"Five hundred ducats," was the reply.
"Five hundred ducats?" repeated she, tossing back her beautiful head. "A beggarly reward for the person of a lady of rank like me! Take this necklace, and divide it between you. Each one will then have more than the frugal emperor has promised to all. Take it and give me my freedom. Your generous act will never be known."
"How, lady! You would bribe us, as you have bribed so many noble cavaliers? No, no. Your game is at an end, and if ever you appear in public again, it will be as a criminal. You must come with me. You, men, take up this coffer."
She strove no longer. Without another word she took the arm of the police-officer and went firmly forward.
Her lips moved, and she murmured: "Alas he is right. My career is at an end." [Footnote: This beautiful woman, "the ornament of the most elegant circles in Vienna," as she is called by the chroniclers of the times, was condemned to three days of pillory, the same punishment as that suffered by the victim of her wickedness and coquetry. She was then sent guarded to the confines of Austria, from whence she was banished for life.—See Hubner, ii., 392. Gross-Hoffinger, iii.]
CHAPTER CLXIII.
HORJA AND THE REBELLION IN HUNGARY.
Four years had gone by since Joseph had reigned sole monarch of Austria. For four years he had devoted himself to the Austrians, having but one object, that of making them a free, enlightened, and happy people, emancipating them from the influence of the church, and breaking the fetters of serfdom; granting them equality before the law, and enriching them by his encouragement of manufactures and the privileges he accorded to merchants.
What was his reward? Dissatisfaction and opposition from every class of society; ingratitude and ill-will from all parties. The nobles disliked him because he had sought every opportunity of humbling them before the people; the clergy opposed him because of his sequestration of church property, and his assumption of spiritual authority. But his bitterest enemies were the bureaucratie. He had invaded all their customs, discharging every man who had not studied at the university, and requiring constant labor from the first as well as the last of the employes. He was the terror of all aspirants for civil office, and the whole body hated him, embarrassed his steps, and ruined his plans by voluntary misconception of all his orders.
As yet, there was no outburst of dissatisfaction. The discontent was latent, and Joseph still indulged the hope of outliving opposition, and proving to his subjects that all the innovations which they had so ungratefully endured were for the ultimate good of the Austrian nation.