g was strongest in Maria Theresa; but it was by no means
confined to her. Frederic, in some respects a good master, was
emphatically a bad neighbor. That he was hard in all dealings, and quick
to take all advantages, was not his most odious fault. His bitter and
scoffing speech had inflicted keener wounds than his ambition. In his
character of wit he was under less restraint than even in his character
of ruler. Satirical verses against all the princes and ministers of
Europe were ascribed to his pen. In his letters and conversation he
alluded to the greatest potentates of the age in terms which would have
better suited Colle, in a war of repartee with young Crebillon at
Pelletier's table, than a great sovereign speaking of great sovereigns.
About women he was in the habit of expressing himself in a manner which
it was impossible for the meekest of women to forgive; and,
unfortunately for him, almost the whole Continent was then governed by
women who were by no means conspicuous for meekness. Maria Theresa
herself had not escaped his scurrilous jests. The Empress Elizabeth of
Russia knew that her gallantries afforded him a favorite theme for
ribaldry and invective. Madame de Pompadour, who was really the head of
the French government, had been even more keenly galled. She had
attempted, by the most delicate flattery, to propitiate the King of
Prussia; but her messages had drawn from him only dry and sarcastic
replies. The Empress Queen took a very different course. Though the
haughtiest of princesses, though the most austere of matrons, she forgot
in her thirst for revenge both the dignity of her race and the purity of
her character, and condescended to flatter the low-born and low-minded
concubine, who, having acquired influence by prostituting herself,
retained it by prostituting others. Maria Theresa actually wrote with
her own hand a note, full of expressions of esteem and friendship, to
her dear cousin, the daughter of the butcher Poisson, the wife of the
publican D'Etioles, the kidnapper of young girls for the haram of an old
rake, a strange cousin for the descendant of so many Emperors of the
West! The mistress was completely gained over, and easily carried her
point with Louis, who had, indeed, wrongs of his own to resent. His
feelings were not quick; but contempt, says the Eastern proverb,
pierces even through the shell of the tortoise; and neither prudence nor
decorum had ever restrained Frederic from expressing