underground, to destroy the life of these! Imperial Majesty
flatters herself it may be fair: "Treaty of Dresden, Treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle; Treaties wrung from me by force, the tyrannic
Sea-Powers screwing us; Kaunitz can tell! A consummate Kaunitz;
who has provided remedies. Treaties do get broken. Besides, I will
not go to War, unless HE the Bad One of Prussia do!"--Alas, your
noble Majesty, plain it at least is, your love of Silesia is very
strong. And consummate Kaunitz and it have led you into strange
predicaments. The Pompadour, for instance: who was it that
answered, "JE NE LA CONNAIS PAS; I don't know her, I"? How gladly
would the Imperial Maria Theresa, soul of Propriety, have made that
answer! But she did not; she had to answer differently. For Kaunitz
was imperative: "A kind little Note to the Pompadour; one, and then
another and another; it is indispensable, your Imperial Majesty!"
And Imperial Majesty always had to do it. And there exist in
writing, at this hour, various flattering little Notes from
Imperial Majesty to that Address; which begin, "MA COUSINE,"
"PRINCESSE ET COUSINE," say many witnesses; nay "MADAME MA TRES
CHERE SOEUR," says one good witness: [Hormayr (cited in Preuss, i.
433 n.,--as are Duclos; Montgaillard; MEMOIRES DE RICHELIEU;
&c.]--Notes which ought to have been printed, before this, or given
at least to the Museums. "My Cousin," "Princess and Cousin,"
"Madame my dearest Sister:" Oh, high Imperial Soul, with what
strange bed-fellows does Misery of various kinds bring
us acquainted!

Friedrich was blamably imprudent in regard to Pompadour, thinks
Valori: "A little complaisance might have"--what might it not have
done!--"But his Prussian Majesty would not. And while the Ministers
of all the other Powers" allied with France "went assiduously to