RESULTS WHICH SURPRISE EVERYBODY.

King Friedrich's outlooks, on this consummation, may well seem to
him critical. The sore longing of an infuriated Czarina is now let
loose, and in a condition to fulfil itself! To Friedrich these
Petersburg news are no secret; nor to him are the Petersburg
private intentions a thing that can be doubted. Apart from the
Menzel-Weingarten revelations, as we noticed once, it appears the
Grand-Duke Peter (a great admirer of Friedrich, poor confused soul)
had himself thrice-secretly warned Friedrich, That the mysterious
Combination, Russia in the van, would attack him next Spring;--"not
Weingarten that betrayed our GRAND MYSTERE; from first hand, that
was done!" said Excellency Peubla, on quitting Berlin not long
after. [Cogniazzo, Gestandnisse eines OEsterreichischen
Veterans (as cited above), i. 225. "September 16th,
1756," Peubla left Berlin (Rodenbeck, i. 298),--three months after
Weingarten's disappearance.] The Grand Mystery is not uncertain to
Friedrich; and it may well be very formidable,--coupled with those
Braddock explosions, Seizures of French ships, and English-French
War imminent, and likely to become a general European one;
which are the closing prospects of 1755. The French King he reckons
not to be well disposed to him; their old Treaty of "twelve years"
(since 1744) is just about running out. Not friendly, the French
King, owing to little rubs that have been; still less the
Pompadour;--though who could guess how implacable she was at "not
being known (NE LA CONNAIS PAS)"! At Vienna, he is well aware, the
humor towards him is mere cannibalism in refined forms. But most
perilous of all, most immediately perilous, is the implacable
Czarina, set afloat upon English guineas!