Feminine pique, revenge, or
vanity had then at their service the mightiest armaments of Europe.
The recovery of Silesia and the punishment of Frederic for his audacity
in seizing it, possessed the mind of Maria Theresa with the force of a
ruling passion. To these ends she had joined herself in secret league
with Russia; and now at the prompting of her minister Kaunitz she
courted the alliance of France. It was a reversal of the hereditary
policy of Austria; joining hands with an old and deadly foe, and
spurning England, of late her most trusty ally. But France could give
powerful aid against Frederic; and hence Maria Theresa, virtuous as she
was high-born and proud, stooped to make advances to the all-powerful
mistress of Louis XV., wrote her flattering letters, and addressed her,
it is said, as "_Ma chere cousine_." Pompadour was delighted, and could
hardly do enough for her imperial friend. She ruled the King, and could
make and unmake ministers at will. They hastened to do her pleasure,
disguising their subserviency by dressing it out in specious reasons of
state. A conference at her summer-house, called Babiole, "Bawble,"
prepared the way for a treaty which involved the nation in the
anti-Prussian war, and made it the instrument of Austria in the attempt
to humble Frederic,--an attempt which if successful would give the
hereditary enemy of France a predominance over Germany. France engaged
to aid the cause with twenty-four thousand men; but in the zeal of her
rulers began with a hundred thousand.
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