"Allow me one question, then—am I the only person to whom your majesty has spoken on this subject?"
"No, I have spoken to one other man. I have consulted the shrewdest detective in all Vienna, and have promised him a large reward if he will serve me. He came to me this morning. He had discovered nothing, but gave me to understand that it was you who had betrayed me to the empress."
"What is his name, your majesty?"
"Eberhard. He has sworn to unravel the mystery for me."
"Then it certainly will be unravelled, for he it is who has been tracking your majesty, and who has been the means of betraying you to the empress. I, too, have been giving him gold, with this difference, that your majesty trusted him, and I did not. He is at the bottom of the whole plot."
The emperor sprang from his seat, and hastened to the door. Kaunitz followed, and ventured to detain him.
"I must go," cried Joseph, impatiently. "I must force Eberhard to tell me what has been done with Marianne."
"You will not find him. He, too, has disappeared."
"Then I must go to the empress to beg her to be merciful to that poor child who is suffering on my account. I will exact it of her."
"That will only make the matter worse."