and Prussia,
France took no part, though it is more than probable that her mediation
between the belligerents, which had no little share in bringing about the
peace of Teschen,[8] was in a great degree owing to the queen's influence.

For she was not discouraged by her first failure, but renewed her
importunities from time to time; and at last did succeed in wringing a
promise from her husband that if Prussia should invade the Flemish
provinces of Austria, France would arm on the empress's side. So fully did
the affair absorb her attention that it made her indifferent to the
gayeties which the carnival always brought round. She did, indeed, as a
matter of duty, give one or two grand state balls, one of which, in which
the dancers of the quadrilles were masked, and in which their dresses
represented the male and female costumes of India, was long talked of for
both the magnificence and the novelty of the spectacle; and she attended
one or two of the opera-balls, under the escort of her brothers-in-law and
their countesses; but they had begun to pall upon her, and she made
repeated offers to the king to give them up and to spend her evenings in
quiet with him. But he was more inclined to prompt her to seek amusement
than to allow her to sacrifice any,[9] even such as he did not care to
partake of; nevertheless, he was pleased with the offer, and it was
observed by the courtiers that the mutual confidence of the husband and
wife in each other was more marked and more firmly established than ever.
He showed her all the dispatches, consulted her on all points, and
explained his reasons when he could not adopt all her views. As Marie
Antoinette wrote to her brother, "If it were possible to reckon wholly on
any man, the king was the one on whom she could thoroughly rely.[10]"

So greatly, indeed, did the quarrel between Austria and Prussia engross
her, that it even occupied the greater part of letters whose ostensible
object is to announce prospects of personal happiness which might have
been expected to extinguished every other consideration. In one, after
touching briefly on her health and hopes, she proceeds:

"How kind my dear mamma is, to express her approval of the way in which I
have conducted myself in these affairs up to the present time! Alas! there
is no need for you to feel obliged to me; it was my heart that acted in
the whole matter. I am only vexed at not being able to enter myself into
the feelings of all the