MARIA THERESA. 403 whom, in notes still existing, she styled " my dear friend." The great Frederick, on the contrary, would never con- descend to notice, officially, the existence of Madame de Pompadour, and made her his bitter foe by his contemptu- ous silence and stinging sarcasm. He used to call her " Petticoat III," in allusion to the fact that she was the third mistress of Louis XV ; and there were always about the two courts busy adherents of the Empress to convey to the ears of Pompadour the sneering wit of the Prussian monarch. • By such arts, and others more legitimate, Maria Theresa united against Frederick the sovereigns of France, Eng- land, Russia, and of several of the States of Germany, not doubting for a moment that a kingdom of five mil- lions of souls must of necessity succumb before a com- bination of States, the united population of which was more than a hundred and fifty millions. But she did not know her enemy. Informed of the secret treaty for the destruction of his kingdom and its division among his enemies, Frederick suddenly marched with sixty thousand men, and overran Saxony and Bohe- mia, and thus began the famous Seven Years' War, which only ended when the enemies of Frederick, exhausted of men and money, were compelled to leave him in peaceful possession of the province he had seized. It must be avowed, however, that, in all probability, Frederick would have been overwhelmed and finally defeated, but for the accession to the throne of Russia of Peter III. This emperor had conceived such a passionate admiration of the character and exploits of the Prussian king that the moment he came upon the throne he aban- doned the coalition, and withdrew his armies from the seat of war. This event occurred in the very nick of time. It relieved Frederick and completed the discour- agement of his enemies.
