Читать книгу: «Memoirs of the Duchesse De Dino (Afterwards Duchesse de Talleyrand et de Sagan), 1841-1850», страница 5

I hear that Schlegel, the platonic admirer of Madame de Staël, is at Berlin to help in the publication of the works of Frederick the Great. M. Thiers was expected there and I am glad to have missed him. It has been decided to receive him as a member of the Academy and as a historian, but not as a politician and certainly not as a statesman. Meanwhile M. Guizot seems to be taking walks with the Princess de Lieven at nine o'clock in the morning in the gardens of the Tuileries, which is their mode of observing nature.

I found that Marshal Marmont had called when I came home yesterday evening. I had seen him from a distance at the opera.

Vienna, June 11, 1841.– Yesterday I dined with Prince Metternich. He has a pretty house like a small edition of Neuilly, and has collected many artistic objects which are tastefully interspersed with fine flowers and many other things without any appearance of overcrowding. There were at dinner, apart from the master and mistress of the house, only the unmarried daughter of his first marriage, my sisters, the Louis Saint-Aulaire, husband and wife, and the two Herren von Hügel, who are constant visitors at the house. Princess Metternich is very pretty, quite natural and attractive, an original character; and as she was kind enough to be anxious to please me, she naturally succeeded without difficulty. After dinner I called upon some members of the Hohenzollern family who are here, and finally went to tea with an old friend of my sisters'. There were a dozen people present who were all unknown to me apart from Prince Windisch-Graetz, a Count O'Donnel, a survivor of the Hotel de Ligne, and Marshal Marmont, who did not seem to have changed.

Vienna, June 12, 1841.– Yesterday morning I went with my sisters to call upon their great friend Princess Amelia of Sweden, at whose house I met her sister, the Grand Duchess of Oldenberg; she is going to Munich with her husband to see the Queen of Greece, who has come there in the course of a tour. I then called upon a Polish lady whom I had known long ago at the house of Princess Tyszkiewicz at Paris, whose niece she was. She was then called Madame Sobánska and enjoyed a certain reputation. I found her considerably changed; she is a person of wit and some beauty, but is rather spiteful and a gossip – a character to be feared. I had hardly returned from these calls when Marshal Marmont came in. He talked a great deal of his anxiety to return to France, but I think pecuniary rather than political reasons are the hindrance. He spends his life here at the French Embassy.

Vienna, June 14, 1841.– Yesterday I went to hear mass at the Church of the Capuchins, with the intention of afterwards seeing Father Francis, who was with my sister in her last moments. I was anxious to learn from him some details on the subject of religion which my other sisters could not give me. I found him a pleasant and clever man, who seemed to conceal beneath his mendicant friar's dress a considerable knowledge of the world and a considerable power of making his way in it. He is said to be the director here of all whose consciences are divided between God and the world, a difficult task in which success is not easy.

Vienna, June 15, 1841.– Louis de Sainte-Aulaire came to see me yesterday morning. He told me that the illness of Marshal Soult to which the newspapers refer, is not so much connected with the law concerning recruiting, against which the Duc d'Orléans publicly voted, as due to an outbreak of paternal rage. He regards the nomination of M. de Flahaut to Vienna as a slight upon his son; he threatened to resign, and it is not yet known whether M. de Flahaut will have the honour of dislocating the Cabinet or whether he will be obliged to abandon Vienna. M. Bresson has started from Paris for Berlin in a very bad temper.

Vienna, June 16, 1841.– Yesterday I had a letter from Madame de Lieven from Paris; she writes as follows: "Marshal Soult has caused a small municipal crisis. The Duc d'Orléans voted against him upon the recruiting law: the Marshal's views were rejected and he was extremely angry; the result being a fit of palpitations with a possibility of an apoplectic stroke; hence the threat to resign. It is very doubtful whether he can be appeased, and his wife is most anxious about his health. It is a great perplexity, as the two positions which he occupied will have to be filled. M. Guizot has resolved not to become President of the Council; however, there is some hope that the Marshal will remain in office. In England there is a far more serious crisis. Parliament will be probably be dissolved to-morrow, but the electoral outlook is doubtful. Possibly a House of Commons may be returned similar to the House now to be dissolved, in which case it will be impossible for any one to govern the country. Meanwhile much agitation prevails. The Eastern Question is by no means settled; on the contrary, Turkey grows daily more disturbed.

"Lady Jersey is anxious for her daughter to marry Nicholas Esterhazy. The young people are extremely fond of one another. Paul Esterhazy is trying to get out of the matter which is difficult.

"The Prince de Joinville was most warmly received at the Hague. The King and Queen overwhelmed him with marks of violence. What impression will this make at St. Petersburg?

"M. de Flahaut has been nominated as Ambassador to Vienna. The proposal has been accepted but with no great warmth. In any case there can be no further changes or nominations, for the London post remains vacant, as Lord Palmerston will not conclude the eastern problem, and nothing will be done until Sainte Aulaire has gone to London."

Vienna, June 17, 1841.– Charles de Talleyrand came yesterday to tell me the latest news from Paris. Marshal Soult's quarrel has been settled: he will remain in office, and his son-in-law will go to Rome as ambassador; the Marshal is to receive 600,000 francs in payment of some loan which he professes to have made to the State. The Turko-Egyptian business is settled: the act will be ratified and sent to Alexandria, and the five Courts will meet at London if they have not already come to an agreement.

Vienna, June 18, 1841.– Yesterday evening I went to hear a German tragedy and then to tea with Prince Metternich. At the end of the evening the Prince began to talk over a round table, and was most kind and interesting. Except on Sundays when they are at home he sees very little society, and his house in my opinion is the pleasanter in consequence. Marshal Marmont is there every day.

Vienna, June 19, 1841.– Yesterday I went with my sisters to visit the Imperial Picture Gallery. I am surprised that it is not better known, for it contains some most beautiful works. It lies outside the town in a palace called the Belvedere, which was built by Prince Eugène of Savoy. The interior is very handsome.

I dined at the house of Princess Paul Esterhazy and with Prince and Princess Metternich and their daughter, Prince Wenzel, Lichtenstein, Schulenburg, Lord Rokeby, Count Haugwitz and Baron von Hügel. Princess Esterhazy was very amusing with her fear of Lady Jersey as mother-in-law. The marriage, however, has not been definitely settled.

Vienna, June 21, 1841.– I am delighted to hear that you like Fenelon's Letters.³⁰ They explain everything in a form which illustrates the faithful and courageous devotion paid to this kindly and holy Archbishop by the courtiers of the great King. He is able to give a charm and a grandeur to religion, to make it at once simple and attractive by its loftiness. If to read the story with his intercourse with his friends does not produce conversion, at any rate no one can fail to derive from it a love of goodness, of beauty, and a desire to lead a better life as a prelude to a good death.

The History of Port Royal by Sainte-Beuve is certainly interesting. It is a great subject, but treated in a style which is neither sufficiently serious nor simple, and cannot worthily represent the austere and imposing figures of Jansenism.

Vienna, June 25, 1841.– I propose to start next Wednesday and from Prague to take the road which will bring me back to my nieces in Saxony; from thence I shall go by Lusatia to upper Silesia to see my sister Hohenzollern who will be there at that time, and shall afterwards go to my own property at Wartenberg where I hope to be on July 26.

Vienna, June 26, 1841.– Yesterday I dined with Prince Metternich; only the family were present. I went on to the theatre and afterwards to the Volksgarten, a kind of Tivoli, where Strauss plays his waltzes, where Styrians sing and all the good or bad society of Vienna meets during this season. My sisters who were with me, then took me to their house where we had tea.

Lord Palmerston rouses much discontent as he continually raises some new obstacle when the Egyptian question is at the point of conclusion. His conduct is strangely tactless. All kinds of conjectures are in the air and much exasperation was displayed where I was dining yesterday.

Vienna, June 28, 1841.– The weather here yesterday was most remarkable: after midday a violent wind arose which raised clouds of dust, completely shrouding the town and suburbs; the burning wind was a real sirocco which withered and exhausted every one.

I went to mass at the Capuchin church to say goodbye to Father Francis who gave me his blessing. I then returned home to wait for Marshal Marmont who had asked permission to read me forty pages from the manuscript of his memoirs which he has devoted to justifying his conduct during July 1830. I was unable to refuse. I learnt nothing particularly fresh, as I knew all the remarkable facts which clearly prove that the imbecility of the Government was incomparable and that the Marshal was very unfortunate in being called to conduct a business both ill-devised and ill-prepared; so he needed no justification in my eyes, but I was interested to hear full details of the scene with the Dauphin, of which I knew nothing and the words and gestures of which pass the powers of imagination.³¹ The reading was interrupted by various reflections and was further prolonged for the reason that the Marshal reads slowly and continually stammers and hums and haws. His delivery is extremely laboured.

I then went with my brother-in-law, Schulenberg, to dine with the Countess Nandine Karolyi at Hitzinger, a village near Schönbrunn. I was by no means anxious to go but as she had been so kind as to ask me, I could not refuse. She lives in one half of a charming cottage which belongs to Charles von Hügel, the traveller whose infatuation for Princess Metternich drove him to spend seven years in the East. On his return he built this house and has filled it with curiosities from India. He lives in one half of the house and Nandine in the other. It is prettily situated, surrounded with flowers and looks quite English. I was by no means delighted with the dinner. The mistress of the house is eccentric, an exaggeration of the Vienna type, and the gentlemen about her corresponded. I went away as soon as possible and spent an hour in farewell talk with Princess Louise of Schönburg.

Vienna, June 29, 1841.– Yesterday at night-fall I went with my sisters, Schulenberg and Count Haugwitz to the Volksgarten where the whole of Vienna does its best to enjoy the dew amid clouds of tobacco smoke. Fireworks and Strauss were the amusements provided. One positive refreshment was the ices, of which an enormous quantity seemed to be consumed. The population of Vienna are quiet, well-dressed, entirely respectable and very mixed, for in these amusements the aristocracy take part. There was no sign of a policeman, nor were any needed.

Vienna, June 30, 1841.– I am leaving Vienna this evening. The heat continues to be extreme and will make my journey very unpleasant. I shall not send off this letter until I reach Dresden; correspondence is more certain outside the Austrian states. I do not mind people reading my expressions of affections, but my impressions and opinions are another matter. I trust therefore that I have been prudent in this respect during my stay here.

Tabor, July 1, 1841.– I left Vienna yesterday at seven o'clock in the evening. In the afternoon I had a visit from Prince Metternich. He was kind and confidential, and the idea that he has deteriorated is quite wrong. Perhaps he expresses himself more slowly and vaguely than he used to do, but his ideas are in no way confused, his opinions are firm and decided, he remains moderate and gentle in temper, and in short is entirely himself. He strongly advised me to return by way of Johannisberg, whither he will go from Königswart in the month of August and stay until September. His wife urged me to do the same and showed me the utmost kindness. Her beauty strongly appeals to me, though it is a style often spoilt by harshness of voice, common manners or vulgar language. She is generally disliked at Vienna to my astonishment, for I think she is good-hearted though unpolished. Several people kindly came to say good-bye at the last moment. My sisters, with Schulenburg and Count Maurice Esterhazy, who is the smallest and liveliest of the family, accompanied me two leagues beyond Vienna, where my travelling carriage was waiting for me. Count Esterhazy is the same who was at Paris; he was afterwards attached to the Austrian embassy at Berlin, where I last saw him. This post he left a few days before I came to Vienna, as he is going to Italy, where his mother is now lying ill. He is a close friend of my sisters', somewhat malicious like all very small men, but a pleasant talker and far more civilised and in better taste than people generally are at Vienna, especially the men, who are usually very ignorant. On the whole I prefer Berlin to Vienna society. At Vienna people are richer and more high and mighty and their naturalness is affected: at Berlin I admit there is more affectation, but there is much more culture and intellectualism. Life at Vienna is extremely free and easy: people do anything they please without being regarded as eccentric, but though no one is surprised at his neighbour's doings slander is as commonly current as elsewhere, and I am ready to assert that a false good nature of a very dangerous kind is prevalent. At Berlin life is more formal and more attention is paid to a certain decorum: the consequence is some stiffness, but words are more carefully weighed, and as there is less reason for backbiting there is more real kindliness. Personally I have nothing but praise for the hospitality of either town and remain entirely grateful to them both. I was especially struck at Vienna by the manner in which men and women commonly address one another by their baptismal names; however slight acquaintanceship is, provided people belong to the same clique, family names disappear, and to use them is thought a mark of bad taste. Women are constantly kissing one another and invariably upon the lips, which I think horrible. Men continually kiss ladies' hands, and at first sight society seems to be composed of brothers and sisters. Perhaps twenty people in speaking to me or in reference to me would say "Dorothea;" those less familiar would say "Duchess Dorothea;" the most formal would use the term "dear Duchess," but no one would say "Madame" or "Madame la Duchesse." I am astonished that anything remains of my hands; and my cheeks, which I try to substitute for my lips, have suffered a perfect martyrdom. The coquetry of the women at Vienna is obvious, nor is any attempt made to disguise it, though the churches are full and the confessionals besieged; but there is no appearance of real devotion, and the sincere and active faith of the Royal Family has no influence upon society, which displays its independence by habitual opposition to the Court.

Dresden, July 3, 1841.– I have now returned to my starting point of a month ago. I came here from Tabor without stopping, except for dinner at Prague and for lunch this morning at Teplitz. I am never wearied by the country between Teplitz and Dresden. It is Saxony in all its beauty, rich and smiling and pleasantly united to the strength and wildness of Bohemia. It is the only picturesque part of the journey between Vienna and Dresden apart from Prague and its neighbourhood.

At the gates of Teplitz I saw a procession of pilgrims descending from a chapel upon a hill with rosaries in their hands, singing psalms; it was a touching sight and I should like to have gone up to worship in my turn but the approach of a storm obliged me to continue my journey without stopping.

I am reading the History of the Life, the Writings and the Doctrine of Luther by M. Audin. It is the most learned, impartial, interesting and Catholic study of the subject that I have come across. As I left Vienna I finished the Life of the Saint Dominic by the Abbé Lacordaire, which is written with a view to effect and pleased me only moderately.

I hear in the inn that M. Thiers has been expected for the last three days. I hope he will not arrive until after my departure to-morrow. I propose to reach Königsbruck this evening and to stay a few days with my nieces.

Königsbruck, July 5, 1841.– I reached here yesterday at five o'clock. At Dresden I had a call from Duke Bernard of Saxe Weimar who was staying in the same hotel as myself. He was coming from Berlin where he had been spending a fortnight with his niece, the Princess of Prussia.

In the same hotel I also met Countess Strogonoff, formerly Countess Ega, whom I had seen last year at Baden and who then pleased me greatly. She told me that as soon as I had left Baden, Madame de Nesselrode spent every evening until she started for Paris at the public gaming-table, playing Benacet, opposite the old Elector of Hesse, and that she lost or won during the evening with the same imperturbable calmness the twenty louis which she had made her limit. What a strange person!

At Dresden during mass I saw the widow of Prince Maximilian of Saxony, who had returned from Rome where she married her chamberlain, a certain Count Rossi, a cousin of the husband of Fraulein Sontag. She is obliged to return to Dresden from time to time under the terms of her marriage settlement. Her husband accompanies her and continues to act as chamberlain. She seems to me to be neither young nor pretty, well made nor fashionable; he is a tall man with an imperial beard and the air peculiar to the husband of a princess.

I also found here the Count of Hohenthal, his wife and Fanny, my two nieces, who received me most affectionately and were full of their travels in Italy. The weather is beautiful and the peace and silence of the country are delightful. I have also found letters from Paris. M. Molé writes four pages which seem to contain no news except that Madame de Lieven reigns and governs at Paris, to say the least of her.

The Duchesse d'Albuféra tells me that the Princesse de Lieven is giving little musical evenings to bring out her niece, Countess Annette Apponyi. The princesse is resuming all the tastes of her youth and happiness. It will be fortunate if the powers of M. Guizot would also revive the destinies of France and make them flourish.

The Duchesse de Montmorency writes to say that the Vicomtesse de Chateaubriand has gone to take up her duties with the Duchesse de Berry. Would any one have suspected that she was a court lady? She has sought this distinction long ago. She took with her the nurse of the Duc de Bordeaux, the one who was only able to nurse him for three days. It is a strange journey and I do not understand the meaning of it.

The Duc de Noailles writes to say that in view of Eastern events brought about by the successive revolt of the provinces, a movement at Paris is being prepared similar to that which took place to meet the case of Greece some years ago. A committee is being formed for the relief, that is to say, for the revolt of the Christian populations in the East. This committee is composed of men from the Left and the Centre; the Legitimists have been asked to join and have been offered the presidency which would be given to the Duc de Noailles himself. The question has been complicated by the Royalist party which also wished to act in the same direction but tactlessly began upon too small a scale.

My son, M. de Dino, informs me that a recent decree issued by the Archbishop of Paris, orders that there are to be no doors in the middle of the confessionals. This is said to be thought very ridiculous. It is a somewhat humiliating precaution for the clergy and is also quite superfluous, for the sides of the confessional boxes are shut in so that the penitents and the confessors are always separated and when the middle is closed the confessor can listen to the penitents without distraction. Mgr. Affre can devise nothing that is not ridiculous.

Königsbruck, July 6, 1841.– I am grieved to hear the news which has just reached me of the death of the Queen of Hanover;³² another figure of my London life thus disappears.

The Duchesse d'Albuféra writes that the Princesse de Lieven is leading quite a pastoral life in her little house at Beauséjour, where she spends the day. She has a little garden which she waters with little watering-pots which M. Guizot was seen to bring to her door in the Rue Saint-Florentin. He goes to dinner at Beauséjour every day. At the funeral of M. Garnier-Pagès, the radical deputy, the crowd was so great that the procession extended from the Bastille to the door of Saint-Denis. The speeches delivered over the tomb were all full of revolutionary and religious maxims in the style of The Words of a Believer by M. de Lamennais. The editor of the Peuple wrote, "We offer you our regrets, but these are not enough, we offer you also our promises!" Such is my delightful news from Paris.

Hohlstein, July 11, 1841.– I left my nieces the day before yesterday after dinner and arrived here yesterday morning.³³ I crossed the whole of Lusatia which is a fine province. The weather had cleared up but as soon as I arrived here the rain began furiously; it has rained all night and is now falling heavily, to the detriment of the fine view which I ought to have from my bedroom windows which look upon the Silesian mountains.

Hohlstein, July 13, 1841.– Yesterday I took advantage of several intermissions in the bad weather to visit the park, the kitchen garden and the surroundings. It is all pretty and well kept and sometimes picturesque. I have a letter from Madame d'Albuféra from which I extract the following: "Madame de Flahaut is starting to-morrow with her daughters for Ems. She is deeply grieved concerning the talk about her husband. Yesterday she was in tears at Beauséjour while visiting Princesse de Lieven. It does not seem to be entirely settled whether they will go to Vienna or not. There is a general idea that M. Bresson will be appointed to Vienna and that the Marquis of Dalmatia will take his place at Berlin. Turin and Madrid will then remain vacant. Madame de Flahaut told me that if either of them were offered to her husband, she would be inclined to refuse but that the decision would lie with him. I know that his friends would advise him to accept. He is staying at Paris to see the end of the business and hides his agitation better than his wife; but he is plainly ill at ease for several reasons. Naples is out of the question, as it is said that the King will not have them there.

"Events in England increase the depression of Madame de Flahaut. The triumph of the Tories appears certain and the overthrow of the Whigs inevitable. The Granvilles are at La Jonchère³⁴ awaiting the result. Lord Granville cannot move and can only speak with difficulty, but his mental powers are unimpaired."

Hohlstein, July 21, 1841.– The newspapers give official news of the date when the plenipotentiaries of the five Courts signed the joint protocol referring to the East.³⁵ I imagine that this will enable the final rearrangement of the French diplomatic body to be made.

I have a long letter from M. de Chalais which speaks only of his private life and gives me no news except that the Princesse de Lieven has written a long letter to the Duc de Noailles asking that she might be allowed to appoint him her executor in her will, as she says that she has an intuition that she will die at Paris. Meanwhile she seems to be excellently well.

M. Royer-Collard writes as follows in reference to the speech before the Academy of M. de Sainte-Aulaire: "I must say a word concerning the reception of Sainte-Aulaire; the newspapers flatter him; the audience was very brilliant but the speech of the new member colourless and cold. M. Roger's speech was more successful than it deserved to be; so much the worse for the public." M. Royer-Collard also told me that after paying a visit to Versailles with his daughter, he had another attack of the fever which nearly carried him off a few years ago at Châteauvieux. It is obvious that his system then received a shock from which it will never recover.

Günthersdorf, July 27, 1841.– I left Hohlstein the day before yesterday in the morning and reached Sagan at two o'clock. After dinner I went to the castle to select certain family portraits of which I wish copies to be made for Rochecotte. I then went to the church to decide the place and the form of the little monument which is now to be erected in memory of my father. It is time that this was done, as he has now been buried in the church for forty years, and apart from tradition no one knows the place of his burial. Yesterday I went at an early hour to the little church which is picturesquely situated at the end of the park of Sagan, in the vault of which the remains of my late sister have been laid. Mass was said there at my request for the repose of her soul. The church was filled with beautiful flowers and rare plants brought by the castle gardener; a considerable number of people were also present. I then set out for Deutsch-Wartenberg which belongs to me and came on here in the evening with Herr von Wolff who is staying for two or three days, to meet Herr von Gersdorf whom I expect. They have to settle between them the legal questions which have arisen between my sons and my sister Hohenzollern, concerning the allodial claims of the latter to the greater part of Sagan.

I found that some improvements had been made here; the garden is well kept and everything perfectly neat.

I have several letters. Madame de Lieven writing under date July 15 tells me that Queen Victoria is paying a round of visits to the Whig Ministers, a proceeding which is thought very inadvisable in the present situation and that no one would be astonished if she began a coup d'état rather than endure a Tory Ministry. It is also possible that to avoid Sir Robert Peel she may summon Lord Liverpool, a measure not likely to meet with success. It is said that the eldest son of Lady Jersey is to marry the daughter of Sir Robert Peel; that Lady Palmerston is quite revolutionary in her sentiments and more furious than any one because she is obliged to leave the Ministry. All these rumours are extremely vague.

The Duchesse de Montmorency tells me of the marriage of Mlle. Vandermarck, daughter of the stockbroker, with the Comte de Panis, owner of the fine château of Borelli near Marseilles.

Günthersdorf, July 31, 1841.– A letter from M. Bresson from Berlin tells me that he is expecting General de Rumigny to stay from the 15th to the 20th of August, as the King of Prussia has invited him to the manœuvres in Silesia and at Berlin. He tells me that M. and Madame Thiers are to arrive at Berlin at the same time. The Duc de Noailles writes that Lady Clanricarde will spend the next winter at Paris and that Lord Cowley's nomination in place of Lord Granville is expected. He adds that the little Rachel has just arrived at Paris; that only Marshal Soult's triumph in England could be compared to hers; that he had letters from her in London in which she showed the utmost delight over her success, though remarkable to relate, her head was not turned by it. I think that the Duc's head would be less steady under such circumstances.

Günthersdorf, August 1, 1841.– Madame de Perponcher tells me that the King of Hanover is quite overwhelmed by the death of his wife, over whom he seems to have watched most admirably. For a long time he was under a delusion concerning the state of her health and when the doctors told him that there was no hope, he was completely crushed. However, as soon as he recovered his spirits he went to the Queen and spoke of her religious duties as well as a Catholic could have done. The Queen heard the terrible news with the utmost firmness and received the communion with the King, her daughter, the Duchess of Anhalt and poor Prince George. The despair of the latter was heartrending; as he could not see his mother, he could not be persuaded that she was dead and insisted that he should be allowed to touch her body. As soon as the father put the mother's cold hand in that of her son, the poor blind man was overcome with a kind of madness. He has since been sent to the seaside. These details are cruel and really most heartrending.

Günthersdorf, August 6, 1841.– My sisters have been here since the first of the month and seem to enjoy themselves in spite of the terrible weather.

Yesterday I had a letter from M. Bresson who says: "There is no positive news from Paris: M. de Flahaut has refused Turin and declines to commit himself concerning the offer of Madrid. He says that he maintains the fact that Vienna was offered to him, which M. Guizot will not admit. Whether it was offered or not, he is doing his utmost to secure it and Madame de Flahaut is watching from Ems for the arrival of Prince and Princess Metternich at the Johannisberg. I remain in an attitude of expectation and am resolved only to leave Berlin for Vienna or London.

"Herr von Werther has resigned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His place will be taken by Count Maltzan, but who will replace him at Vienna is not yet known. The King has given Werther the Order of the Black Eagle and has made the title of baron hereditary in his family; hitherto it had been only a personal title. Arnim of Paris has been made a count.