ere admitted to his chamber who performed the last offices of
the Church for the dying. With perfect composure, he made all the
arrangements relative to the succession to the throne. One after another
the members of his family were introduced, and he affectionately bade
them adieu, giving to each appropriate words of counsel. To his
daughter, Maria Theresa, who was not present, and who was to succeed
him, he sent his earnest blessing. With the Duke of Lorraine, her
husband, he had a private interview of two hours. On the 20th of
October, 1740, at two o'clock in the morning, he died, in the
fifty-sixth year of his age, and the thirtieth of his reign. Weary of
the world, he willingly retired to the anticipated repose of the grave.

"To die,--to sleep;--
To sleep! perchance to dream;--ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause."

By the death of Charles VI. the male line of the house of Hapsburg
became extinct, after having continued in uninterrupted succession for
over four hundred years. His eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, who now
succeeded to the crown of Austria, was twenty-four years of age. Her
figure was tall, graceful and commanding. Her features were beautiful,
and her smile sweet and winning. She was born to command, combining in
her character woman's power of fascination with man's energy. Though so
far advanced in pregnancy that she was not permitted to see her dying
father, the very day after his death she so rallied her energies as to
give an audience to the minister of state, and to assume the government
with that marvelous vigor which characterized her whole reign.

Seldom has a kingdom been in a more deplorable condition than was
Austria on the morning when the scepter passed into the hands of Maria
Theresa. There were not forty thousand dollars in the treasury; the
state was enormously in debt; the whole army did not amount to more than
thirty thousand men, widely dispersed, clamoring for want of pay, and
almost entirely destitute of the materials for war. The vintage had been
cut off by the frost, producing great distress in the country. There was
a famine in Vienna, and many were starving for want of food. The
peasants, in the neighborhood of the metropolis, were rising in
insurrection, ravaging the fields in search of game; while rumors were
industriously circulated that the government was dissolved,