Part 9 (1/2)
”Hush, for G.o.d's sake, hus.h.!.+” said John, laughing. ”You must keep quiet, and, instead of doing so, you shout as jubilantly as though you were standing on a crest of the Brenner, and had just discovered the hiding-place of a chamois. Let me therefore tell you once more it is necessary that the people of Vienna should not find out that you are in the city. Pledge me your word, then, that you will not go into the street tomorrow in the daytime, nor allow any one to see you.”
”We pledge you our word!” exclaimed the Tyrolese, with one accord; ”we will not appear in the street to-morrow in the daytime, and day after to-morrow we shall set out.”
”Yes, we shall set out then,” repeated Andreas Hofer, ”and return to our mountains and friends, and wait patiently and faithfully until the day when we shall see the rising to the sky the signal which is to tell us that our dear Archduke John sends us his soldiers to a.s.sist us in delivering our country from the enemy, and restoring it, with our mountains, our love, and our loyalty, to our dear Emperor Francis. G.o.d grant that we may succeed in so doing, and may the Holy Virgin pray for us all, and restore the Tyrol to the emperor!”
CHAPTER VII.
ANDREAS HOFER AT THE THEATRE.
Count Stadion, the minister of foreign affairs, was pacing his cabinet with a quick step and an anxious expression of countenance.
At times he stood still, and, bending his head toward the door, seemed to listen intently for some sound; all remaining silent outside, he commenced again striding up and down, and whenever he approached the clock on the mantelpiece he cast an anxious glance on it.
”I am afraid Hormayr was not at home,” he murmured moodily to himself; ”his servants did not know where he was, and therefore the mischief cannot be stopped.”
He drew a golden snuff-box from his pocket and took a large pinch from it. ”I said at the very outset,” he murmured, ”that we ought to keep aloof from these stupid peasants, who will only involve us in trouble and mischief. But those gentlemen would not listen to me, and--Really, I believe I hear footsteps in the anteroom. Yes, yes, somebody is coming!”
Count Stadion was not mistaken. The door opened, and a footman announced, in a loud voice, ”Baron von Hormayr!”
”Let him come in, let him come in, quick!” said Count Stadion, waving his hand impatiently; and when Hormayr appeared on the threshold of the door, he hastily went to meet him.
”In truth; it took my servants a good while to find you!” exclaimed the minister, angrily. ”I have been waiting for you half an hour.”
”I was at the Archduke John's rooms, with whom I had business of importance, your excellency,” said Hormayr, emphasizing his last words. ”Moreover, I could not guess that your excellency would wish to grant me an audience at so unusual an hour, and without my asking for it.”
”At so unusual an hour!” cried Count Stadion, putting one pinch of snuff after another into his nose. ”Yes, yes, at so unusual an hour!
It would have been more agreeable to me, too, if it had been unnecessary for me to trouble you and myself. But it is your own fault. You do not keep your word.”
”Your excellency!” cried Hormayr, indignantly.
”Bah! it is true. You do not keep your word. You promised me that your Tyrolese should not show themselves, lest we might be charged with fomenting an insurrection; and it was necessary, also, to prevent the Bavarians from learning prematurely our plans. Can you deny that you promised this to me? ”
”No, your excellency, I do not deny it at all.”
”Well, your Tyrolese are running around everywhere.”
”Pardon me, your excellency, that cannot be true. You must have been misinformed.”
”What! misinformed? How dare you say so to my face, sir? Your beardman, or bushman, or Sandwirth Hofer is at the Karnthnerthor Theatre, and is the observed of all observers. I saw him with my own eyes; and that was the reason why I left the theatre and sent for you.”[Footnote: Count Stadion's own words.--See Hormayr's ”Andreas Hofer,” vol i., p. 209]
”Your excellency saw him with your own eyes! Then, of course, it must be true, and I would beg leave of your excellency to go immediately to the theatre and take him to his hotel.”
”That was just what I wished to ask you to do, Baron von Hormayr.
Make haste and induce this bushman to leave Vienna immediately.”
”He will leave the capital early in the morning. Your excellency will permit me now to withdraw.”
Baron von Hormayr hastened down stairs, left the chancery of state, and crossed the Joseph's Place. On reaching the Karnthnerthor Theatre, he bought a ticket at the office and entered the pit.
”The Marriage of Figaro,” by Mozart, was performed at the Karnthnerthor Theatre to-night, and this favorite opera of the Viennese had attracted so large an audience that not a seat was vacant, and the baron had to elbow his way with no little difficulty through the crowd filling the pit, in order to reach a point where he might be able to see every part of the house, and discover him for whose sake he had come.