tell you, my dear little count, I really fancy that my person has
nothing to fear either from daggers, or from pistols, or from
poisoned cups. Do you believe in a Providence, count? Ah!--you look
surprised, and wonder how such a question could fall from infidel
lips like mine. Yes, yes, I am an infidel, and I honestly confess
that the heaven of Mohammed, where you are smoking your chibouk,
seated on cushions of clouds, while houris, radiant with beauty, are
tickling the soles of your feet with rosy fingers, appears to me by
far more desirable than the Christian heaven where you are to stand
in eternal idleness before the throne of God Almighty, singing
hymns, and praising His greatness. Ah! during the happy days of my
sojourn at Constantinople, I have had a slight foretaste of the
heaven of Mohammed; and again, in the tedious days of Maria Theresa,
I have had a foretaste of the heaven of Christianity!"

"And which Providence did your excellency refer to?" asked Saurau.
"I pray your excellency to tell me, because your faith is to be the
model of mine."

"I believe in a Providence that never does any thing in vain, and
never creates great men in order to let them be crushed, like flies,
by miserable monkeys. That is the reason why I am not afraid of any
conspiracy against myself. Providence has created me to be useful to
Austria, and to be her bulwark against the surging waves of the
revolution, and against the victorious legions of General Bonaparte.
I am an instrument of Providence, and therefore it will protect me
as long as it needs me. But if, some day, it should need me no
longer, if it intended then that I should fall, all my precautions
would be fruitless, and all your spies, my dear count, would be
unable to stay the hand of the assassin."