And at last, when the fruit was ripe for falling into her lap, she was sitting in the private room of the Minister of Police, opposite to the man with whom she was going to make the evil compact.

“The emigrants must be very uneasy and disheartened at an agreement with, and reconciliation to, Hungary,” he began.

“Do not deceive yourself,” Frau von Chabert replied; “nothing is more dangerous in politics than optimism, and the influence of the revolutionary propaganda was never greater than it is at present.  Do not hope to conciliate the Magyars by half concessions, and, above all things, do not underestimate the movement, which is being organized openly, in broad daylight.”

“You are afraid of a revolution?”

“I know that they are preparing for one, and that they expect everything from that alone.”

The skeptical man smiled.

“Give me something besides views and opinions, and then I will believe...”

“I will give you the proof,” Wanda said, “but before I do you the greatest service that lies in my power, I must be sure that I shall be rewarded for all my skill and trouble.”

“Can you doubt it?”

“I will be open with you,” Wanda continued.

“During the insurrectionary war in Transylvania, Urban had excellent spies, but they have not been paid to this day.  I want money....”

“How much?”

With inimitable ease, the beautiful woman mentioned a very considerable sum.  The skeptical man got up to give a few orders, and a short time afterwards the money was in Wanda’s hands.

“Well?”

“The emigrants have sent one of their most influential and talented members to organize the revolution in Hungary.”

“Have they sent him already?”

“More than that, for Count T——­ is in Vienna at this moment.”

“Do you know where he is hiding?”

“Yes.”

“And you are sure that you are not mistaken?”

“I am most assuredly not mistaken,” she replied with a frivolous laugh; “Count T——­, who was my admirer in London and Turin, is here in my house, as my footman.”

An hour later, the Count was arrested.  But Wanda only wished to get rid of her tiresome adorer, and not to destroy him.  She had been on the most intimate terms with him long enough, and had taken part in his political plans and intrigues, to be able to give the most reliable information about him personally, as well as about his intentions, and that information was such that, in spite of the past, and of the Count’s revolutionary standpoint, they thought they had discovered in him the man who was capable of bringing about a real reconciliation between the monarch and his people.  In consequence of this, T——­, who thought that he had incurred the gallows, stood in the Emperor’s presence, and the manner in which the latter expressed his generous intentions with regard to Hungary, carried the old rebel away, and he gave him his word of honor that he would bring the nation back to him, reconciled.  And he kept his word, although, perhaps, not exactly in the sense in which he gave it.