on, and disgraced his family; insisting upon the prince's
pursuing his journey, as well as upon the return of the troops; and
threatening, in case of non-compliance, to use other means that should
be more effectual. [461] _[See note 3 O, at the end of this Vol.]_
Notwithstanding this warm remonstrance, prince Ferdinand adhered to his
plan. He detained the troops and the hereditary prince, who, being
fond of the service, in a little time signalized himself by very
extraordinary acts of bravery and conduct; and means were found to
reconcile his father to measures that expressly contradicted his
engagements with the courts of Vienna and Versailles.

DECREE OF THE AULIC COUNCIL.

The defeat of the French army at Rosbach, and the retreat of the
Russians from Pomerania, had entirely changed the face of affairs in
the empire. The French king was soon obliged to abandon his conquests
on that sida of the Rhine, and his threats sounded no longer terrible
in the ears of the Hanoverian and Prussian allies. As little formidable
were the denunciations of the emperor, who had, by a decree of the Aulic
council, communicated to the diet certain mandates, issued in the month
of August in the preceding year, on pain of the ban of the empire, with
avocatory letters annexed against the king of Great Britain, elector
of Hanover, and the other princes acting in concert with the king of
Prussia. The French court likewise published a virulent memorial, after
the convention of Closter-Seven had been violated and set aside, drawing
an invidious parallel between the conduct of the French king and the
proceedings of his Britannic majesty; in which the latter is taxed
with breach of faith, and almost every meanness that could stain the
character of a monarch. In answer to the emperor's decree and
this virulent charge, baron Gimmengen, the electoral minister of
Brunswick-Lunenbourg, presented to the diet, in November, a long
memorial, recapitulating the important services his sovereign had done
the house of Austria, and the ungrateful returns he had reaped, in the
queen's refusing to assist him, when his dominions were threatened with
an invasion. He enumerated many instances in which she had assisted,
encouraged, and even joined the enemies of the electorate, in contempt
of her former engagements, and directly contrary to the constitution
of the empire. He refuted every article of the charge which the French
court had brought against him in t