Recollections of the Congress of Vienna

Conclusion

Napoleon has left Elba—Aspect of Vienna—Theatricals at the Court—Mme. Edmond de Périgord and the Rehearsal—Napoleon’s Landing at Cannes—The Interrupted Dance—Able Conduct of M. de Talleyrand—Declaration of the 13th March—Fauche Borel—The Congress is Dissolved.

My task is nearly at an end. Five-and-twenty years have gone by since the occurrence of the magic scenes part of which I have endeavoured to reproduce. There only remains to sketch the last one.

Prince Koslowski, to whom I went after Ypsilanti bade me such a hurried farewell in the Prater by jumping on his horse, confirmed the news told me by the latter. Napoleon had indeed left Elba. ‘The master and the prisoner of Europe in one,’ as he had been energetically called, had left his prison armed with nothing but his own glory, and, like Cæsar, had entrusted himself and his fortunes to a frail barque.

‘The news,’ said Koslowski, ‘was brought here by a courier despatched by the English ambassador in Florence to Lord Stewart. The English consul at Leghorn had in the first instance transmitted it. Lord Stewart, who naturally was the first to open the despatch, informed M. de Metternich and the sovereigns. The ministers of the great Powers were told immediately afterwards. It is not known which road Napoleon has taken. Is he coming to France, or does he wish, as has been stated, to get to the United States? For the moment there is nothing but conjecture. But who shall preserve him from the storm rumbling and gathering over his head? Will fortune be able to place on his brow the lightning-conductor to avert the course of that storm? The high and mighty arbiters of the Congress desire that the news shall not be spread before they are able to take measures dictated by the gravity of the circumstances.’

Whether the secret had been carefully kept, or whether the intoxication consequent upon the many months of festivities had not altogether worn off, it is impossible to say; but the capital preserved its usual aspect. The ramparts and the Leopoldstadt faubourg leading to the Prater were teeming with strollers, evidently anxious to profit by the first rays of the spring sun. There was no sign of the thunderbolt having produced its echo: joy and careless gaiety everywhere.

In the evening the company of amateur comedians was to give a performance in the palace of the Barbier de Seville and of a vaudeville very popular at that time, entitled La Danse Interrompue. The Prince Koslowski had offered to accompany me to the imperial residence. Anxious to study the general physiognomy of the illustrious gathering, and also hoping to gather some fresh news in connection with the great event, I had accepted. The gathering was as brilliant and as numerous as usual. There was, however, no longer the careless calm of the morning. Slight clouds, but clouds for all that, darkened their brows. The company stood chatting in groups, and here and there the probable consequences of Napoleon’s departure were discussed with more than ordinary warmth. ‘He cannot elude the English cruisers,’ said one. ‘M. Pozzo di Borgo maintains,’ replied another, ‘that if he sets foot in France, he’ll be hanged on the nearest tree.’102

Everybody, it seemed, wished to shirk the reality of the awakening. ‘We ought to think ourselves very lucky,’ said some partisans of the Bourbons of Sicily. ‘Truly Bonaparte is playing our game admirably. He may set his helm for Naples; and if so, the Congress will be obliged to take measures for the expulsion of that usurper and intruder, Murat.’

Suddenly the conversations ceased. The Empress of Austria had entered the room and taken her seat, and at a signal from her the curtain rose. ‘We’ll just see,’ I said to Prince Koslowski, ‘if this event, apparently so unforeseen, has not bred confusion in the illustrious company of players.’

‘You may spare yourself such a mistake,’ was the answer. ‘It would need the enemy at the gates of Vienna and the thunder of the cannon to rouse them from their obstinate sleep. When the news came this morning to M. de Talleyrand, he was still in bed. Mme. Edmond de Périgord was seated by his pillow and brightly conversing with him when a letter was brought in from M. de Metternich. “This is to tell me the hour fixed for the Congress to-day,” said the prince, leaving the handsome comtesse to open the epistle, which, as a matter of course, she does mechanically. In a moment or so, though, she opens her eyes very wide and reads the big tidings. She also had to go during the day to M. de Metternich’s, but it was merely to rehearse a farce—Le Sourd, ou l’Auberge pleine. “Bonaparte has left Elba,” she exclaims. “Oh, uncle, and my rehearsal!” “Your rehearsal, madame,” is the quiet reply, “will take place all the same.” And the prince was right; the rehearsal took place just the same. Europe is, perhaps, on the verge of a general conflagration, but the confidence of our comedians will not be disturbed by so small a matter as that.’

Everybody was studying the faces of the political notabilities, as a rule so very impassive; people scanned their looks and tried to read their thoughts. They all affected a confidence probably far removed from the reality. The absence of M. de Talleyrand was noticed, and the preoccupation of Emperor Alexander.

What had caused this supreme resolution on the part of Napoleon, the consequences of which were so fatal to France? Did he expect, in spite of the enfeebled condition of France, to hold his own once more against coalesced Europe? Was he so blind as to entertain the possibility of henceforth living in peace with all those sovereigns to whom he had formerly dictated, and whom he had taught the road to Paris? Or was not his flight from Elba an act of despair in order to escape a captivity which, six years later, was to make an end of him on the rock of St. Helena?

Certain was it that the presence of the Emperor of the French in the midst of the Mediterranean, and the independence, nay, the shadow of power which was left to him, had aroused the alarm of the Congress. It was well known that there existed in Paris a centre of intrigues and correspondence having for its aim the restoration of the imperial régime. Queen Hortense was the soul of that conspiracy, which was known to everybody except the blind Bourbons. During the stay of Queen Hortense there, in August 1814, Madame de Krüdener, so celebrated subsequently in consequence of her mystic connection with Emperor Alexander, had foretold to her the return of Napoleon. Hence, from the beginning of the conferences, the question of choosing another place of exile, or rather of transportation, was broached, though the strictest secrecy was kept about the matter. Nevertheless, it was only towards the end of January that St. Helena was mentioned by M. Pozzo di Borgo, who professed to have received letters informing him of the arrest at Genoa, at Florence, and on the whole of the coast, of the emissaries of Napoleon. ‘Europe,’ Pozzo had said, ‘would not be at rest until she had put the ocean between herself and that man.’

It was asserted that Prince Eugène owed the revelation of that important secret to his intimacy with Emperor Alexander, and that he lost no time in informing Napoleon. The latter no longer hesitated, and made up his mind to return to France. From that moment, Alexander became most cool and distant towards Eugène.

Vienna remained without further news for nearly five days, during which the receptions and entertainments went on as if nothing had happened, the general concern apparently becoming less and less. Finally, though, there was no possibility of denying the truth; the thunderclap came: Napoleon was in France. The adventurer, as Pozzo di Borgo dared to call him, was welcomed everywhere by frantically enthusiastic populations. The soldiers rushed to meet their general; there was no obstacle to his triumphal march. The fall of the Colossus, which had appeared incomprehensible, was less surprising than the resurrection of his power.

The news of Napoleon’s landing at Cannes came while the ball at M. de Metternich’s was at its height. The tidings had the effect of the stroke of the wand or the whistle of the stage-carpenter, which transforms the gardens of Armida into a wilderness. In fact, the thousands of candles seemed to have gone out simultaneously. The news spread with the rapidity of an electric current. In vain did the orchestra continue the strains of a waltz just begun; the dancers stopped of their own accord, looking at and interrogating each other; the four words, ‘He is in France,’ were like the shield of Ubaldo which, presented to the gaze of Rinaldo, suddenly destroyed all the charms of Armida.

Emperor Alexander took a few steps towards the Prince de Talleyrand. ‘I told you that it would not last,’ he said. The French plenipotentiary did not move a muscle of his face, and simply bowed without replying. The King of Prussia gave a sign to the Duke of Wellington, and both left the ball-room together, followed almost immediately by Emperors Alexander and Francis and M. de Metternich. The majority of the guests seemed bent upon disappearing unnoticed, so that finally the place became deserted save for a few apparently terror-stricken talkers.

The Prince Koslowski, whom I saw during the evening, was unable to add anything to the news already current among the public. ‘This is an excellent opportunity for the players to give us a second performance of that charming vaudeville La Danse Interrompue. Comte Palfi, who played the part of Wasner so brightly, might well sing:

‘“Enfin voilà la danse interrompue;
Comment tenir à cet incident-là?”

The chorus, I am afraid, will probably be accompanied in a short time by the thunder of a hundred thousand firearms. This news,’ he went on, ‘will no doubt remind you of the tidings of the taking of Amiens by the Spaniards, told to Henri IV. in the midst of a ballet in which both he and Sully were dancing, though it is difficult to imagine Sully disporting himself in that way: he was certainly not famed for that kind of thing. “Mistress mine,” said the king to “la belle Gabrielle” (d’Estrées), taking her hand, “we are bound to give up our dancing and our games; we must to horse, and recommence another war. There’s a truce to the joys of love.” It would be well, perhaps, to translate the phrase into several languages for the benefit of some of the would-be Henri Quatres assembled here.’

It would be impossible to depict the aspect of the Austrian capital from that moment. Vienna was like an individual who, lulled to sleep by dreams of love and ambition, suddenly found himself violently awakened by the rattle of the watchman or the clanging of the belfry warning him that his house was on fire. The various guests from all parts of Europe could not recall without dread the phases of the period that had just gone by. The constantly renewed disasters of a quarter of a century of war; the invaded capitals; the battlefields bestrewn with the dead; commerce and industry paralysed; whole families, nay, whole nations, in mourning—all this presented itself simultaneously to their minds; and the recollection of the lurid flames of Moscow lent additional terror to the picture. No doubt there had been recent reprisals on their part; and the presence of the Allied Armies in Paris proved to a certain extent that the terms ‘unvanquished’ and ‘invincible’ were by no means synonymous. This, however, rendered their anxiety all the greater. To fell the Colossus to the ground, it had required a conjunction of circumstances, and, moreover, an accord of sentiments and ideas, which had increased the strength of each individual nation tenfold. At present those nations had assumed an observant attitude towards each other; the stern reality only showed the certainty of evils which had been considered as dispelled for ever.

Under those grave circumstances, M. de Talleyrand gave proof of an ability and a strength of will that had the effect of carrying all before it. Never was there a more difficult rôle than his. He was, as it were, the buffer betwixt the government he represented and France, whose interest he wished to save, and the inimical Powers, which confounded in the self-same ban Napoleon and the country which once more had welcomed him. I was not in Paris at the time of the first Restoration; Talleyrand’s conduct, therefore, only came to me through contemporary accounts, not always to be depended on for their veracity. But having been an eye-witness of what he did in March 1815 for his country and for the Bourbons, I have no hesitation in saying that the latter were indebted to him a second time for their crown; and that France, perhaps, owed to him her existence as a nation. He understood, with marvellous intuition, that these two facts were narrowly bound up with and emanated from each other. Hence his attitude, and his efforts to obtain the declaration of the 13th March.

That famous act, so differently appreciated, claims its mention here. The irritation in Vienna was at its height, and kept up by the prospect of a relentless war. The enthusiasm aroused by Napoleon’s presence, the welcome given to him by the various populations, the rallying around him of the army—all these things combined caused the French nation to be looked upon as an accomplice to the breaking of the much desired peace. There was, moreover, the dread of a revival of the Revolutionary ideas, the delirium of which had struck terror throughout Europe. The Emperor of Austria, addressing the czar, had said ‘Behold, sire, the result of your holding your hand over your Paris Jacobins.’ ‘That’s true, sire,’ was the answer, ‘but to repair the wrong, I hold myself and my armies at your Majesty’s disposal.’

The quarrel on the point of breaking out was, therefore, between France on the one side, and the whole of Europe on the other; a duel to the bitter end, which could only cease with the death of one of the combatants. I also heard the word ‘partition’ mentioned, and the example of Poland was there to prove that a nation may be struck off the European family register.

M. de Talleyrand, on the contrary, laid down the principle that in 1815, as in the previous year, Europe could be at war with Napoleon only and not with France. He manœuvred with so much skill or so much luck as to overcome all obstacles and entirely to change the intentions hostile to France, and finally to obtain the acceptance of his principle. A score of times the Congress was about to separate without having made up its mind to anything save a blind and relentless war; a score of times he rallied around him opinions fundamentally opposed to each other. I am aware of the repugnance of certain dogmatic minds to these compromises inspired by prudence. Over and again it has been said that it would have been better for France to accept a declaration of war—a threat of extermination addressed to herself. In her hour of despair, the country would have found a supernatural force; she would have perished in the struggle or obtained a glorious triumph.

M. de Talleyrand was swayed by too much moderation to risk this; he had too correct a notion of the enfeebled condition of France to fling her once more into violent and desperate adventures. He himself beheld Europe ready to rise as one man; he directed the rise against an individual instead of against a people. And in this he acted rightly. His conduct was appreciated and admired in Vienna as the triumph of reason and of an enlightened patriotism. More than once he returned from the Congress to his residence utterly discouraged. On the morning of the 13th March, the day appointed for the signing of this important act, he was by no means sure of his success. Meanwhile, everything depended on it. When he was ready to go to M. de Metternich, his entourage could not refrain from showing a natural anxiety. ‘Wait for me here,’ he said, ‘and in order not to try your patience by as much as a minute, watch for my return at the windows. If I have succeeded, I’ll show you from the carriage the treaty on which shall depend the fate of Europe and of France.’

A few hours later, when coming back, he waved the roll containing the signatures of the arbiters of peace who had become the arbiters of war. For a moment, though, the accord obtained with so much labour was on the point of being broken. It was when the Congress heard of the flight of Louis XVIII. from the Tuileries without an attempt at striking a blow, and of Napoleon’s taking possession of the palace. Emperor Alexander, in particular, failed to understand the tame submission of the Bourbon family and the absence of a single defender.

One morning I ran up against General Ouwaroff. ‘The czar,’ he said, ‘has not recovered from his surprise. He is tired of war, and just now he repeated to me at least a dozen times, “Never shall I draw the sword for them.”’

M. de Talleyrand, in addition to this, performed wonders of skill and patience in the retying of the loosened ‘Congress bundle’ and in directing the various wills of which it was composed towards one common aim. If, on the one hand, the masses beheld with terror the horizon becoming once more dark with threatening clouds, the men devoured with ambition rejoiced at the probable revival of a time of glory. For, disguise it as one will, the intrigues which were already set on foot to overthrow or to support Napoleon offered a prospect of a prompt result in the way of grandeur and riches. Among the many ambitious ones of various ranks who rushed in crowds to Vienna, the ubiquitous Fauche-Borel, the secret agent of the Bourbon princes during the emigration, was foremost. He came once more to offer his fortune, his devotion, and even the blood of his family for a cause in which he had sacrificed everything. No one had a greater right than he to call kings ‘the illustriously ungrateful.’ His adventurous life, his expensive tastes, had promptly swallowed all the sums he received from the house of Bourbon and from the British Government. His was indeed a strange destiny. The crowning of his efforts turned out to be a disaster to his personal fortune. For twenty years his numberless creditors had awaited patiently the day of his success. Scarcely were the Bourbons seated on the throne, the access to which had been facilitated by him, than everybody imagined the ill-fated bookseller of Neufchâtel to be loaded with gold and honours. Pressed on all sides and but meanly remunerated, his position was a thousand times harder than it had been before. Hence, he was going to resume his life of intriguing and hopes. If a warning were needed for the ambitious against their all-engrossing craving to be somebody or to appear to be somebody, no more striking example could be advanced than that of Fauche-Borel putting an end to his disappointed ambition by committing suicide, and by that death setting the seal on everything that has been said about the ingratitude of princes.

‘The Congress is dissolved,’ Napoleon had said, on setting his foot on French soil at Cannes. Meanwhile, on the 11th March, in the midst of the general consternation, a company of amateurs still played in the Redotto hall Le Calife de Bagdad and Les Rivaux d’eux-mêmes, and, strange though it may appear, there was a larger audience than might have been expected. It was, however, the final flicker of the expiring lamp; the last feeble sound of the broken instrument. Pleasure took flight. ‘The Congress is dissolved.’

The End

Footnotes

1 Throughout this translation I have left many of the nobiliary titles and names of the Continental aristocracy in their French garb; those of the English personages mentioned I have reduced to their original expression.

2 Bourgeois was then, as now, the appellation commonly bestowed upon the members of the middle classes.—Transl.

3 The marquisate was created in 1663, and was registered in the Parliament of Languedoc. It was bestowed upon Louis-François de La Garde, chevalier seigneur de Chambonas, son of Antoine de La Garde, married to Charlotte de la Beaume de Suze. The title passed to his nephew, Scipion-Louis-Joseph, who was brigadier in the king’s armies in 1744, and who died 27th February 1765. He married: First, Claire-Marie, Princesse de Ligne; second, Louise-Victoire-Marie de Grimoard de Beauvoir du Roure, daughter of the Comte du Roure, lieutenant-general in the king’s armies, and of Marie-Antoinette-Victoire de Gontaut Biron. The issue of the second marriage was two boys, one of whom was Scipion-Charles-Victor-Auguste, Marquis de Chambonas, Baron de Saint-Félix and d’Auberque, Comte de Saint-Julien, who married on the 2nd April 1774, Mlle. de Lespinasse de Langeac. (Administrative Archives of the Dépôt (Ministry of War and La Chesnaye des Bois), 3rd edition, Article ‘La Garde.’)

4 In the few passages of the Recollections of the Congress of Vienna, where the author refers to his childhood and his family, he deliberately throws a veil over both subjects. Without the Unpublished Notes, the pages of which bearing upon the present publication were kindly communicated to us by the present head of the family, M. le Marquis de Chambonas, we should have failed to pierce the darkness in which certain parts of our writer’s life are wrapped.

5 I can only follow the original. This is not the name of the godmother mentioned in the certificate of baptism; but Mme. Barryals had probably contracted a second marriage.—Transl.

6 I am preparing for publication the Mémoires du Général le Marquis d’ Hautpoul, who, as a child, spent the whole of the Terror in the neighbourhood of Versailles with his relatives, including his father, a former colonel. It should be said, though, that a member of the Convention had made them adopt the disguise of gardeners.

7 From that moment, M. de La Garde’s information about the Marquis de Chambonas becomes very scant. In his Unpublished Notes there are a couple of grateful references to his ‘father,’ but that is all. We are left in ignorance about the disparities of character which appear to have parted them for ever. All that is known about M. de Chambonas is due to the documents (dossier) relating to him, preserved in the Archives of the Ministry of War. He seems to have settled definitely in England. Wrecked in health, and even paralysed, it is from there that he petitions in 1816. Finally, he obtained a modest pension with the superior grade of lieutenant-general. He died in Paris, not in 1807, as is stated by one biographer, but in February 1830.

8 The Album contains, moreover, a short biography of the queen, some of her letters to M. de La Garde, and a facsimile of his handwriting; the whole on vellum-made paper, with gilt ornamental borders. The book is very rare. M. le Marquis de Chambonas has a copy of it belonging to his uncle. I have the good fortune to possess another.

9 It is well known that the first words of Napoleon on setting foot on French soil in 1815, were: ‘The Congress is dissolved.’

10 Not to be confounded with Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, the author of Paul et Virginie. The Abbé de Saint-Pierre’s literary fame mainly rests on a book entitled Projet de Paix Perpétuelle. M. Bloch, the Russian Utopist of to-day, has invented nothing.—Transl.

11 Baron Wilhelm von Humboldt, eminent diplomatist and statesman, celebrated philologist, born at Potsdam in 1767, died in 1835. He took part in the Conferences of Prague, Châtillon, Paris, and Vienna. He left valued works on the primitive dwellers in Spain, on the Chinese language (letters written in French to M. A. de Rémusat), and a collection of studies on æsthetics, etc. 6 Volumes. Berlin 1841–48.

12 She was the sister of George III., and became involved in a love-affair with Struensee, her husband’s prime minister. Struensee was beheaded, and she was sentenced to divorce and exile.

13 The sentence may be interpreted in two ways. The absolutely modern version would be ‘the most honest man’; the Molièresque sense, ‘the most accomplished man of the world.’—Transl.

14 I have re-translated the passage as closely as possible, although perfectly aware of its being neither a faithful French rendering nor even a passably brilliant paraphrase of the original in Henry VIII., Act I. I had no choice in the matter. It does not transpire whether M. de La Garde was responsible for it, or whether he copied it from a French version of the play.—Transl.

15 Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne, whom the Comte de la Garde mentions so frequently, and always in terms of the deepest veneration, was indeed a grandiose figure. Born in Brussels in 1735, he entered the service of Austria, and distinguished himself in the Seven Years’ War. He was made a major-general in 1766, a lieutenant-general in 1771, and the campaign of 1778 only increased his military reputation. Subsequently he travelled in Italy, in Switzerland, and in France; at Versailles he was thoroughly appreciated as a very able, amiable, and witty grand seigneur. In Russia, whither he was sent in 1782 on a mission, he became persona gratissima with Catherine the Great, who bestowed upon him an estate in the Crimea. He was present, as a general, at the siege of Oklakoff, directed by Potemkin, and at some of the actions of Laudon. In consequence of the part borne by his son in the insurrection of the Netherlands (the provinces now constituting the kingdom of Belgium), against Austria, he was removed from public life, and, though a field-marshal in 1808, he had no longer a command. The Prince de Ligne was an able and profound tactician. He left a great number of writings both in German and in French. They are replete with witty and pungent remarks, but the style is incorrect and diffuse. Under the title of Mélanges militaires, littéraires et sentimentaires, there are thirty volumes (1798–1809). His Journal des Guerres and l’Essai sur les Jardins are worth keeping. In addition to these he published in 1809 a Vie du Prince Eugène de Savoie. Madame de Staël, Malte-Brun, and Lacroix, have published either Lettres or Fragments, which were well worthy of being preserved, and which have practically become classics. His Lettres de Russie à la Marquise de Coigny have been published by Lescure, Librairie des Bibliophiles, and M. Lucien Percy has just published his Lettres à Catherine II.

16 Née de Conflans d’Armentières, perhaps the only woman who succeeded in being platonically beloved by Lauzun. Paul Lacroix published these letters in a strictly limited edition of a hundred copies. The Marquise’s daughter married the well-known General Sebastiani, and died in giving birth to the future Duchesse de Praslin, who met with such a tragic end.

17 The Prince de Ligne had bestowed the sobriquet on Napoleon, in allusion to his departure for Elba, and not from scorn, for nobody professed a greater admiration and more genuine sympathy than he for the most illustrious and most ill-fated figure of modern times.—Note of the Comte de la Garde.

18 The Prince de Ligne had three daughters—the Princess Clary, the Comtesse Palfi, and the Baronne Spiegel; and two sons, Charles and Louis, of whom the former married the exquisitely sweet and pretty Hélène Massalska, and the latter, whence sprung the present Princes de Ligne, died prematurely.

19 Frederick I., Duke, afterwards King, of Würtemberg, became in 1805 the ally of Napoleon, who created his royal title and gained his admission into the Confederation of the Rhine. In 1813 he joined the Allied Powers against France. After a somewhat despotic reign, he granted his subjects a constitution in 1815. One of his daughters, Catherine, married Jérôme Bonaparte, some time King of Westphalia, and proved herself a woman of exemplary moral worth and courage under most trying circumstances.

20 See infra, the biographical notes on these princes.

21 M. de la Garde published an account of that journey.

22 Tettenborn was to the last very outspoken. At the time of his stay in Paris, court dress was de rigueur at the Tuileries for civilians and military, even if the latter belonged to foreign armies. Tettenborn was a superior officer of hussars; nevertheless he complied with the regulations, but he did not shave his moustache. Napoleon remarked upon this in a bantering tone. ‘You’ll admit,’ he said, ‘that a pair of moustachios goes badly with this costume.’ ‘Pardon me, sire, it’s the dress which looks ridiculous with a pair of moustachios,’ was the prompt answer.

23 The Comte de Las-Cases, in his Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, reports another case of the freaks of fate. ‘Serrurier and the younger Hédouville,’ said Napoleon, ‘were marching in company with the intention of making their way into Spain, when they met with a patrol. Hédouville, younger and more nimble than his companion, managed to cross the frontier, and considering himself lucky, vegetated for a long time in Spain. Serrurier, compelled to turn back, became a marshal of France.’—Author’s Note.

24 She was, nevertheless, an aunt (by blood) of Emperor Franz, and one of his mothers-in-law. Students of history know the adventures of the sister of Marie-Antoinette, of her compromising relations with Nelson, and her strange affection for Lady Hamilton. King Ferdinand had just been restored to his throne when the queen died (7th September 1814).

25 In Roman Catholic countries the day of the saint after whom the person is named, rather than the birthday, is kept.—Transl.

26 Frederick VI., King of Denmark, born in 1768, died in 1839. His father, Christian VII., became impaired in intellect, and the Queen Dowager took the reins of government. Frederick deprived her of the Regency in 1784 and ascended the throne in 1808. In the following year, he imposed upon the Swedes, who wished to dispossess him of Norway, the Treaty of Jongkopping. He contracted a durable alliance with France, which was made a pretext by the European Coalition for punishing him by giving Norway to Sweden (Treaty of Kiel). But he received in compensation Rügen and Swedish Pomerania, which in 1816 he exchanged for the Duchy of Lauenburg.

27 Charles Robert, Comte de Nesselrode, born in 1780, died in 1862; a most able Russian diplomatist. After having filled several posts in Germany and at the Hague, he was Councillor of Embassy in Paris in 1807. As early as 1810 he was enabled to warn his sovereign with regard to the secret armaments of Napoleon in view of a rupture with Russia, and from that moment his credit with Alexander I. grew immensely. Nesselrode was called to the Chancellorship of State, and subsequently shared with Capo d’Istria the direction of Foreign Affairs. It was he who inspired the Coalition against France in 1813, and signed the Convention of Breslau, the Treaty of Subsidies with England, and the League of Toeplitz. In 1814, he accompanied the Czar to France, signed the Treaty of Chaumont, and negotiated the capitulation with Marmont. He played an important part at the Congress of Vienna. Subsequently at Aix-la-Chapelle (1818), at Laybach (1821), and at Vienna (1822) he exercised a preponderant influence. Under Nicholas I., who maintained him in his functions, Nesselrode practically established Russia’s influence on ‘young’ Greece, and was the author of two treaties humiliating to Turkey, viz., that of Adrianople (1829) and that of Unkiar-Skelessi (1833). In 1840 his diplomatic skill kept France excluded from the European Concert. He succeeded in preventing the European Powers from intervening in the affairs of Poland (1830–31), and in 1848, after for some time merely preserving a watchful attitude in Hungarian affairs, he finally flung Russia’s power in the balance in Austria’s favour, and increased his master’s influence in the East. He was a partisan of a peaceful settlement of the difficulties cropping up in 1854, and endeavoured to avoid a conflict between France and Russia. His last political act was the conclusion of peace and the Treaty of Paris, after which he retired, though preserving the titular Chancellorship of the Empire. His despatches are models of conciseness.

28 The defender of Saint Jean d’Acre against Bonaparte, and one of the signatories of the Convention of El-Arish; Kleber being the other. He assisted the King of Portugal in his departure for Brazil in 1807, and accompanied him thither. He retired from the service in 1810, and spent his time mainly in philanthropic work. Admiral in 1821, died in Paris, 1840.

29 Subsequently known as the Duchesse de Dino, and afterwards de Talleyrand. She was supposed to be the Egeria of the Prince de Talleyrand, and kept house for him, either at Valençay, Paris, or London, during his embassy in the latter capital in 1830. She was a pre-eminent and exceedingly cultivated woman.

30 The name of Pahlen recalls the conspiracy of March 1801, which put an end to the days of Emperor Paul I.

31 The son of Comtesse Sophie Potocka by her first husband.

32 Frédéric de Gentz (1764–1832) author and diplomatist, the principal projector of the Coalition of the Holy Alliance. He was the defender from conviction of all the absolute monarchies; pensioned by Pitt during the Revolution; Aulic Councillor in 1805 at Vienna, and in the interval staunchly devoted to the interests of Prussia. It was he who was entrusted with the drawing-up of the manifesto of the Powers in 1813. From that moment he exercised great influence on the diplomacy of Europe, and was present, in one or the other capacity, at all the Congresses. He published several political works, one of which was written in French, viz., Journal de ce qui est arrivé dans le Voyage que j’ai fait au Quartier Général de S. M. le Roi de Prusse, Oct. 1806. Mention should also be made of a series of brochures on The Rights of Man, The European Equilibrium, a Life of Marie Stuart, etc. Comte Prokesch-Osten (the son of the friend and confidant of the Duc de Reichstadt), published with Plon in 1870 The Unpublished Despatches of the Chevalier de Gentz to the Hospodars of Wallachia.

33 Sir John Sinclair was the president of the Agricultural Society of Edinburgh. The story of young Sinclair is in all the Memoirs of the First Empire. See, above all, an account of the whole affair written by young Sinclair himself in the Edinburgh Review of 1826.

34 Emeric Joseph, Duc de Dalberg, was the nephew of the Bishop of Constance, who was Elector of Mainz and Prince-Primate and Grand Duke of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, and in his various dignities gave such startling proofs of his honesty in private life and his high intellectual culture. The nephew, at first Baron de Dalberg, after having represented the Margraviate of Baden in Paris, became a great friend of Talleyrand, married the Marquise de Brignole, lady of honour to the Empress Josephine, took out letters of naturalisation and obtained the title of duc with a counsellorship of State. He was one of the negotiators of the marriage of Napoleon with Marie-Louise, but in 1814 promptly deserted the fortunes of Napoleon. He was one of the five members of the Provisional Government, and took part in the Congress of Vienna as a plenipotentiary. Subsequently he was created a peer of France and appointed to the ambassadorship at Turin. Born in 1773 at Mainz, he died at Hernsheim in 1833. His ducal title went to his nephew, the Comte de Tascher de la Pagerie.

35 This correspondence has been annotated and published by M. Pallain, (Plon, 1888). The correspondence of M. de Talleyrand with Louis XVIII. forms part of the third volume of the Talleyrand Memoirs.

36 Known at first as the Comte de Chinon, and subsequently, up to the death of his father in 1791, as the Duc de Fronsac, Armand Emmanuel Sophie Septimanie, Duc de Richelieu, and grandson of the famous marshal, was born in 1776, and died in 1822. He was the First Gentleman of the Chamber of Louis XVI. at the moment the Revolution broke out. He emigrated and entered the service of Catherine II., and distinguished himself under Suvaroff at the siege of Ismaël, and subsequently commanded an army corps under Condé before Valenciennes in 1793. Having returned to Russia, where they gave him a cavalry regiment, he fell into disgrace during the reign of Paul I., and went back to France in 1801. He declined, however, to renounce foreign military service, and was compelled to leave; when he placed himself at the disposal of Alexander I., who appointed him Governor of Odessa. His services to New Russia in general, and to Odessa in particular, are well known; but on the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, he re-entered France with them and had a peerage conferred upon him, while at the same time he was appointed First Gentleman of the Chamber. During the Hundred Days he followed Louis XVIII. to Ghent, then at the second Restoration was given the Presidency of the Council (Premiership) with the portfolio of Foreign Affairs. He rendered eminent services, in using his credit with Alexander I., by reducing the War Indemnity, and the occupation of France by foreign troops from seven years to five. When he resigned the Ministry in 1818, the Chambers voted him an income of fifty thousand francs as a national reward; he employed those sums for the foundation of an asylum for the aged at Bordeaux. In 1820, after the assassination of the Duc de Berry and the disgrace of Decazes, he once more accepted the Presidency of the Council, but his difficulties with the Chambers made him resign in 1821. He died in the following year, universally esteemed and regretted. He had been a member of the Académie Française since 1816. Several memoirs of recent works have contributed much to bring his figure into relief: the Mémoires of General Comte de Rochechouart; Le Duc de Richelieu, by M. R. de Cisternes; Louis XVIII. et le Duc Decazes, by M. Ernest Daudet, etc.

37 Charles André, Comte Pozzo di Borgo, born in Corsica in 1764, died in Paris in 1842. He began his career as an advocate at Pisa, and was secretary to Paoli, member of the Corsican Directory in 1790, deputy in 1791 of the Legislative Assembly. At his return, he openly declared himself the enemy of the Bonaparte family, and seconded Paoli, who wished to deliver Corsica to the English. Having become the creature of Lord Eliot, the viceroy, he was the cause of the recall of Paoli to London. He himself was bound to fly before the hatred of his countrymen. As a secret diplomatic agent, he served in turns Prussia, England, Austria, and Russia. Expelled from Russia in 1807 at the demand of Napoleon, he was obliged to retire to Constantinople. In 1813 he was recalled to Russia, and in the following year was sent to Louis XVIII. as ambassador. He took part in all the Congresses of the Holy Alliance, and in 1823 was entrusted with the surveillance of the French army in Spain. In 1835 he was the Russian ambassador in London, and retired from public life in 1839.

38 Written about 1830. Charles XIV. (Bernadotte), who died in 1844.

39 Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, afterwards Marquis of Londonderry, English statesman, born in 1769, died in 1822. In the Commons he supported the policy of Pitt; sent to Ireland in 1797, his administration was marked by extreme violence. He joined one of the Cabinets of Fox as Minister of War and of the Colonies, resigned his portfolio in 1806, resumed office in the following year, and became the directing power of England’s policy. He was the relentless enemy of the Revolution and of Napoleon, and granted subsidies to all the powers arrayed against him. At the Congress of Vienna, where he sacrificed Poland, Saxony and Belgium, he incurred great hatred, and his acts were strenuously opposed in Parliament itself. His anti-liberal government rendered him unpopular, and besides his weakness for the Holy Alliance, his malignant persecution of Caroline of Brunswick, the Consort of George IV., and his brutality towards the poorer classes made him generally disliked. He killed himself in a fit of insanity. Castlereagh had a great reputation as a political orator, but though more fluent than Canning (with whom he fought a duel in 1806), his speeches lacked the charm of the latter’s. His son, the Marquis of Londonderry, ambassador and political writer, distinguished himself in the House of Lords by a violent Toryism and his hatred of France.

40 See the Mémoires du Général Comte de Rochechouart (Plon, 1895).

41 Mme. Davidoff was a daughter of the Duc de Gramont and of the Duchesse, née de Polignac.

42 It is difficult to take this panegyric at its own estimate. M. de La Garde had been well treated by M. de Talleyrand, and his rare gratitude does him infinite credit; but to lay stress on M. de Talleyrand’s heart is a dubious piece of flattery.

43 Maximilian-Joseph, Elector, and subsequently King, of Bavaria, under the title of Maximilian I., son of Frederick, Prince des Deux-Ponts Berkenfeld. He was born in 1756, and died in 1825. He at first served in the French army, became colonel of the regiment of Alsace, and remained at Strasburg from 1782 to 1789. He succeeded his brother, Charles II., in the dukedom of Deux-Ponts, and his uncle, Charles Theodore, as Elector of Bavaria, and as Duke of Berg and Juliers in 1799. In 1805 he threw in his lot with the Confederation of the Rhine, and at the Peace of Presburg received the title of king. In 1806 he married one of his daughters to Eugène de Beauharnais, and the other to the Emperor Francis of Austria. In 1813 he joined the coalition against France. In 1818 he gave a Constitution to his subjects; he made some salutary reforms in the administration, and greatly encouraged art and science.

44 At nine o’clock on the evening of the 10th May 1809, shells are thrown into the city of Vienna. At that moment the young Archduchess Marie-Louise was lying stricken down with illness in the paternal palace. The circumstance having been brought to Napoleon’s knowledge, the direction of the projectiles was immediately changed and the palace respected. Oh, the happy day! Who would have told Marie-Louise then that in a few months’ time those same hands that caused Vienna to shake would be weaving crowns for her brow, that at the palace of the Tuileries she would reign over those Frenchmen who inspired such fear.—Las Cases, Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène.

45 A couple of years often went by without his mother seeing him and scarcely concerning herself about him. The Comte de La Garde Chambonas sometimes out-Herods Herod as a courtier.—Transl.

46 Those are not exactly the bases of M. Rostand’s Aiglon. He supports the contrary thesis. It would be well to strike an average with the chapters of Prokesch-Osten on the Duc de Reichstadt and with the book of Montbel on the same subject. The latter work is in turns inspired by Metternich and Prokesch.

47 Sir Neil was one of the eye-witnesses of the heart-stirring scene at Fontainebleau when Napoleon, straining the imperial eagles to his breast, yielded to his own emotion and waved his hat, crying like the rest, ‘Long live the Emperor!’ The Revue Britannique published in 1894 Sir Neil Campbell’s narrative.

48 The words are historical. See Recollections of Méneval, vol. iii.

49 This is another statement of the author in direct contradiction to absolutely authenticated facts. The scene described must have taken place at the beginning of October. Napoleon abdicated at the latter end of April, and during that interval she made a journey of more than two months, visiting Aix, the Righi, Berne, in the latter of which places she fell in with George IV.‘s wife. The greater part of that time was spent in the society of Neipperg.—Transl.

50 Constantine Ypsilanti was a Greek, of a family originally hailing from Trebizond, whose members performed the functions of dragoman at the court of the Sultans. Alexander entered the Russian service. He subsequently took part in the Greek insurrection and was compelled to take refuge in Transylvania (1783–1828). His son (younger brother?), Demetrius, was for a short time generalissimo of the insurgents of Morea.

51 Two separate works have lately appeared within a short time of each other on Elisa Bacciochi, Princess of Lucca and Grand-Duchess of Tuscany. One is by M. Paul Marmottan (Champion) and the other by M. Rodocanachi (Flammarion).

52 M. de Luchesini by his charming conversation enhanced that of the King of Prussia. He knew the subjects on which the king liked to be drawn out, and he also possessed the art of listening, an art never possessed by a fool. M. de Pinto advised the king to make an ambassador of M. de Luchesini, ‘because,’ as he expressed it, ‘Luchesini was a man of wit.’ ‘That’s why I keep him with me,’ was the answer.—Author’s Note.

53 The sentence in French runs: ‘Mon frère est coiffé de main de maitre. It is impossible to give an English equivalent for this, except at the risk of making it coarse and spoiling it into the bargain. The deceived husband is said to be ‘coiffé’ by his wife’s lover.—Transl.

54 It was, in fact, the fashion at Versailles and at Saint-Cloud. The most brilliant of all the lotteries was that offered by Monsieur (the king’s brother), on the 9th August 1689, on the occasion of the reception of the Venetian ambassador. The Court ladies had some most magnificent presents.

55 In a memoir, written twenty-six years previously, i.e., in 1788, the Prince de Ligne had weighed with great sagacity the questions which were from that moment inseparable from the fate of Poland. The preamble describes in delightful and rare terms the Polish character, and conveys a lofty idea of the author’s charm of expression in dealing with his brilliant pictures. ‘Who,’ he exclaims, ‘can fail to love Poland, the Poles, and, above all, Polish women, the mental qualities and courage of the men, the grace and beauty of their fair companions?‘—Author’s note.

56 M. Edmond Taigny, Isabey’s nephew, published in the Revue Européenne in 1858 some interesting particulars of the early life of the great artist, from the latter’s manuscript notes. The period dealing with Isabey’s sojourn at Vienna during the Congress contains several references to the present work.

57 Hélène Massalska, whose interesting correspondence was published by M. Lucien Perey under the title of Histoire d’une Grande Dame au XVIII^e Siècle (Lévy, 2 vols.).

58 Les Mémoires de Casanova de Seingalt, edited by Henri Beyle, were published at Leipsig in 1826, and in Paris in 1843 (5 vols.). Some years ago, Flammarion brought out a new edition.

59 Son of the Marquise de Bombelles, née Mackau, the friend of Madame Élisabeth and of the marquis who was ambassador at Venice at the outbreak of the Revolution. He had his children educated in Austria, and took holy orders after the death of his wife. He became Bishop of Amiens. The Bombelles have remained Austrian. The brother of the Comte de Bombelles in question was the third husband of Marie-Louise.

60 Princess Charlotte, daughter of the Prince Regent, died a twelve-month after her marriage, 1817. Princesse Louise d’Orléans, died in 1850. Leopold I., King of the Belgians, died 1865.

61 The forty townships are an exaggeration, but the head of the Esterhazy had twenty manorial lordships, sixty burghs with market places and four hundred and fourteen villages.

62 The Prince Nicolas Esterhazy (1765–1833) was an enlightened patron of art, and founded the picture-gallery of the Garten-Palace at Vienna. It was he who offered Haydn the hospitality of his estate at Eisenstadt. In 1809, he refused the crown of Hungary, offered to him by Napoleon.

63 Prince Paul-Antoine Esterhazy (1786–1866) was ambassador in Dresden and in London.

64 She was the daughter of the Margrave of Baden.

65 It would be, but for the fact that, as the French editor, Comte Fleury, remarks, there is scarcely a word of truth in it except the beheading of the mother. Comte Fleury gets very angry with the author, dead though he is, for foisting such a fantastic tale on the Prince de Ligne. The child was handed over, six or seven weeks after her mother’s execution, i.e., on the 2nd Fructidor, Year II. (corresponding to the 19th August 1794), to a relative, Isabel Leczinska, who took her with her to Poland, where subsequently she married her cousin, the Comte Rzewuski. Long before the publication of the books whence M. Fleury obtained his information, the truth was known to most students of history.—Transl.

66 At the Congress, M. de Talleyrand perseveringly supported the claims of the King of Naples against the partisans of Murat. The grateful monarch, in 1817, offered him the dukedom of Dino. M. de Talleyrand requested its transference to his nephew, the Comte Edmond de Périgord, who since then has borne the title.—Author.

67 Two characters of Grétry’s opera Zémire et Azor. It is doubtful, however, whether the sobriquet is applied in that sense here. The French frequently bestow the name on dogs; and, in that case, the meaning is plain enough.—Transl.

68 The son or the grandson of Nicholas Mauroyeny, Hospodar of Wallachia, who was executed in 1790 at Constantinople.—Transl.

69 Her liaison with Neipperg had already begun, and she had ceased to write to Elba. See Ernesto Masi, Li Due Moglie di Napoleone I. Bologna, 1889.—Transl.

70 Burchard-Christopher, Comte de Münnich, 1683–1767, officer of engineers under Peter I., marshal under Anne, fell into disgrace under Joan VI., recovered favour under Catherine II.

71 Hardemberg (Prince d’), 1750–1822, Prussian statesman and diplomatist. He held the premier’s portfolio several times, but in 1804 he was replaced for a short time by the Comte de Haugwitz. When he returned to power he greatly contributed to sustain Friedrich-Wilhelm III.‘s courage. He fell into disgrace in consequence of Napoleon’s objections to him after Tilsitt, but he returned to power in 1810 for good. He was very relentless with regard to France, and at the Congress of Vienna demanded her dismemberment. He was also present at the Congresses of Aix-la-Chapelle, Verona, and Laybach. He left important papers, a portion of which were published in thirteen volumes in 1838 under the title of Mémoires Tirés des Papiers d’un Homme d’Etat.

72 This latter statement is only true with regard to indoor carrousels up to the beginning of the nineteenth century. There are records of three open-air carrousels in Paris during the seventeenth century, at which the spectators numbered thousands.—Transl.

73 The Comte Jean Axel de Fersen, the commander in France of his own regiment, the ‘Royal Suédois,’ distinguished himself by his devotion to the royal family, which he served as a guide during the fatal journey to Varennes. Having escaped from the storm-tossed events of the Revolution, he perished a victim to the agitation which prevailed in Stockholm in 1800. The people, irritated against him, assailed him with stones during the funeral procession of Prince Charles of Augustenburg, and finally killed him amidst the most horrible tortures—Author’s Note.

The political and private correspondence of Fersen was published by Colonel Klinkowström in Paris under the title of Le Comte de Fersen et la Cour de France (2 vols.)—Firmin Didot. It is also interesting to consult M. Paul Gavlot’s Un Ami de la Reine—Ollendorf. On the death of the grand-marshal, read the introduction to the first-named work.

74 Gustavus III., most friendly disposed towards monarchical France, had declared himself violently opposed to the Revolution. He was about to despatch troops to the French frontier when he was assassinated during a masked ball at Stockholm on the evening of the 16th March 1792, as a result of a conspiracy among the nobles of his Court. See Geffroy, Gustave III. et la Cour de France and the Memoirs of the Duc Cesdars, who at the time of the death of King Gustavus was the envoy of the princes at Stockholm.

75 The prediction was realised. Gustavus IV., son of Gustavus III., at first reigned under the guardianship of his uncle, the Duc de Sudermanie (Sudermanland). During his reign Sweden was despoiled of Finland by Russia, and threatened with war by Denmark. The dissatisfaction of his subjects led to a conspiracy against the king, which succeeded. Gustavus was imprisoned, and then exiled for ever in 1809; the Duc de Sudermanie was proclaimed king with the title of Charles XIII. Being without issue, he at first adopted the Prince Christian Augustus of Holstein-Augustenburg. After the sudden death of that young prince, Charles XIII. hit upon the strange idea to appoint the French Marshal Bernadotte. Under the title of Charles Jean, Bernadotte reigned from 1818 to 1844; the present king, Oscar II., is his grandson. There are no more male Wasas; Queen Caroline of Saxony is the granddaughter of Gustavus IV.

76 In consequence of the Treaty of Luneville in 1801, the Grand-Duchy of Tuscany was taken away from Ferdinand III., and, under the title of the kingdom of Etruria, bestowed on the Spanish branch of Parma, whose states were united to the French domains in Piedmont. King Louis having died in 1803, his widow, Marie-Louise of Spain, took up the reins of government for her son Louis II. In December 1807, Etruria was given up in exchange for the newly-created kingdom of Lusitania (Portugal); a few months later it constituted three French departments, under the government of Elisa Napoleon Bonaparte, who had become Grand-Duchess of Tuscany. See the excellent work of M. Marmottan, Le Royaume d’Etrurie, Ollendorf, 1896; Elisa Napoléon en Italie, by M. E. Rodocanachi, Flammarion, 1900; and the Carnet Historique et Littéraire, 1900.

77 Some one had written a song about the Duchesse de Boufflers, subsequently the wife of Marshal de Luxembourg. Suspecting the Comte de Tressan to be the author, she said to him: ‘Do you know this song? It is so well written that not only would I forgive the author, but I’d even embrace him.’ ‘Well,’ said Tressan, tempted like the crow in the fable, ‘I wrote it, madame,’ Thereupon she slapped his face.

78 Here is the song, composed by the old man a fortnight before his death:—
1st Verse.

Après une longue guerre
L’enfant ailé de Cythère
Voulut, en donnant la paix,
Tenir à Vienne un Congrès.
Il convoque en diligence
Les dieux qu’on put retenir,
Et par une contredanse
On vit le Congrès s’ouvrir.

Translation of 1st Verse.—After a long war, the winged child of Cytherea wished, in bestowing peace, to hold a Congress at Vienna. He summoned in hot haste every god that could be had, and, with a Roger de Coverley, the world beheld the Congress opened.

2nd Verse.

Au bureau de Terpsichore,
Dès le soir, jusqu’à l’aurore,
On agitait des débats
Sur l’importance d’un pas.
Minerve dit en colère:
‘Cessez, au moins un instant,
Si vous ne voulez pas faire
A Vienne un Congrès dansant.’

Translation.—At Terpsichore’s quarters, from night until dawn, debates were regulated on the importance of a step. Minerva got angry and cried, ‘At any rate, stop for a moment, unless you wish to hold a dancing Congress at Vienna.’

3rd Verse.

Vénus et la Jouissance,
Qui savaient bien que la danse
Ajoutait a leurs appas,
Voulaient qu’on ne cessât pas.
‘La Sagesse doit se taire,’
Dit en riant le Plaisir,
‘A Vienne l’unique affaire
Est de traiter le plaisir.’

Translation.—Venus and the Goddess of Indulgence, who knew very well that dancing enhanced their charms, made up their minds that there should be no cessation. ‘Wisdom must hold its tongue,’ said Pleasure, laughing. ‘The sole business at Vienna is to devise about enjoyment.’

4th Verse.

A ces mots on recommence,
Les masques entrent en danse;
Mars, Hercule, et Jupiter
Valsent un nouveau landler.
Soudain Minerve en furie,
Dit dans son courroux: ‘Je crois
Qu’à ce Congrès la Folie
Présiderait mieux que moi.’

Translation.—The words were the signal for recommencing. The masks resume the dance; Mars, Hercules, and Jupiter whirl round in a new landler. Suddenly Minerva got furious, and in her anger cried, ‘I believe that at this Congress Folly would better preside than I.’

5th Verse.

‘Taisez-vous, Mademoiselle,’
Lui dit l’enfant infidèle;
‘Laissez ces propos oiseux,
Et livrez vous à nos jeux:
Assez longtemps sur la terre
Votre sœur nous fit gémir,
Laissez-nous après la guerre
Respirer pour le plaisir.’

Translation.—‘Hold your tongue. Mademoiselle,’ said the recalcitrant child; ‘stop your useless chatter, and join us in our games. Your sister has left us long enough to moan on this earth. And now after the war, let us get back our breath for enjoyment.’

6th Verse.

A l’instant à la barrière,
Pour entrer dans la carrière,
S’offrent trente chevaliers
Le front couvert de lauriers.
On lisait sur leurs bannières.
Ces mots: Loyal et fidel.
Ce sont les chargés d’affaires
Du Congrès au Carrousel.

Translation.—In a moment at the barrier, thirty knights present themselves, their brows encircled by wreaths, and eager to enter upon the career. (This is imitated from a strophe of the ‘Marseillaise.’) Their banners displayed the words: ‘Loyal and staunch.’ They are the chargés d’affaires of the Congress at the carrousel.

7th Verse.

Enfin de tout on se lasse:
Les bals, les jeux et la chasse
Avaient été discutés
Et résumés en traités.
‘Que ferons-nous d’avantage?’
Dit l’Amour. ‘Donnons la paix,
Et cessons ce badinage
En terminant le Congrès.’

Translation.—People get tired of everything. The balls, the games, and the chase had been discussed and embodied in treaties. ‘What else remains to be done?’ said Cupid. ‘Let us proclaim peace and cease this trifling by winding up the Congress.’

The reader will kindly excuse this bald translation. I have simply aimed at giving a literal one.

79 To obtain the Order of Maria-Theresa, one of the first among the military orders of Europe, the recipient must, by his own initiative, have gained a battle or carried to a successful issue some state affair without previous instruction from his superiors. After that, his claim is submitted to the chapter of the order, which discusses it, grants the claim after discussion, or dismisses it.—Author.

80 His fortune yielded an income of 17,000,000 francs. See infra the particulars of Razumowski, the favourite of Elizabeth, and the father of the ambassador.

81 The official despatch of the ambassadors of the French King at the Congress of Vienna reports the incident as follows:—

The Emperor of Russia.—‘I have pledged my word and I shall keep it. I promised Saxony to the King of Prussia the moment we joined each other.’

Talleyrand.—‘Your Majesty has promised to the King of Prussia between nine and ten millions of souls. Your Majesty can give them without destroying Saxony.’

The Emperor.—‘The King of Saxony is a traitor.’

Talleyrand.—‘Sire, the qualification of traitor can never be applied to a king; and it is important that there shall never be any necessity for applying it.’

After a few moments of silence the czar resumed:

‘The King of Prussia shall be King of Prussia and of Saxony, just as I am Emperor of Russia and King of Poland.’—Mémoires de Talleyrand, vol. ii.

Finally, the interests of Saxony and Prussia were settled, ‘not to the satisfaction of the one and the other, but by agreement between them,’ i.e. Prussia acquired the two Lusatias, part of Thuringia, and Torgau and Wittemberg (Treaty of 18th May 1815).

82 I have suppressed the particulars of the story, which I considered unfit for publication.—Transl.

83 La Garde exaggerates. Napoleon merely expressed a desire, and overtures were eventually made at Erfurth. The veto of the dowager-empress nipped the affair in the bud. Later on, there was an attempt to reopen the question, but the Emperor of Austria had almost immediately replied to Talleyrand’s pourparlers, and arrangements were concluded at the moment when Russia seemed inclined to yield. See on those long hesitations the first volume of M. Albert Vandal’s Napoléon et Alexandre, vol. I. ch. xii.—French Editor.

M. Vandal is as misleading as La Garde, and for the truth of that episode no French author of any kind should be consulted, and least of all those who have written on Russia during the last twenty years. The German works are much more trustworthy, for the refusal of Napoleon’s hand was inspired by Germany.

—Transl.

84 She became, in fact, the fourth wife of Emperor Francis.

85 Alexis Orloff, born in 1786, grand-nephew of the famous favourite of Catherine II., had a magnificent military record. He had specially distinguished himself during the campaign in Russia, having been wounded in seven different places at Borodino, and during the campaign in France. After that he performed many remarkable feats of courage in the Turkish war, fulfilled several missions, and, in 1830, negotiated the marriage of Alexander II. with a princess of the House of Hesse. He died in 1861.

86 Transformed into a Prince de Monte-Nuovo.

87 This must be the son of Zawadouski, who was the favourite in 1776 and 1777.

88 The word ‘heads’ was invariably used in all the stipulation of exchanges, divisions of territory, and dismemberment of states.

89 The famous speculator.

90 The Comte de Montrond, the inseparable companion of Talleyrand.

91 The same Malfati who left some notes on the death and post-mortem examination of the Duc de Reichstadt, which were published in Le Carnet Historique during 1900.

92 Here is the epitaph in question, which it is practically impossible to translate into English that would sound like sense:—
‘Ci-gît le Prince de Ligne,
Il est tout de son long couché,
Jadis il a beaucoup péché,
Mais ce n’était pas a la ligne.’

‘Pêcher à la ligne’ means angling with a rod or with a line. The prince’s name, literally translated, means ‘the prince of line’; a change of accent on the verb would make it mean ‘transgressing.’

93 ‘Camarde,’ death. The word has passed into thieves’ slang now, but in former centuries it was used by poets: Scarron used it. It derives its origin from camus, flat, to denote the flat nose of a skeleton.—Transl.

94 The words are historical. ‘Camarde’ is feminine.—Transl.

95 The Prince de Ligne left three daughters, the Princesse de Clary, the Comtesse Palfi, and the Baronne Spiegel, all of whom founded families in Austria. His eldest son, Charles, who married the beautiful Hélène Massalska, whose Mémoires have been published by M. Lucien Percy, was killed by a cannon-ball at the passage of la Croix-aux-Bois in the Argonne in September 1792. A daughter, Sidonie, was born of that marriage. His second son, Louis, who also preceded his father to the grave, had by his wife, Louise de Duros, Eugène-François-Lamoral-Charles, Prince de Ligne, d’Amblise, d’Epinay, who was Belgian ambassador-in-extraordinary in England and in France. By his first wife, the daughter of the Marquis de Conflans, the Prince de Ligne had a son, whence sprang the actual Prince de Ligne and the Prince Ernest de Ligne. By his second wife, the daughter of the Marquis de Trazegnies, he had a daughter, who became Duchesse de Beaufort. By his third wife, a Princesse Lubomirska, he had the Princes Charles and Édouard de Ligne and the Duchesse de Doudeauville.

96 ‘With him went the last flower of the age of chivalry,’ wrote Franz Gaeffer in his Memoirs—Kleinen Wiener.

97 Sidney Smith’s conversation did not exactly shine by its conciseness. As may be imagined, the defence of Acre was one of its ever-recurring topics. The Prince de Ligne, who had been compelled to listen to Smith’s prolix recital more than once, called him ‘Long Acre,’ which the author defines as one of the longest streets of London.

98 The Comte de Saint Germain pretended to be two thousand years old, and many people believed him.

99 Louis I. (1825–1848), when he abdicated in favour of his son Maximilian II. King Louis, who was an enlightened patron of art, frequently came to Paris. He died in 1868.

100 Finally, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw became the Kingdom of Poland, under the protection of Emperor Alexander, with the Grand-Duke Constantine as its Viceroy.

101 The memoirs of the time often mention this Princess Lubomirska, whose title was Princesse-Maréchale. Elizabeth Czartoryska, Princesse Lubomirska, was a cousin of King Stanislas-Augustus, who often mentions her in his correspondence, and constantly deplores her restlessness. From recent publications, it would appear that, though endowed with many superior qualities, she was also profoundly disagreeable. She loved neither her children nor her country, and from sheer ennui she was always ‘on the move.’ She disliked everything save the traditions of the French Court during Louis XIV.‘s reign, which traditions she knew better even than the events which had so profoundly disturbed her country. She detested every new idea, and her hatred of Napoleon was intense. To the émigrés she was most charitable.

102 When the Duc de Dalberg heard what Pozzo di Borgo had said, he shook his head. ‘M. Pozzo is not a prophet. In a short time Napoleon will be in Paris,’ he remarked.—Author.