"The world will not grudge these hot-blooded French a little blood- letting, and it will praise your surgical skill, my dear Barbaczy," exclaimed Lehrbach, laughing. "The responsibility, besides, does not fall on your shoulders. Who will blame you if your hot-blooded hussars commit some excesses-some highway robberies? You do not order them to assassinate anybody; you only order them to take the papers from the ambassadors, and only to use force if it cannot be helped."
"I shall send fifty hussars to the city to-morrow," said Barbaczy, thoughtfully. "They shall encamp in front of the Ettlinger Gate, so that no one, whosoever it may be, will be able to cross the bridges connecting the city with the suburbs without passing through their ranks."
Victoria approached him, and laying her hands on his shoulders, she looked up to him with a fascinating smile.
"And you will send some of your most intrepid hussars to Lehrbach and to me, that we may tell the brave men what rewards are in store for them if they perform their duly in a satisfactory manner? No, my beautiful god of war, do not shake your silvery locks BO wildly--do not threaten me with your frowning brow! Think of Gurgewo, my friend! Do you remember what you swore to me at that time in the trenches when I dressed with my own hands the wound for which you were indebted to a Turkish sabre? Do you remember that you swore to me at that time you would reciprocate my service as soon as it was in your power?" "I know it, and I am ready to fulfil my oath," said Barbaczy, heaving a sigh.
"Well, my friend, all I ask is this: send to-morrow six of your bravest and wildest hussars to my house, and order them faithfully to carry out what Count Lehrbach and I shall tell them."
"The hussars shall halt at your door to-morrow morning at nine o'clock," said Barbaczy, resolutely.
"And I will admit them!" exclaimed Victoria, smiling. "You will be here, Count Lehrbach, I suppose?"
"I shall be here in order to listen to the wise lessons which the goddess Victoria will teach the sons of Mars," replied Lehrbach, fixing his small, squinting eyes with an admiring air on Victoria's beautiful face. "You will need no other means but your smiles and your beauty in order to inspire those brave soldiers with the most dauntless heroism. Who would not be willing to shed a little French blood, if your lips should promise him a reward?"
"And what reward are you going to promise to the soldier?" asked Barbaczy, turning to Madame de Poutet. "What are you going to ask them to do?"
"Only to seize all the papers of the ambassadors," said Victoria.
"And to examine their bodies if any papers should be concealed there," added Count Lehrbach, laughing.
"And their reward shall be that the hussars will be allowed to look for some other spoils," said Victoria.
"Highway robbery and murder, then," sighed Barbaczy, "and perpetrated by soldiers of my regiment! Highway robbery and murder!"
"Fie, what ugly words those are! and who thinks of murder?" exclaimed Victoria. "Did we Germans die, then, of the numerous kicks and blows which the French have given us for the last few years? We will only return those kicks and blows, and the French will assuredly not be so thin-skinned as to die of them on the spot."
"Do as you please," sighed Barbaczy. "Count Lehrbach has the right to issue orders to myself and to my troops, and I owe you the fulfilment of my oath. My hussars will occupy the city to-morrow, and I shall order the French ambassadors to depart forthwith. What is to be done after their departure you may settle with the hussars I shall send to you. I shall take no notice of it."
"And that is a very wise resolution of yours, colonel," said Lehrbach. "'To know too much gives us the headache,' says our gracious emperor, whenever he returns the dispatches to Baron Thugut without having read them. Send us, then, your hussars to-morrow, and whatever may happen, colonel, we shall not betray each other."
"No, we shall not betray each other!" repeated Victoria and Barbaczy, with uplifted hands.
"To-morrow, then!" said Victoria. "Now, good-night, gentlemen!"