“I have but two enemies,” Maria Theresa said again, “whom I have to dread—­the King of Prussia and the Turks.  And while I and the Empress of Russia continue on the same good terms as now subsist between us, we shall, I trust, be able to convince Europe that we are in a condition to defend ourselves against those adversaries, however formidable.”

The queen still kept her eye anxiously fixed upon Silesia, and in secret combination with the Empress of Russia made preparation for a sudden invasion.  With as much secrecy as was possible, large armies were congregated in the vicinity of Prague, while Russia was cautiously concentrating her troops upon the frontiers of Livonia.  But Frederic was on the alert, and immediately demanded of the empress queen the significance of these military movements.

“In the present crisis,” the queen replied, “I deem it necessary to take measures for the security of myself and my allies, which tend to the prejudice of no one.”

So vague an answer was of course unsatisfactory, and the haughty Prussian king reiterated his demand in very imperious tones.

“I wish,” said he, “for an immediate and categorical answer, not delivered in an oracular style, ambiguous and inconclusive, respecting the armaments in Bohemia, and I demand a positive assurance that the queen will not attack me either during this or the following year.”

The answer returned by the queen to this demand was equally unsatisfactory with the first, and the energetic Prussian monarch, wasting no more words, instantly invaded Saxony with a powerful army, overran the duchy, and took possession of Dresden, its capital.  Then wheeling his troops, with twenty-four thousand men he marched boldly into Bohemia.  The queen dispatched an army of forty thousand to meet him.  The fierce encounter took place at Lowositz, near the banks of the Elbe.  The military genius of Frederic prevailed, and the Austrians were repulsed, though the slaughter was about equal on each side, six thousand men, three thousand upon each side, being left in their blood.  Frederic took possession of Saxony as a conquered province.  Seventeen thousand soldiers, whom he made prisoners, he forced into his own service.  Eighty pieces of cannon were added to his artillery train, and the revenues of Saxony replenished his purse.

The anger of Maria Theresa, at this humiliation of her ally, was roused to the highest pitch, and she spent the winter in the most vigorous preparations for the campaign of the spring.  She took advantage of religious fanaticism, and represented, through all the Catholic courts of Europe, that there was a league of the two heretical powers, England and Prussia, against the faithful children of the Church.  Jeanette Poisson, Marchioness of Pompadour, who now controlled the destinies of France, raised, for the service of Maria Theresa, an army of one hundred and five thousand men, paid all the expenses of ten thousand Bavarian troops, and promised the queen an annual subsidy of twelve millions of imperial florins.  The emperor, regarding the invasion of Saxony as an insult to the empire, roused the States of Germany to cooeperate with the queen.  Europe was again ablaze with war.