Novossiltzoff, on July 10th, declared to Baron Hardenberg, the successor of Haugwitz at the Prussian Foreign Office, that Napoleon had now passed the utmost limits of the Czar's patience; and he at once returned his French passports.

In forwarding them to the French ambassador at Berlin, Hardenberg expressed the deep regret of the Prussian monarch at the breakdown of this most salutary negotiation--a phrase which showed that the patience of Berlin was nearly exhausted.[20] Clearly, then, the Third Coalition was not cemented by English gold, but by Napoleon's provocations.

While England and Russia found great difficulty in coming to an accord, and Austria was arming only from fear, the least act of complaisance on his part would have unravelled this ill-knit confederacy.

But no such action was forthcoming.

All his letters written in North Italy after his coronation are puffed up with incredible insolence.