l-powerful
mistress of Louis XV., wrote her flattering letters, and addressed her,
it is said, as "_Ma chere cousine_." Pompadour was delighted, and could
hardly do enough for her imperial friend. She ruled the King, and could
make and unmake ministers at will. They hastened to do her pleasure,
disguising their subserviency by dressing it out in specious reasons of
state. A conference at her summer-house, called Babiole, "Bawble,"
prepared the way for a treaty which involved the nation in the
anti-Prussian war, and made it the instrument of Austria in the attempt
to humble Frederic,--an attempt which if successful would give the
hereditary enemy of France a predominance over Germany. France engaged
to aid the cause with twenty-four thousand men; but in the zeal of her
rulers began with a hundred thousand. Thus the three great Powers stood
leagued against Prussia. Sweden and Saxony joined them; and the Empire
itself, of which Prussia was a part, took arms against its obnoxious
member.

Never in Europe had power been more centralized, and never in France had
the reins been held by persons so pitiful, impelled by motives so
contemptible. The levity, vanity, and spite of a concubine became a
mighty engine to influence the destinies of nations. Louis XV.,
enervated by pleasures and devoured by _ennui_, still had his emotions;
he shared Pompadour's detestation of Frederic, and he was tormented at
times by a lively fear of damnation. But how damn a king who had entered
the lists as champion of the Church? England was Protestant, and so was
Prussia; Austria was supremely Catholic. Was it not a merit in the eyes
of God to join her in holy war against the powers of heresy? The King of
the Parc-aux-Cerfs would propitiate Heaven by a new crusade.

Henceforth France was to turn her strength against her European foes;
and the American war, the occasion of the universal outbreak, was to
hold in her eyes a second place. The reasons were several: the vanity of
Pompadour, infatuated by the advances of the Empress-Queen, and eager to
secure her good graces; the superstition of the King; the anger of both
against Frederic; the desire of D'Argenson, minister of war, that the
army, and not the navy, should play the foremost part; and the passion
of courtiers and nobles, ignorant of the naval service, to win laurels
in a continental war,--all conspired to one end. It was the interest of
France to turn her strength against her only dangerous