s a most unjustifiable
demand, and a whole sitting was wasted in this childish dispute. It may
easily be supposed that allies who were so punctilious in their dealings
with each other were not likely to be very easy in their intercourse
with the common enemy. The chief business of Earlay and Kaunitz was to
watch each other's legs. Neither of them thought it consistent with the
dignity of the Crown which he served to advance towards the other faster
than the other advanced towards him. If therefore one of them perceived
that he had inadvertently stepped forward too quick, he went back to the
door, and the stately minuet began again. The ministers of Lewis drew
up a paper in their own language. The German statesmen protested against
this innovation, this insult to the dignity of the Holy Roman Empire,
this encroachment on the rights of independent nations, and would not
know any thing about the paper till it had been translated from good
French into bad Latin. In the middle of April it was known to every body
at the Hague that Charles the Eleventh, King of Sweden, was dead, and
had been succeeded by his son; but it was contrary to etiquette that any
of the assembled envoys should appear to be acquainted with this fact
till Lilienroth had made a formal announcement; it was not less contrary
to etiquette that Lilienroth should make such an announcement till his
equipages and his household had been put into mourning; and some weeks
elapsed before his coachmakers and tailors had completed their task. At
length, on the twelfth of June, he came to Ryswick in a carriage lined
with black and attended by servants in black liveries, and there, in
full congress, proclaimed that it had pleased God to take to himself
the most puissant King Charles the Eleventh. All the Ambassadors then
condoled with him on the sad and unexpected news, and went home to put
off their embroidery and to dress themselves in the garb of sorrow. In
such solemn trifling week after week passed away. No real progress was
made. Lilienroth had no wish to accelerate matters. While the congress
lasted, his position was one of great dignity. He would willingly have
gone on mediating for ever; and he could not go on mediating, unless the
parties on his right and on his left went on wrangling. [805]

In June the hope of peace began to grow faint. Men remembered that the
last war had continued to rage, year after year, while a congress was
sitting at Nimeguen. The media