whom they unpleasantly touched. It was not strange, then, that the gentlemen who were honored with Count Fridštejnský’s conversation were puzzled instead of being flattered, and that they tremblingly asked their souls, “Why does the Emperor ask about this, and why about that?) What does he intend to do, or what does he intend to undo?” And those who valued themselves because of their elevated position in the public estimation thoughtfully asked themselves: “How shall I answer without touching the important point and without falling in the opinion of our future despotic ruler? What shall I say to express some advanced opinion in conformity with his views?”
It was but a short time since the Emperor, against his mother’s wish and the desire of the nobility, had diminished the number of monks, and also the rights and privileges of the monastic order. It was reported that the Emperor would continue such changes and that, as he found the Jesuits to be the strongest opponents of all attempts to promote the
