to tell you all about those wagons. Do you want to know it?"

"Yes, yes, we do!" shouted the crowd, emphatically. "Be quiet over
there!--Stop your noise!--Do not cry so loud!--Hush!--Let us hear
what is in the wagons.--Silence, silence!"

Profound silence ensued--everybody held his breath and listened.

"Well, then, listen to me. These wagons do not contain the remains
of the former emperors, but the gold and the jewels of the present
emperor. It is the state treasure which those hussars are escorting
from Vienna to Presburg, because the government deems it no longer
safe here. Just think of what we have come to now-a-days! Our
imperial family, and even the state treasure, must flee from Vienna!
And whose fault is it that we have to suffer all this? Who has
brought these French down upon us? Who is inundating all Austria
with war and its calamities? Shall I tell you who is doing it?"

"Yes, tell us, tell us!" shouted the crowd. "Woe unto him who has
plunged Austria into war and distress, and caused the flight of the
emperor and the removal of the treasure from Vienna!"

The speaker waited until the angry waves of the people's wrath had
subsided again, and then said in the clear, ringing tones of his
powerful voice: "It is the fault of our prime minister, Baron von
Thugut. He don't want us to make peace with the French. He would
rather ruin us all than to make peace with the French Republic."

"But we don't want to be ruined!" shouted the crowd--"we don't want
to be led to the shambles like sheep. No, no; we want peace--peace