"You must have had important business in Vienna."
"Yes, sire. I was sent with this petition to your majesty."
"It must be urgent, to have induced you to travel so far."
"Urgent, indeed, sire. I promised the peasants of our district to give it into your majesty's own hand. It has the name of every man in the district; but if I had had time to go around with it, I might have brought with me the name of every peasant in Hungary. It was arranged that I should present the petition this morning, and now, while we stand here, every man, woman, and child at home is praying for my success. "
"What can I do for you? Speak, and if possible, I will grant your petition."
"Then, your majesty, read it aloud, that I may say to my brethren, that our cry of distress has reached the imperial ear."
Joseph smiled, and opening the paper, read aloud:
"Compassionate emperor! Four days of hard labor as socmen; the fifth day at the fisheries; the sixth day following our lords in the hunt—the seventh day is the Lord's. Judge, then, whether we are able to pay our taxes."
"Yes, yes," murmured the man to himself, "he cannot say that if we are oppressed, he knows nothing of it."
"I will not say so, my friend," said the emperor, with emotion. "The whole history of your wrongs is written in these few touching lines. I know that you are oppressed, and that, when you sink with exhaustion at your tasks, you are roused with the lash. I know that you are treated like cattle, that you have neither property nor rights, and that agriculture suffers sorely from the obstacles which your masters place in your paths. I know all; and by the God above us, to whom your wives and children are even now at prayer, I swear to free the Hungarian serf from bondage!"