ofthe 50,000 Polish troops of the grand-duchy, he couldlaunch his campaign from the Oder. But he did notreceive positive assurances from Warsaw. There he wastoo much distrusted, and, though the French had lostmost of their popularity, the Poles believed that theycould gain more from Napoleon. When Russia andFrance renewed the struggle, it began from the Niemen,not the Oder.Before daybreak on 24th June 1812 the Grand Army,in all over half a million strong, began to cross the2C—R.H. 401