The Marquis D'Argenson: A Study in Criticism: Being the Stanhope Essay: Oxford, 1893Ogle, Arthur
History
The Marquis D'Argenson: A Study in Criticism: Being the Stanhope Essay: Oxford, 1893
Ogle, Arthur
Argenson, René-Louis de Voyer, marquis d', 1694-1757
In the meanwhile no effort was spared by Maria Theresa to detach the
Elector from the League of Frankfort.[328] Her diplomatic agents were
Colloredo and Count Batthiany. Colloredo negotiated at Munich with
humiliating terms of peace; Batthiany advanced upon Munich with an army
eleven thousand strong, before which Ségur, with a small French force,
had withdrawn to the Bavarian frontier. Accordingly, Chavigny and the
Elector fled to Augsburg, where, on the 19th of April, a treaty of
peace, dictated by the Austrian envoy, was signed by Maximilian.
The event of the 19th of April was the signal for what M. de Broglie
himself calls "the breakup and rout of all that in a greater or less
degree was still holding to France."[329] The Prince of Hesse, the
Elector Palatine, the Duke of Wurtemburg, and the Electors of Trèves
and Mayence were at no pains to conceal their view that the French
cause in Germany was lost; while the Elector of Saxony, Augustus
himself, the very man upon whom for three months the efforts of French
diplomacy had been centred, made haste to summon the troops of France
to withdraw from the soil of the Empire, where there remained no excuse
for their continued presence.[330]
Such was the disaster d'Argenson had foreseen and endeavoured vainly
to avert. He is said[331] to have cherished with blind fatuity an
unfounded faith in the fidelity of Bavaria. That faith was more than
justified, if we are to believe Chavigny, who said that up to the very
day when the unhappy Elector was forced to abandon his capital to the
Austrians, he remained firmly attached to the French alliance.[332] The
truth is this: that not only at Munich, but at Dresden and Frankfort,
d'Argenson's action must appear ridiculous; because, while prosecuting
his negotiations with energy and enthusiasm, he was unable, through no
fault of his own, to give them the weight of a single cannon-shot. In a
word, the bold policy of the 31st of January, while actively prosecuted
by the French Minister, was tacitly abandoned by the French Government.
Of that fact Frederick needed no further evidence than the Convention
of Augsburg. His mind was made up. He saw at once that the real object
of that Government was, not the protection of German liberties, not the
election of the King of Poland, not a decisive war and an honourable
peace, but simply a holiday campaign in Flanders. He was utterly
exasperated by the vain selfishness of the French policy, while his
impatience at its continued tenderness for Saxony mounted to the brim.
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