He parried it with the reply, correct enough in form as in fact, that the disposal of his sister rested with the Dowager Empress.

But her hostility to Napoleon was well known.

After the half overtures of Erfurt she had at once betrothed her elder daughter to the Duke of Oldenburg.

No similar escape was now possible for the younger one: but, after leaving Napoleon's request unanswered until February 4th, the reply was then despatched that the tender age of the princess, she being only twenty years old, formed an insuperable obstacle.
Some such answer had long been expected at Paris.

Metternich asserts in his "Memoirs" that Napoleon had caused Laborde, one of his diplomatic agents at Vienna, tentatively to sound that Court as to his betrothal with the Archduchess Marie Louise.