The carriage was then sent away, and ordered for the next evening at the same hour.  This time the contractor’s envoy found the countess well disposed; she received him gayly, eagerly even, and told him that she had given orders in regard to her affairs as if she were going on a journey; then, regarding him fixedly, said, tutoying him, “You may return in an hour and I will be ready; I will go to him, you may rely upon it.  Yesterday I had business to finish, but to-day I am free.  If you are a good Austrian, you will prove it to me; you know how much harm he has done our country!  This evening our country will be avenged!  Come for me; do not fail!”

The cavalry officer, frightened at such a confidence as this, was unwilling to accept the responsibility, and repeated everything at the chateau; in return for which the Emperor rewarded him generously, urged him for his own sake not to see the countess again, and expressly forbade his having anything more to do with the matter.  All these dangers in no wise-depressed the Emperor; and he had a habit of saying, “What have I to fear?  I cannot be assassinated; I can die only on the field of battle.”  But even on the field of battle he took no care of himself, and at Essling, for example, exposed himself like a chief of battalion who wants to be a colonel; bullets slew those in front, behind, beside him, but he did not budge.  It was then that a terrified general cried, “Sire, if your Majesty does not retire, it will be necessary for me to have you carried off by my grenadiers.”  This anecdote proves took any precautions in regard to himself.  The signs of exasperation manifested by the inhabitants of Vienna made him very watchful, however, for the safety of his troops, and he expressly forbade their leaving their cantonments in the evening.  His Majesty was afraid for them.

The chateau of Schoenbrunn was the rendezvous of all the illustrious savants of Germany; and no new work, no curious invention, appeared, but the Emperor immediately gave orders to have the author presented to him.  It was thus that M. Maelzel, the famous inventor of metronomy, was allowed the honor of exhibiting before his Majesty several of his own inventions.  The Emperor admired the artificial limbs intended to replace more comfortably and satisfactorily than wooden ones those carried off by balls, and gave him orders to have a wagon constructed to convey the wounded from the field of battle.  This wagon was to be of such a kind that it could be folded up and easily carried behind men on horseback, who accompanied the army, such as surgeons, aides, servants, etc.  M. Maelzel had also built an automaton known throughout Europe under the name of the chess player, which he brought to Schoenbrunn to show to his Majesty, and set it up in the apartments of the Prince de Neuchatel.  The Emperor visited the Prince; and I, in company with several other persons, accompanied him, and found this automaton seated before a table on which the