"No, Joseph, I will not do it. The empress desires to spare the blood of her people, and we must obey her just demands."
"I will not obey!" cried Joseph with such violence that his face was empurpled with passion. "I am co-regent, and as a man and a commander, it is my right to defend the honor of the crown. I will not read those letters, and I choose to assert the superiority of my manhood by doing that which they forbid. In your eyes and those of the empress, I may be a rebel, but the world will acquit me, and I shall be honored for my just resistance. You will not destroy the papers as I implored you to do?—then give them to me, and so satisfy your tender conscience."
"No," replied Leopold, who had replaced the dispatches in his pocket, "for I see that you intend to destroy them."
"That need not concern you. Give me the letters."
"No, Joseph, I will not give them."
The emperor uttered a hoarse cry, and darted toward his brother with uplifted arm.
"Give me the papers!" said he, with his teeth set.
"What! you would strike me!" said Leopold retreating.
"Give me the papers!" thundered the emperor, "or I fell you to the earth as I would a beast!" and he came yet nearer.
Pale and panting, their eyes flashing with anger, the brothers stood for a moment confronting each other.