m PART SECOND
FRANCIS
Agreed. As monarch 1 perceive therein
A happy doorway for my purposings,
It seems to guarantee the Hapsburg crown
A quittance of distractions such as those
That leave their shade on many a backward year !
There is, forsooth, a suddenness about it,
And it would aid us had we clearly keyed
The cryptologues of which the world has heard
Between Napoleon and the Russian Court —
Begun there with the selfsame motiving,
METTERNICH
I would not, sire, one second ponder it. It was an obvious first crude cast-about In the important reckoning of means For his great end, a strong monarchic line. The more advanced the more it profits us ; For sharper, then, the quashing of such views, And wreck of that conjunction in the aims Of France and Russia, marked so much of late As jeopardising quiet neighbours' thrones.
FRANCIS
If that be so, on the domestic side
There seems no bar. Speaking as father solely,
I s^e secured to her the proudest fate
That woman can daydream. And I could hope
That private bliss would not be wanting her !
METTERNICII
A hope well seated, sire. The Emperor, Imperious and determined in his rule, Is easy-natured in domestic life, As my long time in Paris amply proved
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