with my reforms, as you promised some time ago, but mainly in the great task of strengthening my empire that in intellectual power it may dominate the rest of the world.”
The Countess was startled; the bitterness in her heart overmastered her. Wiping the tears from her cheeks and flushed with anger, she exclaimed:
“And that is what Joseph II., whom I have honored as a perfect ruler of men, calls a great task—to take from nations that have trusted their fate to him, their language, their dress, their customs—to dictate to them how they should speak and think; to tell them how to develop; to make a bat out of a nightingale, a wren out of a hawk? Oh, do not deceive yourself, great Emperor; by the amalgamation of your various peoples you will not form one mighty nation that will dominate the world in intellectual strength; your empire will always be a conglomeration of discordant parts. Oh, it is not liberty that you are showing me behind that glittering veil; it is force.”
