With convulsive weeping Maria Theresa saw her son assume his command, and when Joseph bade her farewell, she sank insensible from his arms to the floor.
CHAPTER CXXIII.
THE EMPEROR AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.
The Emperor Joseph was pacing the floor of his cabinet. Sometimes he paused before a window, and with absent looks surveyed the plain where his troops were encamped, and their stacked arms glistened to the sun; then he returned to the table where Field-Marshal Lacy was deep in plans and charts.
Occasionally the silence was broken by the blast of a trumpet or the shouts of the soldiery who were arriving at headquarters.
"Lacy," said the emperor, after a long, dreary pause, "put by your charts, and give me a word of consolation."
The field-marshal laid aside his papers and rose from the table. "Your majesty had ordered me to specify upon the chart the exact spot which Frederick occupies by Welsdorf, and Prince Henry by Nienberg."
"I know, I know," answered Joseph impatiently. "But what avails their encampment to-day, when to-morrow they are sure to advance?"
"Your majesty thinks that he will make an attack?"
"I am sure of it."