"Well, he will accept it," said Thugut, smiling, "for commanding and ruling always is a very agreeable occupation; and many a one would be ready and willing to betray his benefactor and friend, if he thereby could acquire power and distinction. Are you not, too, of this opinion, my dear little Count Saurau? Ah, you do not know how tenderly I am devoted to you. You are the puppet which I have raised and fostered, and which I wanted to transform into a man according to my own views. I am not to blame if you have not become a man, but always remained only a machine to be directed by another hand.
Beware, my dear, of ever falling into unskilful or bad hands, for then you would be lost, notwithstanding your elasticity and pliability. But you have got a worthy friend there at your side, noble, excellent Count Lehrbach. Do you know, my dear Count Lehrbach, that there are evil-disposed persons who often tried to prejudice me against you, who wanted to insinuate you were a rival of mine, and were notoriously anxious to supplant me and to become prime minister in my place? Truly, these anxious men actually went so far as to caution me against you."
"And did not your excellency make any reply to them?" asked Count Lehrbach, laughing.
"Parbleu, you ask me whether I have made a reply to them or not?" said Thugut. "I have always replied to those warning voices: 'I need not break Count Lehrbach's neck; he will attend to that himself. I like to push a man forward whom I am able to hang at any time.'"
[Footnote: Thugut's own words.--Hormayer's "Lebensbilder," vol. i., p. 882.]
"But you have not taken into consideration that the man whom you are pushing forward might reach back and afford you the same pleasure which you had in store for him," exclaimed Lehrbach, laughing boisterously.
"Yes, that is true," said Thugut, artlessly; "I ought to have been afraid of you, after all, and to perceive that you have got a nail in your head on which one may be hanged very comfortably. But, my friends, we detain Count Colloredo by our jokes, and you are aware that he must hasten to the archduke in order to beg him to become our commander-in-chief and to sign a treaty of peace with France.
For I believe we will make peace at all events."
"We shall make peace provided we fulfil the conditions which Bonaparte has exacted," said Count Colloredo, timidly.
"Ah, he has exacted conditions, and these conditions have been addressed to the emperor and not to myself?" asked Thugut.
"The dispatches were addressed to me, the minister of the imperial household," said Count Colloredo, modestly. "The first of these conditions is that Austria and France make peace without letting England participate in the negotiations."
"And the second condition is beaming already on Count Lehrbach's forehead," said Thugut, calmly. "Bonaparte demands that I shall withdraw from the cabinet, as my dismissal would be to him a guaranty of the pacific intentions of Austria, [Footnote: Hausser's "History of Germany," vol. ii., p. 324.] Am I mistaken?"
"You are not; but the emperor, gratefully acknowledging the long and important services your excellency has rendered to the state, will not fulfil this condition and incur the semblance of ingratitude."
"Austria and my emperor require a sacrifice of me, and I am ready to make it," said Thugut, solemnly. "I shall write immediately to his majesty the emperor and request him to permit me to withdraw from the service of the state without delay."
Count Colloredo sighed mournfully; Count Saurau smiled, and Count Lehrbach laughed in Thugut's face with the mien of a hyena.
"And do you know who will be your successor?" asked the latter.
"My dear sir, I shall have no successor, only a miserable imitator, and you will be that imitator," said Thugut, proudly. "But I give you my word that this task will not be intrusted to you for a long while. I shall now draw up my request to the emperor, and I beg you, gentlemen, to deliver it to his majesty."
Without saying another word he went to his desk, hastily wrote a few lines on a sheet of paper, which he then sealed and directed. "Count Colloredo," he said, "be kind enough to hand this letter to the emperor."
Count Colloredo took it with one hand, and with the other he drew a sealed letter from his bosom.
"And here, your excellency," he said--"here I have the honor to present to you his majesty's reply. The emperor, fully cognizant of your noble and devoted patriotism, was satisfied in advance that you would be ready to sacrifice yourself on the altar of the country, and, however grievous the resolution, he was determined to accept the sacrifice. The emperor grants your withdrawal from the service of the state; and Count Louis Cobenzl, who is to set out within a few hours for Luneville, in order to open there the peace conference with the brother of the First Consul, Joseph Bonaparte, will take along the official announcement of this change in the imperial cabinet. Count Lehrbach, I have the honor to present to you, in the name of the emperor, this letter, by which his majesty appoints you minister of the interior."
He handed to Count Lehrbach a letter, which the latter hastily opened and glanced over with greedy eyes.
"And you, my dear little Count Saurau?" asked Thugut, compassionately. "Have they not granted you any share whatever in the spoils?"
"Yes, they have; I have received the honorable commission to communicate to the good people of Vienna the joyful news that Baron Thugut has been dismissed," said Count Saurau; "and I shall now withdraw in order to fulfil this commission."
He nodded sneeringly to Thugut, bowed respectfully to Count Colloredo, and left the minister's cabinet.
"I am avenged," he muttered, while crossing the anteroom;
"henceforward the shipbuilder's son will call me no longer his 'dear little count.'"
