Amid Vienna's unrest, Franz accelerates Rudolf's military training. He tasks Grünne to uncover the worker leader. Sisi, unable to shield her son, plans a daring rescue.
The imperial family prepares a grand ninth birthday party for crown prince Rudolph, who mostly looks forward to a long family holiday to Corfu. A revolution in Paris topples Napoléon III's empire, chamber maid Walli steals jewelry and arrives in Vienna, posing as a countess. She's taken in by pickpocket Gustav, who mugs back the broach the physician extracted from him for medicine for the ingrate, who promises to pretend he's her fiance when she attend the imperial gala ball to steal. Fearing the republican fever may affect Austrian poor, Franz orders Grün to suppress the laborers riot against scrooge labor conditions at the Prater world exhibition construction, but release the arrested men, and go undercover as Prater mason to spy on ringleader Albert. Expecting Rudolph's reign may be violent, he cancels the Corfu trip and sends him to military academy even earlier, waving Sisi's protest to expose the sensitive knave to the cruel cadet instructor.
