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226 THE AUSTRIAN YELLOW.
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going to sit here and watch the crowd until the court is gone."
" As long as your Imperial Majesty is present the court will be here," replied the ladies.
"Not at all," said Francis Stephen. "The court is my wife and children. I'm nobody."
And
such indubitably was the fact. The Empress adored him, but he was
nobody and has left but little trace in history. He was very fond of
money and sometimes resorted to singular means in order to turn an
honest penny. When his wife was engaged in that long struggle with the
King of Prussia which goes in history by the name of the Seven Years'
War, he made a good sum by supplying the enemy's cavalry with forage.
Another strange though somewhat less crooked means of augmenting his
riches is related concerning his diamonds. He employed himself for a
considerable time in a series of experiments which had for their object
the melting down of small diamonds with the view of making a large one.
No doubt
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