Franz asked in surprise, "They really caught the assassins?"
By his reckoning, after the failed assassination in Paris, those people should have gone into hiding long ago. How could they possibly still be waiting around to die?
However, he had overlooked the inconvenience of communications in this era. The government receiving intelligence early did not mean the assassins had received it as well.
The news currently published in Vienna's newspapers was still that Napoleon III had been assassinated, the assassins had been apprehended, and the Paris Government was holding the Kingdom of Sardinia accountable. These developments had not spread that quickly yet.
The Carbonari were powerful in the Kingdom of Sardinia, but that did not mean they were powerful in Austria as well. In fact, they were regarded as a cult organization in Austria, and the tentacles they had extended deep into Lombardy and Venetia had long since been severed.
Even if the organization within Sardinia had received the news, it had no means of notifying these assassins to withdraw. Indeed, this assassination had simply been decided on by some lower-ranking members on a whim; the Carbonari leadership had known nothing about it.
The Carbonari were an alliance by nature, with only nominal authority over their members. In reality, everyone acted on their own, and there were no compulsory restraints on members whatsoever.
Archduke Louis answered with a smile, "Yes, Your Majesty! After these assassins were captured, they stubbornly insisted that they were Frenchmen, claiming they had come to assassinate you on Napoleon III's orders."
It truly was laughable. Someone had actually attempted such a clumsy frame-up? Did they really think that changing their nationality would make anyone believe them?
Franz said with a cold laugh, "Then keep a close watch on them. Don't let them die. They may yet