from the army. But the
fleet has not been able to fall in with the English, and has done nothing
at all. It is a campaign lost, and which has cost a great deal of money.
What is still more afflicting is, that disease has broken out on board the
ships, and has caused great havoc; and the dysentery, which is raging as
an epidemic in Brittany and Normandy, has attacked the land force also,
which was intended to embark for England ... "I greatly fear," she
proceeds, "that these misfortunes of ours will render the English
difficult to treat with, and may prevent proposals of peace, of which I
see no immediate prospect. I am constantly persuaded that if the king
should require a mediation, the intrigues of the King of Prussia will
fail, and will not prevent the king from availing himself of the offers of
my dear mamma. I shall take care never to lose sight of this object, which
is of such interest to the whole happiness of my life." So full is her
mind of the war, that four or five words in each letter to report that
"her daughter is in perfect health," or that "she has cut four teeth," are
all that she can spare for that subject, generally of such engrossing
interest to herself and the empress; while, before the end of the year, we
find her taking even the domestic troubles of England into her
calculations,[14] and speculating on the degree in which the aspect of
affairs in Ireland may affect the great preparations which the English
ministers are making for the next campaign.

The mere habit of devoting so much consideration to affairs of this kind
was beneficial as tending to mature and develop her capacity. She was
rapidly learning to take large views of political questions, even if they
were not always correct. And the acuteness and earnestness of her comments
on them daily increased her influence over both the king and the
ministers, so that in the course of the autumn Mercy could assure the
empress[15] that "the king's complaisance toward her increased every day,"
that "he made it his study to anticipate all her wishes, and that this
attention showed itself in every kind of detail," while Maurepas also was
unable to conceal from himself that her voice always prevailed "in every
case in which she chose to exert a decisive will," and accordingly "bent
himself very prudently" before a power which he had no means of resisting.
So solicitous indeed did the whole council show itself to please her, that
when the king, who was a