But the sudden disgrace of the countess d'Ashkof and the offer of alliance with France insultingly repulsed, threw at once light and confusion into the plots of M.de Segur: he demanded his recall.

The humiliation of seeing his talents played with, the hopes of his party annihilated, the prospect of his country's misfortunes, and Europe in flames, had, it was reported, urged his sadness to despair.

The report ran that he had attempted his life.
This imputed suicide was but a brain fever occasioned by the anguish of a proud mind deeply wounded.
XXII.
The same party attempted, and at nearly the same time, to acquire for France a sovereign whose renown weighed as heavily as a throne in the opinion of Europe.

This was the duke of Brunswick, a pupil of the great Frederic, the presumed heir of his military fame and inspiration, and proclaimed, by anticipation, by the public voice, generalissimo, in the coming war against France.

To carry off from the emperor and the king of Prussia the chief of their armies, was to deprive Germany of confidence and of victory.
The name of the duke of Brunswick was a prestige which invested Germany with a feeling of terror and inviolability.