Louisa of Prussia and Her Times | Page 8

Mohammed, where you are smoking your
chibouk, seated on cushions of clouds, while houris, radiant with
beauty, are tickling the soles of your feet with rosy fingers, appears to
me by far more desirable than the Christian heaven where you are to
stand in eternal idleness before the throne of God Almighty, singing
hymns, and praising His greatness. Ah! during the happy days of my
sojourn at Constantinople, I have had a slight foretaste of the heaven of
Mohammed; and again, in the tedious days of Maria Theresa, I have
had a foretaste of the heaven of Christianity!"
"And which Providence did your excellency refer to?" asked Saurau. "I
pray your excellency to tell me, because your faith is to be the model of
mine."
"I believe in a Providence that never does any thing in vain, and never
creates great men in order to let them be crushed, like flies, by
miserable monkeys. That is the reason why I am not afraid of any
conspiracy against myself. Providence has created me to be useful to
Austria, and to be her bulwark against the surging waves of the
revolution, and against the victorious legions of General Bonaparte. I
am an instrument of Providence, and therefore it will protect me as
long as it needs me. But if, some day, it should need me no longer, if it
intended then that I should fall, all my precautions would be fruitless,

and all your spies, my dear count, would be unable to stay the hand of
the assassin."
"You want me to understand, then, that no steps whatever are to be
taken against the criminals conspiring against your excellency's life?"
"By no means, count--indeed, that would be an exaggeration of fatalism.
I rely greatly on your sagacity and on the vigilance of your servants,
count. Let them watch the stupid populace--see to it that faux freres
always attend the meetings of my enemies, and whenever they inform
you of conspiracies against myself, why, the malefactors shall be
spirited away without any superfluous noise. Thank God, we have
fortresses and state prisons, with walls too thick for shrieks or groans to
penetrate, and that no one is able to break through. The public should
learn as little as possible of the fate of these criminals. The public
punishment of an assassin who failed to strike me, only instigates ten
others to try if they cannot hit me better. But the noiseless
disappearance of a culprit fills their cowardly souls with horror and
dismay, and the ten men shrink back from the intended deed, merely
because they do not know in what manner their eleventh accomplice
has expiated his crime. The disappearance of prisoners, the oubliettes,
are just what is needed. You must quietly remove your enemies and
adversaries--it must seem as if some hidden abyss had ingulfed them;
everybody, then, will think this abyss might open one day before his
own feet, and he grows cautious, uneasy, and timid. Solely by the
wisdom of secret punishments, and through the terror inspired by its
mysterious tribunals, Venice has been able to prolong her existence for
so many centuries. Because the spies of the Three were believed to be
ubiquitous--and because everybody was afraid of the two lions on the
Piazzetta, the Venetians obeyed these invisible rulers whom they did
not know, and whose avenging hand was constantly hanging over
them."
"Now, however, it seems that a visible hand, a hand of iron, is going to
strike away the invisible hands of the Three," said Count Saurau,
quickly. "Bonaparte seems to desire to force Venice, too, into the pale
of his Italian republics. The city is full of French emissaries, who, by
means of the most eloquent and insidious appeals, try to bring about a
rising of the Venetians against their rulers, in order--but hark!" said the
count, suddenly interrupting himself. "What is that? Don't you hear the

clamor in the street, right under our window?"
He paused, and, like the minister, turned his eyes and ears toward the
window. A confused noise, loud shouts and yells, resounded below.
The two ministers, without uttering a word, arose from their arm-
chairs and hurried to one of the windows, which looked upon the wide
street extending from the Kohlmarkt to the minister's palace. A vast
mass of heads, broad shoulders, and uplifted arms, was visible there,
and the angry roar of the excited populace was approaching already the
immediate neighborhood of the palace.
"It seems, indeed, as if these honorable representatives of the people,
intended to pay me a visit," said Thugut, with great composure. "Just
listen how the fellows are roaring my name, as if it were the refrain of
some rollicking beer-song!"
"Why, it is a regular riot!" exclaimed the police minister, angrily.
"Your excellency will