During those chaotic first days of April the fate of France was decided in Talleyrand’s six-room apartment, where he and Alexander dined, worked and received people, Alexander holding court, Talleyrand keeping watch and gently steering him in the desired direction. It was there that Talleyrand, with the sanction of Alexander, turned France into a constitutional monarchy under the Bourbons.18 It was also there that the Treaty of Fontainebleau, regulating Napoleon’s fate, was prepared.
