(Signed) "LEOPOLD, Emperor."
"It seems to me that the demand is a reasonable one," remarked Count von Crenneville.
"But impossible of compliance. Do you know how long the Diet has been sitting at Regensburg?"
"Two years, I believe."
"Well: do you know what they have been doing for these two years?"
"No, count; it is precisely to learn this that his majesty has sent me here," said Von Crenneville.
"I will tell you then. They have been profoundly engaged in settling questions of diplomatic etiquette. You may laugh, if you like; but for one that has been obliged to hear it all, it is wearisome beyond expression. The first trouble arose from the etiquette of visiting. As imperial envoy, I received the first visit from them all, I returned my calls, and so far all was well. But when the other envoys were to visit among themselves, the dissensions began. Each man wrote to his sovereign, and each sovereign upheld his man; couriers came and went, and for a time Regensburg was alive with arrivals and departures."
"And meanwhile the King of France was allowed to build his bridges across the Rhine," observed Count von Crenneville.
"My dear friend, the King of France might have dethroned the emperor, meanwhile, without a protest. Nothing under heaven could be attended to, while this visiting question was on the tapis."
"Is it decided?"