nna and St. Petersburg. Frederick had every reason to
wish to lull the suspicions and jealousies of Austria, that he might be
left in undisputed possession of Silesia; and that power, moreover, was
no longer an object of dread or jealousy to him, for the Seven Years'
War had reduced its resources to the lowest ebb. The dispositions of the
court of Vienna cannot be comprised in so few words: its situation was
much more complicated, its policy more embarrassed, and the persons who
governed it will be much more difficult to make known.

Maria Theresa was now not very far from the tomb, and after all the
arduous struggles she had undergone for the defence of her states,
vicissitudes she had experienced, and the exhaustion of her resources,
she determined to end her days in peace. She devoted almost the whole of
her time to superstitious devotions in a gloomy chamber hung round with
death's heads, and a portrait of her late husband in the act of
expiring. She yet cherished, however, some of the feelings of mortality,
implacable hatred to Frederick, and contempt mingled with hate for
Catharine II, of whom she never spoke but with disdain, calling her
"_that woman_." Besides, she could sometimes also silence the reproaches
of conscience, so as to seize for the public use the bequests of the
pious for religious purposes, and to confiscate the revenues of rich
monasteries apparently without any compunction. Men fancied, says our
author, that they could foresee in all this conduct that if this just
and religious Princess had power enough over herself to silence her
generosity and even sometimes her piety, she might perhaps be capable in
some state crisis of incurring still greater remorse and silence
justice.

Her minister, Kaunitz, to whom she intrusted all the management of
affairs, is not the least important personage in this drama, nor did he
underrate his own consequence. "Heaven," said he, "is a hundred years in
forming a great mind for the restoration of an empire, and it then rests
another hundred years; on this account I tremble for the fate which
awaits this monarchy after me." Throughout a long and arduous ministry
he had shown himself the most subtle and refined politician, unfettered
in his schemes by any remorse or feeling, and making a boast that he had
no friends. Such a man was well fitted to play the part allotted to him.
After the conclusion of the long war, he had made it his policy to
repair the damages the