THE LETTER.
From her cabinet council the empress passed at once to her private
apartments. When business was over for the, day, she loved to cast the
cares of sovereignty behind, and become a woman--chatting with her
ladies of honor over the "on dits" of the court and city. During the
hours devoted to her toilet, Maria Theresa gave herself up unreservedly
to enjoyment. But she was so impetuous, that her ladies of honor were
never quite secure that some little annoyance would not ruffle the
serenity of her temper. The young girl whose duty it was to read aloud
to the empress and dress her hair, used to declare that she would sooner
wade through three hours' worth of Latin dispatches from Hungary, than
spend one half hour as imperial hair-dresser.
But today, as she entered her dressing-room, the eyes of the empress
beamed with pleasure, and her mouth was wreathed with sunny smiles. The
little hair-dresser was delighted, and with a responsive smile took her
place, and prepared for her important duties. Maria Theresa glided into
the chair, and with her own hands began to unfasten the golden net that
confined her hair. She then leaned forward, and, with a pleased
expression, contemplated the beautiful face that looked out from the
silver-framed Venetian glass before which she sat.
"Make me very charming today, Charlotte," said she. [Footnote: Charlotte
von Hieronymus was the mother of Caroline Pichler.]
"Your majesty needs no help from me to look charming," said the gentle
voice of the little tire-woman. "No hair-dresser had lent you her aid on
that day when your Magyar nobles swore to die for you, and yet the world
says that never were eyes of loyal subjects dazzled by such beauty and
such grace."
"Ah, yes, child, but that was thirteen years ago. Thirteen years! How
many cares have lain upon my heart since that day! If my face is
wrinkled and my hair grown gray, I may thank that hateful King of
Prussia, for he is the cause of it all."
"If he has no greater sins to repent of than those two," replied
Charlotte, with an admiring smile, "he may sleep soundly. Your majesty's
forehead is unruffled by a wrinkle, and your hair is as glossy and as
brown as ever it was."
Brighter still was the smile of the empress, as she turned quickly round
and exclaimed: "Then you think I have still beauty enough to please the
emperor? If you do, make good use of it today, for I have something of
importance to ask of him, and I long to find favor in his eyes. To work,
then, Charlotte, and be quick, for--"
At that moment, the silken hangings before the door of the dressing-room
were drawn hastily aside, and the Countess Fuchs stepped forward.
"Ah, countess," continued the empress, "you are just in time for a
cabinet toilet council."
But the lady of honor showed no disposition to respond to the gay
greeting of her sovereign. With stiffest Spanish ceremony, she
courtesied deeply. "Pardon me, your majesty, if I interrupt you," said
she, solemnly, "but I have something to communicate to yourself alone."
"Oh, countess!" exclaimed Maria Theresa, anxiously, "you look as if you
bare me sad tidings. But speak out-Charlotte knows as many state secrets
as you do; you need not be reserved before her."
"Pardon me," again replied the ceremonious lady, with another deep
courtesy, "I bring no news of state--I must speak with your majesty
alone."'
The eyes of the empress dilated with fear. "No state secret," murmured
she; "oh, what can it be, then? Go, Charlotte, go, child, and remain
until I recall you."
The door closed behind the tired woman, and the empress cried out: "Now
we are alone, be quick, and speak out what you have to say. You have
come to give me pain, I feel it."
"Your majesty ordered me, some time since," began the countess in her
low, unsympathizing tones, "to watch the imperial household, so that
nothing might transpire within it that came not to the knowledge of your
majesty. I have lately watched the movements of the emperor's valet."
"Ah!" cried the empress, clasping her hands convulsively together, "you
watched him, and"
"Yes, your majesty, I watched him, and I was informed this morning that
he had left the emperor's apartments with a sealed note in his hands,
and had gone into the city."
"No more just yet," said the empress, with trembling lip.
"Give me air! I cannot breathe." With wild emotion she tore open her
velvet bodice, and heaving a deep sigh, signed to the countess to go on.
"My spy awaited Gaspardi's return, and stopped him. He was forbidden, in
the name of your majesty, to go farther. "
"Go on."
"He was brought to me, your majesty, and now awaits your orders."
"So that if there is an answer to the note, he has it," said Maria
Theresa, sharply. The countess bowed.
"Where is he?"
"In the antechamber, your majesty."
The empress bounded from her seat, and walked across the room. Her face
was flushed with anger, and she trembled in every limb. She seemed
undecided what to do; but at last she stopped suddenly, and blushing
deeply, without looking at the countess, she said in a low voice, "Bring
him hither."
The countess disappeared and returned, followed by Gaspardi. Maria
Theresa strode impetuously forward, and bent her threatening eyes upon
the valet. But the shrewd Italian knew better than to meet the lightning
glance of an angry empress. With downcast looks and reverential
obeisance he awaited her commands. "Look at me, Gaspardi," said she, in
tones that sounded in the valet's ears like distant thunder. "Answer my
questions, sir"
Gaspardi raised his eyes.
"To whom was the note addressed that was given you by the emperor this
morning?"
"Your majesty, I did not presume to look at it," replied Gaspardi,
quietly. "His imperial majesty was pleased to tell me where to take it,
and that sufficed me."
"And whither did you take it?"
"Imperial majesty, I have forgotten the house."
"What street, then?"
"Pardon me, imperial majesty; these dreadful German names are too hard
for my Italian tongue. As soon as I had obeyed his majesty's commands, I
forgot the name of the street."
"So that you are resolved not to tell me where you went with the
emperor's note?"
"Indeed, imperial majesty, I have totally forgotten."
The empress looked as if she longed to annihilate a menial who defied
her so successfully.
"I see," exclaimed she, "that you are crafty and deceitful, but you
shall not escape me. I command you, as your sovereign, to give up the
note you bear about you for the emperor. I myself will deliver it to his
majesty."
Gaspardi gave a start, and unconsciously his hand sought the place where
the note was concealed. He turned very pale and stammered, "Imperial
majesty, I have no letter for the emperor."
"You have it there!" thundered the infuriated empress, as with
threatening hand she pointed to the valet's breast. "Deliver it at once,
or I will call my lackeys to search you."
"Your majesty forces me then to betray my lord and emperor?" asked
Gaspardi, trembling.
"You serve him more faithfully by relinquishing the letter than by
retaining it," returned Maria Theresa, hastily. "Once more I command you
to give it up."
Gaspardi heaved a sigh of anguish, and looked imploringly at the
empress. But in the trembling lips, the flashing eyes, the flushed
cheeks that met his entreating glance, he saw no symptoms of relenting,
and he dared the strife no longer. His hand shook as he drew forth the
letter.
The empress uttered a cry, and with the fury of a lioness snatched the
paper and crushed it in her hand.
"Your majesty," whispered the countess, "dismiss the valet before
he learns too much. He might--"
"Woe to him if he breathes a word to one human being!" cried the
empress, with menacing gesture. "Woe to him if he dare breathe one word
to his master!"
"Heaven forbid that I should betray the secrets of my sovereign!" cried
the affrighted Gaspardi. "But, imperial majesty, what am I to say to my
lord the emperor?"
"You will tell your lord that you brought no answer, and it will not be
the first lie with which you have befooled his imperial ears," replied
Maria Theresa coutemptuously, while she waved her hand as a signal of
dismissal. The unhappy Mercury retired, and as he disappeared, the
pent-up anguish of the empress burst forth.
"Ah, Margaretta," cried she, in accents of wildest grief, "what an
unfortunate woman I am! In all my life I have loved but one man! My
heart, my soul, my every thought are his, and he robs me, the mother of
his children, of his love, and bestows it upon another!"
"Perhaps the inconstancy is but momentary," replied the countess, who
burned to know the contents of the letter. "Perhaps there is no
inconstancy at all. This may be nothing but an effort on the part of
some frivolous coquette to draw our handsome emperor within the net of
her guilty attractions. The note would show--" The empress scarcely
heeded the words of her confidante. She had opened her hand, and was
gazing upon the crumpled paper that held her husband's secret.
"Oh!" murmured she, plaintively. "Oh, it seems to me that a thousand
daggers have sprung from this little paper, to make my heart's blood
flow. Who is the foolhardy woman that would entice my husband from his
loyalty to me? Woe, woe to her when I shall have learned her name! And I
will learn it!" cried the unhappy wife. "I myself will take this letter
to the emperor, and he shall open it in my presence. I will have
justice! Adultery is a fearful crime, and fearful shall be its
punishment in my realms. The name! the name! Oh, that I knew the name of
the execrable woman who has dared to lift her treasonable eyes toward my
husband!"
"Nothing is easier than to learn it, your majesty," whispered the
countess, "squat like a toad, close to the ear of Eve"--"the letter will
reveal it."
The empress frowned. Oh, for Ithuriel then!
"Dost mean that I shall open a letter which was never intended to be
read by me?"
The countess pointed to the paper. "Your majesty has already broken the
seal. You crushed it unintentionally. There remains but to unfold the
paper, and every thing is explained. I will wage that it comes from the
beautiful dancer Riccardo, whom the emperor admired so much last night
in the ballet, and whom he declared to be the most bewitching creature
he had ever seen."
The eyes of the empress dropped burning tears, and, covering her face
with her hands, she sobbed aloud. Then she seemed ashamed of her
emotion, and raised her beautiful head again.
"It is contemptible so to mourn for one who is faithless," said she. "It
is for me to judge and to punish, and that will I! It is my duty as
ruler of Austria to bring crime to light. I will soon learn who it is
that dares to exchange letters with the husband of the reigning empress.
And after all, the speediest, the simplest way to do this, lies before
me. I must open the letter, for justice sake; but I swear that I will
not read one word contained within its stages. I will see the name of
the writer alone; and then I can be sure that curiosity and personal
interest have not prompted me."
And so Maria Theresa silenced her scruples, and persuaded herself that
she was compelled to do as the tempter had suggested. She tore open the
note; but true to her self-imposed vow, she paused on the threshold of
dishonor, and read nothing but the writer's name.
"Riccardo!" cried she, wildly. "You were right, Margaretta: an intrigue
with the Riccardo. The emperor has written to her--the emperor, my
husband!"
She folded the fatal letter, and oh, how her white hands trembled as she
laid it upon the table I and how deadly pale were the cheeks that had
flushed with anger when Gaspardi had been by!
The countess was not deceived by this phase of the empress's grief. She
knew that the storm would burst, and she thought it better to divide its
wrath. She stepped lightly out to call the confessor of her victim.
Maria Theresa was unconscious of being alone. She stood before the table
staring at the letter. Gradually her paleness vanished, and the hue of
anger once more deepened on her cheeks. Her eyes, which had just been
drooping with tears, flamed again with indignation; and her expanded
nostrils, her twitching mouth, and her heaving chest, betrayed the fury
of the storm that was raging within.
"Oh, I will trample her under foot!" muttered she between her teeth,
while she raised her hand as if she would fain have dealt a
leach-stroke. "I will prove to the court--to the empire--to the world,
how Maria Theresa hates vice, and how she punishes crime, without
respect of persons. Both criminals shall feel the lash of justice. If my
woman's heart break, the empress shall do her duty. It shall not be said
that lust holds its revels in Vienna, as at the obscene courts of
Versailles and St. Petersburg. No! Nor shall the libertines of Vienna
point to the Austrian emperor as their model, nor shall their weeping
wives be taunted with reports of the indulgence of the Austrian empress.
Morality and decorum shall prevail in Vienna. The fire of my royal
vengeance shall consume that bold harlot, and then--then for the
emperor!"
"Your majesty will never consent to bring disgrace upon the father of
your imperial children," said a gentle voice close by, and, turning at
the sound, the empress beheld her confessor.
She advanced hastily toward Father Porhammer. "How!" exclaimed she
angrily, "how!--you venture to plead for the emperor? You come hither to
stay the hand of justice?"
"I do indeed," replied the father, "for to-day at least, her hand, if
uplifted against the emperor, must recoil upon the empress. The honor of
my august sovereigns cannot be divided. Your majesty must throw the
shield of your love over the fault of your imperial husband."
"Oh, I cannot! I cannot suffer this mortal blow in silence," sobbed the
empress.
"Nay," said the father, smiling, "the wife may be severe, though the
empress be clement."
"But she, father--must she also be pardoned? she who has enticed my
husband from his conjugal faith?"
"As for the Riccardo," replied Father Porhammer, "I have heard that she
is a sinful woman, whose beauty has led many men astray. If your majesty
deem her dangerous, she can be made to leave Vienna; but let retribution
go no further."
"Well, be it so," sighed the empress, whose heart was already softening.
"You are right, reverend father, but La Riccardo shall leave Vienna
forever."
So saying, she hastened to her escritoire, and wrote and signed the
order for the banishment of the danseuse.
"There." cried she, handing the order to the priest. "I pray you, dear
father, remit this to Count Bartenstein, and let him see that she goes
hence this very day. And when I shall have laid this evil spirit,
perchance I may find peace once more. But, no, no!" continued she, her
eyes filling with tears; "when she has gone, some other enchantress will
come in her place to charm my husband's love away. Oh, father, if
chastity is not in the heart, sin will always find entrance there."
"Yes, your majesty; and therefore should the portals of the heart be
ever guarded against the enemy. As watchmen are appointed to guard the
property, so are the servants of God sent on earth to extend the
protection of Heaven to the hearts of your people."
"And why may I not aid them in their holy labors?" exclaimed the
empress, glowing suddenly with a new interest. "Why may I not appoint a
committee of good and wise men to watch over the morals of my subjects,
and to warn them from temptation, ere it has time to become sin? Come,
father, you must aid me in this good work. Help me to be the earthly, as
the Blessed Virgin is the heavenly mother of the Austrian people. Sketch
me some plan whereby I may organize my scheme. I feel sure that your
suggestions will be dictated by that Heaven to which you have devoted
your whole life."
"May the spirit of counsel and the spirit of wisdom enlighten my
understanding," said the father, with solemn fervor, "that I may
worthily accomplish the mission with which my empress has intrusted me!"
"But, your majesty," whispered the Countess Fuchs, "in your magnanimous
projects for your people, you are losing sight of yourself. The Riccardo
has not yet been banished; and the emperor, seeing that no answer is
coming to his note, may seek an interview: Who can guess the
consequences of a meeting?"
The empress shivered, as the countess probed the wounds herself had made
in that poor, jealous heart.
"True, true," returned she, in an unsteady voice. "Go, father, and begin
my work of reform, by casting out that wicked woman from among the
unhappy wives of Vienna. I myself will announce her departure to the
emperor. And now, dear friends, leave me. You, father, to Count
Bartenstein. Countess, recall Charlotte, and send me my tire-women. Let
the princes and princesses be regally attired to-day. I will meet the
emperor in their midst."
The confessor bowed and retired, and the countess opening the door of
the inner dressing-room, beckoned to Charlotte, who, in the recess of a
deep bay-window, sat wearily awaiting the summons to return.