is. Terror for the future destiny of Germany
was joined to pity for the empress and her children: the palace was all
confusion and despair; the ministers felt power snatched from their
grasp; the grandees of the court, without waiting for their carriages,
hurried to the court, in the disorder of astonishment, and grief and
sobs were heard in the vestibules and staircases that led to the
apartments of the empress. At this moment, this princess, without having
time to assume black, appeared, bathed in tears, surrounded by her
numerous children, and leading them to the new king of the Romans, the
eldest son of Leopold, she threw herself at his feet, and implored his
protection for these orphans. Francis I., mingling his tears with those
of his mother and brothers, one of whom was only four years old, raised
the empress, and embracing the children, vowed to be a second father to
them.

IV.

This catastrophe was inexplicable to scientific men; politicians
suspected some mystery; the people poison. These reports of poison,
however, have neither been confirmed nor disproved by time. The most
probable opinion is that this prince had made an immoderate use of drugs
which he compounded himself, in order to recruit his constitution,
shattered by debauchery and excess. Lagusius, his chief physician, who
had assisted at the autopsy of the body, declared he discovered traces
of poison. Who had administered it? The Jacobins and _emigres_ mutually
accused each other, the one party to disembarrass themselves of the
armed chief of the empire, and thus spread anarchy amongst the
federation of Germany, of which the emperor was the bond that united
them; the others had slain in Leopold the philosopher prince, who
temporised with France, and who retarded the war. A female was spoken of
who had attracted the notice of the emperor at the last _bal masque_ at
the court, and it was said that this stranger, favoured by her disguise,
had given him poisoned sweetmeats, without its being possible to
discover from whose hand they came. Others accused the beautiful
Florentine, Donna Livia, his mistress, who, according to them, was the
fanatical instrument of a few priests. These anecdotes are the mere
chimeras of surprise and sorrow, for the people can never believe that
the events which have had so vast an influence over their destiny are
merely natural. But crimes, universally approved, are rare; opinion may
desire, but never commits them. Crime