dismal
truth is, though it was not known for years afterward, Kaunitz does
about this time, in profoundest secret, actually make Treaty of Alliance
with the Turk ("so many million Piastres to us, ready money, year by
year, and you shall, if not by our mediating, then by our fighting, be
a contented Turk"); and all along at the different Russian-Turk
"Peace-Congresses," Kaunitz, while pretending to sit and mediate
along with Prussia, sat on that far other basis, privately thwarting
everything; and span out the Turk pacification in a wretched manner
for years coming. ["Peace of Kainardschi," not till "21st July,
1774,"--after four or five abortive attempts, two of them "Congresses,"
Kaunitz so industrious (Hermann, v. 664 et antea).] A dangerous,
hard-mouthed, high-stalking, ill-given old coach-horse of a Kaunitz:
fancy what the driving of him might be, on a road he did not like! But
he had a driver too, who, in delicate adroitness, in patience and in
sharpness of whip, was consummate: "You shall know it is your one road,
my ill-given friend!" (I ostentatiously increase my Cavalry by 8,000;
meaning, "A new Seven-Years War, if you force me, and Russia by my side
this time!") So that Kaunitz had to quit his Turk courses (never paid
the Piastres back), and go into what really was the one way out.

But Friedrich's difficulties on this course are not the thing that
can interest readers; and all readers know his faculty for overcoming
difficulties. Readers ask rather: "And had Friedrich no feeling about
Poland itself, then, and this atrocious Partitioning of the poor
Country?" Apparently none whatever;--unless it might be, that
Deliverance from Anarchy, Pestilence, Famine, and Pigs eating your dead
bodies, would be a manifest advantage for Poland, while it was the
one way of saving Europe from War. Nobody seems more contented in
conscience, or radiant with heartfelt satisfaction, and certainty of
thanks from all wise and impartial men, than the King of Prussia, now
and afterwards, in regard to this Polish atrocity! A psychological fact,
which readers can notice. Scrupulous regard to Polish considerations,
magnanimity to Poland, or the least respect or pity for her as a
dying Anarchy, is what nobody will claim for him; consummate talent in
executing the Partition of Poland (inevitable some day, as he may have
thought, but is nowhere at the pains to say),--great talent, great
patience too, and meritorious self-denial and enduranc