en of
Frederic was broken by calamities, and he yielded to despair. He no
longer hoped to be able to preserve his empire, but proudly resolved to
bury himself beneath its ruins. His despondency could not be concealed
from his army, and his bravest troops declared that they could fight no
longer.

Maria Theresa was elated beyond measure. England was withdrawing from
Prussia. Frederic was utterly exhausted both as to money and men; one
campaign more would finish the work, and Prussia would lie helpless at
the feet of Maria Theresa, and her most sanguine anticipations would be
realized. But the deepest laid plans of man are often thwarted by
apparently the most trivial events. One single individual chanced to be
taken sick and die. That individual was Elizabeth, the Empress of
Russia. On the 5th of January, 1762, she was lying upon her bed an
emaciate suffering woman, gasping in death. The departure of her last
breath changed the fate of Europe.

Paul III., her nephew, who succeeded the empress, detested Maria
Theresa, and often inveighed bitterly against her haughtiness and her
ambition. On the contrary, he admired the King of Prussia. He had
visited the court of Berlin, where he had been received with marked
attention; and Frederic was his model of a hero. He had watched with
enthusiastic admiration the fortitude and military prowess of the
Prussian king, and had even sent to him many messages of sympathy, and
had communicated to him secrets of the cabinet and their plans of
operation. Now, enthroned as Emperor of Russia, without reserve he
avowed his attachment to Frederic, and ordered his troops to abstain
from hostilities, and to quit the Austrian army. At the same time he
sent a minister to Berlin to conclude an alliance with the hero he so
greatly admired. He even asked for himself a position in the Prussian
army as lieutenant under Frederic.

The Swedish court was so intimately allied with that of St. Petersburg,
that the cabinet of Stockholm also withdrew from the Austrian alliance,
and thus Maria Theresa, at a blow, lost two of her most efficient
allies. The King of Prussia rose immediately from his despondency, and
the whole kingdom shared in his exultation and his joy. The Prussian
troops, in conjunction with the Russians, were now superior to the
Austrians, and were prepared to assume the offensive. But again
Providence interposed. A conspiracy was formed against the Russian
emperor, headed by his wife who