“Well, he will accept it,” said Thugut, smiling, “for commanding and ruling always is a very agreeable occupation; and many a one would be ready and willing to betray his benefactor and friend, if he thereby could acquire power and distinction. Are you not, too, of this opinion, my dear little Count Saurau? Ah, you do not know how tenderly I am devoted to you. You are the puppet which I have raised and fostered, and which I wanted to transform into a man according to my own views. I am not to blame if you have not become a man, but always remained only a machine to be directed by another hand. Beware, my dear, of ever falling into unskilful or bad hands, for then you would be lost, notwithstanding your elasticity and pliability. But you have got a worthy friend there at your side, noble, excellent Count Lehrbach. Do you know, my dear Count Lehrbach, that there are evil-disposed persons who often tried to prejudice me against you, who wanted to insinuate you were a rival of mine, and were notoriously anxious to supplant me and to become prime minister in my place? Truly, these anxious men actually went so far as to caution me against you.”
“And did not your excellency make any reply to them?” asked Count Lehrbach, laughing.
“Parbleu, you ask me whether I have made a reply to them or not?” said Thugut. “I have always replied to those warning voices: ‘I need not break Count Lehrbach’s neck; he will attend to that himself. I like to push a man forward whom I am able to hang at any time.’” [Footnote: Thugut’s own words.—Hormayer’s “Lebensbilder,” vol. i., p. 882.]
“But you have not taken into consideration that the man whom you are pushing forward might reach back and afford you the same pleasure which you had in store for him,” exclaimed Lehrbach, laughing boisterously.
“Yes, that is true,” said Thugut, artlessly; “I ought to have been afraid of you, after all, and to perceive that you have got a nail in your head on which one may be hanged very comfortably. But, my friends, we detain Count Colloredo by our jokes, and you are aware that he must hasten to the archduke in order to beg him to become our commander-in-chief and to sign a treaty of peace with France. For I believe we will make peace at all events.”
“We shall make peace provided we fulfil the conditions which Bonaparte has exacted,” said Count Colloredo, timidly.
“Ah, he has exacted conditions, and these conditions have been addressed to the emperor and not to myself?” asked Thugut.
“The dispatches were addressed to me, the minister of the imperial household,” said Count Colloredo, modestly. “The first of these conditions is that Austria and France make peace without letting England participate in the negotiations.”
“And the second condition is beaming already on Count Lehrbach’s forehead,” said Thugut, calmly. “Bonaparte demands that I shall withdraw from the cabinet, as my dismissal would be to him a guaranty of the pacific intentions of Austria, [Footnote: Hausser’s “History of Germany,” vol. ii., p. 324.] Am I mistaken?”
“You are not; but the emperor, gratefully acknowledging the long and important services your excellency has rendered to the state, will not fulfil this condition and incur the semblance of ingratitude.”