ed with the fine title of Commissaries of Chastity, were the
merciless tormentors of all the girls. The empress did not practise the
sublime virtue of tolerance for what is called illegitimate love, and in
her excessive devotion she thought that her persecutions of the most
natural inclinations in man and woman were very agreeable to God. Holding
in her imperial hands the register of cardinal sins, she fancied that she
could be indulgent for six of them, and keep all her severity for the
seventh, lewdness, which in her estimation could not be forgiven.

"One can ignore pride," she would say, "for dignity wears the same garb.
Avarice is fearful, it is true; but one might be mistaken about it,
because it is often very like economy. As for anger, it is a murderous
disease in its excess, but murder is punishable with death. Gluttony is
sometimes nothing but epicurism, and religion does not forbid that sin;
for in good company it is held a valuable quality; besides, it blends
itself with appetite, and so much the worse for those who die of
indigestion. Envy is a low passion which no one ever avows; to punish it
in any other way than by its own corroding venom, I would have to torture
everybody at Court; and weariness is the punishment of sloth. But lust is
a different thing altogether; my chaste soul could not forgive such a
sin, and I declare open war against it. My subjects are at liberty to
think women handsome as much as they please; women may do all in their
power to appear beautiful; people may entertain each other as they like,
because I cannot forbid conversation; but they shall not gratify desires
on which the preservation of the human race depends, unless it is in the
holy state of legal marriage. Therefore, all the miserable creatures who
live by the barter of their caresses and of the charms given to them by
nature shall be sent to Temeswar. I am aware that in Rome people are very
indulgent on that point, and that, in order to prevent another greater
crime (which is not prevented), every cardinal has one or more
mistresses, but in Rome the climate requires certain concessions which
are not necessary here, where the bottle and the pipe replace all
pleasures. (She might have added, and the table, for the Austrians are
known to be terrible eaters.)

"I will have no indulgence either for domestic disorders, for the moment
I hear that a wife is unfaithful to her husband, I will have her locked
up, in spite of all, in