"it!" That wish was soon accomplished. On arriving at the Prussian head-quarters the British Minister immediately opened his commission to the King, but was encountered by a burst of indignation. "Still beggarly "offers!" cried Frederick. "Since you have nothing to propose on the side of Silesia, all negotiations are use"less. My ancestors," added he, with theatrical gestures, "would rise out of their tombs to reproach me, should I "abandon my just rights." So saying he took off his hat, and rushed behind the inner curtain of his tent.* 66 Thus then the war continued, fraught with dangers, and apparent ruin to the Austrian Heiress. At the Court of France the pacific influence of Fleury was overborne by the Marshal de Belleisle, assisted by a female cabal; and Fleury, when driven to choose between the sacrifice of his power and of his principles, still at the age of eighty-seven clung with dying grasp to the former. He unworthily consented to preside over councils which he had long gainsaid and still disapproved. Belleisle was despatched to Breslau and to Dresden to concert the terms of alliance; with Munich they were already formed. The projects of Jacobite risings and French assistance were postponed at Versailles, the more readily, perhaps, since the failure at Carthagena had diminished the fear of British aggrandizement; and the troops were collected in two great armies for the invasion of Germany. The first army under Marshal Maillebois passed the Meuse and Rhine and advanced towards Hanover, where King George was then residing, having gone abroad in the spring in spite of the urgent entreaties of Walpole, and leaving that Minister to struggle, as he best might, through the difficulties of the General Election. His Majesty was accompanied by Lord Harrington as Secretary of State, and was employed in assembling troops for the support of the Queen of Hungary, when the approach of the French chilled his ardour and arrested his arms. Trembling for what was always nearest to his heart, his Electoral dominions, he con *The details of this curious interview are related by Mr. Robinson in his despatch to Lord Harrington, August 9. 1741. A second journey of Robinson, with larger offers, proved equally fruitless. 1741. TWO FRENCH ARMIES IN GERMANY. 83 cluded one year's neutrality for Hanover, stipulating that during that period it should yield no assistance to Maria Theresa, and that at the ensuing Election of Emperor its vote should not be given in favour of her husband. This treaty, signed on the 16th of September, was reprobated, and not without some reason, as a pusillanimous and selfish measure, and it is difficult to say whether it excited most displeasure in Austria or in England. The second French army, 35,000 strong, and headed by Marshals de Belleisle and de Broglie, pouring into Bavaria, joined the Elector's forces, and reduced the important city of Lintz. There the Elector was inaugurated Duke of Austria, and declared war against Maria Theresa by the name of Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Already had his outposts pushed within three leagues of Vienna, already was a summons sent to Count Khevenhüller, Governor of that capital, already did its inhabitants hastily prepare, some for flight, others for resistance; and while a suburb which had grown up beneath the fortifications was destroyed, the Danube was covered with barges conveying away the most precious effects. The Queen herself, then advanced in pregnancy, was induced to depart with her infant son, leaving her husband and her brother-in-law Prince Charles of Lorraine to defend her capital and maintain her cause. Amidst this long train of disasters no resource seemed left to the unfortunate Princess, but a people whose lofty spirit accorded with her own. For years, nay for centuries, had the Hungarians groaned or rebelled beneath the despotism of her Imperial ancestry. While they formed the outpost of Christendom upon their frontier, they were no less the martyrs of tyranny at home: almost equally assailed from Constantinople and from Vienna, they had to defend their religion with one hand and their privileges with the other. The flower of their chivalry was again and again mowed down in battle by the Turks or immured in dungeons by the Austrians, yet always started up afresh with renewed valour and unconquerable love of liberty. Never, perhaps, had any nation undergone more grievous calamities or displayed more heroic courage. "In going through Hungary," says an English traveller, one hundred and twenty years ago, "nothing can be more melancholy than to see such 66 a noble spot of earth almost uninhabited;"* and even at the present day, after a long period of quiet and good government, the scanty and squalid population, the dismal towns, and the uncultivated fields, still bear impressed upon them the stamp of former misery, and show how unavailing are the most lavish gifts of Providence where the greatest of all-Peace and Freedomwere denied. It was to this noble nation, resolute against the strong oppressor, but generous to the feeble and the suppliant, that now, at her utmost need, the Austrian Queen appealed. She had already, when crowned at Presburg in the June preceding, gratified them by reviving and taking the oath of their King Andrew the Second (it had been abolished by her grandfather) in confirmation of their privileges, and by fulfilling the stately ceremonies which their forms prescribed. Placing on her head the crown of St. Stephen, and borne by a spirited charger, she rode up the ancient barrow called the Royal Mount, and from thence, according to the established custom, waved a drawn sword towards the four cardinal points, as though defying the universe to war. So fair and graceful was her aspect, that, as an eye-witness exclaimed, she did not require her weapon to conquer all who saw her. Yet lovely as she seemed in her Royal Crown, her fascination augmented after she had laid it aside, when her beautiful hair, no longer confined by it, flowed freely in long ringlets on her shoulders, while the excitement of the previous ceremony diffused a warmer glow over her charming_features; and, as she sate down in public state at the Royal banquet, there was not a heart among the spectators, however chilled by age or * Lady Mary W. Montagu to the Countess of Mar, January 30. 1717. † Mr. Robinson to Lord Harrington, June 28. 1741. This scene was also detailed by several gentlemen who were present to Sir N. Wraxall (Courts of Berlin, Vienna, &c., vol. ii. p. 299. ed. 1799). He adds, "I am assured by those who witnessed her coronation, that "she was then one of the most charming women in Europe: her figure elegant, her shape fine, and her demeanour majestic." I have compared and combined both descriptions in my narrative. 66 1741. QUEEN MARIA THERESA AT PRESBURG. 85 worse than age, by selfishness-that did not beat high with chivalrous and loyal admiration. Endeared by these recollections, the young Queen, or as they termed her, the King (for in Hungary the female title is applied only to Queens Consort,) again repaired to Presburg a few months afterwards as a fugitive from Vienna. All the Magnates and other Orders of the kingdom were there assembled in Diet. On the 11th of September, a day whose memory has ever since been cherished in Hungary, she summoned them to attend her at the Castle; they came, and when marshalled in the Great Hall, the Queen appeared: she was still in deep mourning for her father, but her dress was Hungarian, the crown of St. Stephen was on her head, and the scimitar of state at her side. Her step was firm and majestic, but her voice faltered, and tears flowed from her eyes. For some moments she was unable to utter a single word, and the whole assembly remained in deep and mournful silence. At length her infant son, afterwards Joseph the Second, was brought in by the first Lady of the Bedchamber, and laid on a cushion before her. With an action more eloquent than any words, the Queen took him in her arms, and held him up to the assembly, and while sobs still at intervals burst through her voice, she addressed the assembly in Latin, a language which she had studied and spoke fluently, not from pedantry, as ladies elsewhere, but because it is to this day in common use with the Hungarian people, and still serves to convey the national deliberations. Her speech was no cold and formal harangue of a Sovereign, cautiously declaring projects, or haughtily demanding supplies; it was the supplication of a young and beautiful woman in distress. When she came to the words" The kingdom of Hungary, our person, our "children, our crown are at stake! Forsaken by all, we * The precise words, as communicated from the Hungarian archives, both to Mr. Coxe and Sir N. Wraxall, are as follows: "Agi"tur de regno Hungariæ, de personâ nostrâ, prolibus nostris et coronâ. "Ab omnibus derelicti unice ad inclytorum Statuum fidelitatem, "arma, et Hungarorum priscam virtutem confugimus!" The exclamation of the States in reply was "Vitem et Sanguinem pro Majes"tate Vestrâ! Moriamur pro Rege nostro, Maria Theresa!” — These words will resound to all posterity. 66 "seek shelter only in the fidelity, the arms, the hereditary "valour of the renowned Hungarian states,"-the whole assembly, as if animated by one soul and speaking with one voice, drew their sabres halfway from the scabbard, and exclaimed, "Our lives and our blood for your Majesty! We will die for our King Maria Theresa!". Nowhere, perhaps, does modern History record a more beautiful and touching scene. According to the narrative of one of the noblemen present, "we all wept, as did "the Queen, aloud, but they were tears of affection and "indignation. In a few minutes afterwards we withdrew, "in order to concert the necessary measures at such a "period of public danger and distress."* It is certainly a great advantage, as all History attests, of female succession, that it tends above all other causes to kindle the extinct or revive the decaying flame of loyalty. The warmest feelings then combine with the most deliberate judgment, and we become Royalists from enthusiasm as much as from reason. Nay even where a contracted understanding fails to discern the superior benefits of Monarchy, the heart unbidden warms towards one whose sex makes it our pride to protect, as her birth our duty to obey her. And never, not even by our own Elizabeth, were a people's loyalty and love more strongly stirred than then by Maria Theresa. Her attraction was * The narrative of Count Koller, who was present, was taken down from his repeated relation, and in his very words, by Sir N. Wraxall. (Courts of Berlin and Vienna, vol. ii. p. 296-298. ed. 1799.) "The "whole scene," adds the Count, "which has furnished so much matter for history, hardly lasted more than twelve or fifteen minutes.” Archdeacon Coxe discredits the point of the Queen's holding up the infant Archduke to the Diet, because, as he states, it appears from Mr. Robinson's despatches that the Archduke was not brought to Presburg till after the 20th of the month. (House of Austria, vol. iii. p. 266.) Yet we know from other authority that Maria Theresa had taken her son with her from Vienna (Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 520.), and I should be the less inclined to trust Mr. Coxe's dates in this transaction, as he has chosen to transfer the celebrated scene before the Diet from the 11th to the 13th. But on referring to the despatch in question among Mr. Coxe's transcripts (vol. ci. p. 214. Brit. Mus.) it is evident that his copyist has put the word "Arch"duke," by mistake, for "Grandduke" (that is, of Tuscany, and Duke of Lorraine); the son instead of the father. See the Appendix of this volume. |