No More Learning

And he did once, in a sense,
sign it, he and his Brother of Koln; but, before the
late Kaiser's death, he had openly drawn back from it
again: and counted himself a Non-signer. Signer or
not, he, for his part, lost no moment |(but rather the con-
trary) in openly protesting against it, and signifying
that he never would acknowledge it. Of this the reader
saw something, at the time of her Hungarian Majesty's
Accession. Date and circumstances of it, which de-
serve remembering, are more precisely these: October
20th, 1740, Karl Albert's Ambassador, Perusa by name,
wrote, to Karl from Vienna, announcing that the Kaiser
was just dead. From Munchen, on the 21st, Karl
Albert, anticipating such an event, but not yet knowing
it, orders Perusa, in case of the Kaiser's decease, which
was considered probable at Miinchen, to demand instant j
audience of the proper party (Kanzler Sinzendorf), and
there openly lodge his Protest. Which Perusa did,
punctually in all points, -- no moment lost, but rather
the contrary, as we said! Let poor Karl Albert have
what benefit there is in that fact. He was, of all the
Anti-Pragmatic Covenant-Breakers (if he ever fairly
were such), the only one that proceeded honourably,
openly and at once, in the matter; and he was, of them
all, by far the most unfortunate.
This is the poor gentleman whom Belleisle had
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? 360 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [book xa.
April--May 1741.
settled on for being Kaiser. And Kaiser he became;
to his frightful sorrow, as it proved: his crown like a
crown of burning iron, or little better! There is little
of him in the Books, nor does one desire much: a tall
aquiline type of man; much the gentleman in aspect;
and in reality, of decorous serious deportment, and the
wish to be high ahd dignified. He had a kind of right,
too, in the Anti-Pragmatic sense; and was come of
Imperial kindred, -- Kaiser Ludwig the Bavarian, and
Kaiser Rupert of the Pfalz, called Rupert Klemm, or
Rupert Smith's-vice, if any reader now remember him,
were both of his ancestors. He might fairly pretend to
Kaisership and to Austrian ownership, -- had he other-
wise been equal to such enterprises. But, in all am-
bitions and attempts, howsoever grounded otherwise,
there is this strict question on the threshold: "Are you
of weight for the adventure; are not you far too light
for it? " Ambitious persons often slur this question;
and get squelched to pieces, by bringing the Twelve
Labours of Hercules on Unherculean backs! Not every
one is so lucky as our Friedrich in that particular, --
whose back, though with difficulty, held out. Which
poor Karl Albert's never had much likelihood to do.
Few mortals in any age have offered such an example
of the tragedies which Ambition has in store for her
votaries; and what a matter Hope Fulfilled may be to
the unreflecting Son of Adam.
We said, he had a kind of right to Austria, withal.
He descended by the female line from Kaiser Ferdi-
nand I. (as did Kur-Sachsen, though by a younger
Daughter than Karl Albert's Ancestress); and he ap-
pealed to Kaiser Ferdinand's Settlement of the Succes-
sion, as a higher than any subsequent Pragmatic could
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? CHAP. XI. ] BELLEISLE AND THE COVENANT-BREAKERS. 361
April--May 1741.
be. Upon which there hangs an incident; still famous
to German readers. Karl Albert, getting into Public
Argument in this way, naturally instructed Perusa to
demand sight of Kaiser Ferdinand's Last Will, the
tenor of which was known by authentic Copy in Mtin-
chen, if not elsewhere among the kindred. After some
delay, Perusa (4th November 1740), summoning the
other Excellencies to witness, got sight of the Will: to
his horror, there stood, in the cardinal passage, instead
of "mdnnliche" (male descendants), "eheliche" (lawfully-
begotten descendants), -- fatal to Karl Albert's claim!
Nor could he prove that the Parchment had been
scraped or altered, though he kept trying and ex-
amining for some days. He withdrew thereupon, by
order, straightway from Vienna; testifying in dumb-
show what he thought. "It is your Copy that is false,"
cried the Vienna people: "it has been foisted on you,
with this wrong word in it; done by somebody (your
friend, the Excellency Herr von Hartmann,' shall we
guess? ), wishing to curry favour with ambitious foolish
persons! " Such was the Austrian story. Perhaps in
Miinchen itself their Copyist was not known; -- for
aught I learn, the Copy was made long since, and the
Copyist dead. Hartmann, named as Copyist by the
Vienna people, made emphatic public answer, "Never
did I copy it, or see it! " And there rose great argu-
ment, which is not yet quite ended, as to the question,
"Original falsified, or Copy falsified? " -- and the
modern vote, I believe, rather clearly is, That the
Austrian Officials had done it -- in a case of neces-
sity. * Possible? "But you will lose your soul! " said
* Adelung, ii. 150-154 (14th-20th November 1740), gives the public facts,
without commentary. Hormayr (. Im'monen aus dem Tagebnch eines alien
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? 362 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [book Xn.
April--May 1741.
the Parson once to a poor old Gentlewoman, English
by Nation, who refused, in dying, to contradict some
domestic fiction, to give up some domestic secret: "But
you will lose your soul, Madam! " -- "Tush, what
signifies my poor silly soul, compared with the honour
of the family? " --
2o. King Friedrich. -- King Friedrich may be taken
as the Anti-Pragmatic next in order of time. He too
lost not a moment, and proceeded openly; no quirking
to be charged upon him. His account of himself in
this matter always was: "By the Treaty of Wuster-
hausen, 1726, unquestionably Prussia undertook to
guarantee Pragmatic Sanction; the late Kaiser under-
taking in return, by the same Treaty, to secure Berg
and Jiilich to Prussia, and to have some progress made
in it within six months from signing. And, unquestion-
ably also, the late Kaiser did thereupon, or even had
already done, precisely the reverse; namely, secured,
so far as in him was possible, Berg and Jiilich to
Kur-Pfalz. Such Treaty, having in this way done
suicide, is dead and become zero: and I am free, in
respect of Pragmatic Sanction, to do whatever shall
seem good to me. My wish was, and would still be,
To maintain Pragmatic Sanction, and even to support
it by 100,000 men, and secure the Election of the
Grand-Duke to the Kaisership, -- were my claims on
Silesia once liquidated. But these have no concern
with Pragmatic Sanction, for or against: these are good
against whoever may fall Heir to the House of Austria,
PUgersmannes, Jena, 1845, i. 162-169, our old Hormayr of the Austrin
Plutarch, but now Anonymous, and in Opposition humour) considers the
case nearly proved against Austria, and that Bartenstein and one Bessel, a
pillar of the Church, were concerned in it.
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? CHAP. XI. ] BELLEISLE AND THE COVENANT-BREAKERS. 363
April--May 1741.
or to Silesia: and my intention is, that the strong hand,
so long clenched upon my rights, shall open itself by
this favourable opportunity, and give them out. " That
is Friedrich's case. And in truth the jury everywhere
has to find, -- so soon as instructed, which is a long
process in some sections of it (in England, for example),
--- That Pragmatic Sanction has' not, except helpless
lamentations, "Alas that you should be here to insist
upon your rights, and to open fists long closed! " --
the least word to say to Friedrich.
3o. Termagant of Spain. -- Perhaps the most dis-
tracted of the Anti-Pragmatic subterfuges was that used
by Spain, when the She-dragon or Termagant saw
good to eat her Covenant; which was at a very early
stage. The Termagant's poor Husband is a Bourbon,
not a Hapsburg at all: "But has not he fallen heir to
the Spanish Hapsburgs; become all one as they an
alter-ego of the Spanish Hapsburgs? " asks she. "And
the Austrian Hapsburgs being out, do not the Spanish
Hapsburgs come in? He, I say, this Bourbon-Ha,j>s-
burg, he is the real Hapsburg, now that the Austrian
Branch is gone; President he of the Golden Fleece"
(which a certain "Archduchess," Maria Theresa, has
been meddling with); "Proprietor, he, of Austrian Italy,
and of all or most things Austrian! " -- and produces
Documentary Covenants of Philip II. with his Austrian
Cousins; "to which Philip," said the Termagant, "we
Bourbons surely, if you consider it, are Heir and
Alter-Ego! " Is not this a curious case of testamen-
tary right; human greed obliterating personal identity
itself?
Belleisle had a great deal of difficulty, keeping the
Termagant back till things were ripe. Her hope practi-
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? 364 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [bOOK xn.
April--May 1741.
cally was, Baby Carlos being prosperous King of
Naples this long while, to get the Milanese for another
Baby she has, -- Baby Philip, whom she once thought
of making Pope; -- and she is eager beyond measure
to have a stroke at the Milanese. "Wait! " hoarsely
whispers Belleisle to her; and she can scarcely wait.
Maria Theresa's Note of Announcement, "New Queen
of Hungary may it please you! " the French, as we
Baw, were very long in answering. The Termagant
did not answer it at all; complained, on the contrary,
"What is this, Madam! Golden Fleece, you? " --
and, early in March, informed mankind that she was
Spanish fiapsburg, the genuine article; and sent off
Excellency Montijos, a little man of great expense, to
assist at the Election of a proper Kaiser, and be useful
to Belleisle in the great things now ahead. *
4". King of Poland. -- The most ticklish card in
Belleisle's game, and probably the greatest fool of these
Anti-Pragmatic Dozen, was Kur-Sachsen, King of
Poland. He, like Karl Albert Kur-Baiern, derives
from Kaiser Ferdinand, though by a younger Daughter,
and has a like claim on the Austrian Succession; claim
nullified, however, by that small circumstance itself,
but which he would fain mend by one makeshift or
another; and thinks always it must surely be good for
something. This is August III. , this King of Poland,
as readers know; son of August the Strong: Papa
made him change to the Qatholic religion so-called, --
for the sake of getting Poland, which proves a very
poor possession to him. Who knows what damage the
* Spain's Golden-Fleece pretensions, 17th January 1741 (Adelung, ii.
283, 234); "Publishes at Paris," in March (ib. 293); and on the 23d March,
accredits Montijos lib. 293): Italian War, held back by Belleisle and the
English Fleets, cannot get begun till October following.
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? CHAP. XI. ] BELLEISLE AND THE COVENANT-BREAKERS. 365
April--May 1741.
poor creature may have got by that sad operation; --
which all Saxony sighed to the heart on hearing of;
for it was always hoped he had some real religion, and
would deliver them from that Babylonish Captivity
again! He married Kaiser Joseph I. 's Daughter, --
Maria Theresa's Cousin, and by an Elder Brother; --
this, too, ought surely to be something in the Anti-
Pragmatic line? It is true, Kur-Baiern has to Wife
another Daughter of Kaiser Joseph's; but she is the
younger: "I am senior there, at least! " thinks the
foolish man.
Too true, he had finally, in past years, to sign
Pragmatic Sanction; no help for it, no hope without
it, in that Polish-Election time. He will have to eat
his Covenant, therefore, as the first step in Anti-
Pragmatism; and he is extremely in doubt as to the
How, sometimes as to the Whether. And shifts and whirls,
accordingly, at a great rate, in these months and years;
now on Maria Theresa's side, deluded by shadows from
Vienna, and getting into Russian Partition-Treaties;
anon tickled by Belleisle into the reverse posture; then
again reversing. An idle, easy-tempered, yet greedy
creature', who, what with religious apostasy in early
manhood, what with flaccid ambitions since, and idle
gapings after shadows, has lost helm in this world; and
will make a very bad voyage for self and country.
His Palinurus and chief Counsellor, at present and
afterwards, is a Count von Briihl, once Page to August
the Strong; now risen to such height: Briihl of the
Threehundred and Sixty-five suits of clothes; whom it
has grown wearisome even to laugh at. A cunning
little wretch, they say, and of deft tongue; but surely
among the unwisest of all the Sons of Adam in that
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? 366 FIRST SILKSIAN WAR. [book XII.
April--May 174L
day, and such a Palinurus as seldom steered before.
Kur-Sachsen, being Reichs-Vicar in the Northern Parts,
-- (Kur-Baiern and Kur-Pfalz, as friends and good
Wittelsbacher Cousins surely ought, in a crisis like
this, have agreed to be Joint-Vicars in the Southern
Parts, and no longer quarrel upon it), -- Kur-Sachsen
has a good deal to do in the Election preludings, for-
malities and prearrangements; and is capable, as Kur-
Pfalz and Cousin always are, of serving as chisel to
Belleisle's mallet, in such points, which will plentifully
turn up.
5". King of Sardinia. -- Reichs-Vicar in Italian
Parts is Charles Amadeus King of Sardinia (tough old
Victor's Son, whom we have heard of): an office mostly
honorary; suitable to the important individual who
keeps the Door of the Alps. Charles Amadeus had
signed the Pragmatic Sanction; but eats his Covenant,
like the others, on example of France; -- having, as
he now bethinks himself, claims on the Milanese. There
are two claimants on the Milanese, then; the Spanish
Termagant, and he? Yes; and they will have their
difficulties, their extensive tusslings in Italian War and
otherwise, to make an adjustment of it; and will give
Belleisle (at least the Doorkeeper will) an immensity of
trouble, in years coming.
In this way do the Pragmatic people eat their own
Covenant, one after the other, and are not ashamed;
-- till all have eaten, or as good as eaten; and, almost
within year and day, Pragmatic Sanction is a vanished
quantity; and poor Kaiser Karl's life-labour is not
worth the sheep-skin and stationery it cost him. History
reports in sum, That "nobody kept the Pragmatic
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? CHAP. XI. ] BELLEISLE AND THE COVENANT-BREAKERS. 367
April--May 1741.
Sanction; that the few" (strictly speaking, the one)
"who acted by it, would have done precisely the same,
"though there had never been such a Document in
"existence. " To George II. , it is, was and will be, the
Keystone of Nature, the true Anti-French palladium
of mankind; and he, dragging the unwilling Dutch
after him, will do great things for it: but nobody else
does anything at all. Might we hope to bid adieu to
it, in this manner, and never to mention it again! --
Document more futile there had not been in Nature,
nor will be. Friedrich had not yet fought at Mollwitz
in assertion of his Silesian claim, when the poor Pope,
-- poor soul, who had no Covenant to eat, but took
pattern by others, --- claimed, in solemn Allocution,
Parma and Piacenza for the Holy See. * All the world
is claiming.
Of the Court of Wiirtemberg and its
Protestings, and "extensive Deduction" about nothing
at all, we do not speak; ** nor of Montmorency claiming
Luxemburg, of which he is Titular "Duke; nor of
Monsignore di Guastalla claiming Mantua; nor of --
In brief, the fences are now down; a broad French gap
in those miles of elaborate paling, which are good only
as fire-wood henceforth, and any ass may rush in and
claim a bellyful. Great are the works of Belleisle! --
Concerning the Imperial Election (Kaiserwahl) that is to
be; Candidates for Kaisership.
At equal step with the ruining of Pragmatic Sanction,
goes on that spoiling of Grand-Duke Franz's Election
to the Kaisership: these two operations run parallel;
or rather, under different forms, they are one and the
* Adelung, ii. S76 (5th April 1741). ** Ibid. 195, 403.
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? 368 FIRST SULESIAN WAR. [bOOKSH.
April--May 1711.
same operation. "To assist, as a Most Christian neigh-
boar ought, in picking out the fit Kaiser," was
Belleisle's ostensible mission; and indeed this does in-
clude virtually his whole errand. Till three months
after Belleisle's appearance in the business-, Grand-
Duke Franz never doubted but he should be Kaiser;
Friedrich's offers to help him in it he had scorned,
as the offer of a fifth wheel to his chariot, already
rushing on with four. "Here is Kur-Bohmen, Austria's
own vote," counts the Grand-Duke; "Kur-Sacksen,
doing Prussian-Partition Treaties for us; Kur-Trier,
our fat little Schonborn, Austrian to the bone; Kur-
Mainz, important chairman, regulator of the Conclave;
here are Four Electors for ui: then also Kur-Pfalz, he
surely, in return for the Berg-Julich service; finally,
and liable to no question, Kur-Hanover, little George
of England with his endless guineas and resources, a
little Jack-the-Giantkiller, greater than all Giants, Paladin
of the Pragmatic and us: here are Six Electors of the
Nine. Let Brandenburg and the Bavarian Couple,
Kur-Baiern and Kur-Koln, do their pleasure! " This
was Grand-Duke Franz's calculation.
By the time Belleisle had been three months in
Germany, the Grand-Duke's notion had changed; and
he began "applying to the Sea-Powers," "to Russia,"
and all round. In Belleisle's sixth month, the Grand-
Duke, after such demolition of Pragmatic, and such
disasters and contradictions as had been, saw his case
to be desperate; though he still stuck to it, Austrian-
like, -- or rather, Austria for him stuck to it, the
Grand-Duke being careless of such things; -- and in-
deed, privately, never did give in, even . after the
Election, as we shall have to note.
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? CHAP. XI. ] BELLEISLE AND THE COVENANT-BREAKERS. 369
April--May 1741.
The Reich itself being mainly a Phantasm or En-
chanted Wiggery, its "Kaiser-Choosing" (Kaiserwaht),
-- now getting under way at Frankfurt, with pre-
liminary outskirts at Regensburg, and in the Chancery
of Mainz, -- is very phantasmal, not to say ghastly;
and forbidding, not inviting, to the human eye. Nine
Kurfursts, Choosers of Teutschland's real Captain; in
none of whom is there much thought for Teutschland
or its interests, -- and indeed in hardly more than
One of whom (Prussian Friedrich, if readers will know
it) is there the least thought that way; but, in general,
much indifference to things divine or diabolic, and
thought for one's own paltry profits and losses only!
So it has long been; and so it now is, more than usual.
-- Consider again, are Enchanted Wiggeries a beau-
tiful thing, in this extremely earnest World? --
The Kaiserwahl is an affair depending much on
processions, proclamations, on delusions optical, acoustic;
on palaverings, manoeuvrings, holdings back, then
hasty pushings forward; and indeed is mainly, in more
senses than one, under guidance of the Prince of the
Power of the Air. Unbeautiful, like a World-Parlia-
ment of Nightmares (if the reader could conceive such
a thing); huge formless, tongueless monsters of that
species, doing their "three readings," -- under Presi-
dency or chief-pipership as above! Belleisle, for his
part, is consummately skilful, and manages as only
himself could. Keeps his game well hidden, not a
hint or whisper of it except in studied proportions;
spreads out his lines, his birdlime; tickles, entices,
astonishes; goes his rounds, like a subtle Fowler taking
captive the minds of men; a Phoebus-Apollo, god of
melody and of the sun, filling his net with birds.
Carhjle, Frederick lite Great. VI, 24
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? 370 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [book SB.
April--May 1741.
I believe, old Kur-Pfalz, for the sake of French
neighbourhood, and Berg-and-Jiilich, were there nothing
more, was very helpful to him; -- in March past, when
the Election was to have been, when it would have
gone at once in favour of the Grand-Duke, Kur-Pfalz
got the Election "postponed a little. " Postponing,
procrastinating; then again pushing violently on, when
things are ripe: Belleisle has only to give signal to a
fit Kur-Pfalz. In all Kurfurst Courts, the French Am-
bassadors sing diligently to the tune Belleisle sets
them; and Courts give ear, or will do, when the charmer
himself arrives.
Kur-Sachsen, as above hinted, was his most delicate
operation, in the charming or trout-tickling way. And
Kur-Sachsen, -- and poor Saxony, ever since, -- knows
if he did not do it well! "Deduct this Kur-Sachsen
from the Austrian side," calculates Belleisle; "add him
to ours, it is almost an equality of votes. Kur-Baiern,
our own Imperial Candidate; Kur-Koln, his Brother;
Kur-Pfalz, by genealogy his Cousin (not to mention
Berg-Jiilich matters): here are three Wittelsbachers,
knit together; three sure votes; King Friedrich, Knr-
Brandenburg, there is a fourth; -- and if Kur-Sachsen
would join? " But who knows if Kur-Sachsen will!
The poor soul has himself thoughts of being Kaiser;
then no thoughts, and again some: thoughts which
Belleisle knows how to handle. "Yes, Kaiser yon,
your Majesty; excellent! " And sets to consider the
methods: "Hm, ha, -- hm! Think, your Majesty:
ought not that Bohemian Vote to be excluded, for one
thing? Kur-Bohmen is fallen into the distaff, Maria
Theresa herself cannot vote. Surely question will rise,
Whether distaff can, validly, hand it over to distaffs
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? CHAP. XI. ] BELLEISLE AND THE COVENANT-BREAKERS. 371
April--May 1741.
husband, as they are about doing? Whether, in fact,
Kur-Bohmen is not in abeyance for this time? " "So! "
answered Kur-Sachsen, Reichs-Vicarius. And there-
upon meetings were summoned; Nightmare Committees
sat on this matter under the Reichs-Vicar, slowly
hatching it; and at length brought out, "Kur-Bohmen
not transferable by the distaff; Kur-Bohmen in abeyance
for this time. " Greatly to the joy of Belleisle; infinitely
to the chagrin of her Hungarian Majesty, -- who
declared it a crying injustice (though I believe legally
done in every point); and by and by, even made it a
plea of Nullity, destructive to the Election altogether,
when her Hungarian Majesty's affairs looked up again,
and the world would listen to Austrian sophistries and
obstinacies. This was an essential service from Kur-
Sachsen. *
After which Kur-Sachsen's own poor Kaisership
died away into "Hm, ha, hm! " again, with a grateful
Belleisle. Who nevertheless dexterously retained Kur-
Sachsen as ally; tickling the poor wretch with other
baits. Of the Kaiser he had really meant all along,
there was dead silence, except between the parties; no
whisper heard, for six months after it had been agreed
upon; none, for two or near three months after formal
settlement, and signing and sealing. Karl Albert's
Treaty with Belleisle was, 18th May 1741; and he
did not declare himself a Candidate till lst-14th July
following. ** Belleisle understands the Nightmare Par-
liaments, the electioneering art, and how to deal with
* Began, indistinctly, "in March* (1741); languid "for some months"
(Adelung, ii. 292); "November 4th," was settled in the negative, "Kur-
Bohmen not to have a vote" (Maria Thcrenens Leben, p. 47n. ).
** Adelung, ii. 357, 421.
524*
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? 372 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [BOOK XII.
April--May 1741*
Enchanted Wiggeries. More perfect master, in that
sad art, has not turned up on record to one's afflicted
mind. Such a Sungod, and doing such a Scavengerism!
Belleisle, in the sixth month (end of August 1741)
feels sure of a majority. How Belleisle managed, after
that, to checkmate George of England, and make even
George vote for him, and the Kaiserwahl to be
unanimous against Grand-Duke Franz, will be seen.
Great are Belleisle's doings in this world, if they were
useful either to God or man, or to Belleisle himself
first of all! --
Teutschland to be carved into something of Symmetry,
should the Belleisle Enterprises succeed.
Belleisle's schemes, in the rear of all this labour,
are grandiose to a degree. Men wonder at the First
Napoleon's mad notions in that kind. But no Napo-
leon, in the fire of the revolutionary element; no Sham-
Napoleon, in the ashes of it; hardly a Parisian Jour-
nalist of imaginative turn, speculating on the First
Nation of the Universe and what its place is, -- could
go higher than did this grandiose Belleisle; a man
with clear thoughts in his head, under a torpid
Louis XV. Let me see, thinks Belleisle. Germany
with our Bavarian for Kaiser; Germany to be cut into,
say, Four little Kingdoms: 10. Bavaria with the lean
Kaiserhood; 20. Saxony, fattened by its share of
Austria; 3o. Prussia the like; 40. Austria itself,
shorn down as above, and shoved out to the re-
mote Hungarian parts: voila. These, not reckoning
Hanover, which perhaps we cannot get just yet, are
Four pretty Sovereignties. Three, or Two, of these
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? CHAP. XI. ] BELLEISLE AND THE COVENANT-BREAKERS. 373
April--May 1741.
hireable by gold, it is to be hoped. And will not
France have a glorious time of it; playing master
of the revels there, egging one against the other! Yes,
Germany is then, what Nature designed it, a Province
of France: little George of Hanover himself, and who
knows but England after him, may one day find their
fate inevitable, like the others. 0 Louis, O my King,
is not this an outlook? Louis le Grand was great; but
you are likely to be Louis the Grandest; and here is
a World shaped, at last, after the real pattern!
Such are, in sad truth, Belleisle's schemes; not yet
entirely hatched into daylight or articulation; but be-
coming articulate, to himself and others, more and
more. Reader, keep them well in mind: I had rather
not speak of them again. They are essential to our
Story; but they are afflictively vain, contrary to the
Laws of Fact; and can, now or henceforth, in no wise
be. My friend, it was not Beelzebub, nor Mephisto-
pheles, nor Autolycus-Apollo that built this world and
us; it was Another. And you will get your crown well
rapped, M. le Marechal, for so forgetting that fact!
France is an extremely pretty creature; but this of
making France the supreme Governor and God's-
Vicegerent of Nations, is, was and remains, one of the
maddest notions. France at its ideal best, and with a
demigod for King over it, were by no means fit for
such function; nay of many Nations, is eminently the
unfittest for it. And France at its worst or nearly so,
with a Louis XV. over it by way of demigod --, 0
Belleisle, what kind of France is this; shining in your
grandiose imagination, in such contrast to the stingy
fact: like a creature consisting of two enormous wings,
five hundred yards in potential extent, and no body
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? 374 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [bOOK ? U.
April--May 174. 1.
bigger than that of a common Cock, weighing three
pounds avoirdupois. Cock with his own gizzard much
out of sorts, too!
It was 'early in March'* when Belleisle ,| the Arti-
ficial Sungod, quitted Paris on this errand. He came
by the Moselle road; called on the Rhine Kurfiirsts,
Koln, Trier, Mainz; dazzling them, so far as possible,
with his splendour for the mind and for the eye. He
proceeded next to Dresden, which is a main card; and
where there is immense manipulation needed, and the
most delicate trout-tickling; this being a skittish fish,
and an important, though a foolish. Belleisle was at
Dresden when the Battle of Mollwitz fell out: what a
windfall into Belleisle's game! He ran across to Fried-
rich at Mollwitz, to congratulate, to consult, -- as we
shall see anon.
Belleisle, I am informed, in this preliminary Tour
of his, speaks only, or hints only (except in the proper
quarters), of Election Business; of the need there per-
haps is, on the part of an Age growing in liberal ideas,
to exclude the Austrian Grand-Duke; to curb that
ponderous, harsh, ungenerous House of Austria, too
long lording it over generous Germany; and to set up
some better House, -- Bavaria, for example; Saxony,
for example? Of his plans in the rear of this he is
silent; speaks only by hints, by innuendos, to the
proper parties. But ripening or ripe, plans do he to
rear; far-stretching, high-soaring; in part, dark at Ver-
sailles; -- darkly fermenting, not yet developed, in
Belleisle's own head; only the Future Kaiser a luminous
* Adelung, ii. 305.
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? CHAP. XI. ] BELLEISLE AND THE COVENANT-BREAKERS. 375
April--Majr 1741.
fixed point, shooting beams across the grandiose Crea-
tion-Process going on there.
By the end of August 1741, Belleisle had become
certain of his game; 24th January, he saw himself as
if winner. Before August, he had got his Electors
manipulated, tickled to his purpose, by the witchery
of a Phoebus-Autolycus or Diplomatic Sungod; majority
secured for a Bavarian Kaiser, and against an Austrian
one. And in the course of that Month, -- what was
still more considerable! -- he was getting, under mild
pretexts, about a Hundred Thousand armed Frenchmen
gently wafted over upon the soil of Germany. Two
complete French Armies, 40,000 each (plus their Re-
serves), one over the Upper Rhine, one over the Lower;
about which we shall hear a great deal in time coming!
Under mild pretexts: "Peaceable as lambs, don't you
observe? Merely to protect Freedom of Election, in
this fine neighbour country; and as allies to our Friend
of Bavaria, should he chance to be new Kaiser, and
to persist in his modest claims otherwise. " This was
his crowning stroke. Which finished straightway the
remnants of Pragmatic Sanction and of every obstacle;
and in a shining manner swept the roads clear.