THE CZARINA AND THE KAISER.
When Joseph entered, he found the empress reclining with careless grace
upon the divan, perfectly unconscious that he was anywhere within her
palace walls. But when she saw him, she sprang up from the cushion on
which she lay, and, with protestations of delighted surprise, gave him
both her hands. He bent over those soft white hands, and kissed them
fervently.
"I come to your majesty because I am anxious and unhappy, and my heart
yearned for your presence. I have bad news from Vienna. My mother is
ill, and implores me to return home."
"Bad news, indeed!" exclaimed Catharine, sadly. "The noblest and
greatest woman that ever adorned a throne is suffering, and you threaten
to leave me? But you must not go, now that the barriers which have so
long divided Austria from Russia have fallen."
"Your majesty may well speak of barriers," laughed Joseph, "for we were
parted by a high Spanish wall, and the King of Prussia walked the
ramparts, that we might never get a glimpse at each other. Well! I have
leaped the walls, and I consider it the brightest act of my life that I
should have journeyed thither to see the greatest sovereign of the age,
the woman before whom a world is destined to succumb."
"Do not give me such praise, sire." replied Catharine, with a sigh; "the
soil of Maria Theresa should not bestow such eulogium upon me. It is the
Empress of Austria who unites the wisdom of a lawgiver and the bravery
of a warrior with the virtues of a pure and sinless woman! Oh, my
friend, I am not of that privileged band who have preserved themselves
spotless from the sins of the world! I have, bought my imperial destiny
with the priceless gem of womanly innocence!--Do not interrupt me--we
are alone, and I feel that before no human being can I bow my guilty
head with such a sense of just humiliation as before the son of the
peerless Empress of Austria!"
"The Empress of Austria is still a woman, reigning through the
promptings of her heart, while Catharine wears her crown with the vigor
of a man. And who ever thought of requiring from an emperor the primeval
innocence of an Arcadian shepherdess? He who would be great must make
acquaintance with sin; for obscurity is the condition of innocence. Had
you remained innocent, you had never become Catharine the Great. There
are, unhappily, so many men who resemble women, that we must render
thanks to God for vouchsafing to our age a woman who equals all and
surpasses many men."
"You have initiated a new mode of flattery, sire," said Catharine,
blushing with gratification; "but if this is your fashion of praising
women, you must be a woman-hater. Is it so?"
"I would worship them if they resembled Catharine; but I have suffered
through their failings, and I despise them. You know not how many of my
bold schemes and bright hopes have been brought to naught by women! I am
no longer the Joseph of earlier days--I have been shorn of my strength
by petticoats and cassocks."
"How can you so belie yourself?" said Catharine. "It is but a few months
since we had good proof that the ambition of the Emperor Joseph was far
from being quenched forever."
"Ah! your majesty would remind me of that ridiculous affair with
Bavaria. It was my last Quixotism, the dying struggle of a patriotism
which would have made of Germany one powerful and prosperous nation! And
it was YOU who opposed me--YOU who, of all the potentates in Europe, are
the one who should have understood and sustained me! Believe me, when I
say, that had Catharine befriended me there, she would have won the
truest knight that ever broke a lance in defence of fair ladye. But, for
the sake of a dotard, who is forever trembling lest I rob him of some of
his withered bays, the bold Athene of the age forgot her godlike origin
and mission, and turned away from him whom she should have countenanced
and conciliated. Well! It was the error of a noble heart, unsuspicious
of fair words. And fair words enough had Frederick for the occasion. To
think of such a man as HE, flaunting the banner of Germany in my
face--he who, not many years ago, was under the ban of the empire as an
ambitious upstart! He thought to scare me with the rustling of his dead
laurel-leaves, and when he found that I laughed at such Chinese warfare,
lo! he ran and hid himself under my mother's petticoats; and the two old
crowns fell foul of one another, and their palsied old wearers plotted
together, until the great war upon which I had staked my fame was
juggled into a shower of carnival confetti! Oh, you laugh at me, and
well may you laugh! I am a fool to waste so much enthusiasm upon such a
fool's holiday!"
"No, I do not laugh at you," replied Catharine, laying her arm upon his.
"I laugh for joy, to see how lustily you hate. A man who hates fiercely,
loves ardently, and my whole heart glows with sympathy for such a being.
So, then, you hate him soundly, this King of Prussia?"
"Hate him," cried Joseph, clinching his hand, "ay, indeed, I hate him!
He has instigated Germany to oppose me; he wrested Bavaria from me,
which was mine by right of twofold inheritance; and I detest him the
more that he is so old, so gouty, and so contemptible, that to defeat
him now would not add one hair's breadth to my reputation as a general."
"It is true," said Catharine, thoughtfully, "Frederick is growing very
old. Nothing remains of the former hero but a dotard, who is incapable
of comprehending the march of events--"
"And, yet, is ambitious to legislate. Oh, Catharine, beware of this old
king, who clings to you to support his own tottering royalty, and to
obstruct your schemes of conquest. But he will not succeed with you as
he has done by me. You have no mother to thrust you aside, while she
barters away your rights for a mess of pottage! I see your eagle
glance--it turns toward the south, where roll the stormy waves of the
Black Sea! I see this fair white hand as it points to mosques of
Constantinople, where the crescent is being lowered and the cross is
being planted--"
Catharine uttered a cry of ecstasy, and putting her arms around Joseph's
neck, she imprinted a kiss upon his brow.
"Oh, I thank you, Joseph!" exclaimed she, enthusiastically. "You have
comprehended the ambitious projects which, identified as they are with
my existence as a sovereign, I never yet have dared to speak above my
breath!"
"I have guessed and I approve," said Joseph, earnestly. "Fate has
assigned you a mission, and you must fulfil it."
"Oh, my God!" ejaculated Catharine, "I have found a friend who has read
my heart."
"And who will aid you, when you call him to your side."
"I accept the offer, and here is my hand. And so, hand in hand, we shall
conquer the world. God be praised, there is room enough for us both, and
we will divide it between us. Away with all little thrones and their
little potentates! Oh, friend, what joy it must be to dwell among the
heights of Olympus, and feel that all below is ours! I am intoxicated
with the dream! Two thrones--the throne of the Greek and the throne of
the Roman emperors; two people so mighty, that they dare not war with
one another; while, side by side, their giant swords forever sheathed,
they shed peace and happiness upon the farthermost ends of the earth!
Will you realize with me this godlike dream?"
"That will I, my august friend, and may God grant us life and
opportunity to march on to victory together!"
"To victory," echoed Catharine, "and to the fulfilment of the will of
Peter the Great! He enjoined it upon his successors to purge Europe of
the infidel, and to open the Black Sea to Christendom. In Stamboul I
shall erect the throne of my grandson, Constantine, while in Petersburg,
Alexander extends the domains of Russia in Europe and in Asia. You do
not know all that I have already done for classic Greece. From his
birth, I have destined Constantine to the Greek throne. His nurses, his
playfellows, and his very dress are Greek, so that his native tongue is
that of his future subjects. Even now, two hundred boys are on their way
from Greece, who are to be the future guards of the Emperor Constantine!
As the medal which was struck on the day of his birth prefigured his
destiny, so shall his surroundings of every kind animate him to its
glorious fulfilment. Look--I have already a chart on which Constantine
is to study the geography that my hand is to verify for him and for his
brother."
The empress had risen and approached her escritoire. From a secret
drawer within another drawer she took a roll of parchment which, after
beckoning to the emperor, she placed upon the table. They unrolled it,
and both bent over it with beating hearts.
"Observe first the marginal illustrations," said Catharine. "Here stands
the genius of Russia, leaning upon the Russian shield. To the left you
see arrows, horses' tails, Turkish banners, and other trophies--here at
the top, you see the Black Sea, where a Russian ship is in the act of
sinking a Turk.
"Here in the centre, are the empire of Greece and the Archipelago. Take
notice of the colors on the map, for they show the boundaries. The
yellow is the boundary-line of the Greek empire. It begins in the
northwest by Ragusa, takes in Skopia, Sophia Phillippolis and Adrianople
as far as the Black Sea. It then descends and includes the Ionian
islands, the Archipelago, Mitylene, and Samos. That is the empire of
Constantine, whose capital is to be Constantinople. The red lines show
the future boundaries of Russia. They pass through Natolia, beginning in
the north by Pendavaschi, and end with the Gulf of Syria."
The emperor, who had been following Catharine's jewelled hand with
anxious scrutiny, now looked up with a significant smile.
"Your majesty's map reminds me of an incident among my travels. In the
beginning of my unhappy regency, I was inspecting the boundaries of my
own empire. In Moravia I ascended a steep mountain whence I had a view
of the surrounding country. 'To whom belongs the pretty village?' said
I. 'To the Jesuits,' was the reply. 'And this tract with the chapels?'
'To the Benedictines.' 'And that abbey?' 'To the Clarissarines.' 'But
where then are my possessions?' said I."
"And your majesty would put the same question to me," interrupted the
czarina. "Look at the colors of the map. We have appropriated the yellow
and the red, but there is another color to be accounted for."
"I see a boundary of green, which includes Naples and Sicily," said
Joseph, looking down upon the map with new interest.
"Those are the boundary-lines of new Austria," said the empress, with a
triumphant smile. "As I hope for the reestablisbment of empire in
Greece, so must your majesty accomplish that of Rome. Since you have no
objection to give me the Black Sea, I shall make no opposition to the
extension of your empire to the shores of the Mediterranean. Italy, like
Germany, is a prey to petty princes. Rescue the Italians from their
national insignificance, sire, and throw the aegis of your protection
over the site of the old Roman empire. Do you not bear the title of King
of Rome? Give to that title, meaning and substance. Yours is the south
and west, mine is the east, and together we shall govern the world."
Joseph had listened with breathless attention. At first he grew pale,
then a flush of triumph suffused his face, and he took the hand of the
czarina and drew it to his heart.
"Catharine!" cried he, deeply moved, "from my soul I thank you for this
inspiration! Oh, my heart's interpreter, you have read my secret
yearnings to be in deed, as well as in word, 'King of Rome!' Yes--I
would free Italy from the oppression of the church, and lead her on to
greatness that shall rival her glorious past! God is my witness, I would
have done as much for Germany; but Germany has rejected me, and I leave
her to her fate. For the future I remain Emperor of Austria; and my
empire shall be so vast, so prosperous, and so powerful, that Catharine
of Russia shall esteem me an ally worthy of the greatest woman of modern
times."
"Two faithful allies," exclaimed Catharine--"allies bound by one common
policy, whose watchword shall be 'Constantinople and Rome!'"
"Ay," returned Joseph, with a laugh, "though while YOU raise the
standard of the cross in Constantinople, _I_ shall overturn it in Rome.
As soon as my shackles fall, I shall set to work!"
"I see that you have faith in my plans," cried Catharine, joyfully.
"Such faith that I would aid them from my heart, were they even to
require the cooperation of Frederick." [Footnote: Raumer. Contributions,
etc., vol. v., p. 444.]
"I shall have no cooperation but yours," was the reply. "Besides, I know
that you owe a grudge to Turkey."
"I do; for she has taken Belgrade, and I must retake it. The Danube is
my birthright, as the Black Sea is yours. I give up Germany, to
concentrate my forces upon Turkey and Italy."
"Let us await the proper time, and when I see it, I shall call upon you
to come with me and crush the intrusive Moslem."
"Look upon me as your general, and upon my army as yours," replied
Joseph, kissing the hand which the czarina extended. "And now,"
continued he, "I must say farewell, and I fear it is for a long
separation."
"Indeed!" cried Catharine. "Must I lose you so soon?"
"My mother is sick, and yearns for my presence," said Joseph. "The
emperor parted from her in displeasure; but the son must not slight the
call of a mother, who perchance is on her death-bed. I start for Vienna
to-day; and before I leave, at the risk of being accused of flattery, I
must express to your majesty the admiration, respect and love which I
feel for the noblest woman I have ever known." [Footnote: The emperor's
own words. Raumer, vol. v., p. 552.]
The empress, overcome, put her arms around Joseph's neck, and folded him
to her heart.
"Oh, were you my son!" whispered she, "I might thank Heaven for the gift
of a noble child who was soul of my soul! Were you mine, I should not be
the victim of courtiers' intrigues, but with my proud arm within yours,
I might defy the world."
As she spoke these words, Catharine raised the emperor's hand to her
lips.
Joseph uttered a cry, and sinking on his knees, kissed the hem of her
robe. Then rising, as if reluctant to break the solemnity of their
parting by a sound, he turned and left the room.
Catharine looked after him with tearful eyes. "O God, he has left me! I
have found a noble heart, only to grieve that it can never be mine. I am
alone, alone! It is so dreadful to be--"
Suddenly she ceased, for a deep, melodious voice began to sing.
Catharine knew that the voice was Potemkin's, and that he was calling
her to the secret apartments which she had fitted up, for her lover.
The song awakened bitter memories. Potemkin had written it in former
years, and she had shed tears of emotion when she heard it--tears which
at that time were as precious to him as were his finest diamonds to-day.
The music ceased, and two tears which had gathered in the czarina's eyes
stole down her cheeks. As if drawn by an invisible hand, she crossed the
room, and, stooping down, pressed a tiny golden button which was
fastened to the floor. A whirr was heard, the floor opened and revealed
a winding staircase which led from her cabinet to the room of her
favorite.
As her foot touched the first step, she raised her eyes with a look of
despair to heaven, and her trembling lips murmured these words,
"Catharine once more in chains!"
THE REIGN OF JOSEPH.