If there was to be war, Hardenberg would have preferred the French alliance, the price Napoleon demanded for the cession of Hanover to Prussia; the Eastern powers would not freely have conceded so great an augmentation of Prussian power.
Hardenberg would have preferred the French alliance. This was what the price Napoleon demanded for the cession of Hanover to Prussia. There was to be war. The Eastern powers would not freely have conceded so great an augmentation of Prussian power.