austible yet never redundant flow of rational, gentle, and
sprightly conversation; a temper of which the serenity was never for a
moment ruffled, a tact which surpassed the tact of her sex as much as
the tact of her sex surpasses the tact of ours; such were the qualities
which made the widow of a buffoon first the confidential friend, and
then the spouse, of the proudest and most powerful of European kings. It
was said that Lewis had been with difficulty prevented by the arguments
and vehement entreaties of Louvois from declaring her Queen of France.
It is certain that she regarded Louvois as her enemy. Her hatred of him,
cooperating perhaps with better feelings, induced her to plead the cause
of the unhappy people of the Rhine. She appealed to those sentiments of
compassion which, though weakened by many corrupting influences, were
not altogether extinct in her husband's mind, and to those sentiments of
religion which had too often impelled him to cruelty, but which, on the
present occasion, were on the side of humanity. He relented: and Treves
was spared, [107] In truth he could hardly fail to perceive that he had
committed a great error. The devastation of the Palatinate, while it
had not in any sensible degree lessened the power of his enemies, had
inflamed their animosity, and had furnished them with inexhaustible
matter for invective. The cry of vengeance rose on every side. Whatever
scruple either branch of the House of Austria might have felt about
coalescing with Protestants was completely removed. Lewis accused
the Emperor and the Catholic King of having betrayed the cause of the
Church; of having allied themselves with an usurper who was the avowed
champion of the great schism; of having been accessary to the foul wrong
done to a lawful sovereign who was guilty of no crime but zeal for the
true religion. James sent to Vienna and Madrid piteous letters, in which
he recounted his misfortunes, and implored the assistance of his brother
kings, his brothers also in the faith, against the unnatural children
and the rebellious subjects who had driven him into exile. But there was
little difficulty in framing a plausible answer both to the reproaches
of Lewis and to the supplications of James. Leopold and Charles declared
that they had not, even for purposes of just selfdefence, leagued
themselves with heretics, till their enemy had, for purposes of unjust
aggression, leagued himself with Mahometans. Nor was this the wo