touching the Emperor Napoleon’s visit to Salzburg in 1867, or the more highly polished Voltairean irony of Frederick II, of which one may instance, in particular, his letters to Louis XV just before the Christmas treaties of 1745, and the letter of Christmas Day of that year. To Frederick, who had himself been a doubtful ally, Louis, another doubtful ally, had written, in effect, according to Frederick: if misfortune should befall you, you have my promise that the Academy will deliver a funeral oration over your kingdom. In his letter of Christmas Day, Frederick said:[1]
'I had expected some real help from your Majesty in consequence of my application in November last. I will not discuss the reasons you may have for leaving your allies to their own resources, but I feel happy that the valour of my troops has saved me from a critical situation. If I had been unfortunate, you would only have pitied me, and I should have been helpless. How can an alliance subsist, unless the two parties co-operate heartily towards the common end? You wish me to take counsel of my own wits: I obey. And they enjoin me to put an end at once to a war, which, as it has no object since the death of the Emperor, is merely causing a useless sacrifice of blood. I am told that it is time to think of my own safety; that a large force of Muscovites threatens my country; that fortune is fickle, and that I have no help of any kind to expect from my allies; … that after the lester I have just received from your Majesty, nothing is left but to sign peace,
and to remain the most affectionate brother of his Most Christian Majesty. On the same day, in a communication
- ↑ Histoire de mon Temps, ch. xiv, towards the end; see also Tuttle, History of Prussia under Frederick the Great, 2 vols. (1888), ii. 50, for the slight variation between the version as given by Frederick and the letter as preserved in the French archives.
'editor' of the Ems telegram and the appraiser of his own handiwork at that crisis—probably beyond its due weight.
