o
much, was he a grateful, was he even an honest ally? Had he not been as
false to the Court of Versailles as to the Court of Vienna? Had he not
played, on a large scale, the same part which, in private life, is
played by the vile agent of chicane who sets his neighbors quarrelling,
involves them in costly and interminable litigation, and betrays them to
each other all round, certain that, whoever may be ruined, he shall be
enriched? Surely the true wisdom of the great powers was to attack, not
each other, but this common barrator, who, by inflaming the passions of
both, by pretending to serve both, and by deserting both, had raised
himself above the station to which he was born. The great object of
Austria was to regain Silesia; the great object of France was to obtain
an accession of territory on the side of Flanders. If they took opposite
sides, the result would probably be that, after a war of many years,
after the slaughter of many thousands of brave men, after the waste of
many millions of crowns, they would lay down their arms without having
achieved either object; but, if they came to an understanding, there
would be no risk and no difficulty. Austria would willingly make in
Belgium such cessions as France could not expect to obtain by ten
pitched battles. Silesia would easily be annexed to the monarchy of
which it had long been a part. The union of two such powerful
governments would at once overawe the King of Prussia. If he resisted,
one short campaign would settle his fate. France and Austria, long
accustomed to rise from the game of war both losers, would, for the
first time, both be gainers. There could be no room for jealousy between
them. The power of both would be increased at once; the equilibrium
between them would be preserved; and the only sufferer would be a
mischievous and unprincipled buccaneer, who deserved no tenderness from
either.

These doctrines, attractive from their novelty and ingenuity, soon
became fashionable at the supper parties and in the coffee-houses of
Paris, and were espoused by every gay marquis and every facetious abbe
who was admitted to see Madame de Pompadour's hair curled and powdered.
It was not, however, to any political theory that the strange coalition
between France and Austria owed its origin. The real motive which
induced the great Continental powers to forget their old animosities and
their old state maxims was personal aversion to the King of Prussia.
This feelin