he war, but that the whole guilt rested upon the French court, which
had inveigled him to present his claim and commence hostilities. Maria
Theresa made no other reply to this humiliating epistle than to publish
it, and give it a wide circulation throughout Europe. Cardinal Fleury,
the French minister of state, indignant at this breach of confidence,
sent to the cabinet of Vienna a remonstrance and a counter statement.
This paper also the queen gave to the public.

Marshal Belleisle was in command of the French and Bavarian troops,
which were besieged in Prague. The force rapidly gathering around him
was such as to render retreat impossible. The city was unprepared for a
siege, and famine soon began to stare the citizens and garrison in the
face. The marshal, reduced to the last extremity, offered to evacuate
the city and march out of Bohemia, if he could be permitted to retire
unmolested, with arms, artillery and baggage. The Duke of Lorraine, to
avoid a battle which would be rendered sanguinary through despair, was
ready and even anxious to assent to these terms. His leading generals
were of the same opinion, as they wished to avoid a needless effusion of
blood.

The offered terms of capitulation were sent to Maria Theresa. She
rejected them with disdain. She displayed a revengeful spirit, natural,
perhaps, under the circumstances, but which reflects but little honor
upon her character.

"I will not," she replied, in the presence of the whole court; "I will
not grant any capitulation to the French army. I will listen to no
terms, to no proposition from Cardinal Fleury. I am astonished that he
should come to me now with proposals for peace; _he_ who endeavored to
excite all the princes of Germany to crush me. I have acted with too
much condescension to the court of France. Compelled by the necessities
of my situation I debased my royal dignity by writing to the cardinal in
terms which would have softened the most obdurate rock. He insolently
rejected my entreaties; and the only answer I obtained was that his most
Christian majesty had contracted engagements which he could not violate.
I can prove, by documents now in my possession, that the French
endeavored to excite sedition even in the heart of my dominions; that
they attempted to overturn the fundamental laws of the empire, and to
set all Germany in a flame. I will transmit these proofs to posterity as
a warning to the empire."

The ambition of Maria Theresa wa