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<h2> CHAPTER XXII </h2>
<p>In 1809 the intimacy between "the world's two arbiters," as Napoleon and
Alexander were called, was such that when Napoleon declared war on Austria
a Russian corps crossed the frontier to co-operate with our old enemy
Bonaparte against our old ally the Emperor of Austria, and in court
circles the possibility of marriage between Napoleon and one of
Alexander's sisters was spoken of. But besides considerations of foreign
policy, the attention of Russian society was at that time keenly directed
on the internal changes that were being undertaken in all the departments
of government.</p>
<p>Life meanwhile—real life, with its essential interests of health and
sickness, toil and rest, and its intellectual interests in thought,
science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, and passions—went
on as usual, independently of and apart from political friendship or
enmity with Napoleon Bonaparte and from all the schemes of reconstruction.</p>
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