Joseph II. and His Court Part 143

"What! you would strike me!" said Leopold retreating.

"Give me the papers!" thundered the emperor, "or I fell you to the earth as I would a beast!" and he came yet nearer.

Pale and panting, their eyes flas.h.i.+ng with anger, the brothers stood for a moment confronting each other.

"Refuse me once again," hissed Joseph in a low, unnatural voice, "refuse me once again, and my hand shall smite your cowardly face and disgrace you forever; for, as G.o.d hears me, you shall never have satisfaction for the affront."

Leopold was silent, but with his eyes fixed upon Joseph, he retreated, farther and still farther, followed by the emperor, who, still with uplifted hand, threatened his brother's face. Suddenly Leopold reached the door and, bursting it open, rushed into the anteroom. With a tiger-bound he sprang forward to Lacy who had remained there in obedience to the emperor's orders.

CHAPTER CXXVI.

THE DEFEAT.

"Field-Marshal Lacy," said the grand duke, "I claim your protection--the protection of a man whom the empress has honored, and who has sworn to obey her as his lawful sovereign."

"Even unto death," added Lacy solemnly.

The emperor groaned aloud, and his upraised arm fell powerless to his side. A triumphant smile flickered over the pale features of Leopold. He thrust his hand into his pocket and drew forth the dispatches of the empress.

"The empress charged me," said he, "in case the emperor refused to read these letters, to deliver them to you, Marshal Lacy, and to bid you, in my presence, read them to him. Come, then, your excellency, let us obey the commands of our sovereign."

Lacy bowed, and followed the grand duke in silence. The emperor retreated to his cabinet, and, sinking upon a sofa, buried his face in his hands. Nothing interrupted the stillness save the measured footsteps of Lacy and the grand duke, who entered and closed the door behind them.

A long pause ensued. The grand duke retired to a window, where, with his arms folded, he awaited the development of affairs with recovered composure. Joseph still sat with his face hidden by his hands, while Lacy with military decorum stood at the door with his letters, silent until the emperor should signify that he might read. Finding that Joseph would not speak, Lacy took a few steps forward. "Does your majesty allow me to read the letters which, in the name of the empress, his imperial highness, the grand duke, has delivered to me?"

"Read," said Joseph hoa.r.s.ely, but without removing his hands. Lacy approached the table, and from the various doc.u.ments which he unfolded and examined, selected the letter which was in the empress's own hand--

"My Dearest Emperor and Son: As co-regent and heir to my throne, I hasten to advise you of the negotiations which have just been renewed between the King of Prussia and myself. I have every hope that they will terminate to our satisfaction, and thus not only save the lives of many of our subjects, but relieve my heart of the pangs it has endured during the absence of my beloved son. The King of Prussia has promised that, pending our diplomatic correspondence, he will not attack our armies. I therefore hope that you, my son, will concede as much, and scrupulously avoid all collision that might interrupt our negotiations. I send you copies of our correspondence, and will continue to do so regularly.

Hoping that G.o.d in His goodness will restore to me my imperial son, I remain now as ever, your affectionate mother and empress, "MARIA THERESA."

A deep sign that was almost a sob was heaved by the emperor. Slowly his hands fell from his face, while with tearful eyes he turned to Lacy, and said, "Is it really so? Are my hopes of glory all frustrated?"

Lacy answered with another sigh and a slight raising of the shoulder.

"Read on, Lacy," continued the emperor, mildly; "my eyes are dim and I cannot see."

Lacy continued reading the correspondence: first the letter of the empress; then the reply of the king, in which he promised that Maria Theresa should have nothing to fear for the life of her beloved son.

When the emperor heard this he started; the color mounted to his face, then faded away and left it pale as before. His lips moved, but with a convulsive twitch he closed them again, and listened in silence. Two more letters followed, full of mutual and distinguished consideration; then came the propositions of the empress and the comments of the king.

Maria Theresa pledged herself, from that portion of Bavaria of which Austria had possession, to retain only so much as would yield a revenue of one million, offering to cede the remainder to the elector palatine, or to exchange with him for territory situated elsewhere.

Then followed Frederick's conditions. He stipulated that Austria should renounce all pretensions to Bavaria, contenting herself with a small portion of Upper Bavaria, and recognizing and upholding the claims of Charles Theodore, as well as those of his heir, the Duke of Zweibrucken.

"Further, further!" exclaimed Joseph, as Lacy paused.

"There is nothing further, sire; the correspondence ceases there."

"And to these disgraceful propositions we are not permitted to make the only answer of which they are deserving--that is, to wipe them out with blood! Oh, Lacy, Lacy, is it not fearful to be compelled like a schoolboy to submit to the punishment which my tormentor judges fit to inflict?"

"It is a painful duty, sire; but it is a duty, and your majesty must submit."

"I must not submit!" exclaimed Joseph in bitter anguish, while he sprang from the sofa. But suddenly his eager, fluttering glances were turned toward the window where stood the grand duke quietly surveying his movements.

"Have you not gone?" asked the, emperor. "I thought that your mission being fulfilled, your imperial highness had nothing more to do here."

"I await your majesty's answer," replied the grand duke. "Oh, you wish to mock me, do you?" cried Joseph, trembling with pa.s.sion, "for well you know there is but one answer to the empress's commands, and that is--obedience. But since you are anxious to take a message, here is one, and mark it well. Say to the empress that I submit as becomes her subject, and so long as it suits her without my knowledge and behind my back to hold conferences with the enemy, I will abstain from engaging him in battle, although by so doing I shall ruin my reputation forever.

Tell her furthermore that should she accept the dishonorable proposals made by Frederick and conclude a peace upon the basis of his conditions, she need never expect to see me again in Vienna. I never shall go near her so long as I live, but shall take up my abode in Aix la Chapelle, or in some other free city, as it was once the custom of the Emperors of Germany to do."' [Footnote: Joseph's own words. See Dohm's Memoirs vol.

i., p. 143.]

"Oh, sire!" exclaimed Lacy, shocked, "retract those words, I implore of you!"

"I will not retract them," replied Joseph, imperatively; "I order the envoy of the empress to repeat them faithfully."

"I shall obey your majesty, the co-regent of the empress," said the Grand Duke of Tuscany. "Has your majesty any other commands?"

"Yes!" shouted the emperor, fiercely. "When you shall have accomplished your mission in Vienna, go home to your priests in Tuscany, and bid them say a ma.s.s for the repose of your brother's soul, for from this day you have lost him who was called Joseph. He is dead to you forever."

The grand duke returned his brother's look with one of equal hatred. "I can scarcely lose that which I have never possessed," replied he with composure. "Had the affront which your majesty has put upon me to-day come from a brother, we should have measured swords together before the sun had set upon the insult. But he who stands before me is my emperor, and of him I am prohibited from demanding satisfaction."

"Our paths in life lie apart, and I trust that we shall never be forced to look upon each other again," said Joseph in reply.

"Since we can never meet as brothers, I am compelled to echo the wish,"

returned Leopold. "Farewell!"

"Farewell--and let it be farewell forever!"

The grand duke crossed the room and opened the door, while Joseph watched his disappearance with glaring eyes and stormy brow, and Lacy in anguish of heart looked first at one brother, then at the other. The door closed, and the jar it made caused Lacy of start. He recovered himself and hastened to the emperor's side.

"Call him back, sire," implored he. "Call him back. He is your brother and the son of your mother. He is also the hope of those who tremble with apprehension of your majesty's reign."

"Oh, yes--he is the leader of my enemies, the head of the pious conspirators who have cursed my life by their diabolical opposition. But a day will come when I shall crush the whole brood in their owl's nest, and put my house in order. In that day I shall remember this interview with the Grand Duke of Tuscany." [Footnote: The two brothers never met again. Although Leopold was next heir to the crown, Joseph would not allow him to receive the t.i.tle of King of Rome, but bestowed it upon Leopold's son and heir, Francis. Even upon his death-bed the emperor refused to see his brother. By his explicit commands, it was only when his death had taken place, that a courier was sent to inform Leoold of his accession to the throne.]

"Sire," insisted Lacy, "I entreat of you, recall him--if not as your brother, as the envoy of your sovereign. Before it is too late, retract those fearful words, which in a moment of--"

"Lacy!" interrupted the emperor, in a loud, angry voice, "I have this day lost a brother and a battle. Am I also to lose a friend?"

The tears rose to Lacy's eyes. "Sire," said he in a voice of emotion, "forgive your truest friend if he has presumed to oppose you. I have no kindred to love: my heart is bound to you, and if I lose your regard, I am desolate and alone in the world!"

"You shall not lose it, my dear, dear friend," exclaimed Joseph, throwing his arms around Lacy's neck. "O G.o.d, you do not know how I suffer I I feel as if I had lost some beloved friend. And is it not so?

Have I not buried to-day the hopes of a whole life? The hopes which from my youth I had cherished of winning glory and fame through Frederick's humiliation!--I would give years of my life to have measured swords with him, for--let me tell you a secret, Lacy--I hate that man as much as I once fancied that I loved him. He is the cause of every misfortune that has befallen our house for forty years past. His fame is our shame, his splendor our obscuration. I might forgive him his robbery of Silesia, but that he has reduced me to the role of an imitator, I can never forgive! Every thing on earth that I imagine, he executes before me. If I desire to free my people from the dominion of the clergy, he has already liberated his; if I seek to advance art, literature, or manufactures, he has just afforded them protection in Prussia; if I recommend toleration, lo! he has removed the disabilities of the Jews, and has p.r.o.nounced all sects equal before the law. Would I excel in music, or yearn for military glory, the world has long since p.r.o.nounced him a hero, and his flute was heard before I learned the violoncello.

Oh, I hate him, I hate him, for his greatness is the rock upon which my originality is fated to split; and his shadow projects forever before me and my unborn deeds. He forces me to pa.s.s for a counterfeit of his true coin, and yet I feel that my individuality is as marked as his! He is the evil genius of my destiny, vanquis.h.i.+ng me even in that which I would have done for the good of my subjects and the advancement of the world!"

"Your majesty goes too far," said Lacy, smiling. "There is one thing which Frederick has never dreamed of doing, and it is precisely there that you are destined to eclipse him. He has never sought to do any thing for Germany. A German prince, the ruler of a German people, he is the patron of foreign industry, literature, and art. The most insignificant writer in France is better known to him than Lessing or Winklemann; and while he is perfectly familiar with the composers of Italy, be has blundered into depreciation of Gluck's inspired music.

There is the great and glorious contrast which your majesty presents to Frederick of Prussia; and the German people, whom he has despised, will look up to you, sire, as to the Messiah of their decaying greatness."

"He will foil me there as in all else," replied Joseph, disconsolately.

"Has he not already guessed my plans in Germany, and has he not torn my banner from my hand to flaunt it above his own head, as the defender of German liberties! And Maria Theresa, too, is deceived by his infernal logic. Oh, Lacy! I hate him beyond expression. I hate him for the letter wherein he promises to spare her son, a man whom he loves, although he differs with him on the subject of German nationality. [Footnote: Gross-Hoffinger, "Records of the Life of Joseph II.," p. 41.] The cowardly remnant of a warrior! He takes refuge under my mother's hooped petticoat, and whispers in her credulous ear that this war is a great sin. Do you really think that I am bound to sheathe my sword at the ipse dixit of my mother?"