whole country. Kosciusko and the emigrant patriots returned, and placed themselves at the head of the movement, the central point of which was Cracow. From here Kusciusko issued a summons to the people. The insurrection quickly extended itself to the capital. The Russian garrison in Warsaw was attacked on Maundy-Thursday, 1794, and either cut to pieces or made prisoners. The provinces followed the example of the capital. The Prussians, who had marched into the neighborhood of Warsaw, were compelled to a precipitate and disastrous retreat by the generals Kusciusko, Dombrowski, and Poniatowski, the nephew of the king. Catherine, having obtained the assent of Austria and Prussia, sent the redoubtable General Suvaroff into Poland. Kosciusko was outnumbered. Badly beaten, he fell, wounded, from his horse, October 10, 1794, exclaiming, "the end of Poland," and was borne away a prisoner. Praga, the suburb, was stormed by Suvaroff, and 12,000 defenceless wretches were either slain or drowned in the Vistula. The capital surrendered, terrified into submission by the shrieks of those being slaughtered outside the walls. Suvaroff entered Warsaw a conqueror, and Poniatowski was compelled to surrender the crown. In January, 1795, the three powers declared that out of love for peace, and the welfare of their subjects, they had decided upon a partition of the whole of Poland. Mr. Boulton thus tabularizes the spoils of Poland:

and an overland invasion of India, when she died of an apoplectic fit in November, 1796.

Paul, son of Catherine and of Peter III., succeeded his mother in the forty-third year of his age. The French revolution had broken out; Louis XVI. and his queen, Marie Antoinette, had been executed, and the principal powers of Europe had formed a coalition against France.

Paul joined the coalition, and sent an army under the veteran Suvaroff into Italy, another force into Switzerland, a third to join the English forces under the Duke of York, in Holland, whilst a fourth expedition embarked and sailed to the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean expedition captured the French garrisons of the Ionian Isles, and Suvaroff gained some splendid victories over the French in Italy; but in Switzerland and Holland the results were less fortunate. Paul suddenly changed his line of politics, recalled Suvaroff and all his troops, and withdrew from the coalition. He now conceived a violent admiration for Napoleon, whose brilliant career had at this time conducted him to the position of ruler of the French, under the title of First Consul. Paul was preparing to throw himself into the arms of Napoleon in the same way that his father had become a violent partisan of Frederick the Great. As a natural consequence, he took an antipathy to his late ally, England, recalled his ambassador from London, seized all the English vessels at Revel and St. Petersburg, and prohibited all commerce between the two countries. A war with England was imminent, when a conspiracy called upon him to abdicate. This he refused to do, and when arrested by the conspirators fought with desperation. In the struggle, on the night of March 23, 1801, he was overpowered and strangled. Paul left four sons, the eldest of whom ascended the throne as Alexander I. Constantine, Nicholas, and Michael, were the names of his brothers.

HE eight years which intervened between the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle and the breaking out of the Seven Years' War resembled a season of truce, during which men's minds are agitated by the restless anticipation of future hostilities, rather than a period of settled tranquillity. The loss of her Silesian dominions still rankled in the breast of Maria Theresa, who shed tears whenever she compared her own forlorn condition with the rising greatness of Frederick, and wearied her able minister Kaunitz with entreaties that he would devise some mode of removing this stain from the honor of Austria. In Russia, the unprincipled chancellor of the empress Elizabeth persuaded his mistress to form an alliance with the Austrians, because the king of Prussia had ridiculed his vulgar profusion and rapacity-an example followed by the elector of Saxony. England was at this time engaged in a fierce conflict with France for the possession of her North American colonies, and looked for assistance to Prussia, and Frederick prudently made a treaty with England, January 1756.

In the first alarm occasioned by this intelligence, Maria Theresa condescended to write with her own hand a flattering letter to Madame de Pompadour, calling her "her dear cousin," and imploring her to obtain the king's consent to a treaty of alliance between France and Austria. The result of this overture was a convention between the two powers, which was signed at Varsailles, May 1, 1756. By the terms of this agreement, the spoils of Prussia were to be divided between the two continental powers, and the empress of Russia. Frederick

called this compact in derision "L'alliance des trois cotillions."

Frederick thought it best to anticipate this design, and suddenly appeared in Saxony at the head of 70,000 men, blockaded the Saxon army, and defeated an Austrian force sent against him. The Saxons then surrendered at discretion and were drafted into the Prussian army, the officers being liberated on their parole of honor. In the following year, 1767, preparations were made by the Allies. for resuming the war on a more extensive scale. Austria and France contributed each 150,000 men, Russia 100,000, Sweden 20,000, and the German empire generally 60,000. At the same time the ban of the empire was pronounced against Frederick by the diet at Ratisbon; but by an unfortunate clerical error the diet pledged itself, instead of "speedy aid," to render "miserable aid" to the Allies-an expression only too prophetical of their subsequent disasters. Frederick opened the campaign by again invading Bohemia, and attacking the Allies, who were intrenched in a strong position near Prague, under the command of Prince Charles of Lorraine, brother-in-law of the empress-queen. With his usual impetuosity the king urged his troops through a green morass, which he had mistaken for meadow ground. Marshal Schwerin implored him to delay the attack until the following morning; but the contemptuous retort of his master so piqued the old man, that, leaping from his horse and seizing a standard, he rushed wildly forward, and fell pierced with four balls. After a protracted and bloody struggle the Austrians fled in all directions, leaving their general among the dead. Some of the fugitives took refuge in the city of Prague, whilst others

joined the army of Marshal Daun, who was stationed in the neighborhood.

On the 18th of June another battle was fought near Kollin, in which the Prussians were utterly routed, losing 14,000 men, with all their artillery and baggage. On the evening of this terrible day Frederick was found by his officers seated on a hollow tree, which served as a water-course, and tracing figures with his stick on the sand. The sound of their voices roused him from this melancholy reverie; but his eyes filled with tears when they told him that of the magnificent brigade of grenadier guards not a man had escaped. "It has been a day of sorrow for us, my children," said the king; "but patience, and all will yet be well." A few weeks after this disaster, Frederick received the mortifying intelligence that his ally, the Duke of Cumberland, had been disgracefully defeated by the French near Hastenbek on the Weser, and had signed a convention at Kloster-Seven, by which he engaged to disband his troops and give up Hanover, Brunswick, and the whole of the country between the Weser and Rhine. This convention the king of England, acting under the advice of his prime minister Pitt, peremptorily refused to ratify. On the 5th of November Frederick again took the field and attacked the united army of the Imperialists and French, who were encamped near the village of Rossbach, not far from Leipsic. The enemy, who were three times as numerous as the Prussians, were so assured of victory that they had filled their camp with women and French friseurs; but the first charge of the Prussian cavalry threw them into confusion, and the whole army, with the exception of a few Swiss mercenaries, fled without firing a shot.

So ridiculous was the whole affair-for the Prussians only lost one hundred and sixty menthat Frederick, in his glee, proposed as a conundrum to his officers: "What German prince has the largest retinue?" Answer: "The Prince of Hilburghausen (commander of the defeated army) for he has 50,000 runners." "It is all very well," said Louis XV., when intelligence was brought to him of this disgraceful flight, "that fellow Frederick knows how to gain a battle, but let me see him make a paté de foie gras!"

Seidlitz, who had led the charge which dispersed the Imperialists, was considered the best cavalry officer of his time. He once rode between the re

volving sails of a windmill; and on another occasion, when asked by Frederick what he would do if the enemy were before and behind him on the bridge of Frankfort on the Oder, leaped his horse into the river and swam to the shore. Exactly one month after the battle of Rossbach, Frederick, with only 30,000 men, gained a complete victory over 80,000 Imperialists near Leuthen, and captured Breslau. In the spring of 1758 Frederick entered Moravia, but the news that the Russians were at the gates of Berlin obliged him to return. He came up with the Russians at Zorndorf, and totally defeated them, though their force was twice as large as his; but the victory cost him 11,000 men, for the Russians stood like walls. In the following October, however, Frederick sustained a severe defeat at Hochkirch from the Austrians, who surprised his camp in the night. The Prussian soldiers were awakened by the sound of their own cannon, which the enemy had seized and turned against them. Frederick lost on this occasion many of his bravest officers, 9,000 men and 100 guns. He was destined to suffer still more serious reverses in the following year. Towards the west, indeed, the Duke of Brunswick kept the French in check by his victory at Minden; but on the opposite side of his dominions Frederick was threatened by the united armies of the Russians and Austrians, who had learnt by experience that the Prussian monarch gained his advantages by encountering them singly. On the 12th of August, 1759, Frederick offered them battle at Kunnersdorf, near Frankfort on the Oder, but sustained one of the most serious defeats he had ever suffered. Shortly afterwards a division of his army 10,000 strong, under General Fink, was forced to surrender in a body. His next loss was Dresden, which fell into the hands of the Austrians; but on the 9th of October Berlin itself surrendered to the Russians and Austrians, under generals Todleben and Lacy. The Russian general prevented the town from being plundered, but the Saxons destroyed the palace of Charlottenburg, with its splendid collection of antiquities, out of revenge for Frederick having devastated Count Brühl's palaces at Dresden. Frederick's ill-fortune pursued him the following year, till his victory at Torgan, Nov. 3, 1760, put the Prussian monarchy out of danger.

On the evening before the battle he called his

generals together, and pointing out to them the necessity for finishing the war, told them that if they were beaten they must all perish, and expressed his own determination to die on the field. It was one of the bloodiest battles he ever fought. The enemy's cannonade from four hundred pieces was so terrific that Frederick, the hero of so many battles, could not help frequently exclaiming to his aides-de-camp, "What a fearful cannonade! Did you ever hear the like?" When the shades of night fell upon the combatants the engagement seemed still undecided. Frederick, who had been wounded, passed the night in the greatest anxiety, which was, however, relieved towards morning by the appearance of General Zieten, who came with the news that he had pursued the combat in the night, and that the Austrians were in full retreat. Frederick was accustomed to ridicule the old hussar-general, who before battle used always to cut a cross in the air with his sabre, by way of recommending himself to the Almighty; but now he clasped bim in his arms with the deepest emotion. Frederick's resources were, however, very much diminished by the refusal of George III. of England to continue the subsidy which had been paid to Prussia by his predecessor; nor were the funds of his enemies in a much better condition. In the year 1762 the empress Elizabeth died, and her successor, Peter III., immediately formed an alliance with Frederick, an example which was soon followed by Sweden. All Europe seemed now desirous of repose. France and Spain, humbled by their losses in the West Indies and on the high seas, were anxious to put an end to a war which had brought them nothing but defeat and disgrace. A general peace was therefore concluded at Paris on Feb. 10, 1763, and soon afterwards Maria Theresa, abandoned by her allies, was compelled to sign a convention, by which possession of Silesia. was again secured to Frederick.

Frederick's death took place on the 17th of August, 1786. The last of his companions in arms, General Zieten, had died in the previous January. For nearly half a century they had fought side by side in the field, and often bivouacked at the same fire, where Frederick would watch for hours over the old man as he lay on the ground exhausted by a long day's march. "Let poor old Zieten sleep now," he said to a soldier, who stumbled in laying

a faggot on the fire; "he has often watched that we might sleep." In one of their nightly rounds Frederick and his friend were attracted by the savory odor of some bacon which a soldier was broiling at his fire. "That stuff smells well, comrade," said Frederick. "Maybe," replied the man gruffly; "but the smell is all you are likely to get of it." "Hush, block head," whispered one of his comrades, who had recognized the king's voice, "it is his majesty." “Well,” replied the first speaker, who treated the whole affair as a joke of his messmates, and did not even vouchsafe to look up from his supper; "and suppose it were old Fritz-what then?" "Com

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Towards the end of his last illness, a dropsy, which continued with short intervals of comparative ease for nearly two years, Frederick was carried daily into the gardens of Sans Souci, where he used to sit for hours together basking in the sun. serai bientôt plus près de lui," were almost his last words. His death produced a sensation throughout the whole of Europe, for there was scarcely a palace or a hovel in which his name was not known for good or for evil. They buried him in the garrison church at Potsdam, near the grave of his father, notwithstanding the desire which he had often expressed that his body should rest in the midst of his dogs on the sunny terrace of Sans Souci.

Francis I. died in the year 1765, and was succeeded by his son Joseph II., who exercised little authority until the death of Maria Theresa, 1780. Among the most important events of his reign may be reckoned the dismemberment of Poland and the war of the Bavarian Succession. The crown of Poland having become vacant in 1765 by the death of Augustus III., a Russian army advanced upon Warsaw, and, being supported by a large Prussian force on the frontier, compelled the Poles to elect Stanislaus Poniatowski, a creature of the empress Catherine II. Shortly after this a war broke out between Russia and Turkey, in which the former took possession of Wallachia and Moldavia.

Austria having vehemently protested against her retaining these conquests, it was proposed, as the best mode of restoring the balance of power, that the territory of Poland should be divided between

Russia, Prussia, and Austria; a suggestion which was fully carried into effect in the year 1773. Maria Theresa, now almost incapacitated by age and infirmity from taking an active part in public affairs, could not refrain from raising her voice against this deed of shame, which she was unable to prevent and wrote thus to her minister Kaunitz: "When all mine own dominions were assailed, and I knew not where to lay my head in peace, I relied on my good cause and the help of Almighty God. But in the present affair, wherein not only political right, but honesty and common sense are against us, I must needs confess that never in the whole course of my life have I felt so grieved and ashamed. I know that I stand alone, and am no longer en vigueur; I must therefore let things take their course but it is pain and grief to me. Placet-because so many great and learned men will have it so; but long after my death you will regret this daring violation of all that has hitherto been held sacred."

Maximilian Joseph, elector of Bavaria, having died without issue in 1777, the succession to his electoral dignity was claimed by the emperor Joseph, who compelled the rightful heir to cede two-thirds of Bavaria to the Austrians. This act of gross oppression roused Frederick the Great, who immediately crossed the mountains into Bohemia, where Joseph awaited him with a considerable force; but, after a few skirmishes between the light troops on both sides, a treaty of peace was signed at Teschen on the 13th of May, 1779. By this treaty the whole of Bavaria, with a trifling exception, was secured to the duke of Zweibrücken. Men called this war in derision the "Potato war," because the soldiers had little else to do but roast and eat their potatoes. After the death of Maria Theresa in 1780, Joseph II. commenced his reforms in church and state. proclamation was issued forbidding obedience to the pope's bull unless confirmed by the Imperial "placet:" all the mendicant orders were suppressed, and 624 monasteries deprived of their revenues; whilst at the same time full toleration was granted to all sectaries except the Deists. The consternation excited at Rome by the intelligence of these daring innovations was so great, that Pope Pius VI. judged it necessary to cross the Alps without delay, and confront the emperor in his capital. The whole of his journey was like a triumphal procession, thou

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sands falling down at his feet as he passed, and imploring his blessing. Joseph alone and his minister Kaunitz received the head of their church with coldness, and strove to convince him, by a series of petty annoyances, that his arrival at Vienna was neither expected nor welcome. A pontifical high mass was celebrated in the cathedral of Vienna, but the emperor and his suite were intentionally absent. None were suffered to accost Pius without special permission; and in order to prevent the infringement of this regulation, the doors of his lodging were walled up, with the exception of one, which was closely watched night and day by a piquet of the Imperial guard. After four weeks spent in ineffectual negotiations, the pope quitted Vienna, and was accompanied as far as the monastery of Marienbronn by Joseph, who manifested his contempt for papal authority by suppressing the monastery almost before Pius and his suite had ceased to be visible from its towers. Meanwhile the people in most of the distant provinces were restless and discontented; for their priests had persuaded them that the ecclesiastical reforms of the emperor were only the commencement of an attempt to abolish the Christian religion. To add to his embarrassments, a league was formed in 1785 between Prussia, Saxony, Hanover, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, and several other powers, for the express purpose of resisting his design of exchanging the Austrian Netherlands for Bavaria. The establishment of this alliance was almost the last public act of Frederick II., who died in the following year. In 1788 the emperor Joseph engaged in a war with Turkey, which he was compelled to abandon after losing 33,000 men by sickness and desertion. About the same time the people of the Netherlands, at the instigation of an advocate named Van der Noot, declared themselves independent of Austria, and established a republic under the name of "The United Belgian Commonwealth." During these contentions Joseph died, on the 20th of February, 1790. Disappointment at the failure of all his plans seems to have brought on the crisis of a disease under which he had been laboring ever since the Turkish campaign. "I am dying," he said, after receiving intelligence that his favorite project of reform in Hungary had failed through the obstinacy of those for whose benefit it was intended; "my heart must be of stone not to break." Joseph committed a most impolitic act in demolishing the frontier for