But it was not in his nature to make the needful concessions.
"_I must follow my policy in a geometrical line_" he said to Lucchesini.

England might have Hanover and a few colonies if she would let Sicily go to a Bonaparte: as for Prussia, she might absorb half-a-dozen neighbouring princelings.
That is the gist of Napoleon's European policy in the summer of 1806; and the surprise which he expressed to Mollien at the rejection of his offers is probably genuine.

Sensitive to the least insult himself, his bluntness of perception respecting the honour of others might almost qualify him to rank with Aristotle's man devoid of feeling.

It is perfectly true that he did not make war on Prussia in 1806 any more than on England in 1803.

He only made peace impossible.[99] The condition on which Prussia now urgently insisted was the entire evacuation of Germany by French troops.