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"Go back to your fatherland that you love so well and I shall imitate you, and turn to mine for comfort. There is many a mourning heart in Austria less haughty than yours, to which, perchance, I may be able to bring joy or consolation. God grant me some compensation in life for the supreme misery of this hour! Farewell, Countess Wielopolska. To-night I leave Vienna."
"We vowed eternal friendship," sighed the Countess Wielopolska, "but since we were happy school-girls, six years have gone by, and fearful tragedies have arisen to darken our lives and embitter our young hearts." "Pshaw!" said the lady, casting admiring glances at herself in the mirror. "I do not know why these years should be so sad to you.
"Go to her while we are at church." said Maria Theresa, compassionately. Madame von Salmour glanced toward the emperor, who, with an expression of painful embarrassment, was listening to their conversation. "Pardon me, your majesty," said the lady, "the Countess Wielopolska is making preparations for a journey, and she receives no one. We parted yesterday. To-morrow she leaves Vienna forever."
"You really think that he will come, Matuschka?" asked the Countess Wielopolska of her waiting-woman, who, standing behind the chair, was fastening a string of pearls in her lady's dusky hair. "I know he will come, your ladyship," replied Matuschka.
"The royal quadrille," echoed the countess, in an absent tone; "yes, the king, General Repnin, he who put to death so many Polish nobles, and the brutal Branicki, whose pastime it is to set fire to Polish villages, they were to have been the other dancers." "Yes and they completed their quadrille, in spite of Count Wielopolska.
It was not until the old woman had taken her hand and raised it to her lips, that she started from her mournful reverie. "What now, Matuschka?" said she, awakening from her dream. "My lady, I come to know what we are to do. The pearl necklace and wreath are sold, and they have maintained the Countess Wielopolska as beseems her rank; but we live upon our capital, and it lessens every day.
"Yes, sire; she is the last true-hearted Polish woman left on earth, and I fear she is about to die upon the grave of her fatherland." "May I ask her name?" "Countess Anna Wielopolska. She it is who sent me to the palace, and I came because she asked of me one last friendly service." "You bring me a message?" faltered the emperor.
"Will your majesty grant an audience to my unhappy country-woman, the Countess Wielopolska?" "The Countess Anna!" said the empress, with a shudder. Then, as if ashamed of her agitation, she added, quickly. "Admit her. If the emperor comes, let him enter also." The baroness courtesied and withdrew, but she left the door open; and now was seen advancing the tall and graceful figure of the countess.
Rich! Our castles have been burned by the Russians, our fields have been laid waste, our vassals have been massacred, and of our kinsmen, some have died under the knout, while others drag out a life of martyrdom in Siberia." "One of the Counts Wielopolska was a favorite of the king, was he not?" asked Joseph, much moved. "He was my husband," replied she, bitterly.
She would bid me a last farewell." Countess Anna Wielopolska was alone in her room, which, like herself, was decked to receive some great and distinguished guest. A rich carpet covered the floor, flowers bloomed in costly vases, the piano was opened, and the music on the stand showed that the countess still found consolation in her genius.
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