or, and the princes of your blood, deserves the
applause of every heart, and augments, if possible, the high
consideration I entertain for your majesty. I have added some articles
to the propositions of M. Thugut, most of which have been allowed, and
others which, I hope, will meet with little difficulty. He will
immediately depart for Vienna, and will be able to return in five or six
days, during which time I will act with such caution that your imperial
majesty may have no cause of apprehension for the safety of any part of
your family, and particularly of the emperor, whom I love and esteem,
although our opinions differ in regard to the affairs of Germany."

But the Emperor Joseph was bitterly opposed to peace, and thwarted his
mother's benevolent intentions in every possible way. Still the empress
succeeded, and the articles were signed at Teschen, the 13th day of May,
1779. The queen was overjoyed at the result, and was often heard to say
that no act of her administration had given her such heartfelt joy. When
she received the news she exclaimed,

"My happiness is full. I am not partial to Frederic, but I must do him
the justice to confess that he has acted nobly and honorably. He
promised me to make peace on reasonable terms, and he has kept his word.
I am inexpressibly happy to spare the effusion of so much blood."

The hour was now approaching when Maria Theresa was to die. She had for
some time been failing from a disease of the lungs, and she was now
rapidly declining. Her sufferings, as she took her chamber and her bed,
became very severe; but the stoicism of her character remained unshaken.
In one of her seasons of acute agony she exclaimed,

"God grant that these sufferings may soon terminate, for, otherwise, I
know not if I can much longer endure them."

Her son Maximilian stood by her bed-side. She raised her eyes to him and
said,

"I have been enabled thus far to bear these pangs with firmness and
constancy. Pray to God, my son, that I may preserve my tranquillity to
the last."

The dying hour, long sighed for, came. She partook of the sacrament of
the Lord's Supper, and then, assembling her family around her, addressed
to them her last words.

"I have received the sacraments," said she, "and feel that I am now to
die." Then addressing the emperor, she continued, "My son, all my
possessions after my death revert to you. To your care I commend my
children. Be to them a father. I shall die content