Venice, the high echelon of the Hungarian Independence Organization gathered to make final preparations for the uprising. No, to be precise, to make final preparations for their escape.
One must fully commit to the act, as fame and fortune are inseparable from life.
Stephen and the others had already secured almost enough to comfortably see them through their later years, and now protecting their reputation was of utmost importance.
Others could be traitors, but not the high-ranking members of the Independence Organization, or at least, it couldn't become public knowledge that they had been traitors.
Otherwise, how could the Americans who had invested money and effort possibly let them off? Now that their estates were in the United States, they could run from the missionaries but not from the church.