uring those Keith urgencies)
the joining with France and turning against poor Britannic Majesty
was proposed in Council at Vienna, opened his usually silent lips; and
opined with emphasis against such a course, no Kaunitz or creature able
to persuade Kaiser Franz that good would come of it;--though, finding
Sovereign Lady and everybody against him, he held his peace again. And
returned to his private banking operations, which were more extensive
than ever, from the new troubles rising. "Lent the Empress-Queen, always
on solid securities," says Friedrich, "large sums, from time to time, in
those Wars; dealt in Commissariat stores to right and left; we ourselves
had most of our meal from him this year." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ iv.
8.] Kaiser Franz was, and continued, of the old way of thinking; but
consummate Kaunitz, and the High Lady's fixed passion for her Schlesien,
had changed everybody else. The ulterior facts are as follows,
abbreviated to the utmost.

September 22d, 1755, a few days before Hanbury's Subsidy-feat at
Petersburg, which took such a whirl for Hanbury, there had met for the
first time at Versailles, more especially at Babiole, Pleasure-House
of the Pompadour, a most Select Committee of Three Persons: Graf von
Stahremberg, Austrian Ambassador; Pompadour herself; and a certain
infinitely elegant Count and Reverence de Bernis (beautiful
Clerico-Mundane Gentleman, without right Benefice hitherto, but much
in esteem with the Pompadour);--for deepest practical consideration
in regard to closure of a French-Austrian Alliance. Reverend Count
(subsequently Cardinal) de Bernis has sense in Diplomacy; has his
experiences in Secular Diplomatic matters; a soft-going cautious man,
not yet official, but tending that way: whom the Pompadour has brought
with her as henchman, or unghostly counsellor, in this intricate
Adventure.

Stahremberg, instructed from home, has no hesitation; nor has Pompadour
herself, remembering that insolent "JE NE LA CONNAIS PAS," and the
per-contra "MA COUSINE," "PRINCESSE ET SOEUR:"--but Bernis, I suppose,
looks into the practical difficulties; which are probably very
considerable, to the Official French eye, in the present state of Europe
and of the public mind. From September 22d, or autumnal equinox, 1755,
onward to this Britannic-Prussian phenomenon of January, 1756,
the Pompadour Conclave has been sitting,--difficulties, no doubt,
considerable. I will give only the dates, having mysel