On flying from Vienna, Maria Theresa had sought refuge in Hungary; the assembly of the Estates held a meeting at Presburg; there she appeared, dressed in mourning, holding in her arms her son, scarce six months old.

Already she had known how to attach the magnates to her by the confidence she had shown them; she held out to them her child; "I am abandoned of my friends," said she in Latin, a language still in use in Hungary amongst the upper classes; "I am pursued by my enemies, attacked by my relatives; I have no hope but in your fidelity and courage; we--my son and I--look to you for our safety." The palatines scarcely gave the queen time to finish; already the sabres were out of the sheaths and flashing above their heads.

Count Bathyany was the first to shout, "_Moriamur pro rege nostro Maria Theresa!" The same shout was repeated everywhere; Maria Theresa, restraining her tears, thanked her defenders with gesture and voice; she was expecting a second child before long.

"I know not," she wrote to her mother-in-law, the Duchess of Lorraine, "if I shall have a town left to be confined in." [Illustration: "Moriamur pro rege nostro."-- --142] Hungary rose, like one man, to protect her sovereign against the excess of her misfortunes; the same spirit spread before long through the Austrian provinces; bodies of irregulars, savage and cruel, formed at all points, attacking and massacring the French detachments they encountered,--and giving to the war a character of ferocity which displayed itself with special excess against Bavaria.

Count Segur, besieged in Lintz, was obliged to capitulate on the 26th of January, and the day after the Elector of Bavaria had received the imperial crown at Frankfurt, February 12, 1742--the Austrians, under the orders of General Khevenhuller, obtained possession of Munich, which was given up to pillage.