"Do you accept my proposals of safety?" asked the count. "And my bills of exchange?" asked Balzer, looking ashamed. "I have bought them, they will stay in my pocketbook," replied the count. "I accept," said Herr Balzer, "you shall be satisfied with me. But," he added, with an extremely repulsive smile, "five thousand gulden is not much--you value my wife at very little." "You shall receive the same sum when you arrive in New York," said the count coldly, "if you obey me implicitly." "I will go," said Herr Balzer. "May I not," he added with a look of grief that was badly acted, "bid my wife farewell?" "No," replied the count, "she shall believe you are really dead, that is my express will; she shall be free, even in her conscience." Herr Balzer turned to go. "I shall expect news of you from Salzburg in three days!" said the count. "And now," he added solemnly and earnestly, "thank heaven, and make use of the mercy that offers you a new life!" He held out his hand to him, and mildness and kindness shone in his eyes. Herr Balzer bowed and left the room. "We are now ready," said the count, as soon as he was alone with the abbé; "be prepared to start in a week's time." CHAPTER XXVII. HIETZING. The large and extensive Castle of Schönbrunn is beautifully situated, it is surrounded by an enormous and ancient park with artistically arranged ruins, with allegorical fountains, with deep shady groves, and sunny level lawns; behind the castle, airily perched on the summit of the height, is the triumphal arch called the Gloriette, from whence the great Empress Maria Theresa could behold Vienna, which with the lofty tower of St. Stephen appears upon the horizon. Near to this imperial residence, full of remembrances of the Empress Queen and of Napoleon I., (whose eagles may still be seen upon the two obelisks at the principal entrance,) and around the spacious park, lies pretty Hietzing, that favourite summer retreat of the Viennese. Villa adjoins villa, and in the beautiful summer afternoons all the fashionable world of Vienna streams out to hear the concerts in the large gardens of the "Neue Welt," or of "Dommayer's Casino," and to walk in the shady alleys of the park of Schönbrunn, which is always open to the public. Since the time when Napoleon I. fixed his head-quarters in Maria Theresa's favourite residence, and caused the "old guard" to parade in the spacious court of the castle, Hietzing had not been so animated or so full as in the autumn of 1866.