empire had sustained by alliances, and even his
opposition to Frederick daily subsided.

But it was another agent who commenced the connection between Austria
and Prussia. Joseph, Maria Theresa's son and coregent with his mother,
detested this pacific policy and longed for war. He was, however,
obliged to submit; for Maria dreaded the effects of this warlike
propensity, and kept the government in the hands of her ministers. He
had continual contentions with the Empress, and urged her to improve her
finances by conquest or aggression; but all the power he could obtain
was the command of the troops, which he augmented to two hundred
thousand men, and organized them under the counsel of his field marshal,
Lacy. In his mania for military matters he visited in 1768 all the
fields of battle of the last war, and after traversing Bohemia and
Saxony, and learning from his generals the causes of the defeats and
victories, he approached in the course of his tour the borders of
Prussian Silesia, where Frederick was engaged in his annual reviews. The
King sent a polite message, and expressed a great desire to be
personally acquainted with him. The young Prince could not pay a visit
to the former enemy of his family without previously consulting his
mother, the Empress; and the interview was deferred till the next year;
when it took place on August 25th, at Neisse, a town in Silesia.

At this period the war between Russia and Turkey engrossed general
attention, and seems to have formed the principal subject of the
conference; but no resolutions of any importance were agreed to. The
flattering manner in which Frederick received the young Prince must have
made a great impression on his mind; and the extravagant compliments
which were lavished on him were highly gratifying to youthful vanity,
from such a great man. Frederick frequently repeated that Joseph would
surpass Charles V; and though it has the appearance of irony to those
acquainted with the _denouement_ of this youthful monarch's character,
it was probably not intended so, for Frederick, we have seen before,
could stoop to the most servile adulation when it answered his purpose.
Be that as it may, the effect on Joseph was the same, for on his return
he spoke of the Prussian monarch with the highest enthusiasm.

Maria Theresa was growing old, and the Austrian ministers began to turn
to the rising sun; the eyes of Kaunitz were opened to the policy of
cultivating a friendship w