"That is a consolation, but no hope," said Gentz. "So long as the other ministers will retain their positions, every thing will be in vain. Every thing is so diseased and rotten that, unless the whole be thrown away, there is no reasonable hope left. I hoped the Emperor of Russia would boldly denounce the incapacity of the cabinet, and by his powerful influence succeed in cleansing our Augean stable, but he is too gentle for such an undertaking, and has no man of irresistible power and energy at his side. He beheld our misery; he greatly deplored it, but refused to meddle with the domestic affairs of Austria. Thus every thing was lost, and he was himself disgracefully defeated."
"And now we have submitted altogether?" asked Marianne. "We have made peace with the usurper?"
"We have BEGGED him to make peace with us, you mean, and he will dictate the terms in which we shall have to acquiesce. Oh, Marianne, when I think of the events of the last few days, I am seized with rage and grief, and hardly know how I shall be able to live henceforward. Just listen HOW we have begged for peace! Yesterday, two days after the battle, the Emperor Francis sent Prince John of Lichtenstein to Napoleon, who had established his headquarters at Austerlitz, in a mansion belonging to the Kaunitz family, to express to the conqueror his wish to have an interview with him at the advanced posts. Napoleon granted it to him, and the Emperor of Germany went to his conqueror to beg for peace. He was accompanied by none but Lamberti to the meeting, which was to take place in the open field. Bonaparte received him, surrounded by all his generals, chamberlains, and masters of ceremonies, and with the whole pomp of his imperial dignity." [Footnote: This account of the interview of the two emperors may be found verbatim in a letter from Gentz to Johannes von Muller. Vide "Correspondence," etc., p. 154.]
"Oh, what a terrible disgrace and humiliation!" exclaimed Marianne, bursting into tears, while she tore the diadem with a wild gesture from her hair and hurled it to the floor. "Who dares to adorn himself after events so utterly ignominious have occurred?" she ejaculated--"who dares to carry his head erect after Germany has been thus trampled under foot! The Emperor of Germany has begged the invader to make peace; he has humbly solicited it like a beggar asking alms! And has the conqueror graciously granted his request?
Oh, tell me every thing, Frederick! What took place at that interview? What did they say to each other?"
"I can tell you but little about it," said Gentz, shrugging his shoulders, "for the two emperors conversed without witnesses.
Bonaparte left his suite at the bivouac fire kindled by his soldiers, and Lamberti also went thither. The two emperors then embraced each other like two friends who had not met for years."
[Footnote: Historical.]
"And the Emperor Francis had not sufficient strength to strangle the fiend with his arms?" asked Marianne, trembling with wrath and grief.
"He had neither the strength nor the inclination, I suppose," said Gentz, shrugging his shoulders. "When Napoleon released the unfortunate Emperor Francis from his arms, he pointed with a proud glance toward heaven and said: 'Such are the palaces which your majesty has obliged me to inhabit for these three months.'"
"'The abode in them,' replied the Austrian monarch, 'makes you so thriving that you have no right to be angry with me for it.'"
"'I only ask your majesty,' said Napoleon, hastily, 'not to renew the war against France.'"
"'I pledge you my word as a man and a sovereign that I shall do so no more,' replied Francis, loudly and unhesitatingly. The conversation then was continued in a lower tone, and neither Lamberti nor the French marshals were able to understand another word." [Footnote: "Memoires du Duo de Rovigo," vol. ii., p. 218.]
"The interview lasted two hours, and then the two emperors parted with reiterated demonstrations of cordiality. The Emperor Francis returned silently, and absorbed in his reflections to his headquarters at Austerlitz. Hitherto he had not uttered a word; but when he saw the Prince von Lichtenstein, he beckoned him to approach, and said to him in a low voice, and with suppressed anger, 'Now that I have seen him, he is more intolerable to me than ever.'
[Footnote: Hausser's "History of Germany," vol. ii., p. 690.] That was the only utterance he gave to his rage; as for the rest, he seemed contented with the terms he obtained."
"And were the terms honorable?" asked Marianne.
"Honorable!" said Gentz, shrugging his shoulders. "Napoleon demanded, above all, that the Russian army should retire speedily from the Austrian territories, and the emperor promised this to him.
Hence, the Emperor Alexander has departed; the Russian army is retreating; one part of it is going to Prussia, while the other is returning to Poland. The cabinet of Vienna, therefore, is free; that is to say, it is left to its own peculiar infamy without any bounds whatever, and thus peace will be made soon enough. Those contemptible men will submit to any thing, provided he gives up Vienna. Finance-minister Fichy said to me in Olmutz yesterday, 'Peace will be cheap, if we have merely to cede the Tyrol, Venice, and a portion of Upper Austria, and we should be content with such terms.' Ah, if THEY could only be got rid of, what a splendid thing the fall of the monarchy would he! But to lose the provinces, honor, Germany, Europe, and to KEEP Fichy, Ungart, Cobenzl, Collenbach, Lamberti, Dietrichstein--no satisfaction, no revenge?-not a single one of the dogs hung or quartered,--it is impossible to digest THAT!" [Footnote: Gentz's own words.--Vide his "Correspondence with Johannes von Muller," p. 155.]