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 314 THE LOYALTY OF AUSTRIA. CHAP. Moldavia and Wallachia were defiantly seized by ' the Czar. The loyal The statesmen of Austria — in that respect like ST^Hr." our diplomatists— have long been accustomed to govern their public acts by the dictates of per- sonal honour ; and, her honest, young Emperor clinging fast under difficult trials to sound patri- otic designs, she at this anxious time was well steered through the numberless troubles besetting her by a Minister of commanding ability and invincible firmness. Against all the contrivances of Eussia and her industrious emissaries, against the hysteric urgency of the Prussian king, against the ceaseless embarrassment of acting under an Emperor whose feelings, although he controlled them, still painfully clashed with his duties, against a formidable proportion — including per- haps the most powerful — of all his fellow-sub- jects, and finally in the opposite quarter against France and England when striving to draw him too far in the direction of their special desires, Count de Buol held his course with a steadiness, temper, and skill that never seemingly failed him throughout the long, perilous struggle. Kept by this master-hand in the path of honour and prudence approved by her loyal Emperor, Austria did not forget the advantages with all the consequent duties that had accrued from her union with the Western Powers. Ear from imitating the defection of Prussia, she armed at great cost for a war, and — though slowly — drew nearer and nearer to her Western Allies. Having