oquence fiery and incessant:
'Magnanimous High Mightinesses, was there, will there again be, such a
chance? The Cause of Human Liberty may be secured forever! Dunkirk--or
what is Dunkirk even? Between us and Paris, there is nothing, now that
Maillebois is off on such an errand! Why should not we play Marlborongh
again, and teach them a little what Invasion means? It is ourselves
alone that can hinder it! Now, I say, or never!'

"Stair was a pupil of Marlborough's; is otherwise a shining kind of man;
and has immense things in his eye, at this time. They say, what is not
unlikely, he proposed an Interview with Friedrich now at Aachen; would
come privately, to 'take the waters' for a day or two,--while Maillebois
was on his new errand, and such a crisis had risen. But Friedrich,
anxious to be neutral and give no offence, politely waived such honor.
Lord Stair was thought to be something of a General, in fact as well as
in costume;--and perhaps he was so. And had there been a proper COUNTESS
of Stair, or new Sarah Jennings,--to cover gently, by art-magic, the
Britannic Majesty and Fat Boy under a tub; and to put Britain,
and British Parliament and resources, into Stair's hand for a few
years,--who knows what Stair too might have done! A Marlborough in the
War Arts,--perhaps still less in the Peace ones, if we knew the great
Marlborough,--he could not have been. But there is in him a recognizable
flash of magnanimity, of heroic enterprise and purpose; which is highly
peculiar in that sordid element. And it can be said of him, as of
lightning striking ineffectual on the Bog of Allen or the Stygian Fens,
that his strength was never tried."--For the upshot of him we will wait;
not very long.

These are fine prospects, if only the Dutch prove hoistable. But these
are as nothing to what is passing, and has passed, in the Eastern Parts,
in the Bohemian-Bavarian quarter, since we were there. Poor Kaiser Karl,
what an outlook for him! His own real Bavaria, much more his imaginary
"Upper Austria" and "Conquests on the Donau," after that Segur
Adventure, are plunging headlong. As to his once "Kingdom of Bohemia,"
it has already plunged; nay, the Army of the Oriflamme is itself near
plunging, in spite of that Pharsalia of a Sahay! Bavaria itself, we say,
is mostly gone to Khevenhuller; Segur with his French on march homeward,
and nothing but Bavarians left. The Belleisle-Broglio grand Budweis
Expedition is gone totally heels over head