from Strasburg to the German side of the Rhine, and laid siege
to Kehl. Kehl Fortress; a dilapidated outpost of the Reich there, which
cannot resist many hours. Here is news for the Kaiser, with his few
troops all on the Polish borders; minding his neighbors' business, or
chasing Pragmatic Sanction, in those inflammable localities.

Pacific Fleury, it must be owned, if he wanted a quarrel with the
Kaiser, could not have managed it on more advantageous terms. Generals,
a Duc de Berwick, a Noailles, Belleisle; generals, troops, artillery,
munitions, nothing is wanting to Fleury; to the Kaiser all things. It is
surmised, the French had their eye on Lorraine, not on Stanislaus, from
the first. For many centuries, especially for these last two,--ever
since that Siege of Metz, which we once saw, under Kaiser Karl V. and
Albert Alcibiades,--France has been wrenching and screwing at this
Lorraine, wriggling it off bit by bit; till now, as we perceived on
Lyttelton junior of Hagley's visit, Lorraine seems all lying unscrewed;
and France, by any good opportunity, could stick it in her pocket. Such
opportunity sly Fleury contrived, they say;--or more likely it might
be Belleisle and the other adventurous spirits that urged it on pacific
Fleury;--but, at all events, he has got it. Dilapidated Kehl yields
straightway: [29th October, 1733. _Memoires du Marechal de Berwick_ (in
Petitot'e Collection, Paris, 1828), ii. 303.] Sardinia, Spain, declare
alliance with Fleury; and not Lorraine only, and the Swabian Provinces,
but Italy itself lies at his discretion,--owing to your treatment of the
Grandfather of France, and these Polish Elective methods.

The astonished Kaiser rushes forward to fling himself into the arms
of the Sea-Powers, his one resource left: "Help! moneys, subsidies,
ye Sea-Powers!" But the Sea-Powers stand obtuse, arms not open at all,
hands buttoning their pockets: "Sorry we cannot, your Imperial Majesty.
Fleury engages not to touch the Netherlands, the Barrier Treaty; Polish
Elections are not our concern!" and callously decline. The Kaiser's
astonishment is extreme; his big heart swelling even with a
martyr-feeling; and he passionately appeals: "Ungrateful, blind
Sea-Powers! No money to fight France, say you? Are the Laws of Nature
fallen void?" Imperial astonishment, sublime martyr-feeling, passionate
appeals to the Laws of Nature, avail nothing with the blind
Sea-Powers: "No money in us," answer they: "we will help