Count Brühl

by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski

'Business before all,' the minister interrupted, 'we need money, money, and always money for the court, for our affairs in Poland, for the King, for me for you, not to mention Sulkowski.'

'They whisper,' said Henniche. 'The noblemen are angry, the townsmen grumble and appeal to their privileges, to immunitates.'

'Who?' asked Brühl.

'Almost all of them.'

'But who is at their head? Who speaks most?'

'Many of them.'

'Send the Swiss guard, seize a few of them and send them to Pleissenburg. There they will keep quiet.'

'But whom shall I choose?'

'I should doubt your acuteness if you do not understand. Do not reach so high as to touch some partisan of Sulkowski's. Do not reach too low, for it would be useless. Do not take a man who has relations at the court--'

'But the reason?' asked the ex-lackey.