tic Sanction, for or against: these are good
against whoever may fall Heir to the House of Austria, or to Silesia:
and my intention is, that the strong hand, so long clenched upon my
rights, shall open itself by this favorable opportunity, and give them
out." That is Friedrich's case. And in truth the jury everywhere has to
find,--so soon as instructed, which is a long process in some sections
of it (in England, for example),--That Pragmatic Sanction has not,
except helpless lamentations, "Alas that YOU should be here to insist
upon your rights, and to open fists long closed!"--the least, word to
say to Friedrich.

3. TERMAGANT OF SPAIN.--Perhaps the most distracted of the
Anti-Pragmatic subterfuges was that used by Spain, when the She-dragon
or Termagant saw good to eat her Covenant; which was at a very early
stage. The Termagant's poor Husband is a Bourbon, not a Hapsburg at all:
"But has not he fallen heir to the Spanish Hapsburgs; become all one
as they, an ALTER-EGO of the Spanish Hapsburgs?" asks she. "And the
Austrian Hapsburgs being out, do not the Spanish Hapsburgs come in?
He, I say, this BOURBON-Hapsburg, he is the real Hapsburg, now that
the Austrian Branch is gone; President he of the Golden Fleece [which
a certain "Archduchess," Maria Theresa, had been meddling with];
Proprietor, he, of Austrian Italy, and of all or most things
Austrian!"--and produces Documentary Covenants of Philip II. with his
Austrian Cousins; "to which Philip," said the Termagant, "we Bourbons
surely, if you consider it, are Heir and Alter-Ego!" Is not, this a
curious case of testamentary right; human greed obliterating personal
identity itself?

Belleisle had a great deal of difficulty, keeping the Termagant back
till things were ripe. Her hope practically was, Baby Carlos being
prosperous King of Naples this long while, to get the Milanese for
another Baby she has,--Baby Philip, whom she once thought of making
Pope;--and she is eager beyond measure to have a stroke at the Milanese.
"Wait!" hoarsely whispers Belleisle to her; and she can scarcely wait.
Maria Theresa's Note of Announcement "New Queen of Hungary, may it
please you!" the French, as we saw, were very long in answering. The
Termagant did not answer it at all; complained on the contrary, "What is
this, Madam! Golden Fleece, you?"--and, early in March, informed
mankind that she was Spanish Hapsburg, the genuine article; and sent
off Excellency Montijos, a little man of gr