line. A scene of terrible carnage ensued, in which the Austrians,
having lost four thousand in killed and two thousand taken prisoners,
were utterly routed and scattered. The proud victor, gathering up his
weakened battalions, one fourth of whom had been either killed or
wounded in this short, fierce storm of war, continued his retreat
unmolested.

While Maria Theresa, with such almost superhuman inflexibility, was
pressing her own plans, the electoral diet of Germany was assembled at
Frankfort, and Francis, Duke of Lorraine, was chosen emperor, with the
title of Francis I. The queen was at Frankfort when the diet had
assembled, and was plying all her energies in favor of her husband,
while awaiting, with intense solicitude, the result of the election.
When the choice was announced to her, she stepped out upon the balcony
of the palace, and was the first to shout, "Long live the emperor,
Francis I." The immense concourse assembled in the streets caught and
reechoed the cry. This result was exceedingly gratifying to the queen;
she regarded it as a noble triumph, adding to the power and the luster
of her house.

The duke, now the emperor, was at Heidelberg, with an army of sixty
thousand men. The queen hastened to him with her congratulations. The
emperor, no longer a submissive subject, received his queenly spouse
with great dignity at the head of his army. The whole host was drawn up
in two lines, and the queen rode between, bowing to the regiments on the
right hand and the left, with majesty and grace which all admired.

Though the queen's treasury was so exhausted that she had been compelled
to melt the church plate to pay her troops, she was now so elated that,
regardless of the storms of winter, she resolved to send an army to
Berlin, to chastise Frederic in his own capital, and there recover long
lost Silesia. But Frederic was not thus to be caught napping. Informed
of the plan, he succeeded in surprising the Austrian army, and dispersed
them after the slaughter of five thousand men. The queen's troops, who
had entered Silesia, were thus driven pell-mell back to Bohemia. The
Prussian king then invaded Saxony, driving all before him. He took
possession of the whole electorate, and entered Dresden, its capital, in
triumph. This was a terrible defeat for the queen. Though she had often
said that she would part with her last garment before she would consent
to the surrender of Silesia, she felt now compelled to yield