Part 40 (1/2)
”It is your business to come to an understanding with the generalissimo as to that point. He possesses my full confidence, for he showed excellent generals.h.i.+p at Aspern. There is no reason why I should distrust him.”
”And G.o.d forbid that I should wish to render you distrustful of him!” exclaimed John, vehemently. ”I hope my brother Charles will remain yet a long while at the head of the army, and give many successors to the victory of Aspern.”
”But you doubt if he will, do you not?” asked the emperor, fixing his small light-blue eyes with a searching expression on John's face. ”You do not rejoice much at the brilliant victory of Aspern?
You do not think that Bonaparte is entirely crushed and will hasten to offer us peace?”
”Your majesty, you yourself do not believe it,” said John, with a smile. ”Napoleon is not the man to be deterred by a defeat from following up his plans; he will pursue them only the more energetically, and he will attain his ends, though, perhaps, somewhat less rapidly, unless we adopt more decisive measures.”
”Look, Stadion,” exclaimed the emperor, smiling, ”I am glad that the Archduke John agrees with me. He repeats only what I said to you about Bonaparte.”
”But, your majesty, the archduke added something to it,” said Count Stadion, quickly; ”he said Austria ought to adopt more decisive measures.”
”Ah, and now you hope that the archduke will say to me what you have already said so often, and that he will make the same proposals in regard to more decisive measures as you did, minister?”
”Yes, I do hope it, your majesty.”
”Well, let us see,” exclaimed the emperor, with great vivacity.
”Tell me, therefore, archduke, what more decisive measures you referred to.”
”Your majesty,” replied John, quickly, ”I meant that we should strive to get rid of our isolated position, and look around for allies who will aid us not only with money, as England does, but also with troops.”
”And what allies would be most desirable for Austria, according to your opinion, archduke?”
The archduke cast a rapid, searching glance on the face of the minister, who responded to it by a scarcely perceptible nod of his head.
”Your majesty,” said Archduke John, quickly, ”Prussia would be the most desirable ally for Austria.”
The emperor started back, and then turned almost angrily to Stadion.
”In truth,” he said, ”it is just as I thought; the archduke repeats your own proposals. It seems, then, that the formerly so courageous war-party at my court suddenly droops its wings, and thinks no longer that we are able to cope single-handed with Bonaparte. Hence, its members have agreed to urge me to conclude an alliance with Prussia, and now come the besieging forces which are to overcome my repugnance. The minister himself was the first to break the subject to me; now he calls the Archduke John to his a.s.sistance, and takes pains to be present at the very hour when the archduke arrives here to second his efforts in attacking me. Half an hour later, and the empress will make her appearance to a.s.sist you, and convince me that we ought to secure, above all things, the alliance of Prussia.”
”Pardon me, your majesty,” said Count Stadion, earnestly; ”I have, unfortunately, not the honor of being one of the archduke's confidants, and I pledge you my word of honor that I did not know at all that his royal highness was coming hither.”
”And I pledge your majesty my word of honor that neither the empress nor Count Stadion ever intimated to me, directly or indirectly, that they share my views, and have advocated them already before your majesty.”
”Then you have come quite independently, and of your own accord, to the conclusion that we ought to form an alliance with Prussia?”
”Yes, your majesty; I believe that this has now become a necessity for us.”
”But Prussia is a humiliated and exhausted state, which exists only by Bonaparte's grace and the intercession of the Emperor of Russia.”
”Your majesty speaks of Prussia as it was in 1807,” said Count Stadion, ”after the defeats of Jena, Eylau, and Friedland. But since then two years have elapsed, and Prussia has risen again from her prostration; she has armed secretly, rendered her resources available, and found sagacious and energetic men, who are at work silently, but with unflagging zeal, upon the reorganization of the army, and preparing every thing for the day of vengeance.”
”Let us ally ourselves with regenerated Prussia, which is longing for vengeance!” cried John, ardently; ”let us unite with her in the struggle against our common foe. Prussia and Austria should be harmonious, and jointly protect Germany.”
”No,” said the emperor, almost angrily, ”Prussia and Austria are natural enemies; they have been enemies ever since Prussia existed, for Prussia, instead of contenting herself with her inferior position, dared to be Austria's rival; and, moreover, Austria can never forgive her the rapacious conquest of Silesia.”
”Oh, your majesty,” exclaimed John, impetuously, ”let us forget the past, and fix our eyes on the present and future France is the common enemy of all Europe; all Europe ought to unite in subduing her, and we will not even solicit the cooperation of our neighbor!
But an alliance between Austria and Prussia will render all Germany united, and Germany will then be, as it were, a threatening rock, and France will shrink from her impregnable bulwarks, and retire within her natural borders.”