at that latter date;--Congress of Soissons
to settle the Apanage and other points, as formerly.

6. Congress of Soissons (14th June, 1728--9th November, 1729), as
formerly, cannot in the least: Termagaut whispers England;--there is
Treaty of Seville (9th November, 1729), France and England undertaking
for the Apanage. Congress vanishes; Kaiser is left solitary, with the
shadow of Pragmatic Sanction, in the night of things. Pause of an awful
nature:--but Fleury does not hasten with the Apanage, as promised.
Whereupon, at length,

7. Treaty of Vienna (16th March, 1731): Sea-Powers, leading Termagant by
the hand, Sea-Powers and no France, unite with Kaiser again, according
to the old laws of Nature;--and Baby Carlos gets his Apanage, in due
course;--but does not rest content with it, Mamma nor he, very long!

Huge spectres and absurd bugaboos, stalking through the brain of dull
thoughtless pusillanimous mankind, do, to a terrible extent, tumble
hither and thither, and cause to lurch from side to side, their ship
of state, and all that is embarked there, BREAKFAST-TABLE, among other
things. Nevertheless, if they were only bugaboos, and mere Shadows
caused by Imperial hand-lanterns in the general Night of the
world,--ought they to be spoken of in the family, when avoidable?

Chapter IV. -- DOUBLE-MARRIAGE TREATY CANNOT BE SIGNED.

Hitherto the world-tides, and ebbs and flows of external Politics, had,
by accident, rather forwarded, than hindered the Double-Marriage. In
the rear of such a Treaty of Hanover, triumphantly righting the European
Balances by help of Friedrich Wilhelm, one might have hoped this little
domestic Treaty would, at last, get itself signed. Queen Sophie did
hasten off to Hanover, directly after her husband had left it under
those favorable aspects: but Papa again proved unmanageable; the Treaty
could not be achieved.

Alas, and why not? Parents and Children, on both sides, being really
desirous of it, what reason is there but it should in due time come to
perfection, and, without annihilating Time and Space, make four lovers
happy? No reason. Rubs doubtless had arisen since that Visit of George
I., discordant procedures, chiefly about Friedrich Wilhelm's recruiting
operations in the Hanover territory, as shall be noted by and by: but
these the ever-wakeful enthusiasm of Queen Sophie, who had set her whole
heart with a female fixity on this Double-Marriage Project, had smoothed
down again: an