him, “Monsieur, you have already been ordered away; what do you want?” As he was about to retire a second time the general, thinking his appearance suspicious, gave orders to the police-officer to arrest him, and he accordingly made a sign to his subalterns.  One of them seizing him by the collar shook him slightly, when his coat became partly unbuttoned, and something fell out resembling a package of papers; on examination it was found to be a large carving knife, with several folds of gray paper wrapped around it as a sheath; thereupon he was conducted to General Savary.

This young man was a student, and the son of a Protestant minister of Naumbourg; he was called Frederic Stabs, and was about eighteen or nineteen years old, with a pallid face and effeminate features.  He did not deny for an instant that it was his intention to kill the Emperor; but on the contrary boasted of it, and expressed his intense regret that circumstances had prevented the accomplishment of his design.

He had left his father’s house on a horse which the want of money had compelled him to sell on the way, and none of his relatives or friends had any knowledge of his plan.  The day after his departure he had written to his father that he need not be anxious about him nor the horse; that he had long since promised some one to visit Vienna, and his family would soon hear of him with pride.  He had arrived at Vienna only two days before, and had occupied himself first in obtaining information as to the Emperor’s habits, and finding that he held a review every morning in the court of the chateau, had been there once in order to acquaint himself with the locality.  The next day he had undertaken to make the attack, and had been arrested.

The Duke of Rovigo, after questioning Stabs, sought the Emperor, who had returned to his apartments, and acquainted him with the danger he had just escaped.  The Emperor at first shrugged his shoulders, but having been shown the knife which had been taken from Stabs, said, “Ah, ha! send for the young man; I should like very much to talk with him.”  The duke went out, and returned in a few moments with Stabs.  When the latter entered, the Emperor made a gesture of pity, and said to the Prince de Neuchatel, “Why, really, he is nothing more than a child!” An interpreter was summoned and the interrogation begun.

His Majesty first asked the assassin if he had seen him, anywhere before this.  “Yes; I saw you,” replied Stabbs, “at Erfurt last year.”—­“It seems that a crime is nothing in your eyes.  Why did you wish to kill me?”—­“To kill you is not a crime; on the contrary, it is the duty of every good German.  I wished to kill you because you are the oppressor of Germany.”—­“It is not I who commenced the war; it is your nation.  Whose picture is this?” (the Emperor held in his hands the picture of a woman that had been found on Stabs).  “It is that of my best friend, my father’s adopted daughter.”—­“What!