Only I should like to know why so much ado is made, instead of adopting the shorter process, that is, murdering the emperor." "For two reasons! The conspirators consider their task too sacred to profane it by assassination.

They wish to rid Europe of the unhallowed yoke which weighs upon it in the person of the Emperor Napoleon.

They are convinced that they are summoned to the work; that they shall thereby render the world and mankind a service full of blessing; but they will not anticipate fate; they will leave it to God to end a life which they merely desire to render harmless to God and men.

This is the first motive for not killing the emperor, the second is that they believe a speedy death would be no fit punishment for the crime which Napoleon has perpetrated on humanity, while a perpetual, hopeless captivity, embittered by the omnipresent, ever alert consciousness of ruined greatness, of fame buried in dust and silence, would be a lasting penance more terrible to an ambitious land-robber than death could ever be." "They are right, by the eternal God, they are right!" cried Schulmeister; "I believe that the emperor would prefer a speedy death a hundred times to such slow torture; and to you, Leonore, to you and to me will now fall the vast, the priceless happiness of preserving the emperor from such martyrdom.

I say the priceless happiness, but I shall take good care that the emperor pays me for it as dearly as possible, and--so far as it can be done--balances the immense weight of our service by its compensation.