England, while endeavoring to subsidize Russia against Frederick, entered secretly into a sort of alliance with Frederick, hoping thus to save Hanover. The Empress Elizabeth, of Russia, heartily united with Maria Theresa against Frederick, whom she personally disliked, and whose encroachments she dreaded. His Prussian majesty, proud of his powers of sarcasm, in his poems spared neither friend nor foe. He had written some very severe things against the Russian empress, which had reached her ears.100
Director
Sire, here is Monsieur De Voltaire, who is come to receive the orders of your majesty.401In September, 1777, the King of Bavaria died. The emperor thought it a good opportunity to annex Bavaria to Austria. Do but look on the map, says Carlyle, in his peculiar style of thought and expression: you would say, Austria without Bavaria is like a human figure with its belly belonging to somebody else. Bavaria is the trunk or belly of the Austrian dominions, shutting off all the limbs of them each from the other; making for central part a huge chasm.