THE FESTIVAL OF THE VOLUNTEERS.
He quietly took the count’s arm and went with him to the adjoining
room. Indicating to him a chair standing not far from the other door, he
walked rapidly forward and entered the reception-room.
General Bernadotte, quite a young man, approached him with a stiff and
dignified bearing, and there was an expression of bold defiance and
undisguised hostility plainly visible on his youthful and handsome
features.
Thugut, on his side, had called a smile upon his lips, and his eyes were
radiant with affability and mildness.
“I am very glad, general, to see you here at so unexpected an hour,” he
said, politely. “Truly, this is a distinction that will cause all of our
pretty ladies to be jealous of me, and I am afraid, general, you will
still more exasperate the fair sex, who never would grant me their
favor, against myself, for I am now assuredly to blame if some of our
most beautiful ladies now should vainly wait for your arrival.”
“I am always very punctual in my appointments, your excellency, whether
they be armed rencounters or such rendezvous as your excellency has
mentioned just now, and, therefore, seems to like especially,” said
Bernadotte, gravely. “I call upon your excellency, however, in the name
of a lady, too--in the name of the French Republic!”
“And she is, indeed, a very exalted and noble lady, to whom the whole
world is bowing reverentially,” said Thugut, smiling.
“In the name of the French Republic and of the French Directory; I would
like to inquire of your excellency whether or not it is a fact that a
popular festival will be held to-morrow here in Vienna?”
“A popular festival! Ah, my dear general, I should not have thought
that the French Republic would take so lively an interest in the popular
festivals of the Germans! But I must take the liberty of requesting you,
general, to apply with this inquiry to Count Saurau. For it is the
duty of the police minister to watch over these innocent amusements and
harmless festivals of the people.”
“The celebration I refer to is neither an innocent amusement nor a
harmless festival,” exclaimed Bernadotte, hastily; “on the contrary, it
is a political demonstration.”
“A political demonstration?” repeated Thugut, in surprise. “By whom? And
directed against whom?”
“A political demonstration of Austria against the French Republic,” said
the general, gravely. “It is true, your excellency pretends not to know
any thing about this festival of the thirteenth of April, but--”
“Permit me, sir,” interrupted Thugut, “is to-morrow the thirteenth of
April?”
“Yes, your excellency.”
“Then I must say that I know something about this festival, and that I
am able to inform you about it. Yes, general, there will be a popular
festival to-morrow.”
“May I inquire for what purpose?”
“All, general, that is very simple. It is just a year to-morrow, on
the thirteenth of April, that the whole youth of Vienna, believing the
country to be endangered and the capital threatened by the enemy, in
their noble patriotism voluntarily joined the army and repaired to the
seat of war. [Footnote: “Memoires d’un Homme d’Etat,” vol. v., p. 499.]
These young volunteers desire to celebrate the anniversary of their
enrolment, and the emperor, I believe, has given them permission to do
so.”
“I have to beg your excellency to prevail on the emperor to withdraw
this permission.”
“A strange request! and why?”
“Because this festival is a demonstration against France, for those
warlike preparations last year were directed against France, while
Austria has now made peace with our republic. It is easy to comprehend
that France will not like this festival of the volunteers.”
“My dear general,” said Thugut, with a sarcastic smile, “does France
believe, then, that Austria liked all those festivals celebrated by
the French Republic during the last ten years? The festivals of the
republican weddings, for instance, or the festival of the Goddess of
Reason, or the anniversaries of bloody executions? Or more recently
the celebrations of victories, by some of which Austria has lost large
tracts of territory? I confess to you that Austria would have greatly
liked to see some of those festivals suppressed, but France had not
asked our advice, and it would have been arrogant and ridiculous for
us to give it without being asked for it, and thus to meddle with the
domestic affairs of your country. Hence we silently tolerated your
festivals, and pray you to grant us the same toleration.”
“The French Republic will not and must not suffer what is contrary to
her interests,” replied Bernadotte, vehemently. “This festival insults
us, and I must therefore pray your excellency to prohibit it.” A slight
blush mantled the cold, hard features of Baron Thugut, but he quickly
suppressed his anger, and seemed again quite careless and unruffled.
“You pray for a thing, general, which it is no longer in our power to
grant,” he said, calmly. “The emperor has granted permission for
this festival, and how could we refuse the young men of the capital a
satisfaction so eagerly sought by them and, besides, so well calculated
to nourish and promote the love of the people for their sovereign and
for their country? Permit us, like you, to celebrate our patriotic
festivals.”
“I must repeat my demand that this festival be prohibited!” said
Bernadotte, emphatically.
“Your demand?” asked Thugut, with cutting coldness; “I do not believe
that anybody but the emperor and the government has the right in Austria
to make demands, and I regret that I am unable to grant your prayer.”
“Your excellency then will really permit this festival of the volunteers
to be celebrated to-morrow?”
“Most assuredly. His majesty has given the necessary permission.”
“Well, I beg to inform you that, in case the festival takes place
to-morrow, I shall give a festival on my part to-morrow, too.”
“Every one in Austria is at liberty to give festivals, provided they are
not contrary to decency, public morals, and good order.”
“Your excellency assumes an insulting tone!” exclaimed Bemadotte, in an
excited voice.
“By no means,” said Thugut, quietly. “My words would only be insulting
if I wanted to prevent you from giving your festival. I tell you,
however, you are welcome to give it. Let your festival compete with
ours. We shall see who will be victorious in this competition.”
“So you really want to permit this festival of the volunteers although I
tell you that France disapproves of it?”
“Disapproves of it? Then France wants to play the lord and master in
those countries, too, which the republican armies have not conquered?
Permit me to tell you that Austria does not want to belong to those
countries. The festival of the volunteers will take place to-morrow!”
“Well, my festival will take place to-morrow, too!”
“Then you doubtless have good reasons, like us, for giving a festival?”
“Of course I have. I shall display to-morrow for the first time at the
hotel of the embassy the banner of the French Republic, the tri-color
of France, and that event, I believe, deserves being celebrated in a
becoming manner.”
“You want to publicly display the French banner?”
“Yes, sir, it will be displayed on my balcony and proudly float in the
air, as the tri-color of France is accustomed to do everywhere.”
“I do not know, however, whether or not the Austrian air will accustom
itself to the tri-color of France, and I pray you kindly to consider,
general, that the enterprise you are going to undertake is something
extraordinary and altogether unheard of. No ambassador of any foreign
power has ever displayed any mark of distinction on his house, and never
has a French minister yet decorated his hotel in such a manner as you
now propose to do. That banner of yours would therefore be without any
precedent in the history of diplomatic representation.”
“And so would the festival you are going to give before the eyes of the
French embassy, and notwithstanding my earnest protest.”
“Let the French embassy close their eyes if they do not want to see our
Austrian festivals. How often had we to do so in France and pretend not
to see what was highly insulting to us!”
“For the last time, then, you are going to celebrate the festival of the
volunteers to-morrow, notwithstanding the protest of France?”
“I do not think that, France ought to protest against matters that do
not concern her. You prayed me to prohibit the celebration, and I was
unable to grant your prayer; that is all.”
“Very well, your excellency, you may celebrate your festival--I shall
celebrate the inauguration of my banner! And now I have the honor to bid
your excellency farewell!”
“I hope the inauguration will be a pleasant affair, general. I take
the liberty once more to tell you that your banner will create a great
sensation. The people of Vienna are stubborn, and I cannot warrant that
they will get accustomed to see another banner but the one containing
the Austrian colors displayed in the streets of Vienna. Farewell!”
He accompanied the general to the door, and replied to his ceremonious
obeisance by a proud, careless nod. He then hastily crossed the
reception-room and entered again the adjoining apartment, where the
police minister was awaiting him.
“Did you hear it?” asked Thugut, whose features were expressing now
the whole anger and rage he had concealed so long. “I have heard every
thing,” said Count Saurau. “The impudence of France knows no bounds.”
“But we shall set bounds to it!” exclaimed Thugut, with unusual
vehemence. “We will show to this impudent republic that we neither love
nor fear her.”
“The festival, then, is really to take place to-morrow?”
“Can you doubt it? It would be incompatible with Austria’s honor to
yield now. The youth of Vienna shall have their patriotic festival,
and--let the police to-morrow be somewhat more indulgent than usual.
Youth sometimes needs a little license. Let the young folks enjoy
the utmost liberty all day to-morrow! No supervision to-morrow, no
restraints! Let the young people sing their patriotic hymns. He who does
not want to hear them may close his ears. Pray let us grant to the good
people of Vienna to-morrow a day of entire liberty.”
“But if quarrels and riots should ensue?”
“My dear count, you know very well that no quarrels take place if our
police do not interfere; the people love each other and agree perfectly
well if we leave them alone and without any supervision. They will be
to-morrow too full of patriotism not to be joyful and harmonious. Once
more, therefore, no supervision, no restraints! Let the police belong to
the people; let all your employes and agents put on civilian’s clothes
and mix with the people, not to watch over them, but to share and direct
their patriotism.”
“Ah, to direct it!” exclaimed Count Saurau, with the air of a man who
just commences guessing a riddle. “But suppose this patriotism in its
triumphal march should meet with a stumbling-block or rather with a
banner--?”
“Then let it quietly go ahead; genuine patriotism is strong and
courageous, and will surmount any obstacle standing in its way. The
only question is to inspire it with courage and constantly to fan its
enthusiasm. That will be the only task of the police to-morrow.”
“And they will fulfil that task with the utmost cheerfulness. I shall
to-morrow--”
“As far as you are concerned,” said Thugut, interrupting him, “it seems
to me you will be unfortunately prevented from participating in the
patriotic festival to-morrow. You look exceedingly pale and exhausted,
my dear count, and if I may take the liberty of giving you a friendly
advice, please go to bed and send for your physician.”
“You are right, excellency,” replied Count Saurau, smiling, “I really
feel sick and exhausted. It will be best for me, therefore, to keep my
bed for a few days, and my well-meaning physician will doubtless give
stringent orders not to admit anybody to me and to permit no one to see
me on business.”
“As soon as your physician has given such orders,” said Thugut, “send me
word and request me to attend temporarily to the duties of your
department as long as you are sick.”
“In half an hour you shall receive a letter to that effect. I go in
order to send for a physician.”
“One word more, my dear count. What has become of that demagogue, the
traitor Wenzel, who headed the riot last year? I then recommended him to
your special care.”
“And I let him have it, your excellency. I believe he has entirely lost
his fancy for insurrectionary movements; and politics, I trust, are very
indifferent to him.”
“I should regret if it were so,” said Thugut, smiling. “I suppose you
have got him here in Vienna?”
“Of course; he occupies a splendid half-dark dungeon in our
penitentiary.”
“Picking oakum?”
“No; I hear he has often asked for it as a favor. But I had given
stringent orders to leave him all alone and without any occupation
whatever. That is the best way to silence and punish such political
criminals and demagogues.”
“I would like to see this man Wenzel. We shall, perhaps, set him at
liberty again,” said Thugut. “Will you order him to be brought here
quietly, and without any unnecessary eclat?”
“I shall send him to you, and that shall be my last official business
before being taken sick.”
“Be it so, my dear count. Go to bed at once; it is high time.”
They smilingly shook hands, and looked at each other long and
significantly.
“It will be a splendid patriotic festival to-morrow,” said Thugut.
“A very patriotic festival, and the inauguration of the banner
particularly will be a glorious affair!” exclaimed Count Saurau.
“What a pity that my sickness should prevent me from attending it!”
He saluted the prime minister once more and withdrew. When the door had
closed behind him the smile disappeared from Thugut’s features, and
a gloomy cloud settled on his brow. Folding his arms on his back, and
absorbed in deep thought, he commenced slowly pacing the room. “The
interview with the empress must be prevented at all events,” he
muttered, after a long pause, “even if all diplomatic relations with
France have to be broken off for that purpose. Besides, I must have
those papers which he wanted to deliver to the empress; my repose, my
safety depends upon it. Oh, I know very well what sort of papers they
are with which they are threatening me. They are the letters I had
written in cipher to Burton, the English emissary, whom the French
Directory a month ago caused to be arrested as a spy and demagogue at
Paris, and whose papers were seized at the same time. Those letters, of
course, would endanger my position, for there is a receipt among them
for a hundred thousand guineas paid to me. What a fool I was to write
that receipt! I must get it again, and I am determined to have it!”
A few hours later, an emaciated, pale man was conducted into the room of
Prime Minister Baron Thugut. The minister received him with a friendly
nod, and looked with a smiling countenance at this sick, downcast, and
suffering man, whom he had seen only a year ago so bold and courageous
at the head of the misguided rioters.
“You have greatly changed, Mr. Wenzel,” he said, kindly. “The prison air
seems not to agree with you.”
Wenzel made no reply, but dropped his head with a profound sigh on his
breast.
“Ah, ah, Mr. Wenzel,” said Thugut, smiling, “it seems your eloquence is
gone, too.”
“I have formerly spoken too much; hence I am now so taciturn,” muttered
the pale man.
“Every thing has its time, speaking as well as silence,” said Thugut.
“It is true speaking has rendered you very wretched; it has made you
guilty of high treason. Do you know how long you will have to remain in
prison?”
“I believe for fifteen years,” said Wenzel, with a shudder.
“Fifteen years! that is half a lifetime. But it does not change such
demagogues and politicians as you, sir. As soon as you are released you
recommence your seditious work, and you try to make a martyr’s crown of
your well-merited punishment. Traitors like you are always incorrigible,
and unless they are gagged for life they always cry out anew and stir up
insurrection and disorder.”
Wenzel fixed his haggard eyes with a sorrowful expression upon the
minister.
“I shall never stir up insurrections again, nor raise my voice in public
as I used to do,” he said, gloomily. “I have been cured of it forever,
but it was a most sorrowful cure.”
“And it will last a good while yet, Mr. Wenzel.”
“Yes, it will last dreadfully long,” sighed the wretched man.
“Are you married? Have you got any children?”
“Yes, I have a wife and two little girls--two little angels. Ah, if I
could only see them once more in my life!”
“Wait yet for fourteen years; you can see them then if they be still
alive, and care about having you back.”
“I shall not live fourteen years,” murmured the pale, downcast man.
“Well, listen to me, Mr. Wenzel. What would you do if I should set you
at liberty?”
“At liberty?” asked the man, almost in terror. “At liberty!” he shouted
then, loudly and jubilantly.
“Yes, sir, at liberty! But you must do something in order to deserve it.
Will you do so?”
“I will do every thing, every thing I am ordered to do, if I am to
be set at liberty, if I am allowed to see my wife and my little girls
again!” shouted Wenzel, trembling with delight.
“Suppose I should order you again to become a popular orator and to stir
up a nice little riot?”
The gleam of joy disappeared again from Wenzel’s eyes, and he looked
almost reproachfully at the minister. “You want to mock me,” he said,
mournfully.
“No, my man, I am in good earnest. You shall be a popular orator and
leader all day to-morrow. Are you ready for it?”
“No, I have nothing to do with such matters now. I am a good and
obedient subject, and only ask to be allowed to live peaceably and
quietly.”
Thugut burst into a loud laugh. “Ah, you take me for a tempter, Mr.
Wenzel,” he said; “but I am in earnest; and if you will get up for me
a splendid riot to-morrow, I will set you at liberty and no one
shall interfere with you as long as you render yourself worthy of my
indulgence by obedience and an exemplary life. Tell me, therefore, do
you want to be released and serve me?”
Wenzel looked inquiringly and with intense suspense at the cold, hard
features of the minister, and then, when he had satisfied himself that
he had really been in earnest, he rushed forward and kneeling down
before Thugut, he shouted, “I will serve you like a slave, like a dog!
only set me at liberty, only give me back to my children and my--”
A flood of tears burst from his eyes and choked his voice.
“All right, sir, I believe you,” said Thugut, gravely. “Now rise and
listen to what I have to say to you. You will be released tonight. Then
go and see your old friends and tell them you had made a journey, and
the French had arrested you on the road and kept you imprisoned until
you were released in consequence of the measures the Austrian government
had taken in your favor. If you dare to utter a single word about your
imprisonment here, you are lost, for I hear and learn every thing, and
have my spies everywhere, whom I shall instruct to watch you closely.”
“I shall assuredly do whatever you want,” exclaimed Wenzel, trembling.
“You shall complain to your friends about the harsh and cruel treatment
you had to suffer at the hands of the French. You shall speak as a good
patriot ought to speak.”
“Yes, I shall speak like a good patriot,” said Wenzel, ardently.
“To-morrow you will be with all your friends on the street in order to
attend the festival of the volunteers, and to look at the procession. Do
you know where the French ambassador lives?”
“Yes, on the Kohlmarkt.”
“You shall do your best to draw the people thither. The French
ambassador will display the banner of the French Republic on his balcony
to-morrow. Can the people of Vienna tolerate that?”
“No, the people of Vienna cannot tolerate that!” shouted Wenzel.
“You will repeat that to every one--you will exasperate the people
against the banner and against the ambassador--you and the crowd will
demand loudly and impetuously that the banner be removed.”
“But suppose the ambassador should refuse to remove it?”
“Then you will forcibly enter the house and remove the banner
yourselves.”
“But if they shut the doors?”
“Then you will break them open, just as you did here a year ago. And
besides, are there no windows--are there no stones, by means of which
you may open the windows so nicely?”
“You give us permission to do all that?”
“I order you to do all that. Now listen to your special commission. A
few of my agents will always accompany you. As soon as you are in the
ambassador’s house, repair at once to his excellency’s study. Pick up
all the papers you will find there, and bring them to me. As soon as I
see you enter my room with these papers, you will be free forever!”
“I shall bring you the papers,” exclaimed Wenzel, with a radiant face.
“But listen. Betray to a living soul but one single word of what I have
said to you, and not only yourself, but your wife and your children will
also be lost! My arm is strong enough to catch all of you, and my ear is
large enough to hear every thing.”
“I shall be as silent as the grave,” protested Wenzel, eagerly, “I shall
only raise my voice in order to speak to the people about our beloved
and wise Minister Thugut, and about the miserable, over-bearing French,
who dare to hang out publicly the banner of their bloody republic here
in our imperial city, in our magnificent Vienna!”
“That is the right talk, my man! Now go and reflect about every thing I
have told you, and to-morrow morning call on me again; I shall then give
you further instructions. Now go--go to your wife, and keep the whole
matter secret.”
“Hurrah! long live our noble prime minister!” shouted Wenzel,
jubilantly. “Hurrah, hurrah, I am free!” And he reeled away like a
drunken man.
Thugut looked after him with a smile of profound contempt.
“That is the best way to educate the people,” he said. “Truly, if we
could only send every Austrian for one year to the penitentiary, we
would have none but good and obedient subjects!”