However, he did not yet despair. To be sure the Empress, young,
beautiful, and with a magnificent soprano voice, had seated herself
firmly in the hearts of her susceptible subjects. Besides, her engaging
manners, marked by all the charming _abandon_ of the stage, allowed her
to make conquests freely among her lieges, each of whom she encouraged
in turn, while smiling slily at the discarded rivals. Still, Don Pedro
took heart once more. "Revolution enthroned her," he muttered between
his teeth, "and counter-revolution shall disenthrone her yet. These
silly people will smirk and bow while she pretends to be in love with
every one of them from day to day; but when once the young Guatemalan
has carried off the prize they will regret their folly, and turn to the
Chancellor, whose heart has always been fixed upon the welfare of
Andorra."
With this object in view, the astute politician worked harder than ever
for the regeneration of the State. His policy falls under two heads, the
External and the Internal. Each head deserves a passing mention from the
laborious historian.
Don Pedro's External Policy consisted in the annexation of France,
Spain, Portugal, and Italy, and the amalgamation of the Latin races.
Accordingly, he despatched Ambassadors to the courts of those four
Powers, informing them that the Holy Roman Empire had been resuscitated
in Andorra, and inviting them to send in their adhesion to the new
State. In that case he assured them that each country should possess a
representative in the Imperial Folk Mote on the same terms as the
several wards of Andorra itself, and that the settlement of local
affairs should be left unreservedly to the minor legislatures, while the
Chancellor of the Empire in person would manage the military and naval
forces and the general executive department of the whole Confederation.
As the four Powers refused to take any notice of Don Pedro's manifesto,
the Chancellor declared to the Folk Mote his determination of treating
them as recalcitrant rebels, and reducing them by force of arms.
However, the Andorran army not being thoroughly mobilized, and indeed
having fallen into a state of considerable demoralization, the ambitious
prince decided to postpone the declaration of war _sine die_; and his
Foreign Policy accordingly stood over for the time being.
Don Pedro's Internal Policy embraced various measures of Finance,
Electoral Law, Public Morals, and Police Regulation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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