self, "Shall we venture forward, and capture Vienna, then?"

The question is intricate, and there are many secret biasings concerned
in the solution of it. Friedrich, before Klein-Schnellendorf time, had
written eagerly, had sent Schmettau with eager message, "Push forward;
it is feasible, even easy: cut the matter by the root!" This, they say,
was Karl Albert's own notion, had not the French overruled him;--not
willing, some guess, he should get Austria, and become too independent
of them all at once. Nay, it appears Karl Albert had inducements of his
own towards Bohemia rather. The French have had Kur-Sachsen to manage
withal; and there are interests in Bohemia of his and theirs,--clippings
of Bohemia promised him as bribes, besides that "Kingdom of Moravia,"
to get his 21,000 set on march. "Clippings of Bohemia? Interests of
Kur-Sachsen's in that Country?" asks Karl Albert with alarm: and thinks
it will be safer, were he himself present there, while Saxony and
France do the clippings in question! Sure enough, he did not push on.
Belleisle, from the distance, strongly opined otherwise; Karl Albert
himself had jealous fears about Bohmen. Friedrich's importunities and
urgencies were useless: and the one chance there ever was for Karl
Albert, for Belleisle and the Ruin of Austria, vanished without return.

Karl Albert has turned off, leftwards, towards his Bohemian Enterprises:
French, Bavarians, Saxons, by their several routes, since the last days
of October, are all on march that way. We will mark an exact date here
and there, as fixed point for the reader's fancy. Poor Karl Albert, he
had sat some six weeks at Linz,--about three weeks since that Homaging
there (October 2d);--imaginary Sovereign of Upper Austria; looking over
to Vienna and the Promised Land in general. And that fine Pisgah-view
was all he ever had of it. Of Austrian or other Conquests earthly
or heavenly, there came none to him in this Adventure;--mere MINUS
quantities they all proved. For a few weeks more, there are, blended
with awful portents, an imaginary gleam or two in other quarters; after
which, nothing but black horror and disgrace, deepening downwards into
utter darkness, for the poor man. Belleisle is an imaginary Sun-god; but
the poor Icarus, tempted aloft in that manner into the earnest elements,
and melting at once into quills and rags, is a tragic reality!--Let us
to our dates:--

"OCTOBER 24th, The Bavarian Troops, who had lain at Maut