The emperor seems now to have become involved in an inextricable maze of prevarication and duplicity, striving in one court to accomplish purposes which in other courts he was denying that he wished to accomplish.  His embarrassment at length became so great, the greater part of Europe being roused and jealous, that he was compelled to abandon Spain, and reluctantly to sign a treaty of amity with France and England.  A general armistice was agreed upon for seven years.  The King of Spain, thus abandoned by the emperor, was also compelled to smother his indignation and to roll back his artillery into the arsenals.  Thus this black cloud of war, which threatened all Europe with desolation, was apparently dispelled.  This treaty, which seemed to restore peace to Europe, was signed in June, 1727.  It was, however, a hollow peace.  The spirit of ambition and aggression animated every court; and each one was ready, in defiance of treaties and in defiance of the misery of the world, again to unsheath the sword as soon as any opportunity should offer for the increase of territory or power.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CHARLES VI.  AND THE POLISH WAR.

From 1727 to 1735.

Cardinal Fleury.—­The Emperor of Austria Urges the Pragmatic Sanction.—­ He Promises His Two Daughters to the Two Sons of the Queen of Spain.—­France, England and Spain Unite Against Austria.—­Charles VI.  Issues Orders to Prepare for War.—­His Perplexities.—­Secret Overtures to England.—­The Crown of Poland.—­Meeting of the Polish Congress.—­ Stanislaus Goes to Poland.—­Augustus III.  Crowned.—­War.—­Charles Sends an Army to Lombardy.—­Difficulties of Prince Eugene.—­Charles’s Displeasure with England.—­Letter to Count Kinsky.—­Hostilities Renewed.

The young King of France, Louis XV., from amidst the orgies of his court which rivaled Babylon in corruption, was now seventeen years of age, and was beginning to shake off the trammels of guardianship and to take some ambitious part in government.  The infamous regent, the Duke of Orleans, died suddenly of apoplexy in 1723.  Gradually the king’s preceptor, Fleury, obtained the entire ascendency over the mind of his pupil, and became the chief director of affairs.  He saw the policy of reuniting the Bourbons of France and Spain for the support of each other.  The policy was consequently adopted of cultivating friendly relations between the two kingdoms.  Cardinal Fleury was much disposed to thwart the plans of the emperor.  A congress of the leading powers had been assembled at Soissons in June, 1728, to settle some diplomatic questions.  The favorite object of the emperor now was, to obtain from the European powers the formal guarantee to support his decree of succession which conveyed the crown of Austria to his daughters, in preference to those of his brother Joseph.