sburg and Vienna.[736] On the other hand, the French party was
strong at Court. Haugwitz, its head, was still nominally Minister for
Foreign Affairs, and, though often absent for long periods on his
Silesian domain, resumed the control of them when he returned to Berlin.
This singular arrangement enabled the King to keep up the game of
political see-saw which brought relief to him, disgust to his would-be
allies, and ruin to his country.

To tilt the balance in favour of the Coalition was now the chief aim of
Pitt. And who shall say that, if Prussia, with strength still
unimpaired, had played the part which her enfeebled people insisted on
taking up in 1813, the doom of Napoleon might not have been assured in
the autumn and winter which we associate with the names of Ulm and
Austerlitz? All this was possible, nay, probable, had Frederick William
surveyed the situation with the sound judgement of Pitt. But the British
statesman laboured under one great disadvantage. He could not offer to
Prussia what she most wanted. He could do no more than promise to extend
her western confines to Antwerp and Ostend; and she far preferred
Hanover, as solidifying her straggling western lands, without bringing
her near to France. Here was an almost insuperable obstacle; and we can
imagine that, like his father, he cursed Britain's connection with
Hanover. His chief hope was, that Prussia would discern her true
interest in acquiring less by honourable means than very much from
Napoleon, whose gifts were often perilous. Russia, too, at that time
seemed to adopt the British view of the Hanoverian question; and in the
early autumn that Power mustered her second army on the borders of
Prussia in a highly threatening manner. Finally, the Czar declared that
if his troops were refused a passage through Silesia, he would make his
way by force, the Pitt Cabinet informing him that, in that case, the
liberal subsidies intended for Prussia, would be added to those already
on their way to St. Petersburg. But even threats failed to bring
Frederick William to a decision; and Hardenberg announced that a
forcible entry of the Russians would involve war with Prussia.[737]

While Frederick William fumed at the Muscovite threats, came news of the
violation of his Anspach domain on 3rd October. At once he declared his
intention to avenge the insult and to expel Duroc from Prussian
territory. He also raised high the hopes of the Allies by allowing the
Russian