The court of Vienna having dropped for the present the scheme for electing a king of the Romans, concluded a very extraordinary treaty with the duke of Modena, stipulating that his serene highness should be appointed perpetual governor of the duchy of Milan, with a salary of ninety thousand florins, on condition that he should maintain a body of four thousand men, to be at the disposal of the empress-queen; that her imperial majesty should have a right to place garrisons in the citadels of Mirandola and Reggio, as well as in the castle of Massa-Carrara: that the archduke Peter Leopold, third son of their imperial majesties, should espouse the daughter of the hereditary prince of Modena, by the heiress of Massa-Carrara; and in case of her dying without heirs male, the estates of that house and the duchy of Mirandola should devolve to the archduke; but in case of her having male issue, that she should enjoy the principality of Fermia, and other possessions in Hungary, claimed by the duke of Modena, for her fortune; finally, that on the extinction of the male branch of the house of Este, all the dominions of the duke of Modena should devolve to the house of Austria.