Up till now, occasional disagreements among the allies had been drowned out by the roar of cannon, their arguments cut short by the need to move on in pursuit of the French, and their differences dissolved in their common fear of Napoleon. Now they were to resume their negotiations, not only at a direct personal level, but also in the hot-house atmosphere of a small, almost provincial city, under the eager gaze of thousands of interested people, and egged on by some of the ablest troublemakers ever produced by the female sex.
