Joseph II. and His Court is a Webnovel created by Louise Muhlbach.
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The empress sighed and slowly shook her head. “Where did he take the infection’?” asked she.
“From the daughter of the marshal of his household, who lived at the palace, and took the small-pox there. Every attempt was made to conceal the fact from the elector, and indeed he remained in total ignorance of it. One day while he was playing billiards, the marshal, who had just left his daughter’s bedside, entered the room. The elector, shuddering, laid down his cue, and turning deathly pale, murmured these words: ‘Some one here has the small-pox. I feel it.’ He then fell insensible on the floor. He recovered his consciousness, but died a few days afterward.
[Footnote: Wraxall, “Memoirs of the Courts of Berlin, Vienna, etc.,”
vol. i., p. 306.] This is the substance of the dispatches. Shall I now read them?”
“No, no, my son,” said the empress, gloomily. “Enough that the son of my enemy is dead, and his house without an heir.”
“Yes; he is dead,” replied Joseph, sternly. “The brother of my enemy–of that wife with whom for two years I lived the martyrdom of an abhorred union! He has gone to his sister, gone to his father, both our bitter, bitter foes. I hated Josepha for the humiliation I endured as the husband of such a repulsive woman; but to-day I forgive her, for ’tis she who from the grave holds out to me the rich inheritance which is the fruit of our marriage.”
The empress raised her eyes with an expression of alarm.
“What!” exclaimed she, “another robbery! Lies not the weight of one injustice upon my conscience, that you would seek to burden my soul with another! Think you that I have forgotten Poland!–No! The remembrance of our common crime will follow me to the bitter end, and it shall not be aggravated by repet.i.tion. I am empress of Austria, and while I live, Joseph, you must restrain your ambition within the bounds of justice and princely honor.”
The emperor bowed. “Your majesty must confess that I have never struggled against your imperial will. I have bowed before it, sorely though it has humiliated me. But as there is no longer any question of death before us, allow me to recall Prince Kaunitz, that he may take part in our discussion.”
Maria Theresa bowed in silence, and the emperor drew the minister from his retreat behind the curtains.
“Come, your highness,” whispered Joseph. “Come and convince the empress that Bavaria must be ours. We are about to have a struggle.”
“But I shall come out victor,” replied Kaunitz, as he rose and returned to the table.
Maria Theresa surveyed them both with looks of disapprobation and apprehension. “I see,” said she, in a tremulous voice, “that you are two against one. I do not think it honorable in Kaunitz to uphold my son against his sovereign. Tell me, prince, do you come hither to break your faith, and overthrow your empress?”
“There lives not man or woman in the world who can accuse Kaunitz of bad faith,” replied the prince. “I swore years ago to dedicate myself to Austria, and I shall keep my word until your majesty releases me.”
“I suppose that is one of your numerous threats to resign,” said the empress, with irritation. “If there is difference of opinion between us, I must yield, or you will not remain my minister. But be sure that to the last day of my life I shall retain my sovereignty, nor share it with son or minister; and this conceded, we may confer together. Let the emperor sit by my side, and you, prince, be opposite to us, for I wish to look into your face that I may judge how far your tongue expresses the convictions of your conscience. And now I desire the emperor to explain his words, and tell me how it is that the succession of Bavaria concerns the house of Hapsburg.”
“Frankly, then,” cried Joseph, with some asperity, “I mean that our troops must be marched into Bavaria at once; for by the extinction of the finale line of Wittelsbach, the electorate is open to us as an imperial thief, and–“
“Austria, then, has pretensions to the electorate of Bavaria,”
interrupted Maria Theresa, with constrained calmness.
The emperor in his turn looked at his mother with astonishment. “Has your majesty, then, not read the doc.u.ments which were drawn up for your inspection by the court historiographer?”
“I have seen them all,” replied the empress, sadly. “I have read all the doc.u.ments by which you have sought to prove that Austria has claims upon Lower Bavaria, because, in 1410, the Emperor Sigismund enfeoffed his son-in-law, Albert of Austria, with this province. I have read further that in 1614 the Emperor Matthias gave to the archducal house the reversion of the Suabian estate of Mindelheim, which subsequently, in 1706, when the Elector of Bavaria fell under the ban of the empire, was actually claimed by the Emperor of Austria. I have also learned that the Upper Palatinate, with all its counties, by the extinction of the Wittelsbach dynasty, becomes an open feoff, to which the Emperor of Austria thinks that he may a.s.sert his claims.”
“And your majesty is not convinced of the validity of my claims?”
exclaimed the emperor.
Maria Theresa shook her head. “I cannot believe that we are justifies in annexing to Austria an electorate which, not being ours by indisputable right of inheritance, may be the cause of involving us in a b.l.o.o.d.y war.”
“But which, nevertheless, is the finest province in all Germany,” cried Joseph impatiently; “and its acquisition the first step toward consolidation of all the German princ.i.p.alities into one great empire.
When the Palatinate, Suabia, and Lower Bavaria are ours, the Danube will flow through Austrian territory alone; the trade of the Levant becomes ours; our ships cover the Black Sea, and finally Constantinople will be compelled to open its harbor to Austrian shipping and become a mart for the disposal of Austrian merchandise. Once possessed of Bavaria, South Germany, too, lies open to Austria, which like a magnet will draw toward one centre all its petty provinces and counties. After that, we approach Prussia, and ask whether she alone will stand apart from the great federation, or whether she has patriotism and magnanimity enough to merge her name and nationality in ours. Oh, your majesty, I implore you do not hesitate to pluck the golden fruit, for it is ours! Think, too, how anxiously the Bavarians look to us for protection against the pretensions of Charles Theodore, the only heir of the deceased elector.
“The people of Bavaria well know what is to be their fate if they fall into the hands of the elector palatine. Surrounded by mistresses with swarms of natural children, his sole object in life will be to plunder his subjects that he may enrich a progeny to whom he can lave neither name nor crown. Oh, your majesty, be generous, and rescue the Bavarians from a war of succession; for the elector palatine has no heir, and his death will be the signal for new strife.”
“Nay, it seems to me that the Duke of Zweibrucken [Footnote: Called in English history, Duke of Deux-ponts.–Trans.] is the natural heir of Charles Theodore, and I suppose he will be found as willing to possess his inheritance as you or I, or any other pretender, replied Maria Theresa. “But if, as you say, the Bavarians are sighing to become Austrian subjects, it seems to me that they might have character enough to give us some indication of their predilections; for I declare to you both that I will not imitate the treachery of Frederick. I will not bring up mouldy doc.u.ments from our imperial archives to prove that I have a right to lands which for hundreds of years have been the property of another race; nor will I, for mad ambition’s sake, spill one drop of honest Austrian blood.”
“And so will Austria lose her birthright,” returned Joseph angrily. “And so shall I be doomed to idle insignificance, while history ignores the only man who really loves Germany, and who has spirit to defy the malice of his contemporaries, and in the face of their disapproval, to do that which is best for Germany’s welfare. Is it possible that your majesty will put upon me this new humiliation? Do you really bid me renounce the brightest dream of my life?”
“My dear son,” said the empress, “I cannot view this undertaking with your eyes; I am old and timid, and I shudder with apprehension of the demon that follows in the wake of ambition. I would not descend to my grave amid the wails and curses of my people–I would not be depicted in history as an ambitious and unscrupulous sovereign. Let me go to my Franz blessed by the tears and regrets of my subjects–let me appear before posterity as an upright and peace-loving empress. But I have said that I am old–so old that I mistrust my own judgment. It may be that I mistake pusillanimity for disinterestedness. Speak, Kaunitz–so far you have been silent. What says your conscience to this claim? Is it consistent with justice and honor?”
“Your majesty knows that I will speak my honest convictions even though they might be unacceptable to the ear of my sovereign,” replied Kaunitz.
“I understand,” said the empress, disconsolately. “You are of one mind with the emperor.”
“Yes,” replied Kaunitz, “I am. It is the duty of Austria to a.s.sert her right to an inheritance which her ancestors foresaw, hundreds of years ago, would be indispensable to her future stability. Not only your majesty’s forefathers, but the force of circ.u.mstances signify to us that the acquisition is natural and easy. It would be a great political error to overlook it; and believe me that in no science is an error so fatal to him who commits it as in the science of government. Bavaria is necessary to Austria, and your majesty may become its ruler without so much as one stroke of the sword.”
“Without a stroke of the sword!” exclaimed Maria Theresa, impetuously.
“Does your highness suppose that such a stupendous acquisition as that, is not to provoke the opposition of our enemies?”
“Who is to oppose us?” asked Kaunitz. “Not France, certainly; she is too closely our relative and ally.”
“I do not rely much upon the friendship of France,” interrupted the empress. Marie Antoinette is mistress of the king’s affections; but his ministers guide his policy, and they would gladly see our friendly relations ruptured.”
“But France is not in a condition to oppose us,” continued Kaunitz. “Her finances are disordered, and at this very moment she is equipping an army to aid the American rebellion. We have nothing to fear from Russia, provided we overlook her doings in Turkey, and look away while she absorbs the little that remains of Poland. England is too far away to be interested in the matter, and Frederick knows by dear-bought experience that her alliance, in case of war, is perfectly worthless. Besides, George has quite enough on his hands with his troubles in North America.
Who, then, is to prevent us from marching to Bavaria and taking peaceable possession of our lawful inheritance?”
“Who?” exclaimed the empress. “Our greatest and bitterest enemy–the wicked and unprincipled parvenu who has cost me so many tears, my people so many lives, and who has robbed me of one of the fairest jewels in my imperial crown.”
Kaunitz shrugged his shoulders. “Your majesty is very magnanimous to speak of the Margrave of Brandenburg as a dangerous foe.”
“And if he were a dangerous foe,” cried Joseph vehemently, “so much the more glory to me if I vanquish him in battle and pluck the laurels from his bead!”
Kaunitz looked at the emperor and slightly raised his finger by way of warning. “The King of Prussia,” said he, “is no longer the hero that he was in years gone by; he dare not risk his fame by giving battle to the emperor. He rests upon his laurels, plays on the flute, writes bad verses, and listens to the adulation of his fawning philosophical friends. Then why should he molest us in Bavaria. We have doc.u.ments to prove that the heritage is ours, and if we recognize his right to Bayreuth and Ans.p.a.ch, he will admit ours to whatever we choose to claim.”
Maria Theresa was unconvinced. “You make light of Frederick, prince; but he is as dangerous as ever, and after all I think it much safer to fear our enemies than to despise them.”
“Frederick of Prussia is a hero, a philosopher, and a legislator,” cried Joseph. “Let me give him battle, your majesty, that I may win honor by vanquishing the victor.”
“Never will I give my consent to such measures, unless we are forced to adopt them in defence of right.”
“Our right here is indisputable,” interposed Kaunitz. “Copies of our doc.u.ments have already been circulated throughout Germany; and I have received from Herr von Ritter, the commissioner of Charles Theodore, the a.s.surance that the latter is ready to resign his pretensions in consideration of the advantages we offer.”
“What are these advantages?” asked Maria Theresa.
“We offer him our provinces in the Netherlands, and the privilege of establishing a kingdom in Burgundy,” replied Joseph. “We also bestow upon his mult.i.tudinous children t.i.tles, orders, and a million of florins.”
“And shame all virtue and decency!” cried the empress, coloring violently.
“The elector loves his progeny, and cares little or nothing for Bavaria,” continued Joseph. “We shall win him over, and Bavaria will certainly be ours.”
“Without the shedding of one drop of blood,” added Kaunitz, drawing from his coat-pocket a paper which he unfolded and laid upon the table.
“Here is a map of Bavaria, your majesty,” said Kaunitz, “and here is that portion of the electorate which we claim, through its cession to Albert of Austria by the Emperor Sigismund.”
“We must take possession of it at once,” cried Joseph; “at once, before any other claimant has time to interpose.”