Couriers were ever coming and going. Envoys from France and Bavaria were
in constant secret conference with him. France, jealous of the power of
Austria, was plotting its dismemberment, even while protesting
friendship. Bavaria was willing to unite with Prussia in seizing the
empire and in dividing the spoil. These courts seemed to lay no claim to
any higher morality than that of ordinary highwaymen. The doom of Maria
Theresa was apparently sealed. Austria was to be plundered. Other
parties now began to rush in with their claims, that they might share in
the booty. Philip V. of Spain put in his claim for the Austrian crown as
the lineal descendant of the Emperor Charles V. Augustus, King of
Poland, urged the right of his wife Maria, eldest daughter of Joseph.
And even Charles Emanuel, King of Sardinia, hunted up an obsolete claim,
through the line of the second daughter of Philip II.

At the camp of Molnitz the plan was matured of giving Bohemia and Upper
Austria to the Duke of Bavaria. Frederic of Prussia was to receive Upper
Silesia and Glatz. Augustus of Poland was to annex to his kingdom
Moravia and Upper Silesia. Lombardy was assigned to Spain. Sardinia was
to receive some compensation not yet fully decided upon. The whole
transaction was a piece of as unmitigated villainy as ever transpired.
One can not but feel a little sympathy for Austria which had thus fallen
among thieves, and was stripped and bleeding. Our sympathies are,
however, somewhat alleviated by the reflection that Austria was just as
eager as any of the other powers for any such piratic expedition, and
that, soon after, she united with Russia and Prussia in plundering
Poland. And when Poland was dismembered by a trio of regal robbers, she
only incurred the same doom which she was now eager to inflict upon
Austria. When pirates and robbers plunder each other, the victims are
not entitled to much sympathy. To the masses of the people it made but
little difference whether their life's blood was wrung from them by
Russian, Prussian or Austrian despots. Under whatever rule they lived,
they were alike doomed to toil as beasts of burden in the field, or to
perish amidst the hardships and the carnage of the camp.

These plans were all revealed to Maria Theresa, and with such a
combination of foes so powerful, it seemed as if no earthly wisdom could
avert her doom. But her lofty spirit remained unyielding, and she
refused all offers of accommodation based u