All looked at him with surprise, and Von Apsberg felt again the strange feeling which the facts we have recounted had produced.
The Count resumed. "What I say, it is evident, astonishes you. Burdened, though, with a heavy responsibility by the ventes of Europe, which await, as a signal for action, only my word, I can give it to this immense secret association, which is beneath the surface of society, only when force and number are aided by opportunity. Opportunity now is wanting; for the uneasy eye of government penetrates our ranks, and the iron hand of despotism decimates us. Force and numbers now are paralysed by fear, and I am sorry to say all our future hope is found in prudence and inactivity."
"This language is indeed strange in the month of Monte-Leone," said d'Harcourt.
"Far different," said Taddeo, "from that you used yesterday."
"Calm and cold," said Von Apsberg, "when we take into consideration the storm which howls around us—the shipwrecks which menace every day our vessels."
"Because the heavens are in a blaze—because the tempests howls around us, I would have you for the time seek a shelter."
"Once, though," said Apsberg, "you advised us to brave danger, to meet it face to face, to parry it with arms in our hands, to conquer or to die."
"Gentlemen," said the Count with dignity, "am I called on to rehearse again the offensive scene which took place at the abbey de San Paolo? Am I, as one in the supreme vente of Naples, the chief of which I was, an object of distrust to my brethren? Have I again lost the confidence of my dearest associates? If such be the case, if the pledges I have given to our cause are now valueless, if forgetfulness and ingratitude go together, say so, plainly and distinctly. I am willing to abandon the office, title, and rank, you have conceded to me. I will write to all the ventes of Europe and will henceforth become the most humble but not the least devoted brother of the association."
The suspicions of the three friends at once passed away when they heard this energetic and loyal discourse. Von Apsberg gave his hand to the Count. "Excuse us," said he, "misfortune embitters even the best men. The misfortunes of our brethen, the mysterious enemy who denounces and seems anxious to effect our ruin, overwhelm and distress us. Look," added he, with the haste with which men often discharge a painful duty, "here are the lists of the six chiefs of the central ventes. Are these the papers given you by the imprisoned chiefs A——, Ch——, B——, C——, F——, and Ober? Are these the papers you gave me?"
"They are."