They, therefore, sent their armies into Germany, to superintend the approaching election, and by hovering over the territories of princes unable to resist them, extorted voices in favour of their ally; a prince, whose dominions must, by their situation, always oblige him to compliance with the demands, and to concurrence in the schemes of his protectors, and who will rather act as the substitute of France, than the emperour of Germany.

But it was to no purpose that they had graced their dependant with titular honours and ensigns of sovereignty, if the house of Austria still retained its hereditary dominions, and preserved its strength when it had lost its dignity.  They well knew that armies were equally formidable, whether commanded by an emperour or an inferiour sovereign; and that a mere alteration of names, though it might afford a slight and transient gratification to vanity, would produce no real increase or diminution of power.

They, therefore, thought it necessary to improve the present time of confusion, and excite all the princes of the empire to revive their ancient claims upon the Austrian territories; claims, which how long soever they had been forgotten, howsoever abrogated by long prescription, or annulled by subsequent treaties, were now again to become valid, and to be decided by the arbitration of France.

But this project being defeated by the heroick constancy of the queen of Hungary, whose wisdom and resolution, which will equal her name in future histories with those of the most successful conquerors, rejected their mediation, and refused to own her right doubtful, by submitting it to be tried; they were obliged no longer to dissemble their designs, or make farther pretences to respect or tenderness.  Her fall was necessary to their own exaltation; they, therefore, kindled a general conflagration of war, they excited all the princes to take arms against her, and found it, indeed, no difficult task to persuade them to attack a princess, whom they thought unable to form an army, whom they believed they should rather pursue than engage, and whose dominions might be overrun without bloodshed, and whom they should conquer only by marching against.

Such a combination as this, a combination of monarchs, of which each appeared able singly to have carried on a war against her, nothing but the highest degree of magnanimity could have formed a design of resisting; nor could that resistance have procured the least advantages, or retarded for a single day the calamities that were threatened, had it not been regulated by every martial virtue, had not policy united with courage, and caution with activity.

Thus did the intrepidity of this princess, my lords, support her against the storms that shook her kingdom on every side; thus did those, whom her virtues gained over to her service, and whom her example animated with contempt of superiour numbers, defend her against the forces of all the surrounding nations, led on by monarchs, and elated with the prospect of an easy conquest.