unluminous kind. And filled France in general, Paris in particular,
with terror, lamentation, prayers of forty hours; and such a
paroxysm of hero-worship as was never seen for such an object
before." [Espagnac, ii. 12; Adelung, iv. 180; Fastes de
Louis XV., ii. 423; &c. &c.]

For the Cause of Liberty here, we consider, was the culminating
moment; Elsass, Lorraine and the Three Bishoprics lying in their
quasi-moribund condition; Austrian claims of Compensation ceasing
to be visions of the heated brain, and gaining some footing on the
Earth as facts. Prince Karl is here actually in Elsass, master of
the strong passes; elate in heart, he and his; France, again, as if
fallen paralytic, into temporary distraction; offering for
resistance nothing hitherto but that universal wailing of mankind,
Hero-worship of a thrice-lamentable nature, and the Prayers of
Forty-Hours! Most Christian Majesty, now IN EXTREMIS, centre of the
basest hubbub that ever was, is dismissing Chateauroux.
Noailles, Coigny and Company hang well back upon the Hill regions,
and strong posts which are not yet menaced; or fly vaguely, more or
less distractedly, hither and thither; not in the least like
fighting Karl, much less like beating him. Karl has Germany free at
his back (nay it is a German population round him here); neither
haversack nor cartridge-box like to fail: before him are only a
Noailles and consorts, flying vaguely about;--and there is in Karl,
or under the same cloak with him at present, a talent of
manoeuvring men, which even Friedrich finds masterly. If old
Marshal Wade, at the other end of the line, should chance to awaken
and press home on Saxe, and his remnant of French, with right
vigor? In fact, there was not, that I can see, for centuries past,
not even at the Siege of Lille in Marlborough's time, a more