FATHER PORHAMMER AND COUNT KAUNITZ.
The empress paced her cabinet with hasty steps. Near the large table,
covered with papers of state, stood Father Porhammer.
"Are you sure of what you say?" said Maria Theresa with impatience. "Are
you sure that the lord chancellor so far forgets his honor and dignity
as to spend his hours of leisure in the company of disreputable
actresses? Is it true that his house is the scene of shameful orgies and
saturnalian feasts?"
"It is even so, your majesty," replied Porhammer. "It is unhappily true
that he whom your majesty has raised to the first place in the empire
of--"
"The first place!" echoed the empress angrily. "Know, sir, that the
first place in the empire is mine. From God I hold my power and my
crown, and I depute them to no man--I alone reign in Austria."
"Your majesty," resumed the father, "did not allow me to finish. I was
about to say that he whom your majesty has made your most illustrious
subject, he who ought to give to all your subjects an example of moral
conduct, is a profligate and libertine. That infamous school of Paris,
where reigns the wanton Marquise de Pompadour, the debauched court of
Versailles--"
"Hold, father, and remember that France is Austria's dearest ally,"
interrupted the empress.
The father bowed. "The school of Parisian gallantry, of which the lord
chancellor is a graduate, has borne its fruits. Count Kaunitz mocks at
religion, chastity, and every other virtue. Instead of giving an
honorable mistress to his house, it is the home of Foliazzi, the singer,
who holds him fast with her rosy chains."
"We must send her away from Vienna."
"Ah, your majesty, if you send her, Count Kaunitz will go with her. He
cannot live without La Foliazzi. Even when he comes hither to your
majesty's august presence, La Foliazzi is in his coach, and she awaits
his return at the doors of the imperial palace."
"Impossible! I will not believe such scandalous reports. Count Kaunitz
never would dare bring his mistresses to my palace doors; he never would
have the audacity to treat his official visits to myself as episodes in
a life of lasciviousness with an unchaste singer. You shall withdraw
your words, Father Porhammer, or you shall prove them."
"I will prove them, your majesty."
Just then the door opened, and a page announced the lord chancellor,
Count Kaunitz.
"Admit Count Kaunitz," said the empress, "and you, Father Porhammer,
remain."
The father withdrew within the embrasure of a window, while the lord
chancellor followed the page into the presence of the empress. The
count's face was as fair and his cheeks as rosy as ever; he wore the
same fantastic peruke of his own invention, and his figure was as
straight and slender as it had ever been. Ten years had gone by since he
became prime minister, but nothing had altered HIM. So marble-like his
face, that age could not wrinkle, nor care trace a line upon its stony
surface.
He did not wait for the imperial greeting, but came forward in his
careless, unceremonious way, not as though he stood before his
sovereign, but as if he had come to visit a lady of his own rank.
"Your majesty sees," said he, with a courteous inclination of the head,
"that I use the permission which has been granted me, of seeking an
audience whenever the state demands it. As I come, not to intrude upon
your majesty with idle conversation, but to speak of grave and important
matters of state, I do not apologize for coming unbidden."
The easy and unembarrassed manner in which Kaunitz announced himself had
its effect upon the empress. She who was so accustomed to give vent to
the feelings of the moment, overcame her displeasure and received her
minister with her usual affability.
"Your majesty, then, will grant an audience to your minister of state?"
said Kaunitz, looking sharply at the priest who stood unconcerned at the
window.
"Since the lord chancellor comes at such an unusual hour," replied the
empress, "I must conclude that his business is of an imperative nature.
I am therefore ready to hear him."
Kaunitz bowed, and then turning with an arrogant gesture toward the
empress's confessor, he said, "Do you hear, Father Porhammer? the
empress will hold a council with me."
"I hear it, my lord," said the priest.
"Then as we are not on the subject of religion, you will have the
goodness to leave the room."
"I was ordered by her majesty to remain," replied Father Porhammer
quietly.
Kaunitz turned toward the empress, who, with knit and angry brow, was
listening to her minister.
"If it be the empress's pleasure," said he, bowing, "I will take the
liberty of retiring until her majesty is at leisure for earthly affairs.
Religion and politics are not to be confounded together; the former
being the weightier subject of the two, I give way."
He bowed again, and was about to leave the room, when the empress
recalled him.
"Stay!" said she. "Father Porhammer will leave us for a while."
Without a word, the father bowed and withdrew.
"Now speak, Count Kaunitz," said the empress, hastily, "and let the
affair be important that has led you to drive my confessor, in such an
uncourteous fashion, from my presence."
"Weighty, most weighty is the news that concerns the imperial house of
Austria," said Kaunitz, with his unruffled equanimity. "A courier has
brought me tidings of the archduke's election as King of Rome."
"Is that all?" said Maria Theresa. "That is no news. The voice of Prussia
decided that matter long ago; and this is the only advantage we have
ever reaped from our long and terrible war with Frederick?"
"No, your majesty, no, this is not the only thing we have obtained. This
war has yielded us material advantages. It has increased the military
strength of the country; it has placed before the eyes of all Europe the
inexhaustible nature of Austria's resources; it has brought all the
little Germanic principalities under Austria's dominion. It has united
Hungary, Sclavonia, Italy, Bohemia, and Lombardy under Austria's flag
and Austria's field-marshals. Indeed, your majesty, this war has given
us something of far more value than Prussia's vote. The bloody baptism
of the battle-field has made Austrians of all those who bled for
Austria's rights."
"That does not prevent that abominable man from clinging to my fair
domain of Silesia. How will my ancestor, the great Charles, greet me
when I go to my grave, bearing the tidings that under my reign Austria
has been shorn of a principality?"
"No such tidings shall your majesty bear to your forefathers," replied
Kaunitz, fervently. "Leave Frederick alone with his bit of a
principality; more trouble than profit may it be to him! Long before he
will have transformed his Silesian Austrians into loyal Prussians, we
shall have repaired the damage he has done us by new and richer
acquisitions."
"No, no, no!" cried the empress, "let us have no more war. What we do
not possess by just right, I never will consent to win with the sword."
"But inheritance and alliance bestow rights," persisted the minister.
"Your majesty has marriageable daughters and sons, and it is time to
think of negotiating honorable alliances for them."
The eyes of the empress sparkled, and her face beamed with happy smiles.
The establishment of her children was her constant thought by night and
day, and in broaching this subject, Kaunitz was meeting her dearest
wishes. Her displeasure against him melted away like snow before the
sun, and she gave herself up entirely to the pleasing discussion.
"It will be difficult to find husbands for my daughters" said she. "All
the reigning heads of European families are married, and their sons are
too young for Elizabeth and Amelia. I cannot marry my grown-up daughters
to boys; nor can I bring a set of insignificant sons-in-law to hang
about the court. My husband the emperor would never consent to bestow
his daughters upon petty princes, who, instead of bringing influence
with them, would derive their reflected consequence from an alliance
with us. If we cannot find them husbands worthy of their station, my
daughters must remain single, or devote their lives to God."
"If your majesty's eldest daughters choose that holy vocation, politics
need not interfere with their inclinations, the boyish heirs of European
kingdoms can await the advent of the younger princesses."
"Let them wait," said the empress; "we will train noble queens for
them."
"But the Archduke Leopold need not wait," said Kaunitz; "we will begin
with him. The Spanish ambassador has received from his sovereign, Carlos
IV., a letter directing him to offer his daughter Maria Louisa to your
majesty's second son. Knowing that his highness the Archduke Joseph is
your majesty's successor, he supposes that the Emperor Francis will
bestow upon his second son the grand duchy of Tuscany. "
"A very good alliance," returned Maria Theresa, nodding her head. "The
women of the house of Bourbon are all estimable. Our lost Isabella was a
lovely woman. Well, the grand-daughter of the King of Spain having died,
let us renew our connection with him through his daughter; and may God
grant to Leopold happier nuptials than were those of my poor Joseph."
"The Archduke Joseph, too, must marry," said Kaunitz. "Poor Joseph!"
sighed the empress; "even now his heart is full of sorrow; and while he
mourns his dead, we make plans to marry him to another! But you are
right, count; he must marry. We cannot listen to his heart, he must
sacrifice himself to duty. Austria must have another heir. But let us
give him a little respite."
"He will forget his sorrow when he is crowned King of Rome," said
Kaunitz. "Ambition is certain to cure love; and the possession of a
crown may well console any man for the loss of a woman."
Maria Theresa was displeased. "Do you deem it, then, so light a thing?"
said she, with a frown, "to lose a beloved wife? Do you think it great
happiness to wear a crown? You know nothing either of the pains of power
or the joys of marriage; but I can tell you that many a time I would
have fainted under the burden of my crown, had my Franz not sustained me
with his loving and beloved hand. But what know you of love? Your heart
is a market-place wherein you seek slaves for your harem, but no
honorable woman would make it her home. I have heard scandalous reports
concerning your house, Count Kaunitz; I have--"
A light knock was heard at the door, and as the empress gave the word,
Father Porhammer entered the room.