condemned to pay fifteen hundred thousand francs by way of restitution.  Cadet was banished for nine years from Paris and required to refund six millions; while others were sentenced in sums varying from thirty thousand to eight hundred thousand francs, and were ordered to be held in prison till the money was paid.  Of twenty-one persons brought to trial ten were condemned, six were acquitted, three received an admonition, and two were dismissed for want of evidence.  Thirty-four failed to appear, of whom seven were sentenced in default, and judgment was reserved in the case of the rest.[860] Even those who escaped from justice profited little by their gains, for unless they had turned them betimes into land or other substantial values, they lost them in a discredited paper currency and dishonored bills of exchange.

[Footnote 860:  Jugement rendu souverainement et en dernier Ressort dans l’Affaire du Canada.  Papers at the Chatelet of Paris, cited by Dussieux.]

While on the American continent the last scenes of the war were drawing to their close, the contest raged in Europe with unabated violence.  England was in the full career of success; but her great ally, Frederic of Prussia, seemed tottering to his ruin.  In the summer of 1758 his glory was at its height.  French, Austrians, and Russians had all fled before him.  But the autumn brought reverses; and the Austrian general, Daun, at the head of an overwhelming force, gained over him a partial victory, which his masterly strategy robbed of its fruits.  It was but a momentary respite.  His kingdom was exhausted by its own triumphs.  His best generals were dead, his best soldiers killed or disabled, his resources almost spent, the very chandeliers of his palace melted into coin; and all Europe was in arms against him.  The disciplined valor of the Prussian troops and the supreme leadership of their undespairing King had thus far held the invading hosts at bay; but now the end seemed near.  Frederic could not be everywhere at once; and while he stopped one leak the torrent poured in at another.  The Russians advanced again, defeated General Wedell, whom he sent against them, and made a junction with the Austrians.  In August, 1759, he attacked their united force at Kunersdorf, broke their left wing to pieces, took a hundred and eighty cannon, forced their centre to give ground, and after hours of furious fighting was overwhelmed at last.  In vain he tried to stop the rout.  The bullets killed two horses under him, tore his clothes, and crushed a gold snuff-box in his waistcoat pocket.  “Is there no b——­ of a shot that can hit me, then?” he cried in his bitterness, as his aides-de-camp forced him from the field.  For a few days he despaired; then rallied to his forlorn task, and with smiles on his lip and anguish at his heart watched, manoeuvred, and fought with cool and stubborn desperation.  To his friend D’Argens he wrote soon after his defeat:  “Death is sweet in comparison to