is ever and anon
tormented, and laid up for weeks, with rheumatisms, gouts and ailments:
but otherwise he is still a swift ardent elastic spirit; with grand
schemes, with fiery notions and convictions, which captivate and hurry
off men's minds more than eloquence could, so intensely true are they to
the Count himself;--and then his Brother the Chevalier is always there
to put them into the due language and logic, where needed. [Voltaire,
xxviii. 74; xxix. 392; &c.] A magnanimous high-flown spirit; thought to
be of supreme skill both in War and in Diplomacy; fit for many things;
and is still full of ambition to distinguish himself, and tell the world
at all moments, "ME VOILA; World, I too am here!"--His plans, just
now, which are dim even to himself, except on the hither skirt of them,
stretch out immeasurable, and lie piled up high as the skies. The hither
skirt of them, which will suffice the reader at present, is:--

That your Grand-Duke Franz, Maria Theresa's Husband, shall in no wise,
as the world and Duke Franz expect, be the Kaiser chosen. Not he, but
another who will suit France better: "Kur-Sachsen perhaps, the so-called
King of Poland? Or say it were Karl Albert Kur-Baiern, the hereditary
friend and dependent of France? We are not tied to a man: only, at any
and at all rates, not Grand-Duke Franz." This is the grand, essential
and indispensable point, alpha and omega of points; very clear this
one to Belleisle,--and towards this the first steps, if as yet only
the first, are also clear to him. Namely that "the 27th of February
next",--which is the time set by Kur-Mainz and the native Officials for
the actual meeting of their Reichstag to begin Election Business, will
be too early a time; and must be got postponed. [Adelung, ii. 185 ("27th
February-1st March, 1741, at Frankfurt-on-Mayn," appointed by Kur-Mainz
"Arch-Chancellor of the REICH," under date November 3d, 1740);--ib.
236 ("Delay for a month or two," suggests Kur-Pfalz, on January
12th, seconded by others in the French interest);--upon which the
appointment, after some arguing, collapsed into the vague, and there
ensued delay enough; actual Election not till January 24th, 1742.]
Postponed; which will be possible, perhaps for long; one knows not for
how long: that is a first step definitely clear to Belleisle. Towards
which, as preliminary to it and to all the others in a dimmer state,
there is a second thing clear, and has even been officially settled