it everywhere in Vienna without finding it so well prepared as at my
table."

Heavy footsteps and confused voices were now heard on the staircase.

"They are coming--they really dare to enter here!" said Count
Saurau, trembling with anger. "Pardon me, your excellency; I admire
your heroic equanimity, but I am unable to imitate it. It is an
utter impossibility for me to sit here calmly and passively, while a
gang of criminals is bold enough to break into your house!"

"I beg your pardon, count; these people did not break into my house,
but I voluntarily opened the door to admit them," said Baron Thugut,
coolly. "And as far as your official position is concerned, I pray
you to forget it for half an hour, and remember only that I have the
honor of seeing you--a rare guest--at my table. Let me beg you to
take some of that fowl; it is really delicious!"

Count Saurau, heaving a loud sigh, took a piece of the fowl which
Germain presented to him, and laid it on the silver plate that stood
before him. But just as he was going to taste the first morsel, he
hesitated, and looked steadily through the open doors. Several heads
with shaggy hair and flashing eyes emerged above the railing of the
staircase; many others followed--now the entire figures became
visible, and in the next moment, from twenty to thirty wild-looking
men reached the landing, behind whom, on the staircase, a dense mass
of other heads rose to the surface.

But the loud shouts, the fierce swearing and yelling, had ceased;
the awe with which the intruders were filled by the aristocratic