Chapter 51:
Parliament is at one with the king.October—December, 1775.
‘when the Russians arrive, will you go and seeChap. LI.} 1775. Oct. |
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their camp?’
wrote Edward Gibbon to a friend.
‘We have great hopes of getting a body of these barbarians; the ministers daily and hourly expect to hear that the business is concluded; the worst of it is, the Baltic will soon be frozen up, and it must be late next year before they can get to America.’
The couriers that, one after another, arrived from Moscow, dispelled this confidence.
The king was surprised by the refusal of the empress of Russia, and found fault with her manner as not ‘genteel;’ for, said he, ‘she has not had the civility to answer me in her own hand; and has thrown out expressions that may be civil to a Russian ear, but certainly not to more civilized ones.’
Yet he bore the disappointment with his wonted firmness; and turned for relief to the smaller princes of Germany, who now, on the failure of his
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1860.
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