terested, as the Saxon Sovereignty, and the Bavarian,
denied that it was just: reminded Kaiser-Karl that he was not the Noah
or Adam of Kaisers; and that the case of Heirs-female was not quite
a new idea on sheepskin. No; there are older Pragmatic Sanctions
and settlements, by prior Kaisers of blessed memory; under which, if
Daughters are to come in, we, descended from Imperial Daughters of
older standing, shall have a word to say!--To this Kaiser Karl answers
steadily, with endless argument, That every Kaiser is a Patriarch,
and First Man, in such matters; and that so it has been pragmatically
sanctioned by him, and that so it shall and must irrevocably be. To the
other Powers, and indolent impartial Sovereigns of the world, he was
lavish in embassies; in ardent representations; and spared no pains in
convincing them that to-morrow would surely come, and that then it would
be a blessedness to have accepted this Pragmatic Sanction, and see
it lying for you as a Law of Nature to go by, and avoid incalculable
controversies.

This was another vast Shadow, or confused high-piled continent of
shadows, to which our poor Kaiser held with his customary tenacity. To
procure adherences and assurances to this dear Pragmatic Sanction, was,
even more than the shadow of the Spanish Crown, and above all after he
had quitted that, the one grand business of his Life henceforth. With
which he kept all Europe in perpetual travail and diplomacy; raying
out ambassadors, and less ostensible agents, with bribes, and with
entreaties and proposals, into every high Sovereign Court and every low;
negotiating unweariedly by all methods, with all men. For it was his
evening-song and his morning-prayer; the grand meaning of Life to him,
till Life ended. You would have said, the first question he asks of
every creature is, "Will you covenant for my Pragmatic Sanction with me?
Oh, agree to it; accept that new Law of Nature: when the morrow comes,
it will be salutary for you!"

Most of the Foreign Potentates idly accepted the thing,--as things of
a distant contingent kind are accepted;--made Treaty on it, since the
Kaiser seemed so extremely anxious. Only Bavaria, having heritable
claims, never would. Saxony too (August the Strong), being in the
like case, or a better, flatly refused for a long time; would not,
at all,--except for a consideration. Bright little Prince Eugene, who
dictated square miles of Letters and DIplomacies on the subject (Letters