ate King Philip and
his Termagant Elizabeth. Transport of indignation was the natural
consequence on their part; order to every Frenchman to be across the
border within, say eight-and-forty hours; rejection forever of all
French mediation at Cambrai or elsewhere; question to the English, "Will
you mediate for us, then?" To which the answer being merely "Hm!" with
looks of delay,--order by express to Ripperda, to make straightway a
bargain with the Kaiser; almost any bargain, so it were made at once.
Ripperda made a bargain: Treaty of Vienna, 30th April, 1725: [Scholl,
ii. 201; Coxe, _Walpole,_ i. 239-250.] "Titles and Shadows each of us
shall keep for his own lifetime, then they shall drop. As to realities
again, to Parma and Piacenza among the rest, let these be as in the
Treaty of Utrecht; arrangeable in the lump;--and indeed, of Parma and
Piacenza perhaps the less we say, the better at present." This was, in
substance, Ripperda's Treaty; the Third great European travail-throe, or
change of color in the long-suffering lobster. Whereby, of course, the
Congress of Cambrai did straightway disappear, the floor miraculously
vanishing under it; and sinks--far below human eye-reach by this
time--towards the Bottomless Pool, ever since. Such was the beginning,
such the end of that Congress, which Arouet LE JEUNE, in 1722, saw as a
contemporary Fact, drinking champagne in Ramillies wigs, and arranging
comedies for itself.

FRANCE AND THE BRITANNIC MAJESTY TRIM THE SHIP AGAIN: HOW FRIEDRICH
WILHELM CAME INTO IT. TREATY OF HANOVER, 1725.

The publication of this Treaty of Vienna (30th April, 1725),--miraculous
disappearance of the Congress of Cambrai by withdrawal of the floor
from under it, and close union of the Courts of Spain and Vienna as
the outcome of its slow labors,--filled Europe, and chiefly the late
mediating Powers, with amazement, anger, terror. Made Europe lurch
suddenly to the other side, as we phrased it,--other gunwale now under
water. Wherefore, in Heaven's name, trim your ship again, if possible,
ye high mediating Powers. This the mediating Powers were laudably
alert to do. Duc de Bourbon, and his young King about to marry, were of
pacific tendencies; anxious for the Balance: still more was Fleury,
who succeeded Duc de Bourbon. Cardinal Fleury (with his pupil Louis XV.
under him, producing royal progeny and nothing worse or better as
yet) began, next year, his long supremacy in France; an aged reverend