mpadour is shocked at the
favorite creature of her hands; hastens to dismiss him ("Be Cardinal
then, you ingrate of a Bernis; disappear under that Red Hat!")--and
appoints, in his stead, one Choiseul (known hitherto as STAINVILLE,
Comte de Stainville, French Excellency at Vienna, but now made Duke on
this promotion), Duc de Choiseul; [Minister of Foreign Affairs,
"11th November, 1758" (Barbier, iv. 294).] who is a Lorrainer, or
Semi-Austrian, by very birth; and probably much fitter for the place. A
swift, impetuous kind of man, this Choiseul, who is still rather young
than otherwise; plenty of proud spirit in him, of shifts, talent of the
reckless sort; who proved very notable in France for the next twenty
years.

French trade being ruined withal, money is running dreadfully low:
but they appoint a new Controller-General; a M. de Silhouette, who is
thought to have an extraordinary creative genius in Finance. Had he but
a Fortunatus-Purse, how lucky were it! With Fortunatus Silhouette as
purse-holder, with a fiery young Choiseul on this hand, and a fiery
old Belleisle on that, Pompadour meditates great things this
Year,--Invasions of England; stronger German Armies; better German
Plans, and slashings home upon Hanover itself, or the vital point;--and
flatters herself, and her poor Louis, that there is on the anvil, for
1759, such a French Campaign as will perhaps astonish Pitt and another
insolent King. Very fixed, fell and feminine is the Pompadour's humor
in this matter. Nor is the Czarina's less so; but more, if possible;
unappeasable except by death. Imperial Maria Theresa has masculine
reasons withal; great hopes, too, of late. Of the War's ending till flat
impossibility stop it, there is no likelihood.

To Pitt this Campaign 1759, in spite of bad omens at the outset, proved
altogether splendid: but greatly the reverse on Friedrich's side; to
whom it was the most disastrous and unfortunate he had yet made, or did
ever make. Pitt at his zenith in public reputation; Friedrich never so
low before, nothing seemingly but extinction near ahead, when this Year
ended. The truth is, apart from his specific pieces of ill-luck, there
had now begun for Friedrich a new rule of procedure, which much altered
his appearance in the world. Thrice over had he tried by the aggressive
or invasive method; thrice over made a plunge at the enemy's heart,
hoping so to disarm or lame him: but that, with resources spent to such
a degree, is