The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-14
ZHE R7R7ZNG or NAPOLEON IND AZEX17ADES
 14s zHE Cz~7R LEfT ZzsIT (x eror)

came the plain was covered with the cottages of the poor, and those humble dwellings were ruthlessly torn down and the camp of the soldiers was pitched among the still standing chim- neys. Hundreds of people thus driven from their hearthstones wandered homeless in the forest or haunted the streets of Tilsit begging bread for their children.
 Napoleon selected and furnished a residence in the town for Alexander and another for Frederick William and Queen Louise. When he showed the latter place to the Czar he was guilty of saying something about having housed the pretty Queen near him anu of asking, probably with a meaning w..k, Well, has your heart nothing to say to that?"
 Alexander who had been brought up by his grandmother, the naughty Cath crime the Great, and married off at Is to Q Princess of Baden who failed to interest him, was given to the grossest gallantries. The innuendo implying a filtration between him and the Queen seems only to have flattered the van ity of the Czar for he repeated the re- mark.
 The Monarchs at Table
 When Frederick William first came to dine at Napoleons. his host, in the kind Hest tone, asked after Louise. and he frankly added: T know that the Queen hates me, but hope when you come 10 make peace with me she will make hers also. And at the table he rose and drank her health.
 Louise, however, continued to absent herself from Tilsit, while the Emperors fondly caressed one another in their daily meetings. Napoleon purringly protested that, so strong was the Czar's ascend ancy over his susceptible heart he ba iof,t bic nd the interests of the nations intrusted to his care.
 All the while Frederick William re- mained silent and lububrious looker-on at the festivities. which included grand military reviews and dinners of Parisian excellence on gold plate brought from the Tuleres. No menials served the feast, but officers of the imperial house. hold were the walters, swords at their sides and every seam gold-laced, with Duroc standing in the attitude of a headwaiter.
 Napoleon parried every attempt of the Czar to return the dinners, because, it is said. he was unwilling to run the risk of being poisoned. There is tale of his holding a cup of tea in his hand through out call on Alexander and never ven- turing to taste it.
 Sometimes he rained all manner of questions upon his guests. Once his
  on the side of Frederick Williams gray pantaloons a garment that was only then coming into use Are you obliged to button all those buttons every day? he asked the King. Do you begin at the top or bottom?" Again he would turn upon the Czar and overwhelm him with questions he could not answer: Flow much does the sugar duty bring your" "What does your sale of belts and furs amount to in year?' Do you make money or lose money on tnls or that feature of your administra- tion?' Such a cateehism was likely to ambarrass man born to rule, ana wno had not been obliged, like the French Emperor, really to learn the trade. In other moods he turned monoligst,. ana moved the listening monarchs to admi- ration and wonder by the seemingly boundless range and depth of his knowl- edge of the commerce In the many coun- tries gathered in his empire.
 At the Conqueror's Feet
 But his implacable bearing toward Frederick William and the latter's own cold stiffness in the Emperors pres ence increasingly alarmed Prussians. At last they insisted that the King must drag the Queen to the feet of the des- perate effort to soften his heart toward the stricken Kingdom.
 The King accepted their advice. and proposed this cruel ordeal to his wife, more cruel than any she mad undergone in all her wanderings since she fled her capital nine months before. To appear as suppliant before the invader and master of her country. was task hard enough for her pride to bear. But to take the hand of ono who had im-