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 Cornell University Library 
 D 360.V43 
 
 Random recollections of courts and socie 
 
 3 1924 027 803 703 
 
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 Library 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027803703 
 
RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 COURTS AND SOCIETY. 
 
Hcto l^otrds at i\f& "^xhvmm. 
 
 A Leal Iiass. By Riohakd Ashe King. 2 vols. 
 
 Diana Harrington. By'MKS. Ckokee, Author of " Pretty 
 
 Miss Neville. '' 3 vols. 
 In Opposition. By Geetkudb M. J. Blaokburne. 3 vols. 
 Love's Labour Won. By James Gkant. 3 vols. 
 Mrs. Rumbold's Secret. By Katheeinb S. Maoqtjoid. 6s. 
 Robert Holt's Illusion. By Maky Linskill. 6s. 
 
 WARD AND DOWNEY, 
 12, TOKK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON. 
 
EANDOM RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 COURTS AND SOCIETY. 
 
 BY 
 
 A COSMOPOLITAN. 
 
 goniort : 
 WAED AND DOWNEY, 
 
 12, YOEK STEEET, COVENT GAEDEN. 
 1888. 
 
 [All Ri{ihts reserved.] 
 
 UOKNI I i 
 
 UN I, VI Ui:|'iY 
 
 IJL:|;AUV 
 
Richard Oxav & Sons, Limited, 
 lomdon and bungay. 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 Tradition is the diary of nations, Memory is the 
 diary of individuals. Neither are implicitly to be 
 trusted as long as they are not supplemented by 
 written words or confirmed by subsequent events. 
 " Believe nothing that you hear, and only half you 
 see," is an axiom admirably adapted to actuality, 
 but Time steps in, and with Experience holding up 
 its searching lamp they certify, correct, complete 
 or eliminate the inchoate elements, and out of the 
 residue of their expurgating chemistry the simple 
 truth arises. 
 
 From yellow letters, odd note-books, began and 
 interrupted journals, some closely- written, others 
 with merely a few pages fiUed ; from personal 
 recollections and intercourse, this volume has been 
 compiled. It has revived before the writer's eyes 
 bygone days that were already getting dim, and 
 given fresh significance to once familiar sayings 
 and doings. It has no pretensions to chronological 
 
vi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 order, or indeed to any order or plan whatever ; 
 mucli less does it aim at the dignity of memoirs or 
 the importance of biography ; it is but a mirror 
 held up — neither in criticism nor judgment — to the 
 panorama of the past in compliance with a vague 
 longing we all at one time or another feel of 
 looking back once more upon the long ago. 
 
 London, 1888. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Berlin in 1858 — Eegency of tlie Prince of Prussia — Prince 
 Hohenzollem — Baron Manteuffel — Prince of Wales at Lady 
 Bloomfleld's — Princess of Mettemich — Wagner — Hans Von 
 Bulow — Lola Montes — Bosco— Wally and Valerie Hohen- 
 tlial — Fraulein Lilienthal — General Wrangel ... ... 1 
 
 IL 
 
 Meyerl)eer — Baron Mertens — Stolen despatch-box of the Queen 
 — The White Lady — Count Hatzfeldt — Madame Van der 
 Heydt — Officers of the Guard — Bettina Arnim — Birth of 
 Prince Wilhelm — Count Bismarck at the French Legation 24 
 
 IIL 
 Second of December at the Elysde Bourbon in. 1851 — The Coup 
 d'Etat — Mile. Rachel — Sarah Bernhardt — Countess de Cas- 
 tiglione — Comte de Lesseps — Mile. Le Normand— Manuel 
 Godoi 47 
 
 IV. 
 Spain— Queen Isabella— Her Marriage— Maundy Thursday— 
 The Queen's habits — Audiences — The Queen- Mother — 
 Rianzares-Grandees— Second of May in Madrid 72 
 
 V. 
 Eugenie Montijo — Her Mother — Her Eccentricities — The Duke 
 d'Ossuna — Baron Bourgoing — Baron dal Borgo 97 
 
 VL 
 
 Massimo d'Azeglio — Death of Alexander von Humboldt — War 
 between Sardinia and Austria — Princess Victoria — Magenta 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 PiLOE 
 
 — Solferino — Villafranca — Death of Queen Stephanie of 
 Portugal — Marriage of Princesa Frederick Charles — The 
 Eoyal Family of Prussia — Prince Napoleon and Princess 
 Clotilde 123 
 
 VII. 
 
 Count Cavour — Victor Emmanuel — Eosina Vercellana — Theatres 
 — Frezzolini — Alboni — Cerrito — Madame Eatazzi — Madame 
 Turr — Admiral Persano — Swiss Eegiments at Naples — 
 Duchess of Genoa— Eapallo 150 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Troubled times in 1860 — Pio Nono — Talleyrand — Nicholas I. — 
 Dowager Empress of Eussia — Annexation of Naples — Gaeta 
 — The Seals of Italy — King Jerome's death — Society in 
 Berliu — Etiquette — Grand Duchess Marie of Leuchtenberg 
 — Countess Adlerberg— Baroness de Budberg 177 
 
 IX. 
 
 Death of King Frederick William IV. — Trauerliof — Charlotten- 
 burg — Italian Special Envoys — La Marmora — Incident of 
 the Coronation at Koenigsberg — Death of Pedro V. — Eoyal 
 Theatres — Trebelli — Faure — Lxicca — Offenbach — Actors — 
 Opera Balls — Society — Ballets — Countess Eossi (Sontag) ... 200 
 
 X. 
 
 Death of the Duke of Brabant — Typhus in Brussels — Prince de 
 la Tour d'Auvergne — Benedetti — Empress Charlotte — 
 Devaux — Van Praat — King Leopold II. — Franco-German 
 War — Marguerite Boulanger — Gounod — Salvini — Eistori — 
 Schneider — French Actors in London 230 
 
 XL 
 
 William Prescott — Longfellow — Agassiz — Charles Mathews in 
 Boston 254 
 
 XII. 
 
 Death of Victor Emmanuel — Charles Albert — Prince Imperial 
 of Germany in Italy — General MacMahon — Paris in '79 — 
 Theatres — Count Harry Arnim — Herr von Hinckeldey — 
 The Will of Queen Louise — Emperor William's Lamp ... 268 
 
KANDOM EECOLLECTIONS 
 
 or 
 
 COURTS AND SOCIETY. 
 
 I. 
 
 Berlin in 1858 — Eegency of tlie Prince of Prussia — Prince 
 Hohenzollern — Baron Manteuffel — Prince of Wales at 
 Lady Bloomfield's — Princess of Metternich — Wagner — 
 Hans von Bulow — Lola Montfes — Bosco — Wally and 
 Valerie Hohentlial — Praulein Lilienthal — General Wrangel. 
 
 In July 1858 the King of Prussia, Frederick 
 William the Fourth, was beginning to feel himself 
 that the state of his health would not long permit 
 him to remain at the head of affairs, and yet he 
 was jealously reluctant to abandon the helm and 
 entrust the ship to another. For the past ten 
 years he had striven to restore the peace troubled 
 in the fatal year of '48 by a universal revolutionary 
 
 B 
 
2 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 movement severely felt in Prussia, and to hush 
 the spirit of sedition which had more than once 
 brought the citizens in collision with the troops. 
 He was at that time a middle-sized, somewhat 
 stout man, with small features, a bald forehead, 
 drooping shoulders, and a high falsetto voice. He 
 seriously and reverently considered himself as the 
 head of a new religion, having introduced several 
 variations in the tenets and observances of the 
 Lutheran Church, which was nominally the Church 
 of Prussia, although the census had found among 
 many sects one idolater. More of a student than 
 a soldier, he was however by no means averse to 
 society, was fond of the drama and literature, and 
 at the court balls wandered incessantly in the 
 apartments, entering into conversation with all the 
 prettiest women, complimenting them on their 
 dress, and highly amused if they responded to his 
 attentions. He almost always wore the uniform of 
 the Foot Guard regiment, and carried the spiked 
 helmet by the chin-strap on his arm like a basket. 
 The people of Berlin, who have a great facility for 
 definitions and qualifications, had apportioned the 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 3 
 
 merits of Frederick William and his three brothers 
 as follows, with perhaps a little euphonious flattery 
 for the sovereign — The King is witty and handsome ; 
 the Prince of Prussia is handsome but not witty ; 
 Prince Charles is witty but not handsome ; and 
 Prince Albert is neither witty nor handsome. 
 
 The Prince of Prussia, afterwards William I., 
 was in 1858 playing the accepted part of every 
 heir-apparent ; the opposition centred their hopes 
 in him, and the little court of Coblentz, where 
 the Prince and his wife so frequently resided, was 
 supposed — not without foundation — to be the 
 rallying point of malcontents, and a hotbed of 
 perpetual intrigue. Even then the Princess was 
 credited with strong French and Catholic tend- 
 encies, and acknowledged to have over her husband 
 the influence of the more domineering mind. 
 " Young Germany " looked forward to the ascension 
 of the Prince to the throne with fervent hopes 
 as the dawn of successful ambitions, while all 
 justice was done to the open-handed charity and 
 benevolence of the Eoyal couple. 
 
 The Prince was loth to accept the regency ; he 
 
 B 2 
 
4 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 went to confer on the subject witli his brother 
 at Charlottenbourg, — the royal residence at the 
 gates of Berlin, — before starting for Ostend where 
 he habitually spent some weeks every year ; but 
 in that interview nothing was decided. On the 
 other hand, Queen Victoria, who was to meet her 
 daughter at Cologne, changed her plans, and 
 decided to come as far as Potsdam, the doctors 
 having decreed that the condition of the not long 
 married Princess Victoria rendered a longer 
 journey unadvisable. Although the announcement 
 was only made officially some time afterwards, it 
 was known that she was expecting her first 
 child. The Queen of England arrived at Babels- 
 berg in August, and made a somewhat lengthened 
 stay. 
 
 Towards the end of September of the same year, 
 fresh endeavours were made by M. de Manteuflfel, 
 Minister of Foreign Afi"airs and President of the 
 Council, to have a regency declared previous to 
 the departure of the Prince of Prussia for the 
 manoeuvres at Varsovie, but the King was at that 
 moment so ailing that it was impossible to hold 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 5 
 
 any satisfactory communications with him ; the 
 decision was again deferred, and the Minister 
 followed the Prince to Poland in the same state 
 of uncertainty. However, after a short stay at 
 Meran in Bavaria, where he went to take the 
 waters, the health of the King improved so far 
 that on the 8th of October the decree was pro- 
 mulgated announcing that the Prince of Prussia 
 assumed the regency of the kingdom till the com- 
 plete recovery of His Majesty the King, and was to 
 represent the latter in all things. On the 20th of 
 the same month the Eegent opened Parliament 
 with a rather colourless speech, but on the 26th he 
 took the oath of allegiance to the Constitution, and 
 expressed himself in noble and manly terms. 
 
 The Ministry fell on the 3rd of November, and 
 Prince HohenzoUern — the father of the young 
 Queen of Portugal — was designated for the Presi- 
 dency, with M. de Schleinitz for the Foreign 
 Ofl&ce. The former was credited with having 
 some influence over the Eegent, and being himself 
 under the influence of the Princess, it became 
 evident that the latter would take an important 
 
6 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 part in public aiFairs. M. de Schleinitz, a man 
 of the world and a clever diplomat, married the 
 following year a daughter of Bethman HoUweg, 
 the " Cultus Minister," who afterwards developed 
 a passionate admiration for Wagner, at whose feet 
 she would sit in wrapt adoration. On November 
 the 6th, Baron Manteuffel left the Ministry of 
 Foreign Aflfairs. on the exact anniversary of the 
 day when he had entered it nine years previously. 
 He was a quiet, insignificant-looking man, having 
 the type of a spectacled professor, very fond of 
 his wife, and being with her even in the large 
 Ministerium on a footing of domesticated, hourgeoise 
 familiarity. He called her " liebe frau," she called 
 him " lieber Mann," and at their receptions, held 
 once a week, whoever might be present they did 
 not hesitate to enter into the most intimate details 
 of hygiene as concerning each other. Baroness 
 Manteufi"el was even more homely than her 
 husband. On being asked why she never conversed 
 with Mrs. Vroom, the wife of the United States 
 Minister lately arrived, she excused herself by 
 alleging that she did not understand the language. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 7 
 
 "But you speak English perfectly," objected her 
 interlocutor. " Oh yes," answered the good lady, 
 " but not American." 
 
 The Prince of Wales paid a visit to his sister 
 at the end of November ; the Eegent gave a State 
 dinner in his honour in his own palace in Berlin, 
 and Lord and Lady Bloomfield a ball at the 
 British Legation. The Prince, although seventeen 
 years old, did not look more than fourteen; he 
 had the appearance of being quite a boy, fair and 
 very slim ; his large blue eyes were much admired, 
 and the Berlinese were pleased with his simple, 
 unaffected manners. He danced all night long 
 with great gusto, but showed a distressing par- 
 tiality for selecting the tallest women in the room 
 as his partners, and his red uniform was seen 
 manfully struggling in waltz or polka with those, 
 to him, overpowering weights. Mr. — now Sir 
 Robert — Morier, first secretary of the legation, en- 
 trusted with the management of the ball, suffered 
 much discomposure at the reckless fashion in which 
 His Royal Highness upset the arrangement and 
 order of the dances to suit his convenience ; yet 
 
8 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 there was no superciliousness or arrogance in his 
 way of doing it. 
 
 The Princesse de Metternich, whose husband was 
 Austrian Minister at Dresden, visited Berlin that 
 year. Although her later exploits in Paris out- 
 Heroded her achievements there, she was already 
 a dashing, unconventional, eccentric woman ; no 
 doubt she would have seemed so anywhere, but 
 in the sober and somewhat stilted society of the 
 Prussian capital she created quite a sensation. 
 Her features were irregular and strongly marked, 
 her face offering a singular mingling of the 
 Kalmouck and mulatto types ; her eyes were 
 magnificent, her hair dark and abundant, her voice 
 high-pitched, rapid, and musical ; at a first glance 
 she appeared ugly ; as one knew her better, all 
 her exterior defects seemed only an extraordinary 
 way of being fascinating. Grande dame to her 
 finger-tips, she behaved at times like a grisette ; 
 she played at whist at the house of Count 
 Adlerberg, the Eussian military envoy, avowedly 
 for the purpose of winning enough to pay for a 
 pink bonnet, having, as she said, won a few nights 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 9 
 
 before the price of a dress, and to make her 
 speculation less hazardous she took her husband 
 for her partner, and gravely wondered if her 
 adversaries expected her to pay if she lost. But 
 whether she kissed Ccyunt Beust at an official 
 reception at the Tuileries to wheedle him into 
 giving a fancy ball, or stood erect in her box at 
 the " Italiens " in Paris when the Tannhduser was 
 received with hisses, and with extended hand 
 apostrophized the audience, saying aloud — "Im- 
 beciles, you will worship to-morrow what you 
 insult to-day ! " — whether she wrangled with states- 
 men or sang the most canaille songs of Theresa, 
 the Caf^ Chantant Diva, the Princesse de Metternich 
 never lost a certain innate, unconscious spirit of 
 caste which prevented her from being irretrievably 
 socially undone. She had women on her side, 
 because she did not challenge their rivalry, and 
 men because she never set herself the impossible 
 task of converting lovers into friends. Her eccen- 
 tricity was an heirloom transmitted by her father, 
 the half-mad Count Zychy. He was the most 
 audacious and fearless rider, spending most of his 
 
10 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 life in his stables with his horses, and never more 
 happy than when astcfnishing Vienna with some 
 extravagant feat. He put six horses to a landau 
 and drove the whole turn-out to the fifth floor of a 
 palace in town, coming down in the same fashion. 
 When he was about to marry, his future mother- 
 in-law implored him to abstain from such perilous 
 experiments, and won his sacred promise to be 
 henceforth prudent and careful. The very next 
 day he entered her drawing-room on horseback to 
 deliver a message, and after manoeuvring his steed 
 among the furniture, bowed and made his exit as 
 if he had paid a morning call in the usual orthodox 
 fashion. 
 
 A propos to Wagner, notwithstanding the ex- 
 traordinary enthusiasm professed in Germany for 
 the Maestro and the first instalments of the 
 Music of the Future, a parody of the T annhauser 
 was produced in Berlin in the autumn of 1858, 
 and met with unconditional success. Wagner 
 even then had his manias and his whims which 
 he obtruded ruthlessly. He was what the French 
 caU, "un poseur," declaring that a certain staging 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 11 
 
 was indispensable before he could work, and ex- 
 pecting all those who invited him in their houses 
 to conform to those fancies. He would not com- 
 pose a line save in a room hung with red, caused 
 the draperies to be changed when not of that 
 colour, and was on other apparently frivolous 
 subjects equally exacting. This constant pre- 
 occupation of the mise en scene was undoubtedly 
 a mystic bond between Wagner and his patron 
 the King of Bavaria ; Louis, floating in his shell- 
 like gondola drawn by swans on the waters of 
 the Grotto of Linderhof, was a disciple of the 
 same warped, imaginative creed as the Maestro, 
 who made his musical inspiration dependent on 
 the hangings of a wall or the material of the loose 
 robe he donned. 
 
 Hans de Bulow, whose future destinies were to 
 be so closely and romantically linked with those 
 of Eichard Wagner, when they began to play in 
 real life the French comedy of " Une femme pour 
 deux Maris," was already in 1858 a good but 
 not yet a famous pianist; he played at very^ 
 modest German houses when the hosts happened 
 
12 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 to be his friends, sitting down at the instrument 
 after dinner without urging or pretension, and 
 bringing with him his wife Cosima, the daughter 
 of Listz, whom he had not long before married. 
 She was a bright, cheerful, talkative, French- 
 looking woman, eager to relate her impressions of 
 America, where she had made a prolonged stay, 
 and glad to renew acquaintance with any one she 
 had met there. Madame de Bulow's father, the 
 great Abb^ Listz, paid frequent visits to Berlin, 
 and was always well received at Court. His 
 peculiarity consisted in refusing to play the piano 
 whenever he was asked and even implored to do 
 so, and in being mortally offended when he was 
 not. At a Court concert at the Eegent's, where 
 he was invited, he sat a long time at the end of 
 a seat reading over the programme in moody 
 silence, then during the pause between the two 
 parts he marched up to the platform of the 
 performers with his long white hair and stiff gait, 
 sat down at the piano and played divinely. He 
 stopped as unceremoniously as he had commenced, 
 walked away and left the palace without exchang- 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 13 
 
 ing a syllable with any one. Notwithstanding 
 his priestly character he eventually lived in perfect 
 harmony with the strange trio, his daughter 
 Cosima, and her two husbands Wagner and Hans 
 de Bulow, and never seemed to be in any way 
 struck with the incongruity of those complicated 
 relations. 
 
 The name of the King of Bavaria, father of 
 Wagner's Eoyal friend, is linked with that of Lola 
 Montes, the ungovernable equestrian who held so 
 tight a rein over him, and wrung even a title 
 from his senile infatuation. She came to Swit- 
 zerland on her way to the south, being then in 
 the heyday of her insolent beauty and more 
 insolent fortune. At Lausanne she stayed in the 
 best hotel, accenting all her commands with a 
 riding-whip that never left her. She went to 
 Geneva, had some valuable Cashmere shawls 
 brought to the hotel for her inspection, selected 
 two and dismissed the shopman, who however 
 refused to leave the shawls without the money 
 they cost. Lola became furious, took up a pair 
 of scissors, hacked the goods, and threw the pieces 
 
14 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 in the astounded shopman's face, then ordered 
 him out of her presence with the words — " Louis 
 payera." The King of Bavaria did pay as he 
 had done for many vagaries of the fair termagant, 
 who pursued her journey unmolested. 
 
 Berlin, even before the development it acquired 
 later, ranked high enough to attract the leading 
 individualities of other countries, who all at one 
 time or other visited it, and those birds of passage 
 formed a motley group. Prince Louis Napoleon 
 stopped a day or two on his way to the manoeuvres 
 at Varsovie, where he met the Prince of Prussia ; 
 in '58 Phelps, the English Shakespearean actor, 
 played the Merchant of Venice in the original at 
 the Wilhelmstadtesche theatre, with a Miss Atkin- 
 son for his leading lady ; most of the great 
 European singers deemed it an honour to be heard 
 at the Opernhaus, and all the mediatized Princes 
 and Princesses gravitated to Berlin. 
 
 In December '58, Bosco, the world -renowned 
 conjurer, came also ; he was a wonderfully jovial 
 man, revelling' in the practice of legerdemain, of 
 which he was a consummate master, and not in the 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 15 
 
 least reluctant to fool all he met, high and low, 
 in public and in private. He was the last of the 
 prestidigitators who trusted more to their marvel- 
 lous manipulation than to artificial tricks and pre- 
 pared contrivances ; short and very stout, he would 
 perform in a sleeveless shirt, black velvet tunic, 
 and flourishing his massive white arms in the air, 
 apostrophize the " spiriti infernali mici" before 
 executing some perfectly incredible feat. He did 
 not confine himself to public performances; One 
 day walking with the Piedmontese Charg^ d'Affaires 
 on the Boulevards in Paris, he suddenly said — " I 
 must give a sou to that beggar;" then with a rueful 
 face of consternation he continued—" Oh, I should 
 not have expected that of you, Count ; I am a poor 
 player, and you are a gentleman, yet you have 
 taken my purse," and on seeing the startled face 
 of the diplomat he requested him to feel in his own 
 breast-pocket under his over-coat, where indeed 
 he found Bosco's portemonnaye. On market days, 
 strolling before the country women and their 
 wares, he would carefully pick up a carrot or a 
 turnip, cut it open abstractedly, and with feigned 
 
16 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 surprise extract a piece of money, repeating the 
 experiment several times from different baskets, 
 till the dazzled vendors ruthlessly performed the 
 same operation on their whole stock in quest of 
 the coveted silver. Bosco, laughing like a boy at 
 his practical joke, generally handed his dupes the 
 value of their damaged goods, preaching mean- 
 while a serious little homily on the dangers of 
 covetousness. 
 
 During his stay in Berlin he was asked to per- 
 form before the Eegent and his family. In the 
 course of the seance he pointed to a terrestrial 
 globe on a stand, saying to the Prince — " Highness, 
 drop your finger on the Kingdom of Prussia and 
 you will see it grow under your touch." The 
 Prince complied with the request, and as he placed 
 his hand on the specified spot the frontiers ex- 
 panded on either side to the incredulous surprise 
 of a score of bystanders. Bosco ignored that he 
 had the gift of prophecy. 
 
 That winter of '58-59 the Eegent entertained a 
 good deal, the physical health of the King, his 
 brother, allowing him to do so. The balls and 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 17 
 
 receptions were always brilliant, the Prince and 
 Princess of Prussia conversing freely with their 
 guests, the former especially making himself more 
 than ever popular by his genial and unfaUing 
 courtesy alike towards young and old. 
 
 A pleasant house to go to was the Legation of 
 Saxony. The Minister, Count Hohenthal, had 
 married the morganatic widow of the Elector of 
 Hanover, and her large fortune permitted her to 
 give numerous entertainments in the best style. 
 The Countess was a fair, plump woman, fond of 
 society, and by no means ill-natured ; she had no 
 daughters, but was like a mother to her husband's 
 two nieces, Wally and Valerie Hohenthal ; the 
 former, an exceedingly pretty girl, was maid of 
 honour to Princess Victoria, and enjoyed the privi- 
 leges given by the post, namely, a residence at the 
 palace, a carriage with horses and servants at her 
 disposal, immunity from the trammels imposed 
 by society on young unmarried ladies, a small 
 salary, and very light duties. She married Mr. 
 Paget, Secretary to the British Embassy, on his 
 
 promotion to the post of Minister at Dresden, and 
 
 c 
 
18 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 is now Lady Paget, Ambassadress at Vienna. 
 Valerie, the younger sister, who succeeded her in 
 her attendance on the Princess, was not so beau- 
 tiful, but very clever, with most advanced and 
 broad views about marriage, or rather, to speak 
 more correctly, she revolted against marriage alto- 
 gether as a brutal tie. When Count Uxkull fell in 
 love with' her, he would only too gladly have made 
 her his wife, and no opposition would have been 
 raised against a match suitable in every way, but 
 the young lady — who returned his affection — 
 refused to bind him or bind herself to any but 
 voluntary love not made imperative by religious or 
 civil contract. Dispensing, therefore, with any such 
 formalities, she joined her destinies with those of 
 her lover, incurring the displeasure of her family, 
 who refused to recognize such a union. She 
 retired with Count Uxkull to a happy solitude on 
 the shores of the Black Sea, where for some years 
 she enjoyed unalloyed felicity till the death in 
 rapid succession of two lovely children smote her 
 with superstitious remorse, and fearful that her 
 contempt of laws human and divine should bring 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 19 
 
 upon her further bereavements, she at last con- 
 sented to be prosaically and regularly married. 
 
 A certain Fraulein Lilienthal, a graceful and 
 handsome danseuse, was at that time the idol of 
 Berlin ; she was a magnificent creature, but at 
 the zenith of her fame she abruptly ' left the 
 stage. She had married an Austrian noblemaD, 
 who had paid thirty thousand thalers forfeit to her 
 manager and given her five thousand thalers pin- 
 money. After showing herself resplendent in jewels 
 in a box of the same theatre at which she used 
 to dance, she went to Vienna with her husband, 
 where her triumph received a sudden check. 
 During a short absence from home letters arrived 
 for her which her husband in the fatuous trust of 
 the honeymoon opened and read. One of them 
 contained a cheque for twenty thousand thalers, 
 with the invitation from a Enssian Prince passing 
 through Vienna to renew during his brief stay the 
 charming intimacy of former days. When the 
 bride returned she found the bridegroom awaiting 
 her with a lifted cane ; he at once sued for a 
 
 divorce, which he obtained, and sent Fraulein 
 
 c 2 
 
20 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Lilienthal back to Her relatives, to the intensf 
 gratification of the whole Corps de Ballet, who hac 
 not yet quite recovered from the jealous trepida 
 tion caused by their former comrade's good fortune 
 Prince Sayn Witgenstein eventually married thi 
 same Lilienthal — some say her sister — and thereby 
 incurred his family's lasting displeasure, althoug] 
 she proved a good wife. He died in Eome, anc 
 a scandalous debate took place over his remains 
 which were brought back by the widow to th^ 
 family place, refused admittance to the vault, an( 
 the coffin allowed to stay a whole night in the rail 
 before the closed gates. She has quite lately writtei 
 in the shape of a novel the story of her wrongs. 
 
 General Wrangel was another familiar figur 
 in Berlin. The approbation and openly- express^ 
 admiration of the lower classes was necessary t 
 his happiness ; he courted it in his oflf-hand fashior 
 and even after he became a Marshal he used t 
 delight in riding through the streets in his ligb 
 blue uniform on his legendary white horse, chuck 
 ing groschens to the small bare-headed Arabs wh 
 ran at his heels, and waving his hand to ever 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 21 
 
 pretty girl he passed, with sometimes an audible 
 compliment to her good looks. He boasted that 
 he had never worn an overcoat, and to the day of 
 his death the old man's spare lean figure was 
 seen braving the rigour of northern winters and 
 the icy blasts that sweep across the Prussian 
 plain. It was pretty well known, however, that 
 the close-fitting uniform covered a thick make- 
 up not appreciable to the eye on account of 
 the exceeding thinness of the wearer. Marshal 
 Wrangel had never mastered the intricacies of 
 his mother tongue, and spoke German like the 
 uneducated ; he invariably used " mir " for " mich," 
 and the reverse ; his phraseology was quaint, terse, 
 ungrammatical, and sometimes epigtammatical. 
 He was a good soldier, a mediocre General, devoted 
 to King William IV., and consequently vicariously 
 jealous of the Regent's increasing popularity, and 
 with all his apparent frivolity and would-be joyous 
 carelessness was truly sad at heait when he was 
 overlooked on any occasion where he fancied he 
 might have acquired military celebrity. During 
 the revolutionary period of 1848, when Berlin 
 
22 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 was momentarily in the hands of the rebels 
 General Wrangel distinguished himself. He was a1 
 Magdebourg at the head of his troops, and th( 
 insurgents had threatened to murder his wife 
 whom he had left in Berlin, if he entered th( 
 capital with his victorious soldiers. As the regi 
 ments filed behind him through the Brandenburgei 
 Thor to occupy the city once more, he stopped his 
 horse in the middle of the Pariser Platz, turned t( 
 his aide-de-camp and said grimly : " Jetzt machet 
 8ie mir meine Frau todt" (now they are killing 
 my wife for me). Needless to add that no sucl 
 eventuality occurred, but there were some wh( 
 affirmed that had the rebels kept their wore 
 Wrangel would have borne his conjugal bereave 
 ment stoically. He was given no command during 
 the Sleswig-Holstein campaign, and resented thi 
 omission bitterly. On being asked one day hov 
 he was, he answered with a little tremor in hii 
 voice and a shadow on his deeply wrinkled face— 
 " Gam wohl ; icli Ueibe im Stall mil dem ScJnmme 
 und zupf charpie " (Quite well ; I remain in th( 
 stable with the white horse, picking lint). 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 23 
 
 He loved the minutise of his profession ; he 
 expected the officers of the garrison to report 
 themselves on every possible occasion, and with 
 curious inconsistency this genial martinet would 
 joke and chaff them on their love affairs. When a 
 young fellow was promoted Wrangel first delivered 
 a lecture on soldiers' duties, then congratulated him 
 on his advancement, and finally pointing with his 
 lean forefinger to a particular spot on his furrowed 
 cheek said peremptorily, "kiss mir da" using the 
 familiar thou, and exaggerating in his pronunciation 
 of the word " hiss " the slangy Berlinese accent. 
 Such as he was, he could have been less well 
 spared than a better man ; he seemed the embodi- 
 ment of the old rough, fearless reiters, hardly ever 
 seen out of the saddle, unwitting of the niceties 
 of civilization, ignorant of the tenderness of 
 home life, whose whole soul was with their camp- 
 followers, and in whom the paternal feeling had 
 never been evoked save by their troopers. 
 
24 RANDOM REGOLLEGTIONS OF 
 
 II. 
 
 Meyerbeer — Baron Mertens — Stolen despatch-box of the Queen 
 — The White Lady — Count Hatzfeldt — Madame Van der 
 Heydt — Officers of the Guard — Bettina Arnun — Birth 
 of Prince Wilhelm — Count Bismarck at the French 
 Legation. 
 
 Meyerbeer wrote the Pardon de Ploermel, and had 
 it played for the first time in Berlin in 1859. 
 He and his wife entertained spasmodically ; their 
 receptions were slow, solemn, and heavy ; Madame 
 Meyerbeer was not strong in health, capricious in 
 disposition, and moreover a prey to such active 
 and unreasoning jealousy that she embittered her 
 own existence and shadowed her husband's. For 
 all that, she had some sincere friends who liked 
 her for the sterling qualities that underlied her 
 faults, and more than one of her friendships, both 
 with Germans and foreigners, endured till her 
 death, which occurred three years ago, at the ripe 
 age of eighty-two. Meyerbeer and his wife were 
 
COVETS AND SOCIETY. 25 
 
 cousins ; they had been engaged when mere 
 children with their parents' consent. Jacques Beer 
 — for he only adopted the prefix of Meyer on 
 inheriting a large fortune from an uncle of that 
 name conditionally on his doing so — was at twelve 
 years old already celebrated throughout Germany 
 for his talent of improvisation on the piano. 
 Immediately after a second and more official 
 betrothal to his cousin he joined Rossini in Italy. 
 Together they lived at Venice, and while the 
 Italian, in his exuberant spirits and reckless 
 prodigality of youth, gave himself up heart and 
 soul not only to music but to pleasure, the German 
 remained dreamily faithful to his northern fiancee. 
 " She must be very plain," Rossini would say, " for 
 a man only remains true to an ugly woman." 
 
 After their marriage, Madame Meyerbeer's 
 jealous influence kept her husband in Berlin 
 against his secret inclination. It is more than 
 probable that, left to himself, after the appearance 
 of the Huguenots, the Maestro would have 
 remained in France and been naturalized a 
 Frenchman. Republican at heart, he cared little 
 
26 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 for courts ; during the second Empire he was never 
 seen at the Tuileries or at Compifegne. It can be 
 said that he did not really like society in any 
 shape or under any condition, for even when the 
 hebdomadary and unconventional evening "at 
 homes " of his old chum Eossini were too well 
 attended, he felt ill at ease, and managed to slip 
 away unseen from the crowded rooms of the 
 hospitable house at the corner of the Chaussee 
 d'Antin and the Boulevard. 
 
 Yet for all his impassive and quiet exterior; 
 Meyerbeer's heart was touched more than once, 
 and his wife's uneasiness not entirely without 
 foundation; but he was timid with women, and 
 shrank from an open declaration of his feelings. 
 There is no doubt that he profoundly admired his 
 first Valentine, Mademoiselle Falcon, and that the 
 Diva was not insensible to his homage. Twenty 
 years later he worshipped Juliette Lambert, then 
 Madame La Messine, now Madame Adam, the 
 gifted editor of the Nouvelle Revue. When she 
 fascinated Meyerbeer she was only twenty-one, 
 and resplendent with youth and beauty. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 27 
 
 An anonyraoiis letter apprised Madame Meyerbeer 
 of her husband's passion for Mile. Falcon, and with- 
 out a moment's reflection she taxed him with it, at 
 the same time announcing her irrevocable intention 
 of returning to Berlin, taking an oath on the head 
 of her children that she would never as long as 
 she lived revisit Paris, but leaving him free to 
 remain there alone. An hour later she, had left 
 him, and was speeding out of France. Twenty- 
 eight years afterwards she was summoned to Paris 
 by a telegram — when she arrived Meyerbeer was 
 dead. 
 
 After the eclat provoked by the anonymous 
 letter he never remained long away from his 
 home ; his absences were always motived by busi- 
 ness or the rehearsals of his operas. Both he and 
 his wife were Jews; Frederick William IV. was 
 attached to the whole fainily ; he did not share in 
 the national prejudice against the Semitic race — a 
 characteristic equally found in his nephew Prince 
 Frederick William. When the King was only 
 Prince of Prussia he once saw on his father's table 
 a decree awaiting the Eoyal signature, to the eflFect 
 
28 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 that Jews would be permitted to take only Biblical 
 names so as to make them everywhere recognizable. 
 He wrote on the margin, " Mil quaterze cent trente- 
 six." This decree was never signed. 
 
 Notwithstanding the broadness of his views, 
 Frederick William IV. wanted all the celebrated 
 Israelites to become converts, and to consider as 
 their real Eabbi the founder of the Protestant 
 faith. When Doctor Stahl abjured Judaism he 
 was created President of the Herrenhaus. The 
 King olfered to ennoble Meyerbeer on condition 
 that he renounced his religion, but the Maestro 
 refusing, he was merely appointed Kapellen Meister 
 of the Court. 
 
 Meyerbeer was the most frugal and sober of men ; 
 it is sad to have to add that he was equally one pf 
 the most stingy. The dinners he gave were so 
 poor that his brother, the Banker Beer, used to 
 invite his guests to supper afterwards in order to 
 appease their unsatisfied hunger; other miserly 
 traits are recorded of him, and yet he not unfre- 
 quently helped the poor, and subscribed to certain 
 charities. He has had five children, three daughters 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 29 
 
 and two sons — the latter died early — one, the victim 
 of a strangely fatal accident. His father was play- 
 ing with him, and wishing to raise him on high, 
 took hold of the boy's head between his hands, 
 lifting him in the air ; when he put him down 
 again the child dropped down in a heap and never 
 breathed again. The eldest daughter married a 
 M. de Korjff, an officer of dragoons, and became 
 abnormally stout ; it had been the intention of 
 the Maestro to marry the second, Cecile, to Emile 
 OUivier, whose first wife, a daughter of Listz, had 
 recently died. OUivier, made rich by his bride's 
 splendid portion, would probably not have accepted 
 a seat in the Cabinet under the Emperor, and more- 
 over Meyerbeer, who hated Napoleon, would have 
 strongly opposed such a measure, therefore if this 
 marriage had actually taken place it is not fanciful 
 to suppose that the war of 1870 might have been 
 avoided. However, Cecile was not consentant, and 
 later became the wife of an Austrian gentleman. 
 Baron d'Andrian. She has the smallest waist of 
 any living woman, and curiously enough no taste 
 for music, which she only considers as an agreeable 
 
30 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 noise. Cornelie, the youngest Mile. Meyerbeei 
 married Eichter, the great painter. The union wa 
 a perfectly happy one ; her handsome boys are th 
 originals of many of their father's later paintings 
 and she possesses a large album in which they hav 
 been photographed after Eichter's wish in a variet 
 of poses, forming groups and isolated figures c 
 classical beauty. Madame Eichter still lives in th 
 pretty house so exquisitely furnished and decorate 
 by her husband, in one of the shady avenues lead 
 ing to the Thiergarten. Since his death in 188 
 she has remained unconsolable, only rousing hersel 
 from her grief to soothe the last moments of he 
 old mother and to watch over the education of he 
 sons. 
 
 Baron de Mertens, Minister of Saxe-Weimar a 
 Berlin, took his retreat and finally settled a 
 Dresden, but he frequently visited his old post am 
 his former colleagues. At seventy-six he was still 
 hale and hearty man, a great diner-out and brillian 
 talker ; he achieved quite a special celebrity wit 
 his highly-esteemed "Collection of Diplomat] 
 Documents," which has been frequently consulte 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 31 
 
 and referred to as an authority on disputed matters 
 of international law and etiquette, but to the world 
 at large he was perhaps more interesting as the hero 
 of a ghastly and dramatic adventure which befell 
 him in his youth. Travelling in the Tyrol with his 
 charming young wife, whom he loved passionately, 
 he found himself obliged to put up for the night 
 at a rustic and isolated mountain inn. Nothing 
 in the surroundings or appearance of the landlord 
 and people of the house was calculated to excite 
 distrust, and shortly after supper he retired to 
 rest with Madame de Mertens in a double-bedded 
 room set aside for their occupation. Waking up 
 in the early morning, and instinctively looking 
 towards his wife's bed, he- saw only her decapitated 
 body. The head had disappeared, and in spite 
 of long endeavours and minute researches it has 
 never been possible to discover the perpetrators 
 of this inexplicable outrage or the motives of 
 the crime. 
 
 On the 23rd of October, 1858, a despatch-box 
 belonging to the Queen of Prussia was stolen at 
 
32 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Leipzig from the rooms occupied by Her Majesi 
 during a short stay in tliat city. It contained oi 
 thousand Frederichs d'Or, the royal seal, and tl 
 Queen's private diary. No other valuables havir 
 been carried off from the same apartment, the the 
 was not attributed to ordinary burglars, but 1 
 persons of another class, having secret reasons f( 
 possessing themselves of those documents. The fo 
 lowing December a pamphlet appeared in Brusse 
 and in Paris, under the title Les Amis de m 
 Femme, said to contain real or fictitious revelatioi 
 about the Princess of Prussia, whom her sister-in-la- 
 never loved. A coincidence was made out betwee 
 the publication of this book and the disappearanc 
 of Queen Elizabeth's diary, but it was impossibl 
 to procure a single copy in Berlin, so promptl 
 and effectually had the suppression been made b 
 the police. Twenty-six years later, when Princ 
 Bismarck prohibited the Societe de Berlin, b 
 Vassilis, it was equally impossible to find at an 
 bookseller's a single number of a book which ha 
 rapidly run into several editions by professing t 
 lay bare social scandals. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 33 
 
 On the 1st of January, 1859, Countess Goltz, 
 Lady-in-waiting of Princess Frederick Charles, 
 living in the Eoyal Palace (Konigliches Schloss), 
 related that the night before she had clearly seen 
 the White Lady, the weird apparition which always 
 heralds a death in the House of HohenzoUern. 
 Several sentinels placed in different parts of tlie 
 building spontaneously reported to having seen 
 her likewise. The Princess Eegent gave strict 
 orders that the incident should be kept a secret 
 from Princess Victoria, then on the eve of her con- 
 finement, but she had already heard the news 
 and been nervously impressed by the circumstance. 
 The legend of the " Weisse Dame " is looked upon 
 by the Berlinese almost as a matter of faith ; they 
 neither doubt nor dispute it, and events have too 
 often justified the superstition to shake their belief. 
 On this particular occasion a Princess of Bavaria, 
 closely connected with the Queen, died shortly 
 after the ghostly visitation was seen. Several 
 explanations of the origin of the White Lady are 
 current ; the most plausible and best accredited 
 one seems to be that in the remote past a fair and 
 
34 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 wicked Margravine conceived a violent passion fo 
 a " Eitter " who served under her legal lord. Th 
 latter died a natural death, or was possibly mui 
 dered by his wife ; anyhow she offered herself, he 
 title, and her dominions to the beloved vassal. H 
 turned from the temptress with the words, "Tw 
 lives stand between you and me. " He meant he 
 own, for she was abhorrent to him, and his, for h^ 
 was deeply attached to her dead husband. Th 
 wretched woman, blinded by passion, fancied tha 
 he meant her two little sons, and seeing in then 
 the only obstacle to her unholy desires stranglec 
 them with her own hands. When this was dom 
 she returned to the Eitter, assuring him that nov 
 nothing need separate them, and giving her deed ai 
 a proof of her overmastering love. Horrified anc 
 incensed he cursed her and stabbed himself, unwill 
 ing to live after being the innocent cause of thi 
 children's murder. The Margravine in a fit of wile 
 despair cast herself from the roof of the palace int{ 
 the yard below, but not before prophesying tha 
 whenever ill should betide her house, she woulc 
 appear again to give warning of the impending 
 
' COURTS AND SOCIETY. 35 
 
 calamity. The apparition has been frequently- 
 visible ; men of no imagination, officers whose 
 veracity has never been suspected, women on whom 
 it has come unawares, have all at different times 
 sworn to having met on various occasions a white 
 or rather pale gray figure flitting through the long 
 corridors of the Schloss ; and a whole year has never 
 elapsed between the visible presence of the White 
 Lady and the death it is supposed to herald. 
 
 The Palace is the only building in which she 
 appears, and yet it is neither deserted, abandoned, 
 nor solitary, although it is not always inhabited 
 by Eoyalty, especially for the last fifty or sixty 
 years. A numerous guard of soldiers is constantly 
 non duty, and all the great Court balls are given 
 within its walls. Among the spacious, richly- 
 decorated rooms are the White Hall, with its 
 gallery, staircase, and fountain, the room of the 
 Black Eagle, where the hangings of cloth-of-sHver 
 are broidered with the Prussian coat-of-arms — 
 there hung the famous balcony of solid silver 
 which was melted during the Thirty Years' War 
 to defray expenses, and was replaced by a 
 
 D 2 
 
36 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 facsimile one in silvered wood. The long pictui 
 gallery leads from this and other apartments t 
 the dancing saloon, and contains some reall 
 beautiful paintings. Frederick William IV. we 
 the last monarch who actually slept in the Schlosi 
 but even he much preferred Sans Souci and th 
 New Palace at Potsdam ; the Prince of Prussi 
 had his own Palace Unter den Linden, or rathe 
 at the northern extremity of the avenue, an 
 retained it as Eegent, King, and Emperor. Indeec 
 the people could ill have spared the daily jo; 
 of seeing him watch the guard relieved from tha 
 window, where they could feast their eyes at th 
 same time on the bronze statue of Frederick th 
 Great and on the person of his worthy successoi 
 mingling the names of both in patriotic gratitud 
 as the founders of their greatness. 
 
 For the second time the Eegent opened Parlia 
 ment on January the 12th, 1859, the ceremon" 
 taking place in the White Hall of the Palace i: 
 presence of the whole Diplomatic Corps ; h 
 declared himself prepared to follow in all thing 
 the policy of his brother, the King. A feeling o 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 37 
 
 great security pervaded the kingdom at large, 
 but the most advanced of the Young German 
 party did not conceal their displeasure at this 
 unexpected check given to their aspirations. The 
 Eegent of Prussia was no longer quite the same 
 man as the Prince of Prussia at Coblentz. 
 
 About that time the diplomatic service sus- 
 tained a loss in the person of one of its efficient 
 members, Count Hatzfeldt, the King's Minister 
 in Paris. He had come home for a week to 
 assist at the function of the White Hall, had been 
 taken ill, and his wife was hastUy summoned. On 
 her arrival she found him so much better that her 
 anxiety was allayed, and she even went with her 
 niece. Princess Eadziwill, nee de CasteUane, to an 
 official ball at the Minister of Justice, Van der 
 Heydt. The next morning Count Hatzfeldt was 
 found dead in his bed of apoplexy. He was a 
 charming man, of a liberal and cultivated mind, 
 a real Grand Seigneur in person and manners, and 
 his loss was felt equally in his own country and 
 in France, where he had filled a difficult post with 
 tact and amenity. 
 
38 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Van der Heydt gave the best entertainment 
 of any of tlie State Ministers, who all receive( 
 at their official residences during the Carniva] 
 conforming to an express desire of the Courl 
 The Justiz Ministerium, situated in the Wilheh 
 Strasse, the aristocratic thoroughfare of Berlin, wa 
 particularly well adapted for large receptions, a 
 it contained a fine suite of rooms and a splendii 
 conservatory or winter garden, a very unusus 
 feature then in any of the city houses. It wa 
 plentifully stocked with flowers and exotics, ani 
 for many years witnessed the flirtations of sue 
 cessive generations of officers with the pretties 
 girls in town. The young ladies had very muc 
 the best of that pleasant pastime, very few marrie 
 women venturing to indulge in it, and those wh 
 so far trespassed as to make their conduct notice 
 able, were severely criticized and considered £ 
 bordering on impropriety. When a number c 
 officers gave a ball at the H6tel de Eome, invitin 
 only twelve of those bold matrons, and not 
 single girl, the impression produced on society w? 
 enormous, and curiosity singularly exercised. 1 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 39 
 
 was gradually known that the revels had been 
 kept up till six o'clock in the morning, that there 
 were two suppers and two cotillons, but no 
 husbands. The promoters of this unique and 
 startling departure from customary rules were the 
 handsomest, richest, and most brilliant officers of 
 the Guard both in Berlin and Potsdam ; con- 
 spicuous among them the Prince of Mecklenbourg 
 — called Schnaps ; the Princes of Keuss and 
 Altenbourg ; Couflt Lehndorf, a cuirassier, unani- 
 mously acknowledged to be the most perfect 
 specimen of manhood, who became General, aid6- 
 de-camp a la suite of the Emperor William, and 
 through time and changes retained all his superb 
 presence and a great proportion of his good looks ; 
 Von Alten, the brother of the Duchess of Man- 
 chester, grandson of a confidential servant of the 
 Duke of Hanover, Baron when travelling in 
 Switzerland to study French in a Swiss family, 
 plain "Herr" when wearing his white uniform 
 in Berlin. He was a remarkably good dancer, 
 became a very good officer, followed the Crown 
 Prince in aU his campaigns, and after Sedan was 
 
40 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 one of those who witnessed the Emperor Napoleoi 
 III. surrender his sword to the King of Prussia 
 His eyesight was at one time seriously affected 
 but under Dr. Graefe's judicious treatment hi 
 recovered it. Another of his sisters married Coun 
 Albedyll, since Greneral of the Staff and aide-de-cami 
 of the Emperor William. There was also presen 
 at that much- discussed ball Count Schulenbourg 
 who died insane, and whose mother becam( 
 Mistress of the Eobes ; Count Dohnhoff of thi 
 Hussars, whose matrimonial venture with a prettj 
 Eussian ended in a painful discovery and subse 
 quent divorce ; Baron Eckardstein, whose family 
 had the reputation of being deficient in intelligence 
 A story was current that a King of Prussia hac 
 presented one of his ancestors with a pistol, allow 
 ing him to shoot any man he found more foolisl 
 than himself, and that after two years the Baroi 
 returned the pistol to the King, saying he hac 
 failed in his quest. There were besides man] 
 others who shone in the dazzling pleiad of Guards 
 men in those early days as men of pleasure, an( 
 showed of what stuff they were made when thi 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 41 
 
 Fatherland called upon their valour and energy in 
 the hour of peril and action. 
 
 Madame Van der Heydt was a stout, plain, 
 good-humoured hourgeoise, who never quite re- 
 covered the elation of being the wife of a Staats 
 Minister, and showed her satisfaction with a 
 beaming naivete that robbed it of any vulgar 
 offensiveness. She grew ambitious in her dress 
 and manners in proportion as the startled novelty 
 of her new position became less oppressive, and 
 even attempted to enrich her vocabulary with 
 French expressions, not always quite successfully, 
 as when she informed a foreigner how delighted 
 she was to receive la haute volaille, meaning 
 presumably " la haute volee." 
 
 January '59 witnessed the death of a woman 
 who had basked all her life in the reflected glory 
 of Germany's greatest poet, Bettina d'Arnim; 
 " Goethe's Bettina," as she was called to the end, 
 as if there could be no individuality about her 
 save the childish love out of which she made such 
 capital, although seeing her in her maturity one 
 was sorely tempted to doubt its sincerity. She 
 
42 RANDOM REGOLLEGTIONS OF 
 
 had married a gentleman of lier own family a: 
 name, had several children, and to put it mild] 
 was eccentric in her mode of life, and not altogeti 
 agreeable in her relations with society. It cann 
 be said that she was regretted, yet her demi 
 was the signal for a revival of all the old sict 
 romance which a forward and pretentious lit1 
 girl had woven round the too easily flattered mi 
 of genius. Bettina d'Arnim towards the close 
 her life did not even speak of Goethe in ten 
 suitable to so great a man; she was essential 
 v^'^artificial and affected, with that simpering affec 
 ation which sits spepially ill on German womi 
 as being absolutelyfnconsistent with their practic 
 nature. 
 
 The great event of the same month occurred ( 
 the 27th, when the booming of cannon, one hundr( 
 and one times repeated, announced the birth of tl 
 son and heir of Prince Frederick William ai 
 Princess Victoria. Lord Bloomfield had bei 
 hastily summoned to the Palace of the Prin 
 during the night, and remained there till t" 
 child was born. For nearly an hour anxiety wi 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 43 
 
 felt respecting the safety of the mother, but the 
 cause soon disappeared, and free scope was given 
 to the joy elicited by the event. A spontaneous 
 illumination set Berlin in a blaze of fire at night- 
 fall, and the ball fixed for that day at the Regent's 
 was not countermanded. Two thousand guests 
 tendered their heartfelt congratulations to their 
 Royal hosts, and shared in the visible gratification 
 of the Prince and Princess, who appeared proud 
 and radiant. 
 
 On the following day the Maids of Honour of 
 Princess Victoria received the ladies of the Diplo- 
 matic Corps, who went ofiicially to make inquiries 
 and present their felicitations. The young father 
 was inexpressibly happy; he loved the Princess 
 deeply, and his marriage with her had been a 
 love-match on his side. He never pretended to 
 conceal or disguise it. During his engagement 
 he often spoke of the Princess, — at a ball given 
 by his father while dancing the cotillon with a 
 lady with whom he was on very friendly terms, 
 he asked her if she had ever seen his fiancee. 
 Receiving a negative answer, he drew from the 
 
44 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 breast of his uniform a small miniature-case, an( 
 opening it, said with frank, honest conviction 
 " Look at her, is she not pretty 1 I always hav 
 her portrait by me." The face he showed wa 
 not pretty, but it was young and fresh, and migh 
 have seemed beautiful to his loving eyes. 
 
 It was soon known that the royal baby wa 
 afflicted with a slight malformation of the left arm 
 the limb appeared discoloured and withered belo^ 
 the elbow, but strong hopes were entertained tha 
 time and science would, if not utterly restore th 
 arm to a naturally healthy condition, at'leae 
 make it available for all ordinary purposes. Thi 
 hope has been justified, for unless prepared t 
 examine Prince Wilhelm very closely, it is difficul 
 to perceive ' that he has not the equal use of bot 
 his arms. He was christened only on the 5th c 
 March, the city being again illuminated notwitl 
 standing a terrific storm of wind and rain. 
 
 The child's grandfather, the future Emperc 
 William, had also a maimed finger. When quit 
 an infant he was dropped by his nurse out of 
 window of the Palace of the Princess de Liegnitz. i 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 45 
 
 •which his mother dwelt, on to a flower-plot below, 
 and suffered no worse harm than having his fore- 
 finger crushed so severely that the whole nail and 
 upper joint were irretrievably lost. This was very 
 noticeable when William I. with his familiar acd 
 favourite gesture passed his hand with the white 
 military glove over his heavy moustache, but it 
 did not cause him the slightest inconvenience. 
 
 In the diplomatic movement which took place 
 in the early spring. Count Otto von Bismarck was 
 sent from Frankfort to St. Petersburg, and on 
 his way paid a short visit to Berlin. A couple 
 of years before he was present at a ball given by 
 the French Minister, the Marquis de Moustiers ; 
 he came late, and no longer found the hostess in 
 the first drawing-room where she had received all 
 her guests. Standing at the door, the burly 
 cuirassier, more of a soldier than a diplomat, had 
 to push his way into an inner room, and when 
 he at last found the Marquise and made his bow, 
 she was so surrounded that she could only acknow- 
 ledge it by a silent inclination of the head. This 
 cool recognition incensed M. de Bismarck, who 
 
46 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 vented his indignation in a conversation with 
 lady to whom he was soon after presentee 
 " Capricieuse comme toutes les Beiges" he grumblec 
 and then added with conviction, " Moreover, 
 don't like the French." 
 
 Madame de Moustiers was a Countess de Merode 
 an old Belgian family. Her brother, Monsignor d 
 Merode, filled the anomalous post of War Ministe 
 to His Holiness Pius IX. ; one of her sisters marrie 
 the Prince de Valentinois, nominal ruler of th 
 principahty of that name, and had the reputation c 
 being as cold and unscrupulous as she was beauti 
 ful ; another became Princesse de la Cisterna i 
 Piedmont, and her daughter married the Du 
 d'Aoste, second son of King Victor Emmanuel, wh 
 for a brief space of time occupied the throne c 
 Spain. The young girl had been brought up i 
 all the austere simplicity in vogue among th 
 older Sardinian nobility, having been hardly i: 
 society before her marriage, and never worn 
 silk dress. She was shy, modest, retiring, an^ 
 very much awed by the splendour of semi-regf 
 union. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 47 
 
 III. 
 
 Second of December at the Elysde Bourbon in 1851 — The 
 Coup d'Etat — Mile. Eachel — Sarah Bernhardt — Countess 
 de Castiglione — Comte de Lesseps — Mile, le Normand — ■ 
 Manuel Godoi. 
 
 The hebdominal reception at the Elys6e Bourbon 
 on Monday, December 1st, 1851, was not in 
 any outward signs diflferent from those that had 
 preceded it. The usual somewhat mixed company 
 was there — people whom everybody knew, people 
 whom nobody knew ; coteries met, strangers 
 wandered disconsolately in and out of the groups ; 
 the National Guard mustered strong ; there was 
 some music and a little dancing. Monsieur 
 Thurgot, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was busy 
 introducing new-comers to the President of the 
 Republic ; Prince Lucien Murat was pleasant and 
 chatty, full of the reminiscences of his visit to 
 
48 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Turin ; Princess Mathilde, definitively separat 
 from her wealthy but uncongenial husband, Prir 
 Demidoff, did the honours of the Elysde wi 
 charming grace ; her white teeth, dazzling coi 
 plexion, and brilliant eyes were entirely Frenc 
 her diamonds exclusively Muscovite. Two you: 
 girls with fiery red hair, irregularly descend 
 from William IV. of England, were talki 
 about as having attracted the fancy of the he; 
 of the nation, and have been since credited wi 
 making red locks the fashion ; Louis Napolei 
 himself, " Monsieur le President " as he was official 
 styled — " Monseigneur " as it pleased him to 
 called by women and diplomats — was perfect 
 impassible. Dressed in plain evening clothes, wi- 
 the ribbon and star of the Legion of Honour, ] 
 would have passed anywhere else for a short, pal 
 insignificant man, inclined to stoutness, bearii 
 a kindly, but cold expression, or rather a wai 
 of any expression at all, had it not been for 
 singularly veiled look in the eyes, a look th 
 wandered vaguely from the person he was addres 
 ing to the person beyond, and a line betwee 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 49 
 
 the eyebrows that deepened occasionally as with a 
 hidden strength of purpose systematically repressed. 
 That night he was neither uneasy or hurried, and 
 there was no shortening of the time allotted to 
 the receptions at the Elys^e. Only at twelve, as 
 Captain Biadelli, his aide de camp, was talking 
 with some friends he had known in Italy, he was 
 unexpectedly called away. A few moments later 
 he returned, to inform his wife — the daughter of 
 Count Casa Bianca — that she would have to go 
 home alone, as the Prince President was keeping 
 all his suite for a game at lansquenet in his 
 private rooms. 
 
 What the game of chance proved to be, what 
 use was made of the small hours of that night, 
 became apparent the next morning. Louis Napoleon, 
 so quiet only the evening before, had accomplished 
 his coup d'etat. He had dissolved the National 
 Assembly, decreed that the executive power should 
 be vested for ten years in the head of the State, 
 and fixed the general elections for the 14th 
 of the month. From early dawn the streets of 
 Paris were swarming with troops ; many Generals 
 
 E 
 
50 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 had been arrested before daybreak — Cavaigna 
 at No. 2, Eue du Helder, Changarnier in th 
 Rue du Faubourg St. Honor^ ; Thiers was a pr: 
 soner, and with the others conveyed to Vincenne 
 on the plea — the same for all — that they ha 
 conspired against the President. Paris had bee: 
 placed in state of siege, the circulation of citizen 
 was only permitted on certain conditions. Loui 
 Napoleon passed several regiments in revie'w 
 assuring himself of their fidelity; the faubourg 
 remained comparatively calm during the firs 
 stupor of surprise ; some meetings of deputie 
 were dispersed by the troops. The soldiers wh 
 had lined the Eue du Faubourg St. Honore an 
 guarded the approaches of the Elys^e, fell back a 
 nightfall upon the Champs Elysees and the Plac 
 de la Concorde where the cavalry was massed. 
 the following day the Eed Republicans rallied i 
 the Faubourg St. Antoine, a barricade was erectec 
 promptly carried by the soldiery, two represeni 
 atives of the people were killed, and the signal fc 
 hand-to-hand encounters given. Most of the shop 
 were closed throughout the city, and the sound c 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 51 
 
 firing heard irregularly, but incessantly. The 
 Prince riding out of the Elys^e was implored by 
 Prince Murat to put on a coat-of-mail under 
 bis uniform before afironting the populace ; with 
 his inscrutable calm he briefly asked, "Do any 
 of you wear one ? " and on being answered in 
 the negative, he said, " Well then ! " and rode 
 on, fully a horse's-length ahead of his Btat-major. 
 
 On Thursday, December 4th, when hopes were 
 entertained that no further bloodshed need be 
 apprehended, a breath of panic swept over Paris, 
 and at three o'clock fighting began in real earnest 
 on the Boulevards, and the booming of ordnance 
 struck terror in the hearts of the trembling 
 bourgeois. The more brutal and inhuman features 
 of a revolution became conspicuous ; barricades 
 were attacked and defended withincredible ferocity ; 
 ten misguided wretches, hoping to excite the worst 
 passions of the mob, parodied tire-most hideous 
 scenes of '93, parading the streets with corpses 
 on which flaring torches cast a lurid light. The 
 police at last succeeded in wrenching the bodies 
 from them, and placing them in the Morgue. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 The constabulary throughout those trying day 
 behaved with exemplary courage and discretior 
 devoting themselves entirely to the protectioi 
 of private property and isolated individual 
 unwittingly , dragged into the conflict. Thei 
 hands were full, for the gun-shops were plundered 
 as also the wine and bread-shops. The talles 
 and deepest barricade, as had been the case ii 
 '48, was raised at the Porte St. Denis ; however, i 
 was taken without a long resistance, but no 
 without serious loss of life on both sides. The 
 troops were authorized to shoot whoever was 
 seized weapons in hand ; they were also allowec 
 to enter any house from the windows of which th( 
 soldiers had been fired upon ; and in the immense 
 Paris buildings with their numerous floors and 
 crowded inhabitants more than one innoceni 
 victim had to pay for the dastardly act of ar 
 individual discharging his gun on the passins 
 regiments behind a Venetian blind, and picking 
 out the officers as they marched past. On the 
 5th of December the provinces and the large 
 towns were still quiet ; the capital had quieted 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 53 
 
 down, and being guarded by 100,000 men, loyal 
 as yet to tbe President, it was supposed that the 
 worst of the revolution was over. 
 
 As far as the provinces were concerned these 
 anticipations were doomed to disappointment, and 
 ere long the papers teemed with the account of 
 scenes of such brutality that Paris was thrilled 
 with shame and horror, and applauded unani- 
 mously at the energetic and stern measures of 
 repression taken by the President against "the 
 Eed." 
 
 The extent of the mischief done by the conflict 
 in the streets of Paris was more accurately gauged 
 on the first Sunday after the coup d'etat, when 
 peace being restored and the circulation once more 
 free from danger, crowds wandered up and down 
 the Boulevards staring at the shattered glass, the 
 broken doors, the damaged stone-work, and the 
 round indentations of bullets on the walls. The 
 real danger the city had run, thus revealed, at 
 first caused a deep impression, but the French, 
 whom Henri Heine so aptly called "les comediens 
 ordinaires du bon Dieu" almost immediately began 
 
54 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 to consider a visit to the scene of bloodshed an 
 devastation as a party of pleasure, flocking to tL 
 important spots with their wives and childre 
 provided with baskets of edibles as for a picnic i 
 the fields. 
 
 Not long after, the suffrage of seven millions c 
 votes proclaimed Prince Louis Napoleon Presideu 
 of the Eepublic for ten years, and not twelv 
 months later the same unanimous applause greete 
 his conversion of that name into the title c 
 Emperor. On the 1st of January, 1859, a Te Dem 
 was sung in solemn state at the Cathedral of Noti 
 Dame to celebrate the event, and Prince Loui 
 Napoleon kneeling on the steps asked and receive 
 the blessing of the Archbishop of Paris, wh 
 followed by all his clergy came to receive him a 
 the doors. 
 
 In those days. Mademoiselle Eachel was th 
 accepted queen of the Comedie Frangaise — he 
 principal parts were Adrienne Lecouvreur an 
 PMdre ; in both she played to enthusiasti 
 audiences, and even galvanized into life the du' 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 55 
 
 poetical drama of Diane by Emile Angier. The 
 fin connoisseurs of scenic art, the critics and 
 judges of the stalls, minutely discussed the merits 
 of the tragedienne, her voice, her walk, her attitudes, 
 the inimitable draping of her classic robes, and the 
 fierce passion of her interpretation. Even then 
 she was destroying her health with alcohol; she 
 never left the stage between the acts of a piece 
 without having recourse to fresh stimulant in some 
 fiery liquor, and to this fatal habit was ascribed 
 the growing harshness of her tones. 
 
 France claimed a proprietorship in Eachel as 
 she has annexed Leopold Eobert, CandoUe, and 
 CherbuUiez. Like the painter, the naturalist, 
 and the novelist. Mademoiselle Eachel was a 
 Swiss. Felix was the name of her family ; the 
 father was a Jewish pedlar, the brother an itinerant 
 player, herself a child earning a precarious 
 existence by singing hoarsely and out of tune for 
 a few sous in second-class cafes. She owed all her 
 stage success to Eegnier, the eminent actor of the 
 Theatre Frangais, who discovered her, taught her, 
 and made her what she became. In that very 
 
56 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 play of Adrienne Lecouvreur, so often in the bills in 
 1850-54, Scribe attempted to record the devotion 
 of the dramatic teacher to his pupil in the pathetic 
 part of Michonnet. Eachel with all her acquired 
 talent had no soul, no imagination, no inborn 
 genius, but she had an intense and rare faculty 
 of assimilation and understanding. She could 
 not unaided have " created " a part, but she 
 could realize the intention suggested to her by 
 a skilful master beyond her instructor's most 
 radiant hopes, and in a way to astonish him. Half 
 the clever men of those days were in love with 
 Eachel ; it is doubtful if she ever reciprocated any 
 affection. The Israelitish blood in her veins made 
 her more keen on practical gain than on ideal 
 sentiment. 
 
 A few years before, after 1848, she was on a 
 tour in the provinces of France, and at the close 
 of each of her performances she sang, or rathei 
 shouted, the Marseillaise wrapped in the folds oi 
 a tricolour flag. She seemed the incarnation oi 
 patriotism, the angel of revolutions; her heavy 
 brow and burning eyes lent a magic incantation 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 57 
 
 to the intense words of Eouget de Lille, but she 
 felt nothing; she "did" the Marseillaise because 
 her manager, who was paid to electrify the 
 southern populations by the strains of the revo- 
 lutionary hymn, had told her that it would be a 
 hit, and she almost wondered that it was so. She 
 went to Switzerland. On the steamer plying on the 
 lake between Geneva and Lausanne, she sat the 
 whole four hours that the passage lasted, in the 
 close saloon of the boat, playing lansquenet and 
 drinking champagne with Count Castelmagno, 
 secretary of the Sardinian legation, and his friends, 
 never once lifting her eyes to the magnificent 
 scenery of lake, mountain, and valleys past which 
 the steamer glided ; Mont Blanc itself did not 
 win a look from the woman who could hurl the 
 imprecations of Camille or the denunciations of 
 Phedre with such passionate intensity that they 
 literally curdled the blood of her audience. 
 
 Sarah Bernhardt, only a tall, thin girl, with 
 enormous eyes, ruddy, tumbled hair, a large mouth, 
 and an incomparable voice, had just made her 
 mark. No one thought very much about her till 
 
58 RANDOM REGOLLEGTIONS OF 
 
 she took the Odeon by storm in 1869 on the firs 
 night she acted with Berton a play called le Bdtara 
 by Touroude. Even then the more fastidious o 
 the habitues of the second Theatre Franjais shoo] 
 their heads, saying, " Talent no doubt, but n 
 stamina, no tradition, too much inspiration — ' u. 
 dejeuner de soleiV. " They soon had to reverse thei 
 opinion, for it is on Sarah Bernhardt, and on he 
 only, that the mantle of Eachel has descended 
 it weighed too heavily on the shoulders of other 
 who had attempted to wear it, albeit they looker 
 stronger than those of the frail young Jewess 
 Sarah, like Eachel, had the energy, activity, an 
 suppleness of the Semetic race ; like Eachel, sh 
 has seen at her feet the best and greatest me: 
 of her day, none perhaps so worthy of at leas 
 her pity as poor Gustave Dor^ ; unlike Eache 
 her heart or her senses have frequently spokei 
 but she had the fickle temperament which i 
 unsusceptible of durable feelings, and is at one 
 the characteristic and the bane of genius. He 
 caprice has ever wandered from the throne to tb 
 gutter, from the artist to the mountebank, froi 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 59 
 
 the husband of to-day to the lover of to-morrow. 
 La Charmeuse a la Voix d' Or has the feline cruelty 
 of the panthers and lion cubs she caresses, also 
 their supple grace and dangerous attractions. She 
 has every talent and an indomitable energy ; the 
 word impossible does not exist for her unless to 
 tempt her to greater efforts. Pierre Berton, who 
 is associated with the two greatest of her triumphs, 
 Fedora and La Tosca, is the son of the Berton 
 who acted with her at the Od^on when she asserted 
 herself for the first time as a great artist. 
 
 Without exception the most beautiful woman 
 of the second Empire was the Countess de 
 Castiglione, a Piedtnontese lady of rank. For 
 those who remember her during the brilliant 
 period of Napoleon's reign, she must ever remain 
 the ideal type of perfect female loveliness. Not 
 any of the famous beauties whose features have 
 been reproduced by the greatest painters ancient 
 or modern, or within the last twenty years made 
 familiar by photography under the unsavoury 
 name of "professional beUes," ever rivalled the 
 fair Italian, whose superb indolence appeared 
 
60 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 ■unconscious of the admiring gaze fixed upon her 
 whenever she showed herself in public. This 
 indifference was part of a role she enacted, for at 
 heart none of her worshippers could have a deeper 
 cult of her person than she had herself. She was 
 the daughter of the Marchese Olduini, a Sardinian 
 nobleman, who for a very long time was secretary 
 to the Piedmontese Legation at St. Petersburg. 
 From her earliest girlhood, already perfect in face 
 and form, she seemed devoid of the ordinary 
 feminine tastes, aspirations, or failings. Silent, 
 reserved, abstracted, Sphynx-like in her calm and 
 resolute repose, she was odd and wayward in her 
 habits, and never thwarted in any of them. She 
 rose when it suited her, turned night into day, 
 did not recognize the value or ordinance of time, 
 had her meals served to her alone and at all hours, 
 for her adoring father gave her a separate staff 
 of servants, including a man-cook, who had strict 
 orders to obey her in everything. She married 
 quite young a connection of hers. Count Castig- 
 lione, Equerry of King Victor Emmanuel, very 
 good-looking, a splendid rider, but of whom it was 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 61 
 
 whispered that he had the mal occhio or evil-eye. 
 She had one child, and expressed herself strongly 
 upon the criminality of allowing maternity to 
 impair in any way the most beautiful work of 
 creation — a lovely woman. She declared that 
 never again would she submit to such an offence 
 against the canons of art, and never forgave her 
 husband for having exposed her to that indignity ; 
 she disliked the son who had been the unfortunate 
 consequence of her marriage, and only saw him 
 on sufferance. Count Castiglione had run through 
 two fortunes, and made away with a couple of 
 goodly heritages ; his wife, indifferent to the 
 caprices of fortune, dwelt in her pretty villa near 
 Turin, like some cold goddess or marble statue set 
 on an altar. Absorbed in the contemplation of 
 her perfections, she seemed incapable of warm 
 passions, of love, jealousy, or envy. She never 
 received but one of her admirers at a time; if 
 several came together they were by her orders 
 shown to separate rooms till the moment arrived 
 of being ushered into her presence, and whatever 
 their position they were content to /aire anti- 
 
62 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 chambre. The sanctuary or boudoir of the Countes 
 was small ; the deity of the temple would, accord 
 ing to her fancy, attire herself in quaint costume 
 of different epochs, sometimes in pure white, some 
 times in sable robes ; she would lie on a couch, th( 
 light artistically disposed around her, and hardlj 
 open her lips ; when a lover more audacious than th( 
 rest upbraided her for being so cold, and refusing 
 to grant any favour in exchange for the passion sh( 
 fanned, she smiled and answered, "You can lool 
 at me, is that not enough ? " and perhaps — if in £ 
 lenient mood — she would let her white fingers res1 
 for a moment on his arm. What would have beer 
 in any other woman the most insufferable conceit 
 was in her so essentially the essence of her nature 
 that it brought immunity with it. Men remained 
 her friends, either because she had given them 
 no right to become her enemies, or because they 
 accepted her on her own conditions. The Prince 
 de La Tour d'Auvergne, the sceptical and witty 
 French Minister at Turin, was her faithful partisan: 
 he had two miles of road cleared of the snow to 
 enable his horses to take him to her suburban villa 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 63 
 
 on the river during a severe winter, and his smile 
 when he spoke of her was both mysterious and 
 indulgent. When she tired of that life she came 
 to Paris, and became the favourite of the Imperial 
 city. The Emperor made no secret of his ardent 
 admiration for Countess Castiglione ; he visited 
 her frequently, and more than once had tete-a-tete 
 suppers with her on Homard a I'Americaine, his 
 favourite dish, prepared by an old cordon bleu 
 expert in the delicacies of the cuisine. A mounted 
 messenger would announce his coming a few hours 
 before the time, and his reception was sUent and 
 discreet. Napoleon III. disguised his penchant so 
 little that it aroused even the susceptibility of the 
 Empress, who was habitually so coldly careless 
 of her Consort's distractions. At a bal costume 
 at the Tuileries the Countess, insolently beautiful 
 in a fanciful dress supposed to represent the Queen 
 of Hearts, hung on the arm of the Emperor, who 
 led her through the rooms. Her audacious drapery 
 lifted over a perfect limb was caught high above 
 the knee by a jewelled heart. The Emperor 
 stopped before the Empress to allow his companion 
 
64 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 to make her obeisance, and annoyed by the cole 
 ness of Eugenie, remarked pointedly, "Do you nc 
 admire the costume of the Countess ? " " Exceed 
 ingly," answered the Empress, whose Spanish bloo 
 asserted itself, for turning towards the prou 
 beauty, she added, " Vous mettez votre coeur bie 
 bas, Madame." The Emperor bit his moustach 
 and moved away. Others had heard, but Madam 
 de Castiglione showed no signs of emotion c 
 annoyance. Eventually, when rumour had bee 
 busy with her name, her husband forbade her eve 
 to return to Piedmont. Prince Joseph Poniatowsk; 
 managed her slender resources, Rothschild put he 
 in for every good thing, but with the fall of th 
 Empire she dropped out of the ken of the grea 
 world. It had always been her purpose not t 
 survive — socially at least — any deterioration whicj 
 advancing years might bring to her resplenden 
 charms. 
 
 In the early days of the second empire Coun 
 Ferdinand de Lesseps was a singularly young 
 looking man for his years, and would certainl; 
 not have been given his age of forty-eight. H^ 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 65 
 
 was spare and active, with short, dark hair and 
 a thick, black moustache, sociable and discursive, 
 fond of ladies' company, a great favourite with 
 them, and if he paid an evening call to his 
 particular friends would stop till late in the night 
 talking with all the fire and volubility of a 
 Frenchman, and yet with a strange earnestness. 
 He would work out a puzzle with as much zeal 
 as if he were cutting through a continent, or 
 still devoting himself to protect the life and 
 property of his countrymen as when he filled the 
 post of Consul in Barcelona in 1842. A year 
 later he drew up his celebrated "Memorial du 
 Percement de I'lsthme de Suez," and almost com- 
 pelled the Viceroy of Egypt to grant his Firman 
 for beginning the works in 1856. A few days only 
 after the solemn inauguration of the Canal, when 
 he received the congratulations of the Emperor of 
 Austria and Empress of the French, who with an 
 illustrious assemblage had come to witness the 
 greatest triumph of modern engineering, he married 
 a very young Creole who had captivated him in 
 Paris. Mademoiselle Autard de Bragard had one 
 
 F 
 
66 RANDOM REQOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 day felt an unconquerable desire to consult Des 
 barolles, the famous French wizard, the oracle c 
 all adepts in palmistry, who look upon him a 
 their unerring master. She went to see him, an^ 
 whUe he was poring over her little hand aske^ 
 abruptly — " Whom shall I marry % " DesbaroUe 
 replied unhesitatingly — " A man whose positio] 
 will be the envy and admiration of the world. 
 " What ! a millionnaire ? a prince ? a king ? " sai( 
 the young girl breathlessly. "Better and highe 
 than any potentate ! " continued the seer. Tw^ 
 years afterwards MUe. de Bragard became Countes 
 de Lesseps, and found in her sexagenarian husbani 
 an ardent lover, the idol of France, and the heri 
 of the most successful undertaking of the century. 
 Mademoiselle le Normand was DesbaroUes' riva 
 in the black arts and the gifts of prophecy ; shi 
 was quite as frequently consulted by Parisians an( 
 foreigners as he was. Her first great hit as i 
 fortune-teller was made in 1846 in London, at thi 
 house of Lady Blessington. At one of her ultra 
 literary receptions the hostess introduced to he 
 guests a young French lady just arrived, who hac 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 67 
 
 been recommended to her by a friend abroad. 
 Lady Blessington, having been made aware of the 
 extraordinary aptitude for divination possessed by 
 Mile, le Normand, begged her at the close of the 
 evening to give a sample of her powers. She 
 demurred at first, but on being strongly urged 
 consented to tell three fortunes. Lady Blessington 
 brought three gentlemen to her in succession. 
 To the first she said — " Your life will be a 
 lucky and a happy one, you will die old and 
 without pain ; on one occasion you and one of 
 your children will miraculously escape destruc- 
 tion." To the second she spoke as follows — "It 
 seems incredible, but I would address you in the 
 words of Shakespeare, ' Thou shalt be king ! ' Yes, 
 sir, you will reign." But after gazing in the palm 
 of the third, the young girl grew deadly pale, 
 shivered, and dropped the hand she held. Eecover- 
 ing herself with an effort, she said hurriedly — " I 
 see nothing worth recording in your hand," and 
 drew back. However, before leaving the house 
 that night she asked to see Lady Blessington 
 alone, and implored her to beware of that third 
 
 F 2 
 
68 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 stranger and not receive him any more ; " lie will 
 commit murder," she added shudderingly, "and 
 be sentenced to death." 
 
 The first of the three men was Charles Dickens, 
 who in 1864, returning from abroad, was in the 
 terrible railway accident of Staplehurst, and escaped 
 unhurt ; afterwards the MS. of Our Mutual Friend, 
 the child of his brain, was found in a little hand- 
 bag among the debris, and miraculously returned 
 to him unharmed. 
 
 The second man was Prince Louis Napoleon, 
 who had not long before made his escape from 
 the fortress of Ham in the disguise of a workman, 
 gained the Belgian frontier with the assistance 
 of Doctor Conneau, and taken refuge in England. 
 
 The third was Charles Wainwright, then a 
 promising painter, who ended by killing his wife 
 under circumstances of revolting cruelty; he was 
 condemned to death, but his sentence was com- 
 muted to imprisonment for life. 
 
 Before her marriage the Empress Eugenie con- 
 sulted Mile, le Normand, but she never would 
 tell any one what her horoscope had been. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 69 
 
 A couple of montlis before the coup d'etat a 
 man died quietly in Paris whose name had once 
 rung throughout the world, and whose strangely 
 romantic career recalled the most extravagant 
 conceptions of Spanish legends and fables. Manuel 
 Alcudia, afterwards Duke Godoi and Prince of the 
 Peace, started in life with no other fortune than 
 his remarkable beauty and an equally remarkable 
 musical talent; he entered the body-guard of 
 King Charles IV. of Spain, and won the personal 
 favour not only of the monarch but of his consort, 
 and from that moment rose with rapid strides to 
 the highest honours. Opportunities for distin- 
 guishing himself abounded, and he knew how to 
 avail himself of them ; he signed the treaty of 
 Badajoz — that city by a singular coincidence being 
 his birthplace — and assumed the command of the 
 Spanish forces. When at the zenith of his power, 
 Godoi became impatient of the French alliance, 
 and secretly conspired with the Court of Lisbon 
 to shake it off. His machinations were discovered; 
 and when in 1808 Napoleon resolved to get rid 
 of the Bourbons, the Prince, notwithstanding his 
 
70 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 exalted position, very nearly met with a commc 
 traitor's death. He was made a prisoner, and ha 
 the expected trial taken place he would certainl 
 not have escaped with his life, but Napoleo] 
 fully aware of his influence over the King an 
 Queen of Spain, liberated him and sent him 1 
 Bayonne where their Majesties then residei 
 Before these events Godoi's fortune amounted i 
 five million of piastres (one million pounds) ; h 
 palace in the Calle Alcala was the largest an 
 finest in Madrid, and he kept a semi-regal stat 
 Banished and dispossessed, he was seen in 183 
 living in Paris on a small pension granted to hii 
 by Louis Philippe ; but in 1837 he was once mo: 
 authorized to return to Spain ; his titles we: 
 restored to him, and with them his estates, h 
 houses, and the greater portion of his fortun 
 The Prince de la Paz in the later years of h 
 life did not give the impression of being a vei 
 clever man. The general expression of his face wi 
 weak, he was reserved and habitually silent, bi 
 even in old age he had retained the regularit 
 of feature and uprightness of carriage which ha 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 71 
 
 been the salient characteristics of his beauty, and 
 ever and anon there flashed under his drooping 
 lids a gleam . of the energy which had made him 
 the champion and pacificator of Spain. Gratitude, 
 or the force of long habit, of associations formed 
 during many weary years of exile, often brought 
 him back to Paris, and it was on one of these 
 visits that he softly breathed his last at the ripe 
 age of eighty-four. 
 
72 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 IV. 
 
 Spain — Queen Isabella — Her Marriage — Maundy Thursday- 
 The Queen's habits — Audiences — The Queen- Mo ther- 
 Eianzarfes — Grandees — Second of May in Madrid. 
 
 The first child ■ of Queen Isabella of Spain di( 
 not live, and it was laid out in solemn state on 
 taU, open catafalque in a c/iapelle ardente for severa 
 days. The grandees of Spain, the aristocracy an^ 
 the people were allowed to pass before the littl 
 corpse, across which the broad blue ribbon of th 
 Order of Carlos III. lay ; tall halberdiers in his 
 torical costumes guarded the pale infant, on whos 
 forehead a livid discolouration was visible. Man; 
 said that the baby had been still-born, but t( 
 appease the susceptibilities of the devout Spaniard 
 it was given out that on account of the diflScultie 
 attending the birth, the heir to the Spanish thron 
 had been baptized while still in his mother's womt 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 73 
 
 Six years afterwards, as the Queen was going in 
 great pomp to the Sanctuary of Atocha in the 
 Prado, to return thanks according to custom for the 
 birth of Don Alfonso, she was stabbed by the priest 
 Merino. Clad in her magnificent robes of State, 
 preceded by her guards, followed immediately by 
 the Asturian nurse carrying the royal baby, and 
 behind him by her whole court, the Queen sud- 
 denly saw a man in clerical garb pierce the crowd, 
 and kneeling at her side raise a folded paper aloft. 
 Believing it to be a petition, she extended her bare 
 arm to take it, when the infatuated priest with a 
 sudden movement plunged a dagger in her flesh. 
 He had aimed at her heart, but her kindly gesture 
 caused the steel to glance aside. The Queen's first 
 thought was for her child. "El Nino!" she ex- 
 claimed, and then fell back half-fainting into the 
 arms of the Camerera-major. - Merino was at once 
 arrested ; the police had great difl&culty in protecting 
 him against the infuriated populace and taking him 
 alive to jail. The motive of the crime was not 
 clearly ascertained. Merino refused to give the 
 explanation of his act or to name his accomplices 
 
74 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 if he had any ; he was condemned to death. Isa- 
 bella pleaded for a commutation of the sentence, 
 but in vain ; and after the Spanish mode of capital 
 punishment he was garrotted, an attempt against 
 the life of the sovereign ranking as parricide. 
 
 The Queen, as a token of gratitude for hei 
 miraculous escape, made a gift to the Virgin oi 
 Atocha of all the robes and jewels she had worn on 
 that day, and the statue of the Madonna on the 
 little altar is decked with them on certain religious 
 festivals. 
 
 Without any claims to beauty, the young sove- 
 reign of Spain had, in the days following hei 
 marriage with her cousin, Don Francesco d'Assisi, £ 
 pleasing expression of kindness and good-nature 
 She was neither the Messalina nor the fool whicl 
 it suited the different parties in Spain and abroac 
 to represent her. With all the hampering disad 
 vantages of her childhood and early youth, she hac 
 somehow contrived to pick up a fair amount o 
 instruction and superficial knowledge, of the kirn 
 which seems to come naturally to those born anc 
 reared near a throne. She spoke French an( 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 75 
 
 German as fluently as Spanish, and understood 
 EngKsh fairly well. It was not in the nature of 
 things that having been in turn the toy and tool 
 of Espartero, the Queen-mother, Narvaez, and 
 O'Donnell, she should have acquired the conscious 
 dignity and self-respect appertaining to her high 
 estate. The little Queen of three had known more of 
 revolutions than of Court etiquette ; in the troubled 
 times after her father's death, and during the 
 Eegency of Queen Marie Christine, between 1834 
 and 1839, the child's very life had been several 
 times in danger. Once when the bullets of the 
 rebels were flying around the Palace, she had to be 
 placed in the narrow space separating the windows 
 in order to avoid the deadly missiles flying in at 
 either side. She was a brave and courageous little 
 thing, docile and obedient, her bravery being of that 
 stolid quality which remains ignorant of danger. 
 When she grew up to maidenhood, Espartero — the 
 Regent, who lived in constant opposition to the 
 Queen-mother — did not scruple to give the young 
 girl favourites, hoping through the influence of her 
 lovers to maintain his credit and affirm his sway. 
 
76 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 In spite of these odious intrigues she remaine( 
 wonderfully childish and naive, and so far innocen 
 that she had no real consciousness of wrong-doing 
 When at last Marie Christine was banished th 
 kingdom and Espartero was defeated by Narvae^ 
 the majority of Isabella was proclaimed, and an er 
 of independence seemed opening before her ; but ii 
 1845, her mother returning to Spain, she arrangec 
 the marriage of the Queen with the son of Doi 
 Francesco de Paule, her maternal grand-uncle — i 
 sorry family to enter into for any bride. He: 
 father-in-law was weak in intellect, grotesque ii 
 appearance ; her husband's younger brother S( 
 decidedly an idiot that he required the constan 
 attendance of a keeper. When he was not abso 
 lutely unpresentable he was allowed to show for a] 
 hour or two at the Court balls, but he managec 
 to escape, and has been seen by the guests diligentb 
 pulling off the tacks of the stair-carpets with hi; 
 naUs and teeth. The King was undoubtedly thi 
 least objectionable in point of mind ; in looks hi 
 was short, fair, inclined to stoutness, with curb 
 hair and blue eyes — not an ugly face on the whole 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 77 
 
 but spoiled by a painfully weak chin and a bigh, 
 falsetto voice. Tbe wbole brancb of his family 
 despoiled themselves to present the Queen as a 
 bridal present with a magnificent set of pearls which 
 was an heirloom of theirs, and which has since 
 formed the most noticeable and valuable of her 
 many parures of jewels. Queen Isabella was parti- 
 cularly fond of pearls ; her pink and black ones are 
 said to be unique in Europe, and the white ones 
 have never been matched in size and beauty save 
 by the single row given to Princess Victoria by 
 Frederick William of Prussia on her wedding-day. 
 
 Isabella had passively, even contentedly, con- 
 sented to her marriage, but when she met the Due 
 de Montpensier, her sister Luisa's bridegroom, who 
 arrived in Madrid a short time before the day ap- 
 pointed for the double ceremony, she began to think 
 that the French Prince was more like the husband 
 she had dreamt of. She was then stiU so unso- 
 phisticated and unworldly wise that she seriously 
 contemplated the possibility of exchanging fiances 
 with Dona Luisa. She petitioned for this to be 
 done, and the impracticability of the suggestion was 
 
78 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 the origin of the coolness which sprung up betwee 
 herself and her sister, and resulted in the quasi-exi 
 of the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier to Sevill 
 where they spent nearly the whole of their time. 
 
 The Queen was fond of amusement, and moi 
 than fond of dancing. During the Carnival, bal 
 succeeded each other with startling rapidity t 
 the Palq,ce, and she has been known to give two- 
 one in fancy dress — in four days. She was alway 
 late, and dancing did not begin till she had mad 
 her appearance. Once, when the long-delaye 
 arrival of a costume from Paris, and change 
 necessary at the last moment had delayed he 
 till nearly midnight, she sent a message to th 
 baU-room bidding the guests commence, addin 
 that she knew how tantalizing it must be to b 
 kept waiting. Stout as she was, she was a ligh 
 and graceful dancer, and fully entered into th 
 spirit of the exercise ; it was a constant source c 
 regret to her that so much free space was alway 
 respectfully given to her and her partner. "D 
 teU the gentlemen you are going to dance with, 
 she said to a girl she always treated with kim 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 79 
 
 familiarity, " to push up against me — as the other 
 couples do — it must be such fun to be jostled." 
 
 Late hours were habitual to the Queen ; she 
 found it impossible to rise before the afternoon 
 was well advanced ; she breakfasted when others 
 dined, drove out till dark, dined at midnight, and 
 retired to rest after four a.m. She had obtained from 
 the Pope a dispensation as regards the canonical 
 hour of hearing mass. In one church of Madrid, 
 that of the Puerto del Sol, the service was allowed 
 to be at two p.m., and still it was with the greatest 
 difficulty that the Queen managed to get there in 
 time for the Gospel. The officiating priest was 
 bound to ascend the altar-steps before the clock 
 struck two, and well aware how distressed Her 
 Majesty would be if she missed the service, he 
 would proceed with it as slowly as he could — not 
 a Spanish habit by any way — till the welcome 
 sound of the halberdiers' pikes on the flags told 
 him that the Queen had entered the church. She 
 was pious and devout like all her nation ; she 
 scrupulously observed the forms of religion, and 
 conformed to the old established way of practising 
 
80 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 them. If when driving through the streets sh 
 met a priest and his acolytes preceded by a bell 
 ringer and candle-bearers, carrying the Viaticun 
 to a death-bed, she immediately alighted, requeste( 
 the priest to take her place in her carriage, an( 
 followed on foot to the house of the sick person 
 be it ever so poor and humble, waiting till the re 
 ligious office was over before driving on again. 
 
 On Maundy Thursday she washed the feet of th( 
 poor. 
 
 This ceremony was always accomplished witl 
 great pomp at the Eoyal Palace ; the Diplomatic 
 Corps, the Ministers of State, and the grandees oi 
 Spain being present in their allotted places. The 
 attendance was fraught with some discomfort, foi 
 on Holy Thursday, in Spain, wet or fine, not 
 a single vehicle drawn by horses is allowed to 
 circulate, so that ladies in Court-dress and satin 
 slippers, men in gala uniform, young and old, had 
 to walk the streets, with their sharp, rough paving 
 stones, from their houses to the Palace, sometimes a 
 considerable distance, and holding, as the case might 
 be, an umbrella or a parasol over their bare heads. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 81 
 
 The ceremony proceeds as follows : Twelve male 
 and twelve female paupers are selected, seated on 
 forms, turning their backs to the long tables at 
 which they are afterwards supposed to dine, and 
 which present as bare and unfurnished an appear- 
 ance as that in Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. 
 The Queen superbly attired, the regal diadem on 
 her head, sparkling with diamonds, a towel fastened 
 round her gem-embroidered robes, slowly approaches 
 the file of paupers, beginning with the women, and 
 kneeling before each she touches one naked foot 
 with a sponge taken from a golden vessel filled with 
 water presented to her by a chamberlain, wipes 
 it with a cloth handed her by another official, and 
 passes on to do the same office twenty-four times. 
 Other members of the Court assist the paupers 
 to resume their shoes and stockings, and when 
 the whole round is completed they are invited to 
 turn on their forms, and the feeding of the hungry 
 begins. A long double chain is formed by the 
 courtiers, extending from the kitchens to the Queen, 
 and back again from the kitchens ; each of the 
 twelve dishes to which each pauper is entitled is 
 
 G 
 
82 RANDOM RECOLLEGTIONS OF 
 
 placed by Her Majesty's own hands before him 
 her, removed at once untouched, sent away a 
 deposited in large baskets to become his proper 
 either to be carried away with an added bottle 
 wine, or exchanged there and then for a fixed si 
 of money. In addition to this the twenty-fc 
 paupers on whom the selection falls receive 
 complete suit of new clothes, a bounty in silv 
 and the less appreciated advantage of a series 
 preliminary baths. As they are generally very ( 
 this unaccustomed luxury has frequently prov 
 fatal. It is a lengthy and very exhausting functi 
 for the principal actor, especially taking into cc 
 sideration that the Queen has previously assist 
 at a full religious service, but she always we 
 through it with smiling patience, and no tou 
 of weariness in face or gesture. 
 
 When the first railway was laid down betwei 
 Madrid and the royal residence of Aranjue 
 twenty-eight miles from the capital, it was decidi 
 that the Queen should open the line in state ai 
 take the inauguration trip. She looked upon it 
 such a bold and perilous undertaking that s] 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 83 
 
 heard Mass and took the Sacrament before starting ; 
 she was accompanied by her chaplain, and said her 
 beads during the whole journey. Travelling by 
 rail was altogether such a novel and unheard-of 
 experience in Spain, that in the Cortes it was 
 seriously proposed that in view of possible accidents 
 a squadron of horse should escort the Queen to her 
 destination ! With their national admiration for 
 the bull, the Spaniards were extremely gratified 
 when it was ascertained that the only animal — 
 including the natives — who had not fled in terror 
 before the roar of the engine and the rattle of 
 the train, was the bull, who stood gravely staring 
 after it. 
 
 Queen Isabella did not at first realize what 
 sacrifices the rigorous etiquette of Castilian court 
 customs expected of her ; she had not been inured 
 to it in her almost Bohemian childhood, and it took 
 her some time to comprehend that the sovereign 
 power at last vested in her hands did not imply un- 
 limited liberty and free volition. She was constantly 
 infringing the rules — thus she insisted upon going 
 to certain masked balls of a very mixed character 
 
 G 2 
 
84 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 held in tlie Calle de Correos, and fancied hen 
 unknown because she wore a mask and a domi 
 while her unmistakable figure and undisguii 
 voice at once revealed her identity. Another ti 
 she . had gathered around her a giddy and no 
 coterie of both sexes, and fallen into the habit 
 prolonging undignified revels till far into the sn 
 hours of the night. On one occasion the frc 
 became so fast and furious, so wild and unrestrain 
 that Don Francesco, the King, roused from 
 slumbers, determined to use the right of int 
 ference conceded to him by his functions of Ma] 
 of the Palace. He appeared upon the scene, a 
 in virtue of his authority dispersed the gues 
 pronouncing at the same time an edict of tempore 
 banishment against the principal offenders, a 
 bowing before the Queen, departed. Isabella h 
 enough self-command not to dispute a verd 
 which she knew it was in her husband's attributic 
 to give ; she rose, signed her companions to wi1 
 draw, and retired to her own apartments, but 1 
 next day she deposed Don Francesco from the 'p( 
 to which she had herself appointed him. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 85 
 
 Among the habitmes of the Queen's private 
 receptions was Mercedes Casa Valencia, a lovely 
 Creole-looking girl, who married le Chevalier 
 Beyens, Belgian Attache, and afterwards through 
 the protection of the Empress of the French, her 
 friend, got him appointed to the Legation in Paris, 
 where he has so long been a Minister. Both 
 husband and wife were constantly seen at the 
 famous and much-maligned Jeudis de V Imperatrice 
 at the Tuileries. 
 
 The irrepressible unconsciousness of the Queen 
 of Spain sometimes prompted her to less injudicious 
 actions, and brought to light the more amiable 
 sides of her character. When in 1850 the great 
 fire broke out in Madrid, which raged for seven 
 days and nights in a poor but populous quarter of 
 the city, beggaring hundreds of families and render- 
 ing them houseless, she was unremitting in her 
 endeavours to assuage their sufferings. After giving 
 large sums of money and drawing to the uttermost 
 limits on the public and her private purse, she 
 offered to sell her jewels, and on being told they 
 were mostly Crown property, she suggested parting 
 
86 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 with several Murillos of the National Gallery whi( 
 she knew would fetch a long price. When aga 
 informed that this was an equally impossible tran 
 action, she exclaimed, with tears in her eyes, " Y( 
 say I am Queen of Spain, and yet nothing in Spa 
 seems to be mine ; it is monstrous that I shou 
 have pictures and diamonds, and that my peoj 
 should starve." 
 
 Isabella, who signed all her official documer 
 with the old formula, lo la Beyna, was not faultle 
 nor blameless even in those days, but she hi 
 many redeeming qualities, and none so promine 
 as her kindness of heart and absence of pride a] 
 jealousy. She constitutionally disliked the bn 
 fights, and was only prevailed to assist at a Corri 
 when her absence would have marred the enjo 
 ment of the people on great public occasions a: 
 festivities ; she would then come to her Eoyal be 
 throw the key of the corral down to the alguazi 
 and brace herself for the coming spectacle. ( 
 the day when the little Prince of Asturias, th 
 three months, was according to custom taken i 
 the first time in state to the Plaza de Toros, 1 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 87 
 
 mother's face wore a pained, constrained smile. 
 The heir reclining in the arms of the wet nurse in 
 her gorgeous national costume, rippling coral beads 
 and gold ornaments, was held up every now and then 
 to the ten thousand spectators, who divided their 
 rapturous applause between the baby Infante and 
 the bold feats of their favourite Espadas, Cuchillo 
 and El Chiclanero, spurred to more audacity and 
 skill by the Royal presence. 
 
 The Queen-mother, Marie Christine, was once 
 again on excellent terms with her daughter ; she 
 had her own palace, her own court, state, and 
 receptions, all on a very magnificent scale. She 
 did not however give her audiences in the same 
 fashion as the Queen. When the latter appointed 
 a special reception for a Spaniard or foreigner of 
 distinction, the person thus honoured would receive 
 an intimation thereof from the Camerera-mayor 
 if a lady — from the Master of Ceremonies if a 
 gentleman, and present her or himself at the Palace 
 at the stated hour, which was generally a late one. 
 The visitor was then made to wait in a long gallery 
 hung with splendid pictures and paved in rare 
 
88 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 marbles, but so imperfectly lighted that he coul 
 not appreciate their merits. Presently at tl 
 furthest end a small procession appeared ; tw 
 pages walking backwards, carrying taU brons 
 candlesticks with burning wax candles that thre 
 alternate shadows and rays on the walls as the 
 passed, preceded a lady clad in walking costum 
 with a mantilla over her head, who followed b 
 two other ladies and a gentleman moved silentl 
 up the gallery, acknowledging with a sligl 
 inclination the respectful salutations of the fe^ 
 persons present, and vanished with her escoi 
 through folding-doors guarded by soldiers. 1 
 was the Queen returning from her evening drive 
 a few minutes later the Camerera-mayor aj 
 proached the lady, young or old, about to b 
 presented, whispered hurriedly, " Her Majest; 
 expects you — enter there," pointing to anothe 
 door; "don't forget the three curtseys," and leJ 
 her. A chamberlain drew near, and preceding th 
 visitor opened the door just indicated, ushered he 
 in, giving her full name, and retreated, closing th 
 door behind her, while she remained alone in a: 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 89 
 
 apartment so small that it seemed almost an 
 impossibility to comply with the recommendation 
 of the treble curtsey, especially as the first had to 
 be dropped on entering, the second half-way, and 
 the third on reaching the Queen. Divested of her 
 mantilla. Her Majesty stood near a broad malachite- 
 topped table supporting a heavy bronze inkstand 
 and seals ; in silence she bent her head, looking 
 sometimes a little amused at the embarrassment and 
 awkwardness of the obeisances, but not unkindly 
 so, and then entered into conversation. She had 
 ever an apposite or graceful remark ready. If she 
 received a foreigner she would speak of his 
 country ; if one who had been some time a resident 
 in Madrid, inquire whether he spoke the language, 
 and then with a pleased approbation continue the 
 interview in Spanish. She was aflfable and 
 perfectly unaffected, and with the proud happiness 
 of a young mother would speak naively of her 
 child. The audience lasted from five to fifteen 
 minutes ; the Queen intimated that it was ended 
 by again bowing her head ; the visitor retreating 
 found the door open mysteriously, and the same 
 
90 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 chamberlain, ready to escort lier back into tbe 
 gallery, and then apparently forget her very 
 existence. 
 
 Queen Marie Christine gave her audiences in a 
 modern, elegantly furnished drawing-room, and 
 unlike her daughter received several members of 
 the same family together. Seated herself on a sofa, 
 she motioned them to take chairs opposite to her, 
 and talked as any ordinary hostess would. She 
 was a very stout woman, with black hair and eyes, 
 and an easy, agreeable manner ; her smile was 
 dazzling and very sweet, but a physiognomist 
 would not have been puzzled to discover in her 
 expression a spirit of intrigue and covert ambition. 
 
 Queen Isabella behaved dutifully and generously 
 towards her mother in the matter of her second 
 strange marriage ; she treated her low-born step- 
 father with constant civility, and his children as 
 brothers and sisters. 
 
 The tall, handsome Munez was a common 
 soldier; he had been selected for his fine stature 
 to be one of the guard of honour posted beside 
 the coffin of Ferdinand VII. when it lay in state 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 91 
 
 in the cathedral. Even during the funeral cere- 
 mony the widow is said to have remarked Munez, 
 and inquired who he was ; he rose almost at once 
 to the rank of sergeant. A few years later, as the 
 Queen-mother was driving from Madrid to Aran- 
 juez, one of the leaders took fright, maddened 
 the other horses, and an accident seemed inevitable, 
 when a man of the escort flinging himself from 
 his charger threw himself at the head of the 
 rearing brutes and mastered them. Christine 
 recognized the watcher at her husband's coffin 
 and her protege ; seeing at the same time a few 
 drops of blood trickling from his forehead, she 
 drew forth her own handkerchief, and with it 
 staunched the wound. When Munez was asked 
 what was to be the reward of his bravery, he only 
 craved permission to keep the Queen's handker- 
 chief. This modesty was a masterpiece of diplo- 
 macy; he was rapidly promoted, made excellent 
 use of his opportunities ; on several occasions con- 
 veyed to the Queen-mother that her handkerchief 
 lay always next to his heart ; and, in brief, the 
 deep interest she had conceived for him grew 
 
92 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 SO rapidly, that after a short interval of passionate 
 love-making she married him. He was created 
 Duke of Eianzares, and whatever means he may 
 have employed to achieve his elevation, never made 
 an unworthy use of it. In 1850 he was a fine, 
 gentlemanly, reserved, intelligent-looking man, with 
 a bald forehead, black moustache, superb eyes, and 
 a striking figure among the unplastic grandees of 
 Spain. They all disliked him, not from any ofi"ence 
 he gave them, but for his sudden coming into their 
 midst. In official functions, although the husband 
 of the Queen-mother, he walked behind all the 
 other Grands d'Espagne ; not a fact to be wondered 
 at, if it is remembered that the Spanish nobility is 
 so strict on the questions of precedence that the 
 son ranks before the father, as he has had more 
 ancestors. At the balls and court receptions 
 Rianzares always appeared on excellent terms with 
 Queen Isabella ; she gave portions and titles to her 
 two pretty half-sisters, one of whom, the Countess 
 Vista Alegre, married in '55, Prince Czartorisky, 
 and died young. The Prince's second wife is 
 Princesse Marguerite d'Orleans, daughter of the 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 93 
 
 Due de Nemours, and they inhabit the splendid 
 old Hotel Lambert in the Isle St. Louis, in Paris. 
 
 If some of the more antiquated customs of the 
 old Spanish nobility on questions of prerogative 
 and precedence have fallen into disuse of late 
 years, there are others to which they cling per- 
 tinaciously and with fervour. Thus the Dukes of 
 Hijar claim the possession of all the robes worn 
 by a Spanish sovereign at his coronation, and own 
 in consequence the most splendid and complete 
 collection of those vestments, which they consider, 
 not unjustly, as a priceless historical heirloom. 
 The Dukes de Frias regularly send in their pro- 
 testation at the ascension of a new monarch 
 to the throne, reserving by this act the rights 
 which they consider they have to the crown of 
 Spain. They are as a race excessively susceptible ; 
 they cannot endure that any judgment should be 
 passed upon them ; their pride — which, as the 
 proverb says, will make a hungry hidalgo use a 
 toothpick to make people believe he has dined — 
 is ever in arms against any possible blame, espe- 
 cially from foreigners, whom they fear and distrust. 
 
94 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Madame de Montalto's position, as the wife of the 
 Sardinian Minister in Madrid, was imperilled by 
 the veriest trifle. She was a Belgian by birth, and 
 had written to some friends in Brussels her im- 
 pressions of the people and country, using after 
 some frank but on the whole harmless criticism 
 the words : " Zes Espagnols nont que de la morgue 
 en haillons" (the Spaniards have only insolent 
 pride in rags). Her correspondent injudiciously 
 repeated the remark ; it came to the ears of a 
 Spanish Infanta residing in a Belgian convent, 
 and was through her conveyed back to Madrid, 
 where it elicited fierce indignation. Countess 
 Montijo, among others, never forgave Countess 
 Montalto, and unsparingly vented her displeasure 
 with the liberty of expression that characterized 
 her. 
 
 In more ways than one the foreigner was made 
 to feel that he could never quite win the 
 sincere sympathy of the Spaniard. There is an 
 old leaven of irritation, anger, and suspicion which 
 will rise against the stranger, and without taking 
 an active or specially offensive form, yet remains 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 95 
 
 perceptible, showing itself spasmodically — more 
 vivid at one time against one nation, tlien again 
 against another. Divided among themselves on so 
 many subjects, the Spaniards unite against a com- 
 mon intruder, and all are that in their eyes who are 
 not born in the Peninsula. On the eve of the 2nd 
 of May, for example, after the lapse of so many 
 years, the bells of all the churches in Madrid still 
 ring out a funeral peal, and the cannon is fired to 
 tell the inhabitants that they must celebrate on 
 the morrow the anniversary of the death of the 
 Spaniards fallen at that date in 1808, and thus 
 protest against the victory obtained by the French. 
 A patriotic cortege passes through the streets of 
 the city, wending its way to the Prado, where a 
 monument has been erected " to the victims of 
 the 2nd of May," and a funcion is held — the 
 universal term applied to every gathering, be it 
 a corrida, a religious service, a theatrical perform- 
 ance, a public meeting, or a military review. The 
 procession consists of all the paupers of San 
 Bernardino ; of a few charity schools ; of a sprinkling 
 of invalid soldiers ; of three females of advanced 
 
96 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 age wearing a medal ; of the ayuntamiento, preceded 
 by six mace-bearers in rich red velvet gowns 
 embroidered in gold, under which their muddy 
 boots are inconsistently visible ; and finally, of all 
 the troops of the garrison. It is more than doubt- 
 ful if either actors or spectators of this melancholy 
 pageant have the faintest idea of the historical 
 event they commemorate ; but tradition has taught 
 the admiring crowds assembled to see it pass that 
 they must testify their execration of the maldito 
 Frances by various groans and hisses, even if on 
 the morrow they relapse into complete indifference 
 towards accursed France. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 97 
 
 V. 
 
 Eugenie Montijo — Her Mother — Her Eccentricities — The Duke 
 d'Ossuna — Baron Bourgoing — Baron Dal Borgo. 
 
 Countess Montijo and her daughter Eugenie 
 took it exceedingly ill that the Queen of Spain 
 should have selected for the weekly receptions at 
 her Court during the Carnival the very day which 
 they had previously appropriated for their own 
 at homes, and to show their displeasure absented 
 themselves from the Palace for a whole season. 
 When they were prevailed upon to relent, and 
 under protest, as it were, once more make their 
 appearance at the Court balls, the Countess de 
 Teba during one more winter declined to dance. 
 For several years, ever since she was eighteen, this 
 young girl had been an object of interest, curiosity, 
 speculation, amusement, and criticism for the 
 
 H 
 
98 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Madrilenes. She was a fair, pale, haughty-looking 
 woman ; her reputed beauty did not strike a 
 stranger at first sight, for her hair was of too 
 brilliant a red, her eyes too small, and the contour 
 of the chin defective ; but, to use a common par- 
 lance, she " grew upon you," and it was impossible 
 after a time not to admit her very real charm. 
 The prevalent fashion of wearing the hair, then 
 called a la Fuoco, from a popular ballerine — and 
 which Eugenie had adopted — showed off her noble 
 forehead and delicate temples, and permitted the 
 full play of her mobile and admirably-pencilled 
 eyebrows to show to the best advantage ; it may 
 almost be said that the whole expression of her 
 features was centred in those delicate arches, which 
 possessed a singular and penetrating eloquence. 
 A foreigner invited to Carabancel, her mother's 
 country seat, at a short distance from Madrid, saw 
 her for the first time as she appeared in private 
 theatricals on a mimic stage, dressed entirely in 
 black, half- veiled in a lace mantilla lifted over her 
 left ear by a single scarlet flower, and carrying a 
 book in her clasped hands. Without understanding 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 99 
 
 a word of Spanish, the stranger fancied he could 
 follow the play by watching the lowering and 
 lifting of those marvellous eyebrows, and it was 
 not till the performance was over that he realized 
 that he had not been assisted by intonation, gesture, 
 or glance. Eugenie Montijo's complexion was a 
 dead white ; very rarely did a pale pink blush 
 pass over her colourless cheek ; but her pallor was 
 not that of ill-health, and her lips were warmly, 
 richly red. She was admirably formed, looking 
 taller than she really was ; her head was beautifully 
 poised on her neck and shoulders, which, like her 
 arms, wrists, and hands, were exquisitely modelled ; 
 her mouth was too straight, and she smiled too 
 rarely not to make the defect apparent, and her 
 voice was not musical ; but such as she was, she 
 exercised a singular sway over the society of 
 Madrid, a circumstance all the more remarkable 
 that girls were supposed to have no social import- 
 ance, and to play no part in the world. 
 
 Her education had been good, indeed better 
 than the one usually given to Spanish young ladies 
 in her time. Besides her own tongue she spoke 
 
 H 2 
 
100 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 French well, and English perfectly ; her excellent 
 governess, Miss Flower, had not held a sinecure 
 in the Montijo establishment, and had often found 
 it difficult to manage Eugenie and her elder sister, 
 who proved troublesome and insubordinate pupils, 
 although she had inspired them with real regard 
 and affection. Miss Flower remained in the family- 
 long after her services were no more needed, and 
 her unmistakably insular face was familiar to 
 the liahituees of the Plazuela del Angel and at 
 Carabancel, sitting behind the urn at the tea- 
 table. 
 
 Countess Montijo, a tall, bony, black-browed and 
 angular matron, was far more loud-spoken than quite 
 became the wife of a CastUian aristocrat ; she had 
 not suflSciently toned down her manners since the 
 days when, as the free and independent daughter 
 of the British Consul Fitz Patrick at Malaga, she 
 attracted and captivated the quiet, timid, red-haired 
 young noble who made her a Spanish Countess. 
 Her temper was violent, her manifestations of it 
 embarrassing. At one of her garden parties at 
 that same villa of Carabancel — a poor country 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 101 
 
 house anywhere save in the sunburnt plains of 
 CastUe — she had decreed that the carriages of the 
 guests should remain stationary in the shadow of 
 a shrubbery somewhat removed from the house, 
 and that the departing visitors instead of being 
 taken up at the door should seek their equipages on 
 foot. The French Minister, Baron de Bourgoing, 
 an elderly man, did not think fit to venture out in 
 the gathering darkness, and ignorant or oblivious 
 of the arrangements, ordered the footman to bring 
 up his landau. It came, but the grinding of the 
 wheels on the gravel had fallen on Madame 
 Montijo's ears ; she abruptly left her other guests, • 
 flew to the front-door, and seeing the outline of 
 a prohibited carriage, furiously commanded the 
 coachman to return to his appointed place. As the 
 man hesitated, the enraged lady jumped upon the 
 wheel, and clinging to the hammer-cloth began 
 upbraiding him in most injurious terms. Baron de 
 Bourgoing, inexpressibly shocked at the sight of 
 his hostess in so undignified a position, was pro- 
 fuse in his apologies and regrets, but although the 
 carriage-door was actually held open by the 
 
102 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 footman, Madame Montijo succeeded in driving 
 back the landau to the shrubbery before the 
 Minister could enter it, and he had to foUow it 
 there. Yet she was neither hard nor ungenerous ; 
 many deeds of charity and benevolence have 
 balanced her infirmities of temper, and atoned for 
 the bitterness of her tongue. To no one was she 
 more consistently kind than to the pretty little 
 . daughter of Yradier, the popular composer of so 
 many Spanish songs, the prettiest of aU La 
 Habanera, having been incorporated by Bizet in 
 his opera of Carmen. The chUd, who had inherited 
 her father's musical genius, gave promise of a 
 charming voice. Often in Madame Montijo's 
 drawing-room, when staying in her house for weeks 
 together, she would be placed on a table and 
 warble her father's most characteristic songs ; 
 when she grew up, cleverer and prettier still, but 
 always diminutive. Mile. Yradier decided to become 
 a Prima Donna, and had a successful debut at 
 the Havana. There she made the acquaintance 
 of an English doctor, who fell in love with her. 
 She married him, abandoning the stage for ever. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 103 
 
 and with him came to England. She settled con- 
 tentedly in a London suburb, happy between her 
 husband and son, and died not long ago, only a 
 few years after her patroness and friend, Madame 
 Montijo, with whom she always remained in corre- 
 spondence, and visited on the rare occasions when 
 she returned for a few weeks to her native country. 
 During the last years of her life the Countess was 
 totally bhnd. She died in Madrid at an advanced 
 age. 
 
 Hardly a week ever passed without some fresh 
 anecdote being circulated of which Eugenie 
 Montijo was the heroine. She justified curiosity 
 and courted censure by her disregard of conven- 
 tionalities, and she certainly possessed the Alcibia- 
 dian temperament which craves for notoriety. 
 She wielded her sceptre of Society Queen with no 
 light hand, and her favourites of to-day were 
 discarded by to-morrow's caprice. In her own 
 house she was seen devoting herself for the whole 
 evening to the entertainment of some obscure 
 musician, hanging on his arm, speaking to no one 
 else, and finally dropping the curtains over a 
 
101 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 window-recess to which she had led him ; but the 
 following week, if the poor infatuated wretch came 
 confidently back to bask in the intoxicating favour 
 that had bewitched him, he was received with a 
 supercilious arching of the lovely eyebrows; this 
 idol would look at him as if he was a total 
 stranger, and glide away from him with the 
 coldest inclination of her head. In the same way 
 she attracted General Narvaez, Duke of Valencia, — 
 Espartero's successful rival — in her train, treating 
 the blufi" soldier, the able statesman, with bewitch- 
 ing coquetry, so that the little, dark, stern man 
 was as supple in her fingers as the youngest of 
 her "Folios."'^ But when in 1851 the Ministry 
 of which he was a member broke up on account 
 of its financial embarrassments, Mile. Montijo 
 would have nothing more to say to her old 
 favourite, and in a moment of petulance declared 
 that "if he were to be hung she would go and 
 pull at his feet." 
 
 1 The young men who form the circle of every Spanish 
 woman are caUed by that name, which literally means 
 diicli'ens. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 105 
 
 Extravagant in all things, she spent her whole 
 income, derived from the inheritance left to her 
 with her title by the Count de Teba, in dress; 
 she rode without being fond of riding, and affected 
 bravery, although constitutionally timid. Playing 
 with a dagger, and being warned that she might 
 hurt herself, she plunged it into her soft white 
 arm to prove that she was not afraid, and fainted 
 at the sight of the few red drops surging from 
 the not very deep wound. At Carabancel, walking 
 with her usual cortege of admirers in the straggling, 
 ill-kept grounds, she came to a shallow canal 
 spanned by a dilapidated bridge. Looking round 
 she exclaimed, " That bridge is rotten, but if I 
 cross it who will follow me ? " Receiving no 
 prompt reply, she muttered, " Cowards ! " and 
 sprang upon the tottering planks. They gave way ; 
 she fell ignominiously into the green, slimy ooze 
 below, and had to be extricated and conveyed 
 home in a pitiable condition. To account for the 
 condition of the stream running through a gentle- 
 man's pleasure-garden, it is but fair to say that 
 clear running water is almost unknown in Madrid 
 
106 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 and its environs ; the broad bed of the Manzanares 
 is during many months only a pebbly, sandy road- 
 way, holes having to be dug in the damper places 
 to create bathing room for the soldiers of the 
 garrison. The trees of the Prado and Fuente 
 Castellana were surrounded by small trenches, and 
 watered in regular rotation, never more than a 
 dozen or so at a time, to keep them alive, and the 
 few fountains were beleaguered night and day by 
 the water-carriers waiting to fill their little casks 
 at the thin stream flowing from the spouts, in order 
 to replenish the tall earthenware vessels containing 
 the entire supply of water of a Spanish household. 
 One day Eugenie Montijo was seen leaving the 
 Eoyal Palace with red eyes after an audience of 
 the Queen. Three versions were current to explain 
 her emotion. Some said she had craved permission 
 to enter a convent ; some that she had begged to 
 be allowed to marry a torero of great renown and 
 fine presence ; others that she had implored 
 Isabella to exercise pressure on the Duke d'Ossuna, 
 and insist upon that nobleman's proposing to her. 
 This last interpretation was generally considered 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 107 
 
 as the most plausible, for Mile. Montijo had often 
 been heard to declare that she would never give 
 her hand to a man of inferior rank and position 
 to the Duke of Alba y Berwick — lineally descended 
 from James II. and Miss Churchill — who had 
 married her elder sister. Among the grandees of 
 Spain there was no other who could fulfil these 
 conditions and rival her brother-in-law in fortune 
 and ancestry save the Duke d'Ossuna, Conde Buca 
 of Olivares, and many other places. He was a 
 short, fair, and very insignificant little man, with 
 the smallest of hands and feet, a gentle expression, 
 and for all his softness possessed of a quiet and 
 obstinate determination. He had intended never 
 to renounce the charms of single blessedness, till 
 the death of a childless elder brother, by making 
 him heir to the vast estates and responsibilities of 
 the d'Ossunas, also imposed upon him the charge 
 of ensuring them to a direct lineage. He admired 
 Mile. Montijo — said he was rich enough to keep 
 so expensive a wife, but as if he married at all it 
 was only to have an heir, his conscience forbade 
 him to wed a woman who it was well known would 
 
108 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 never be a mother. The Duke alluded to a cir- 
 cumstance which was no secret in Madrid, namely, 
 that a few seasons before, Mile. Montijo being at 
 Biarritz had insisted upon bathing in the sea 
 during rough and stormy weather, that she had 
 done so against the advice of all the people on the 
 beach, that she had been carried off by the waves, 
 dashed against a breakwater, rescued with difficulty, 
 and been dangerously ill afterwards. She recovered 
 and regained her full health, but the doctors had 
 given it as their opinion that the shock to her 
 system would debar her from ever bearing any 
 children. 
 
 The second explanation given to Eugenie's tears 
 was justified by her having presented El CMcIanero 
 with a crimson silken capa, accompanied by an 
 autograph note expressing to the celebrated Espada 
 her admiration for his prowess in the Plaza de 
 Toros. The gift and manner of it had been noticed 
 in all the papers, and at the very next bull-fight, 
 the CMcIanero at the head of his quadiilla crossed 
 the arena, stopped under the box belonging to the 
 Montijo family, in which Eugenie sat dressed as a 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 109 
 
 Maja (Spanish, grisette), removed Ms brilliant 
 mantle from liis shoulders, spread it on the ground, 
 dropped on one knee, and lifting his little em- 
 broidered and ball-covered cap from his head, 
 waved it towards her. The spectators of this 
 public and theatrical homage cheered enthusiastic- 
 ally, while the Countess de Teba calmly bowed her 
 acknowledgments to the Torero and the crowd. 
 
 Clad in that same daring and picturesque costume 
 of Maja or Manola, she undertook a journey into 
 Andalusia, riding on mules all the way. Her sister 
 and several men were of the party. The country 
 they had to traverse was just then very unsafe, 
 and infested with brigands. Their mode of pro- 
 ceeding was simple and telling ; they neither 
 killed nor plundered the parties they attacked, they 
 merely carried off some resistless traveller as 
 hostage into the mountains, and from their unas- 
 sailable fastnesses wrote to his family and friends 
 that if such and such a sum was not deposited at 
 a fixed date in a specified spot they would forward 
 a finger, nose, or toe of their prisoner, and so on, 
 till the full ransom was paid. Countess Montijo, 
 
no RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 who liad disapproved of the Andalusian expedition, 
 but been unable to prevent it, said feelingly to a 
 lady on whom she was calling, "It is very annoy- 
 ing ; of course I would pay Eugenie's ransom if 
 she was captured, but I am very doubtful whether 
 Alba would pay for my elder daughter if she were 
 carried off — and then there is always the not 
 knowing what may happen during a sojourn in a 
 robber's cave." 
 
 However, the party reached their destination in 
 safety, only Mile. Montijo, who had taken the 
 outward journey on horseback out of bravado and 
 defiance, had had enough of it, so she changed her 
 dress and came home by the more ordinary route 
 of the diligence. 
 
 Towards the close of the year '49, Prince Carini, 
 Minister of Naples, who from Madrid went to 
 London, gave a small party at his Legation. In 
 the course of the evening a young Dutch attache, 
 M. Paw, came in from the theatre primed with 
 the last new thing about Eugenie. She had con- 
 sulted a gipsy, who had predicted that she would 
 be Empress. Aware that there were no marriage- 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. Ill 
 
 able emperors in the world, she had asked the 
 Gitana if she did not mean a king or prince, but 
 the woman had maintained her first statement, 
 adding — " Emperor of a great country." " It must 
 be Soulouque, then," observed a French attache, 
 Comte de Breda, " for there is no other in the 
 matrimonial market, and he would not be particular 
 as to the number of his wives." He of all men 
 was the least likely to admit the possibility of an 
 empire in France. He belonged to a staunch 
 Legitimist family ; when he and his brothers were 
 children they were made to kiss night and morning 
 a small portrait of Henri Cinq, and to say piously, 
 " Bieu benissez le petit roi ! " 
 
 One of Eugenie's last escapades was grimly 
 grotesque in its consequences. In the middle of 
 a ball she became so incensed at some opposition 
 offered in discussion by her partner, that, seizing 
 a chair, she threatened to throw it at his head. 
 The gentleman, forgetting himself, used strong 
 terms of derision, and was called to order by a 
 young man, who, constituting himself Mile. 
 Montijo's champion, turned against himself the 
 
112 RANDOM REOOLLEGTIONS OF 
 
 fury of the Marquis . Words ran so high 
 
 that a duel was inevitable ; the conditions were 
 arranged, but at the eleventh hour Eugenie's 
 partner did not appear. A few days later his 
 adversary saw him quietly eating an ice before 
 the Caf^ Suisse, and in a loud voice asked him 
 what he meant by his dastardly proceedings. 
 The Marquis, unmoved, replied that it was neither 
 in his principles nor intentions to fight, but that 
 he was ready to apologize, which he did profusely. 
 But the two men meeting again accidentally on 
 the following day at the station, the Marquis 
 was made to leave the carriage he had already 
 entered, to go down upon his knees, and repeat 
 before a large crowd the same humble excuses, 
 after which he was allowed to go unmolested. 
 
 In '51 Mile. Montijo visited Paris, changed 
 her tactics, dropped the Amazon and became the 
 ingenue. She was always seen at her mother's 
 side, demurely dressed, working at a tapestry- 
 frame, with a small toy terrier curled on the hem 
 of her gown, and aU the boldness and eccentricity 
 melted away. In this new character she attended 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 113 
 
 the fetes of the Elysee Bourbon, and attracted 
 
 the notice of Louis Napoleon. She was at the 
 
 reveillon du jour de I' An, at the Tuileries in 1853, 
 
 and when, according to the French custom, the 
 
 Emperor approached her at midnight to salute her 
 
 on the cheek as he had all the other ladies present, 
 
 she drew back, and with a modest curtsey said, 
 
 " Sire, only my husband shall ever kiss me." 
 
 Before that the Duchess de Bassano had tried to 
 
 put her on her guard against the compromising 
 
 attentions of the Emperor, adding : " Take care ; 
 
 you prepare for yourself regret or remorse." The 
 
 month of January was not far advanced when 
 
 Eugenie was able to write to her prudent 
 
 counsellor : "I marry Louis without regret and 
 
 without remorse." 
 
 It is, however, very doubtful whether Mile. 
 
 Montijo would ever have been seated on the 
 
 throne of France, had not the Emperor smarted 
 
 under the refusal of his hand by the Princess of 
 
 Wasa, and made his union with a woman not 
 
 of royal blood an act of defiance to aU the 
 
 crowned heads of Europe. Thus the prophecy of 
 
 I 
 
lU RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 the Spanish gipsy received a prompt and decisive 
 confirmation ; but there were also many who 
 remained unshaken in their belief in the truth 
 of the doctors' diagnosis, and who considered the 
 Duke of Ossuna's reluctance equally justified. 
 Not even the birth of the Prince Imperial could 
 reverse those convictions, and several reasons were 
 alleged to prove that the circumstance did not 
 materially alter the case^the time which elapsed 
 between the marriage of the Empress and the 
 announcement that an heir was expected ; the 
 cropping up of the fashion of paniers and 
 crinolines, compared to the old vertugadins of the 
 Court of Louis XV., then called cache enfants ; 
 the summoning of twelve wet-nurses with their 
 infants from England, secreting them for several 
 days and nights in the Tuileries without outer 
 communication, and the equally summary de- 
 spatching of them, save one, as soon as the declar- 
 ation of the birth of the Prince was made ; the 
 sex of the child, who, it was foretold, would ever 
 prove the only one. There were, and still are, 
 many people who doubt that the acknowledged 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 115 
 
 heir to the Imperial throne ever was the offspring 
 of the Emperor and Empress. 
 
 Mile. Montijo never seemed to care for 
 
 women's society ; the Empress Eugenie not only 
 
 called around her several girls she had known 
 
 in Spain, and some remotely connected with her, 
 
 but she frequently referred to others, and inquired 
 
 affectionately about those whom she had affected 
 
 not to notice in her turbulent Madrid life. 
 
 The hair on which a crown now rested had 
 
 abruptly changed from red to golden ; the figure 
 
 had gained in dignity, the manner in repose ; but 
 
 even Winterhalter did not flatter his model when 
 
 he painted that lovely profile portrait, so far 
 
 superior in charm and resemblance to the more 
 
 famous Decameron group. 
 
 Whether the Duke d'Ossuna had entertained 
 a secret tenderness for the wayward beauty was 
 not to be ascertained from his manner after her 
 elevation ; he travelled much through Europe, and 
 was as before the ^oint de mire of many eyes 
 and ambitions. When he was in Berlin it almost 
 appeared as if he would barter his liberty for the 
 
 I 2 
 
116 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 charms of Mile, de Seydowitz, the fair maid of 
 honour of Princess Charles, but he wrenched 
 himself away uncommitted, and it was not till 
 some years after that he finally elected a Duchess 
 d'Ossuna in the person of the Princess Salms. 
 
 In his small form he united all the proud, high- 
 sounding titles — Spanish and foreign — of his ancient 
 race; and when he died, in 1882, the escutcheons 
 around his bier blazoned out crests and coats-of- 
 arms, historical in every kingdom or empire. In his 
 old palaces of Madrid, Saragossa, Toledo, Granada, 
 and Seville, none of his retainers were ever turned 
 away, however decrepit and useless they had 
 become ; not only the servant but his wife and 
 children found under the master's roof-tree a 
 shelter to the end of their days. The inheritance 
 received from his ancestors was sacred in a 
 d'Ossuna's eyes ; no work of art, no weapon, 
 jewel, or relic was ever removed from hall, gal- 
 lery, or chapel to be sold and the value put to 
 a personal use. In that respect the present 
 Duke was perhaps less admirable than the impov- 
 erished grandees, who were equally scrupulous in 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 117 
 
 preserving intact the historical heirlooms of their 
 forefathers. 
 
 D'Ossuna was as magnifique in his hospitality 
 as the grands seigneurs and wealthy financiers of 
 the eighteenth century. One day he ofi"ered a 
 lady of his acquaintance who was starting for the 
 provinces the use of his residence during the 
 whole duration of her stay in a certain city. 
 When giving orders to his major-domo to prepare 
 for her reception, he was told that he did not 
 happen to possess a palace in that particular town ; 
 nevertheless he maintained his invitation, and 
 before the traveller arrived he had purchased 
 and completely furnished a palace, which she 
 found ready to receive her. It was esteemed a 
 favour to be asked during the spring months to 
 the Alameda, his favourite country seat in Castile ; 
 but as was the case in many other parts of 
 Spain further removed from the capital, the neigh- 
 bourhood was patrolled by highwaymen, who made 
 the journey anything but pleasant. The Duke 
 entered into an agreement with the chief of the 
 brigands to pay him a certain annual sum on 
 
118 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 condition that none of his guests should ever be 
 molested on their way to the Alameda. The 
 robber captain was perfectly amenable to reason ; 
 he understood that the nobleman could not but 
 feel deeply hurt that any one coming to him 
 on his invitation should be plundered or even 
 frightened, and promised that on presentation of 
 d'Ossuna's card all those travelling to his house 
 should be politely allowed to proceed to their 
 destination. When the Duke was appointed 
 Ambassador to Petersburg he waived the question 
 of salary, firmly refusing any pay. " A d'Ossuna 
 serves the King," he said, " for his country's 
 advantage, not for his own." 
 
 Among the handsome women of Madrid at that 
 period were the Marchioness of Medina Coeli, the 
 Duchess of Fernan Nunez — a young bride — one of 
 Rianzares' daughters, Dona Pilar, and a host of 
 pretty Creoles from the Havana, who sauntered 
 at night in the avenues of the Prado, and whose 
 liquid eyes and lisping voices were dangerously 
 fascinating ; but it was well that the Court was 
 gay, for the Spaniards, with the exception of 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 119 
 
 Madame Montijo's inexpensive entertainments, 
 never received, and the Diplomatic Corps was 
 equally inhospitable. 
 
 Most of the Ministers were unmarried ; the 
 English Minister, Lord Howden, had separated 
 from his Russian wife on his wedding-day, and 
 never lived with her, although when they hap- 
 pened to be in Paris at the same time he paid 
 her friendly visits. Visitors who accidentally 
 entered his breakfast-room used to see two covers 
 laid opposite each other, and a child's high chair 
 placed between them, but no open allusions were 
 ever made to these domestic arrangements. 
 
 Baron de Bourgoing, head of the French Lega- 
 tion, had been at the siege of Silistrie, a circum- 
 stance which he frequently recalled. He was a 
 widower, with a daughter too young to take her 
 place in society. A story which he related at 
 dinner before half-a-dozen guests, some very new 
 acquaintances, will better than any description give 
 an idea of his unconventional honJiommie and simple 
 chivalry. " I am extremely distrait" he said, 
 " and my marriage was the result of my absence 
 
120 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS, OF 
 
 of mind. When I was a young man I fell in 
 love with a charming girl I used to meet at balls 
 and parties. I found out that she reciprocated 
 my sentiments, and obtained her permission to 
 speak to her father. The next morning I called 
 on him, was shown into his study, and presented 
 myself as a suitor for his daughter's hand. The 
 old gentleman seemed surprised at first, but when 
 I had assured him of the sincerity and stability 
 of my affections, he offered no further objections, 
 and, accepting me as his son-in-law, sent for his 
 daughter. As the door opened I ran to greet my 
 fiancee — it was another young lady — your mother, 
 my child," he continued, suavely smiling at Mile, 
 de Bourgoing. " I had abstractedly come to the 
 wrong house, pressed my suit with the wrong 
 father, and been given the wrong wife ; but of 
 course I could not retract or put upon the young 
 person the indignity of refusing her. She did not 
 live long," he added with great serenity. " Pray 
 take more wine ! " 
 
 Baron Dal Borgo, the Danish envoy, was the 
 oldest Diplomat in Madrid. He had been so long 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 121 
 
 abroad that he had almost forgotten his native 
 tongue, and yet spoke no other correctly. He was 
 the soul of honour and good-nature, without either 
 cleverness or brilliancy. During one of the poli- 
 tical commotions so frequent during the childhood 
 of Isabella, Espartero, having incurred the displea- 
 sure of the adverse party, had to fly for his life, and 
 was pursued through the streets by an infuriated 
 mob. He threw himself into the house on the 
 third floor of which Baron Dal Borgo had his 
 bachelor apartment, rang the bell wildly, and as 
 soon as the door was opened slipped in and barred 
 it. Presently the ringleaders who had followed 
 him threatened to break open the door if the 
 fugitive was not immediately delivered up to them. 
 Baron Dal Borgo himself unfastened the bolts 
 and appeared on the threshold. He was received 
 with cries and objurgations, and defied to say that 
 Espartero was not within. Dal Borgo, pointing to 
 the Danish flag that he had laid across the door, 
 said calmly : " The man you seek is here ; come 
 and take him if you like ; but if one of you steps 
 on the colours of my country, by G — d I shall 
 
122 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 make Spain responsible to Denmark for the insult." 
 There must have been some mysterious power in 
 this challenge, for it was not accepted ; the in- 
 surgents, suddenly awed, withdrew, and in recogni- 
 tion of the service rendered, Dal Borgo received 
 from the Spanish Government the title of Baron 
 del Asilo. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 123 
 
 VI. 
 
 Massimo d'Azeglio — Death, of Alexander von Humboldt — War 
 between Sardinia and Austria — Princess Victoria — Magenta 
 — Solferino — ViUafranoa — Death of Queen Stephanie of 
 Portugal — Marriage of Princess Frederick Charles — The 
 Eoyal Family of Prussia — Prince Napoleon and Princess 
 Clotilde. 
 
 Eighteen hundred and fifty-nine was a moment- 
 ous year for tlie little kingdom of Piedmont. As 
 early as April discomposing rumours of hostility 
 were rife, and serious changes were contemplated 
 in the army and the State ; d'Azeglio was sent 
 to Paris, and General La Marmora, who had left 
 the Ministry of War to command the Sardinian 
 troops in the Crimea, once again took active service. 
 The small country had had three prophets of 
 the independence of Italy-^Balbo, with his Dant- 
 esque features ; Gioberti, the middle-class philo- 
 sopher ; and Massimo d'Azeglio, the aristocrat and 
 
124 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 the poet. The family of the latter came originally 
 from Brittany. He had one brother a Jesuit priest, 
 another in the army ; his father had recklessly 
 spent his fortune in the interest of his country, 
 and brought up his sons in the purest feelings 
 of patriotism. Massimo began life as an officer 
 of cavalry, then proved himself a painter — a 
 collection of his works was exhibited in Turin in 
 1866 ; — later on a musician and a novelist. He is 
 the author of several of the few novels which 
 Italy, the land of poetry and improvization, has 
 produced — Ettore Fieramosca, Nicolo de Lappi — and 
 when he became a politician he wrote Ultimi casi 
 di Bomagna, which is a programme of national 
 politics. D'Azeglio had refused the Presidency of 
 the CouncU three months before Novara; after 
 the defeat he accepted the post from a sense of 
 duty, and prepared his country to receive and 
 appreciate Cavour. He died a few months before 
 Venice became free. His superiority lay almost 
 entirely in the moral strength and loyalty of his 
 character. 
 
 The severe illness of the King of Naples, the 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 125 
 
 apprehension that he should die inopportunely, 
 added another element of uneasiness to public 
 disquietude. A shepherd of the Abruzzi pro- 
 phesied his recovery when he was at his worst, 
 having, he alleged, had a vision in which Queen 
 Christine had appeared to tell him so. The Pope 
 announced his intention of beatifying the Queen 
 if the prophecy was fulfilled. 
 
 However, towards the end of the month a lull 
 of peace was beginning to spread over the land, 
 when it was abruptly ruffled by the Austrian 
 ultimatum, intimating that if Sardinia did not 
 disarm within three days the Austrian troops 
 should cross the frontier. On the following day 
 Prussia issued the decree of the Kriegslereitschaft, 
 which although signed some time before had been 
 kept in abeyance. It appeared in Berlin on a 
 Sunday, and was received with great emotion. 
 The same day the French Moniteur stated that 
 a settlement had been consented by the great 
 Powers. In answer to this news the refugees 
 and malcontents declared that if Piedmont de- 
 cided to disarm they would make a revolution. 
 
126 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 From that date the most exciting and contra- 
 dictory reports followed each other with incon- 
 ceivable rapidity — the Emperor Napoleon had taken 
 the field at the head of his army — Cavour had 
 resigned — the Emperor had been assassinated; — the 
 latter rumour gaining credence for several hours, 
 and at last the certainty came that the French 
 troops had entered Savoy. On that same day, 
 the Princess of Prussia, whose sympathies were all 
 French, fell into a heavy faint in her own room, 
 and remained for some time unconscious. 
 
 The events in Italy were assuming such import- 
 ance that the return to Germany of the King and 
 Queen of Prussia was decided upon. The poor 
 sovereign's condition was pitiable ; his mind had 
 completely given way, and his once bright intellect 
 was for ever clouded. Before that conviction had 
 become fully established some distressing scenes had 
 occurred. Although known to be far from well, 
 he had as yet shown no serious signs of mental 
 alienation, and frequently appeared in public. At 
 a dinner given in his honour by the Grand Duke 
 of Tuscany at the Pitti Palace, he began deliber- 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 127 
 
 ately to wash, his hands in his soup-plate. Another 
 time from his private seat in a chapel of the 
 Dome he had imitated the loud crowing of a 
 cock as soon as the clergyman ascending the pulpit 
 commenced to preach, to the extreme discomfiture 
 of his suite and the clergy. The King and Queen 
 came home via Trieste, but did not stop in Berlin, 
 taking up their residence in Charlottenburg, and 
 later in Potsdam. Frederick William IV. never 
 returned to his capital. 
 
 Even the best-informed diplomats, whether they 
 corresponded with their Governments from Turin, 
 Vienna, Paris, or Berlin, could give no positive or 
 accurate news, so rapidly did the circumstances 
 alter and contradict themselves. In May the 
 Sardinian Government reserved for itself all the 
 telegraphic lines ; Prussia mobilized her army ; the 
 Austrians had crossed the Ticino, marching on 
 Turin ; the Grand Duke of Tuscany, threatened 
 with a revolution, saw the army fraternizing 
 with the people ; the Piedmontese troops were 
 massed on the river Dora ; the French troops 
 advanced into Piedmont to oppose the crossing of 
 
128 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 the Po at Frassinetto ; and the Emperor Napoleon 
 left Paris to join his corps of expedition vid 
 Toulon. He was received with fervent enthusiasm 
 at G-enoa. Meanwhile the German political-comic 
 paper, the Kladderadatsch, was beginning the series 
 of its derisive cartoons and violent attacks upon 
 him ; a prediction was current about that time 
 that he would die on "a" 15th of May — year 
 not specified — and that he would sufi'er from a 
 painful and lingering disease. 
 
 One of Germany's glories departed when old 
 Baron Humboldt died peacefully on the 6th of 
 May, 1859, at Tegel, a country residence belonging 
 to the HohenzoUerns, situated among the pine 
 woods at an easy driving distance from Berlin, and 
 which had been placed at his disposal by the King. 
 He preserved his faculties to the last. Even after 
 his great age, and the withdrawal of Frederick 
 William IV. from the government of the country 
 had made him prefer the repose of private life to 
 the turmoil of politics, Alexander von Humboldt 
 took a lively interest in humanity at large, and a 
 personal one in the circle of his numerous relatives 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 129 
 
 and friends. It was always a treat to call on the 
 kindly, courteous old man, who, sitting in his 
 cushioned chair with his white head inclined a 
 little on one shoulder, would greet his visitor with 
 a sweet tender smile, and converse affably on all 
 topics. He was fond of children and young people ; 
 the somewhat sombre house at Tegel was made 
 lively by the laughter and romps of great-grand- 
 nephews and nieces. Having travelled aU over the 
 world, he spoke most languages fluently, French 
 the best of all. He had resided long in Paris at the 
 beginning of the century, first for the classification 
 of his valuable collections with M. Guy de Lussac, 
 and a little later in the fulfilment of a political 
 mission, remaining there twenty years after it was 
 ended. He had become closely attached to the 
 d'Orleans family, and was chosen by his Govern- 
 ment to carry to Paris the formal recognition of 
 Louis Philippe on his ascension to the throne. He 
 was the sincerest friend and most loyal servant of 
 the King of Prussia ; the gentle content of his 
 declining years, the happy serenity of his dis- 
 position, was embittered only by the pain which 
 
 K 
 
130 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 the illness of Frederick William caused him. To 
 the very day of his death he participated in spirit 
 in the current events of the hour, judging them 
 with his lofty impartiality and high wisdom. 
 When his last agony commenced, his mind 
 wandered a little, and he called for the King with 
 pathetic words of loving farewell. His Majesty 
 was at that time incapable of realizing the loss he 
 sustained in the death of Humboldt, and when the 
 news was conveyed to him attached no meaning 
 to their import. The funeral took place three 
 days later with great pomp, the Regent having so 
 willed it. Alexander von Humboldt had nearly 
 completed his ninetieth year. 
 
 Some disparaging remarks were made in the 
 newspapers when the Princess Frederick Wilhelm 
 persisted in going to the Isle of Wight under 
 circumstances which prevented her husband from 
 accompanying her, and the importance of which 
 ought to have kept her at his side. But it never 
 was very easy to make her abandon any plan she 
 had formed, and Prince Frederick Wilhelm had 
 already taken the habit not to thwart his young 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 131 
 
 wife's wishes unless he was absolutely compelled 
 to do so. The preceding winter she had been 
 desirous to visit on foot the Christmas fair, annually 
 held on the Schlossfreiheit — the great square before 
 the Royal Palace — and had persuaded the Prince 
 to take her there after dark. Hanging on his 
 arm and unattended, she stopped at the candle-lit 
 booths, buying gingerbread, and in spite of the 
 piercing cold spent more than an hour walking 
 about in the crowd, recognized and respectfully 
 but amazedly stared at by the humble frequenters 
 of the popular WeinacJits Marht. The Regent heard 
 of this infringement of the established etiquette 
 of his Court, and kindly remonstrated with his 
 daughter-in-law, but finding her recalcitrant to 
 promise that she would not repeat the offence, he 
 laid his commands on his son to prevent a renewal 
 of it. 
 
 The feeling of Germany against France was 
 becoming more and more accented ; the alliance of 
 the latter nation with Piedmont incensed the 
 whole Fatherland, whose sympathies with Austria 
 had, however, never been overpowering, and when 
 
 K 2 
 
132 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 fifteen thousand Austrians were driven back from 
 Montebello, leaving two thousand killed, wounded, 
 or prisoners behind them, the ferment of public 
 opinion knew no bounds. At Munich the women 
 refused to wear crinolines or any French fashions, 
 to buy articles imported from France, or to speak 
 the language ; this condemnation extending from 
 the lowest to the highest classes. A French 
 company was not allowed to give performances at 
 Dresden for the same reason. 
 
 The success of the allies grew rapidly. After 
 the death of the King of Naples, which happened 
 in spite of the Abbruzzian shepherd's vision, the 
 Austrians were made to evacuate Piacenza with fifty 
 thousand men ; Victor Emmanuel won the battle 
 of Palestro ; Garibaldi was victorious in several 
 bloody encounters ; the French Zouaves performed 
 miracles of valour. Notwithstanding the circu- 
 lated rumours of atrocities committed by the 
 Austrians, private letters from Piedmontese officers 
 actually on the spot never made mention of any. 
 
 On June the 1st Berlin was fiUed with groups 
 of workmen clamouring for labour. They were 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 133 
 
 promptly dispersed by a large force of police, and 
 several attempts at similar disturbances were dis- 
 posed of in the same summary and effectual manner. 
 The German Government has always known how 
 to deal with these ebullitions of the people that 
 threaten to disturb peace and industry. When 
 the new buildings in the Friedrichstrasse some 
 years ago were in course of construction, it had 
 been arranged that they were to be completed on 
 a certain day. The workmen, deeming themselves 
 indispensable, unanimously struck for higher wages. 
 The contractors were dismayed ; they had a large 
 forfeit to pay in case of the nonfulfilment of their 
 engagements. Bismarck solved the diflficulty ; he 
 drafted out of the army as many masons, plumbers, 
 plasterers, &c. as were required, and sent them to 
 work on the building, taking no heed of the 
 strikers, who merely lost their job by their move. 
 
 It is almost impossible now to form an idea of 
 the contending emotions awakened by the Austro- 
 Italian war in the capital of Prussia. The interest 
 taken in the movement of the troops ; the hatred 
 
134 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 of France growing witLi each victory of the allies ; 
 an ill-repressed desire of siding with the Austrians, 
 created a ferment which gave the Government 
 no small cause for anxiety. Society itself was 
 divided into two camps, more embittered against 
 each other than even during the Crimean war. 
 Legations that had been on the most intimate 
 terms refused to meet ; the wives of some of the 
 Ministers were personally insulting to the wives of 
 others under the pretext of national disagreements, 
 and the representatives of perfectly neutral powers 
 found themselves dragged into the feuds of cliques. 
 On the 4th of June the battle of Magenta cost 
 the Austrians a loss of fifteen thousand killed and 
 wounded, and of five thousand prisoners. General 
 Mac Mahon, who had formerly achieved the perilous 
 honour of carrying the works of Malakoff in the 
 Crimea, again distinguished himself, and received, 
 with the title of Duke of Magenta, the bdton of 
 Marshal of France. Two years later his tall, 
 commanding figure, martial countenance and white 
 moustache were conspicuous among the envoys sent 
 to Prussia for the coronation of King William I. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 135 
 
 Canrobert was severely wounded during the fight, 
 and Victor Emmanuel slightly. The immediate 
 result of the victory was the evacuation of Milan 
 by Giulay, and the virtual liberation of Lombardyj 
 thus achieving what had been Carlo Alberto's 
 lifelong dream — a dream rudely shattered on the 
 disastrous battle-field of Novara ten years before. 
 Victor Emmanuel and Napoleon I. then unite their 
 head-quarters into one. The former is made Cor- 
 poral of Zouaves. The Duchess of Parma leaves 
 her States for the third time after releasing her 
 troops from the oath of allegiance ; beyond Milan 
 the country is abandoned by the Austrians, and 
 the fortresses of the Quadrilateral conquered ; the 
 Prince Eegent explains in an autograph letter to 
 the French Emperor his desire for the mobiliza- 
 tion of the Sixth Army Corps ; the Emperor 
 Francis Joseph leaves his army on the 27th to 
 return to Vienna, for on the 24th Solferino gives 
 another victory to the allies, and ratifies the liber- 
 ation of Northern Italy. The whole Sardinian 
 army fought that day, and for the first time the 
 French cavalry was engaged. Popular rumour 
 
136 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 whispered that the Emperor Napoleon had shown 
 the white feather, and had become nervously 
 anxious for the cessation of hostilities ; the carica- 
 tures of the Kladderadatsch faithfully echoed this 
 appreciation. In Vienna the news of this fresh 
 defeat nearly caused a revolution ; General Clam 
 Clam fought a duel with General de Grtlne, and 
 Hungary was rife for a revolt. However, almost 
 immediately an armistice was concluded, and a 
 Congress spoken of, to be held presumably in 
 Switzerland — a Congress called by an American, 
 "A plaister on the wounded spirits of Europe." 
 Shortly after, the treaty of peace — signed at Villa- 
 franca — gave Lombardy to Piedmont ; Venice was 
 to remain under the rule of an Austrian Arch- 
 duke ; the banished princes to be reinstated in 
 their dominions, and to form part of an Italian 
 Confederation. Count Cavour, incensed at terms 
 so little in accordance with the aims of a war which 
 was to make Italy free from the Mediterranean to 
 the Adriatic, left the Cabinet, and the probable 
 successor mentioned was a Marchese Aresi, said to 
 be a friend of Napoleon UI. Even the Eegent of 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 137 
 
 Prussia wondered at this unexpected termination 
 to a bloody and costly struggle. 
 
 Victor Emmanuel experienced great difficulties 
 in forming his new Cabinet, and summoned Eatazzi 
 to be the bead of the Government. Italy was loud 
 in her blame and recriminations, the clergy in 
 Savoy were accused of being under French influence 
 and of opposing progress, and the great question 
 of the independence of Venice and Central Italy 
 remained a burning and threatening one. 
 
 Meanwhile, the White Lady had again given 
 ghostly warnings, and her appearance heralded 
 two more deaths. The first was that of the Grand 
 Duchess of Weimar, mother of the Princess Regent ; 
 the second, that of the young Queen of Portugal, 
 who was carried off by diphtheria, before she was 
 twenty. Her marriage had been solemnized at 
 Berlin not more than a twelvemonth before. She 
 was a Princess of HohenzoUern, niece of the King 
 of Prussia, a sweet, fair young girl, brought up with 
 the greatest care and simplicity, and a favourite in 
 her own family at Sigmaringen, as well as at Berlin. 
 When she was destined to become the wife of 
 
138 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Dom Pedro, she set herself assiduously to study- 
 Portuguese, and was encouraged and assisted in 
 that pursuit by Princess Victoria. The Eoyal 
 fiance did not come to Berlin for the ceremony ; he 
 was represented by Prince HohenzoUern, a youthful 
 brother of the bride, who married her by proxy in 
 the Catholic Church of Saint Hedwige, the only 
 one in the Prussian capital. This young man was 
 the same who became the pretext for the Franco- 
 German war as candidate to the throne of Spain. 
 
 It was a very pretty wedding ; the whole Court 
 was present in gala, accommodated with chairs 
 within the altar-rails ; the body of the church was 
 filled with the Diplomatic Corps, the dignitaries 
 of State, and the aristocracy. The girlish-looking 
 bride walked up the central aisle ; her long silver- 
 embroidered train, strewn with myrtle, was carried 
 by eight pages ; she was followed by her German 
 bridesmaids and Prussian suite. After the blessing 
 had been given she was led by her brother to the 
 Eegent, the Princess of Prussia, and her other 
 relatives, who embraced her, and then conducted 
 to a high arm-chair, raised on a dais at the 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 139 
 
 left of the altar. At that moment all the Germans 
 who had composed her Court drew back, and the 
 Portuguese suite, headed by the aged Duke of 
 Saldanha, came forward, knelt before her, and 
 afterwards ranged themselves around her as if 
 to take possession of their new Queen. In the 
 evening there was a State reception at the Palace, 
 where the bride for the first time in her life held 
 the " Cercle," and went through the ordeal with 
 modest self-possession. At the concert which 
 followed she sat on the right hand of the Eegent, 
 a place till then occupied by Princess Victoria, 
 and which — it was evident by the discontented 
 expression of her face — she yielded with reluctance. 
 The impatience of the King of Portugal to see 
 his wife was so great, that as soon as the ship 
 that brought her hove in sight of Lisbon, instead 
 of conforming to the settled ceremonial, and wait- 
 ing to receive her in state on her landing the 
 following morning, he had himself privately con- 
 veyed on board the steamer overnight, and rushing 
 down into her cabin seized both her hands, gazed 
 long into her flushed, startled face, ended by 
 
140 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 straining her to his heart, and saying, " Ah ! how 
 long the time will seem till to-morrow ! " left her, 
 and hurriedly returned on shore. 
 
 The next day Princess Stephanie made her 
 entry into the capital with tolling of bells and 
 booming of cannon, rejoicings, and acclamations. 
 She at once won the love of her subjects by her 
 gentle, engaging manner, and endeared herself more 
 and more by many acts of kindness and charity. 
 Her premature death in aU the flush of love, 
 beauty, and happiness, was considered as a public 
 calamity in Portugal. Had her marriage been 
 performed according to the rites of the Lutheran 
 faith it would have been celebrated in the Chapel 
 of the Schloss, like those of all princesses belonging 
 to the Eoyal Family of Prussia. 
 
 The wedding of the Princess of Dessau with 
 Prince Frederick Charles — the Eed Prince — in 
 September, 1857, was solemnized in the evening 
 at the Palace with all the customary formalities. 
 The generality of the invited guests, numbering 
 over a thousand, assembled in the White Hall ; 
 those specially favoured were ushered into the 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 141 
 
 chapel itself, and witnessed the short nuptial 
 ceremony standing. Before coming to the altar 
 the bride had received, according to an old 
 usage, the Royal Crown from the Queen, who 
 with her own hands had placed it on her head 
 over her veil ; she was entitled to wear it during 
 the religious service and the reception that followed. 
 As soon as the blessing had been given, a clash 
 of military music and the pealing of bells an- 
 nounced that the newly-married couple were 
 leaving the chapel. The spectators were all 
 marshalled into different saloons, where they 
 remained for a while ; then the doors of the 
 White Hall, guarded by the grenadiers of Frederick 
 the Great in their old costume, were thrown open, 
 and disclosed a number of card-tables, ranged in 
 a row on a slightly raised platform. All the 
 royal personages were sitting at those tables, 
 the King and Queen with the bride and bride- 
 groom in the centre, the others according to their 
 rank, nearer or further removed, and all apparT 
 ently engaged playing cards. The male guests 
 grouped themselves facing the platform, leaving 
 
142 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 an open space in front of them ; the ladies letting 
 down their five-yard trains, which they had till 
 then carried on their arms, prepared to defile 
 before the Court, curtseying low before each table 
 once, and three times before the central group, 
 receiving a more or less cordial recognition or nod, 
 as they were on more or less intimate terms with 
 the exalted players. This lengthened ceremony 
 must have appeared extremely monotonous to the 
 young Princess, who was then, and has always 
 been since, the loveliest woman of the Prussian 
 Court. She was not a happy wife ; she committed 
 the mistake of presenting her husband with five 
 daughters ere she gave him the son he ardently 
 desired, and he did not keep from her the dis- 
 appointment he felt ; he expressed it in harsh terms 
 and with galling contempt. A more sensitive 
 or less patient woman would perhaps not have 
 submitted so tamely, or at least suff"ered more. 
 
 The Court of Berlin was social and hospitable. 
 Not only did the King open the Schloss for balls 
 during the winter, but the prince of Prussia 
 entertained in his own palace. After the marriage 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 143 
 
 of Prince Frederick William he likewise occasion- 
 ally gave a ball; so did tke Prince Frederick 
 Charles ; the Prince Charles, his father, and even 
 Prince Albert, the youngest of the brothers, whose 
 only daughter, Princess Alexandrine, hailed this 
 diversion in her rather dull life. Prince Albert 
 married again morganatically late in life, but 
 William I. gave his sons the title of Counts von 
 Hohenau, and grades in the army. 
 
 Prince Adalbert, a cousin of the four sons of 
 Queen Louise, was Admiral of the Prussian fleet — 
 not a very exacting post — and led a retired life 
 in his palace of the Leipziger Gate. He had 
 married a sister of the celebrated Viennese 
 Sylphide, Fanny Elssler, called Theresa, who was 
 also a dancer. In recognition of the excellent 
 character she always bore, the King tacitly sanc- 
 tioned the union, gave Mile. Elssler a title, en- 
 nobled her sons, and promoted their advancement. 
 She never attempted to obtrude herself on society, 
 who passively ignored her. Another cousin of the 
 Eegent was Prince Alexander, a widower, who 
 occupied a fine palace in the Wilhelmstrasse, the 
 
144 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 fashionable street of Berlin, an amiable, inoffensive, 
 cheerful, and not very intelligent man — wearing 
 the inevitable uniform with the ease of constant 
 habit, glad to be talked to by women, and abso- 
 lutely null in politics. He owned the finest and 
 most complete dinner service of Dresden china 
 ever known, which had descended to him by 
 heirloom, and was said to be priceless. His eldest 
 son was below the average in sense ; his deficiencies 
 in that respect were corrected by excellent train- 
 ing ; he was wound up by his chamberlain, M. 
 de Roeder, to go through a certain curriculum, 
 and would pass muster fairly at receptions, making 
 appropriate questions and inquiries of the people 
 introduced to him ; but if the strain was sustained 
 too long, or the order of presentations inverted, 
 the clock ran down, and he committed extra- 
 ordinary blunders. He frequently visited the 
 little bath of Schinznacht in Switzerland, took 
 the waters, made friends with the visitors, and 
 created quite a flutter of loyalty in the Republican 
 watering-place. 
 
 His brother George had a great taste and talent 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 145 
 
 for music, which was almost his sole relaxation ; 
 he went nearly every night to the opera, where he 
 sat during the whole performance silent and 
 absorbed in his box on the lower tier. He was 
 a tall, pale, thin man, extremely delicate in health, 
 a great reader, and shunned society. He was 
 called a misanthrope and a woman-hater ; he was 
 only shy, and not frivolous ; but when he met any 
 one of congenial tastes and whose sympathetic 
 interest he did not doubt, he would converse very 
 pleasantly. Laughter seemed impossible to his 
 white, sad countenance, but his rare smile lent it 
 a melancholy redeeming sweetness. 
 
 In that peculiarity of the smile lighting up 
 otherwise stolid or heavy features. Prince George 
 resembled a man with whom he had nothing else 
 in common — Prince Louis Napoleon. He passed 
 through Berlin in 1857, and a party was given 
 for him at the French Legation ; many ladies wore 
 violets as a delicate compliment to the Bonapartes. 
 Of all the relatives of Napoleon L, with the 
 exception perhaps of the son of Jerome and 
 Elizabeth Patterson, Prince Louis Napoleon was 
 
 L 
 
146 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 the one who most closely reproduced the face of 
 the First Consul. The Napoleonic cast, although 
 made coarser and less Cesarian by invading 
 corpulence, was there ; the brow, nose, and chin 
 were finely modelled, and when the illuminating 
 smile broke slowly on the thin lips and spread 
 for an instant over every feature before fading 
 away, the whole countenance seemed transfigured. 
 Unfortunately the favourable impression was but 
 transient, and hardly militated against the want 
 of sympathy the Prince elicited. In Germany 
 opinion ran strongly against him ; his sudden 
 retirement from the Crimea, attributed to other 
 motives than those of ill health alleged by him, 
 had never been forgotten or forgiven, and when 
 the French turned the sobriquet of " Plon Plon " 
 into " Craint Plomb," the insulting play on the 
 words was keenly appreciated. 
 
 The news of his marriage with Princess Clotilde, 
 the eldest daughter of Victor Emmanuel, which 
 was announced in January 1859, and actually took 
 place on the 30th, was received with incredulous 
 surprise. It seemed incredible that a daughter of 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 147 
 
 the valiant and chivalrous house of Savoy should 
 at barely sixteen be given to a man so much her 
 senior, belonging to a family of usurpers, and bear- 
 ing anything but a spotless name. The young girl 
 submitted without a murmur. When asked at 
 Turin what arrangements she would like to have 
 made at the Palais Eoyal for her reception, she 
 asked if there was a chapel, and being answered 
 affirmatively, said that the rest did not matter. In 
 her case the raison d'etat was hardly considered as 
 justifying such a sacrifice. A few months after 
 the marriage became an accomplished fact the 
 Prince was commanding the French army of 
 reserve in the south of Italy, without ever being 
 engaged in any important action; and in 1861, 
 having insulted the family of Orleans in the Senate, 
 and been called out by the Due d'Aumale to 
 account for his words, he. refused the challenge, to 
 the disgust and indignation of the whole army. 
 
 King Victor Emmanuel had stipulated that a 
 stated portion of his daughter's dowry should be 
 invested out of France, and in compliance with 
 this prudential arrangement, the Prince purchased 
 
 L 2 
 
us RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 on the shores of the lake of Geneva a splendid 
 property, called Prangins, belonging to a Mr. Free- 
 man , who had married a Swiss lady of great beauty, 
 Mile, de Blonay. He was the son of the Due de 
 Berry by his marriage with Mrs. Brown, and had 
 two sisters, married respectively one to a Monsieur 
 de Faucigny, a Piedmontese gentleman, who on 
 that occasion was created Prince de Lucinge, the 
 other to the General de Charrette, a name of 
 Vendean celebrity. 
 
 Princess Clotilde, inexperienced as she was, soon 
 found out how uncongenial her new ties and duties 
 would prove ; but she had the fortitude of her race 
 and the courage that endures. She was almost a 
 saint, and bore her domestic trials with so much 
 dignity and quiet superiority that she compelled 
 the respect of her husband and his associates, and 
 the admiration of the rest of the world. She made 
 no complaint, only she calmly and firmlj^ refused 
 to sanction by her presence the scenes she 
 disapproved, and affected to ignore those that 
 were an insult to her. She moved, grave and irre- 
 proachable, amidst the levity and frivolity of the 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 149 
 
 second Empire ; it was a piteous sight to see her 
 at the theatre, her head slightly drooping, her eyes 
 vaguely fixed on the stage, her thoughts evidently 
 far away, always silent, always solitary. Her 
 charity was boundless, the poor adored her, those 
 that suffered blessed her, and she reaped at least 
 one high reward for her life of martyrdom. After 
 Sedan, when a panic seized the Imperial family, 
 when the Empress fled by backways from the 
 Tuileries, and under the segis of a dentist left 
 France, Princess Clotilde quietly announced that 
 she would depart from Paris openly as became a 
 Princess of Savoy ; she drove from the Palais 
 Eoyal to the station in her own open carriage as 
 serenely as if she were going for an ordinary drive. 
 The mob, who recognized her, stopped its infuriated 
 yells on her passage, several of the most blood- 
 thirsty democrats lifted their caps before her, and 
 more than one cry arose of " God speed " to our 
 " Sainte Clotilde." 
 
150 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 VII. 
 
 Count Cavour— Victor Emmanuel— EosinaVeroellana— Theatres 
 — Frezzolini — Alboni — Cerrito — Madame Katazzi — 
 Madame Turr— Admiral Persano— Swiss Regiments at 
 Naples — Duchess of Genoa— Rapallo. 
 
 In 1858, Count Camille Benso di Cavour was 
 already suffering from the illness that carried him 
 off three years later; in the month of July he 
 was advised to try the waters of Plombieres. On 
 his way to that watering-place he passed through 
 Switzerland, having taken the direct Mont Cenis 
 route, and stopped for a night at G-eneva, where 
 he received a popular ovation. In response to the 
 enthusiastic clamours of the crowds collected before 
 his hotel he showed himself on the balcony, and 
 made a short speech which met with deafening 
 applause, and on the following day he was accom- 
 panied on the first stage of his journey by an 
 admiring escort. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 151 
 
 His ability as a statesman, his patriotic aspira- 
 tions, his ardent devotion to the House of Savoy, 
 did not prevent him from being in his private 
 capacity the most thoroughly genial companion ; 
 his characteristic leaning towards young people 
 seemed to have kept him fresh and vernal in 
 heart and feelings. He invariably selected his 
 secretaries among youthful men. He required 
 very little sleep, and was gifted with prodigious 
 activity. After a long day's work he would dine 
 and go to the theatre, preferring the French 
 plays, and patronizing in turn the equally good 
 companies of the Carignan and the d'Angennes. 
 Afterwards he paid calls or attended parties, then 
 snatching four or five hours' sleep he rose at 
 five a.m. perfectly rested and ready for the day's 
 labours. He could not understand why young 
 people were not as hardy and energetic as he was 
 in his mature age, but at the same time he was 
 most considerate to his subordinates, dismissing 
 them when they seemed tired, and insisting that 
 they should enjoy the pleasures of society. His 
 general resemblance to Monsieur Thiers was very 
 
152 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 remarkable, although he was of a much larger 
 build than the ffreat little French statesman and- 
 historian. During his stay at Plombi^res it was 
 rumoured that he had become engaged to a hand- 
 some Englishwoman, whose society he seemed to 
 appreciate ; but Cavour, although chivalrously 
 empresse with the fair sex, had only one serious 
 passion — -Italy ; one serious aim — her independence 
 and unification ; hence his profound disappointment 
 at the abrupt peace of Villafranca which left that 
 goal unreached. 
 
 Another deep source of anxiety for Count 
 Cavour was the lasting infatuation of Victor 
 Emmanuel for Eosina Vercellana, the keeper's 
 daughter, whom the Prince had loved when only 
 Duke of Savoy, and, like the son of Frederick the 
 Great, visited in defiance of his father's commands 
 by scaling at night the walls of the royal park 
 of Eaconigi. After the death of the Queen the 
 protracted liaison of the King was leading him 
 surely and unwisely to its consecration by marriage. 
 Cavour had endured that Eosina should have been 
 made Countess of Mirafiori — a perfumer's title as 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 153 
 
 the Piedmontese called it^that all should have 
 been done for her children save legitimize them, 
 but he could not reconcile himself to this last step. 
 Victor Emmanuel, from carelessness or parti pris, 
 had been wilfully blind to certain derelictions 
 of Rosina, who more than once was led astray 
 by her lower instincts and the memory of old 
 associations. Cavour, with the assistance of Count 
 Cigala, Master of the Horse, laid a plan by which 
 the King should be convinced by ocular demon- 
 stration of Eosina's infidelity. They persuaded 
 him to put her to the test and abide by the 
 proofs ; he consented at first, but at the last 
 moment drew back. It was then that Cavour, 
 as a last resource, being fully persuaded that the 
 prestige of monarchy was essential to the further- 
 ance of his ultimate scheme of a great united 
 Italy, adjured Victor Emmanuel in the name of 
 the services he had rendered him not to cause 
 him the most cruel pain he could suffer. The 
 King, conquered by the fervent appeal of his 
 faithful Minister, promised solemnly that as long 
 as Cavour lived he would never marry Rosina. 
 
154 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Unfortunately the statesman did not survive long 
 enough to prevent the union he dreaded so much. 
 After his death, in 1861, having hesitated some 
 years more, the King considered himself relieved 
 of his oath, and privately married the Countess de 
 Mirafiori. Of common origin, without education 
 or pai-ticular beauty, Eosina was not, however, 
 a wicked or dangerous woman; she suffered the 
 admiration of the King more than she courted 
 it, and retaiaed it without any secret motives of 
 intrigue or ambition. She proved herseK neither 
 exacting nor greedy ; she liked him after a fashion, 
 and infinitely more as time passed on ; she bore 
 the countless infidelities of a man who reckoned 
 his caprices by hundreds — with iadifference at first 
 and resignation afterwards, and put forth no claims 
 on his fidelity or his purse. 
 
 Her position iu Piedmont was perfectly known 
 and equally acknowledged; she never had any 
 footing in society, although the members of the 
 King's immediate entourage visited her. The army 
 ignored her ; the oflBcers were unwdling to pay 
 her any special respect, even to giving up their 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 155 
 
 spats in a railway-carriage for her at a station- 
 master's request, who urged her claims as Countess 
 de Mirafiori. "The King's uniform does not 
 ceder le pas to the Queen's mistress," they said. 
 Her sons were in the service, and popular ; her 
 daughter married a Count Spinola, and lived at 
 Pisa. It was there that she went to live when, 
 her health being impaired, the doctor ordered her 
 a mUder climate than Turin, where nothing kept 
 her after the King's death. She died at the age 
 of fifty-two, in the same Medici Palace where 
 Cosmo I. murdered his son Don Garcia under the 
 eyes of his mother, who fell down dead, killed 
 by the horror of the scene. Rosina Vercellana, 
 who loved the memory of Victor Emmanuel with 
 a stubborn, dogged fidelity, truer in death than in 
 life, had already ordered the wreath of flowers 
 which she sent every year to be placed on his 
 tomb, with the uniformly short inscription, " Una 
 Inconsolata," when she succumbed herself 
 
 King Umberto recognized the rights of his 
 father's widow by sending the secretary of his 
 household to Pisa to attend the funeral and 
 
156 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 defray all expenses. As a mark of respect lie also 
 countermanded a royal hunt fixed for that day 
 at San Eossore. 
 
 The simplicity and frugality of King Victor 
 Emmanuel's habits were excessive ; he had only 
 two strong tastes, horses and hunting. Before he 
 ascended the throne he used to say — " God ought 
 to have made me an English jockey instead of 
 a Duke of Savoy." One day his eldest son, 
 Umberto, being quite a child, was playing in 
 his father's room, and provoked at some mishap 
 to his toys, gave utterance to a loud " Contaccio," 
 a meaningless but extremely profane Piedmontese 
 oath. His horror-stricken attendant was beginning 
 to remonstrate with him, but the King interfered, 
 sayings" Leave him alone ; it is well that he 
 should speak the language of his country." 
 
 Victor Emmanuel loathed representation, cere- 
 monial, and officialism ; he dined at the primitive 
 hour of twelve, and when compelled to assist at a 
 gala banquet, he would sit through it, one gloved 
 hand resting on his cavalry sword, the other tor- 
 menting his prodigiously long moustache, talking 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 157 
 
 little, and unrestrainedly glad when the function 
 was over. In his shooting expeditions in the moun- 
 tains he lived like an Alpine hunter, covering many 
 miles of hard climbing a day, bringing down 
 numerous chamois, and laying himself down under 
 a rock, wrapped in his cloak, to sleep till dawn. 
 
 Fond as he was of women as a sex, he had 
 nothing to say to those of the upper classes ; his 
 conversation at balls and receptions when not bald 
 was tactless. He asked Madame de Malaret, the 
 wife of the French Charge d' Affaires, if she wore 
 stays, and when the lady looked her surprise, he 
 continued in cool explanation, that he thought 
 not, her figure was so supple. Unlike the King of 
 Naples, who had the skirts of the ballet-dancers 
 lengthened, and made them wear green undergar- 
 ments, Victor Emmanuel liked only the ballet, 
 and cared for neither opera nor comedy. 
 
 The Teatro Reggio was the fashionable and 
 daily resort of Turinese society during the Car- 
 nival. Three of the five tiers of boxes, unbroken 
 by dress-circle or gallery, were in the gift of the 
 Court — or rather the Chamberlain distributed 
 
158 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 the boxes to the aristocracy and " upper ten " only, 
 who paid their subscriptions. To be seen in those 
 seats was a social voucher. The higher row was 
 procurable by the bourgeoise, and the demi-monde 
 was relegated to those altitudes called "the 
 paradise." Full dress was de rigueur. 
 
 The theatrical appetite in Turin was insatiable. 
 The Piedmontese went to the theatre every night, 
 each woman having a whole, half, or a quarter of a 
 box at three or four different houses ; generally two 
 went shares together, so that they doubled their 
 opportunities. The men all went to the pit, where 
 they stood, looking about to see who was in the 
 boxes, which were virtually salons, and called on the 
 occupants ; fashionable women receiving as many as 
 fifty and sixty visitors in one evening. The price of 
 admittance for officers was nine francs for forty per- 
 formances, which, on the average, were superior in 
 quality and quantity to any but the best out of 
 Italy. One play in five acts, and two in one, were 
 an habitual bill of fare. At the Eeggio there were 
 never less than one opera, a serious ballet given 
 between the second and third act of the opera, 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 159 
 
 and a little one at the close. The most religious 
 silence obtained during the dancing, while convers- 
 ations were carried on audibly during the singing, 
 a solemn hush being only imperative for two or 
 three special airs, agreed upon in some occult way 
 at the beginning of the season. 
 
 Madame Frezzolini was then a favourite Prima 
 Donna ; her fine physique was eminently suited to 
 what the Italians call Opera seria ; she was tall, 
 dark, with a pale skin and flashing black eyes ; her 
 voice was of singular sweetness and purity, and 
 her highest notes unerringly true, but unfortunately 
 the very quality of the voice doomed it to be pre- 
 maturely worn, and the strain of singing in the 
 huge theatres of the Scala, the Fenice, and San 
 Carlo, precipitated its decline. Frezzolini, how- 
 ever, was still able to pose as a star, when, during 
 the season of '56 — '57, she delighted Madrid as 
 Norma and Semiramide. To her great chagrin, how- 
 ever, Alboni was engaged at the same time, or 
 shortly after, and shadowed her own popularity. 
 In order to rouse the public to some of the 
 enthusiasm she had at first excited, Frezzolini 
 
160 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 resorted to an unworthy device. In the morning 
 before lier benefit, as she was suffering from hoarse- 
 ness, she had a strip of paper pasted across the 
 bills late in the afternoon, stating that she had 
 just received the news of her father's death, but 
 that she would nevertheless go through her part in 
 the evening, craving the indulgence of the public 
 if her emotion impaired her singing. The house was 
 crowded ; she put out all her remaining strength, 
 and although the result was far from satisfactory, 
 her failure was attributed to filial sorrow, and she 
 was received with applause and flowers — a less 
 perfunctory homage then than it has since become. 
 Madame Frezzolini found this fictitious bereave- 
 ment so advantageous that she mourned her father 
 in several other cities, tiU the trick was exploded, 
 and she had to renounce the stage for good. 
 
 Madame Alboni never for one moment lost her 
 command over the most magnificent and unrivalled 
 contralto voice that has ever been heard. Not all 
 the disadvantages of her figure, not her increasing 
 and disproportionate embonpoint could mar the 
 exquisite charm of her liquid notes. She sang 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 161 
 
 without effort, with apparent unconsciousness ; she 
 was no actress at all, and her boyish head with its 
 short hair and large brown eyes was inconsistent 
 with any dramatic expression ; but her song was preg- 
 nant with the most subtle shades of sentiment. A 
 Frenchman compared her irreverently to a cask 
 whence a stream of crystalline water is pouring. 
 The Italians raved about her from the hour when 
 Eossini, whose pupil she was, made her dehuter at 
 Bologna. She was Jenny Lind's rival in London, 
 and took Paris by storm before going to Spain, and 
 thence to America. Her admirable talent levelled 
 the discrepancies between her person and the parts 
 she filled ; one forgot that Cenerentola could not 
 weigh fifteen stone ; that the bridge over which 
 Amina passes in her sleep had to be supported by 
 an extra girder ; one saw nothing grotesque in 
 the duet between a corpulent Arsace and a slim 
 Semiramide ; and when Maffio Orsini warbled " // 
 segreto " it became immaterial that the page of 
 Lucrezia Borgia wore a full long skirt over her 
 impossible tights. At a Court concert at Madrid, 
 Alboni made a hit by singing Danish ballads that 
 
 M 
 
162 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 carried away the audience beyond tlie bounds of 
 etiquette ; the Queen herself rose and complimented 
 her. 
 
 Alboni married early the Marchese Pepoli, a 
 Eoman nobleman, but did not for that leave the 
 stage ; like all stout women she was extremely easy- 
 tempered and eminently lazy. She was avowedly 
 fond of a succulent cuisine, and never travelled 
 or moved without her first-class man-cook. She 
 finally retired in 1863, in full possession of her 
 voice, and being a widow married again obscurely 
 and settled near Paris. 
 
 However, no Diva Avon from the public of Turin 
 more ardent enthusiasm than the danseuse, Fanny 
 Cerrito. During her engagement at the Teatro 
 Reggio, she had taken rooms at the H6tel Feder 
 Via San Francesco di Paule, and night after night 
 she was escorted home by fanatical admirers ; the 
 horses were frequently taken out of her carriage, 
 young men would harness themselves to it, and 
 lift her out in triumph at the door of the hotel. 
 She was the idol, the goddess of the whole city ; 
 her little worn shoes were purchased as priceless 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 163 
 
 relics, and the honesty of waiters and chamber- 
 maids imperilled by the bribes offered to obtain 
 them. Bouquets as broad as tables, of camellias 
 and Parma violets with her monogram in flowers, 
 were daily delivered at her door, so that Madame 
 Bartholon, the comely French manageress of the 
 hotel, finally gave up a large unused apartment 
 for the storage of those cumbersome ex votos. 
 
 Fanny Cerrito was born at Naples. She was 
 the daughter of a superior officer who had made 
 the campaign of Eussia with Napoleon I. She was 
 a mere child when the King of Naples, struck with 
 the grace and lightness of her dancing, advised her 
 to embrace the art as a profession. She did so, and 
 at eleven appeared for the first time at the San 
 Carlo theatre. From that hour her life became 
 a long triumph. At Eome her landau was converted 
 into a -bower of bloom ; painters and sculptors 
 begged for the favour of reproducing her face and 
 form ; poets wrote burning stanzas in her honour ; 
 the Pope, informed that her virtue was equal to 
 her talent, sent her the medal and diploma of St. 
 Cecilia, a distinction never before conferred on a 
 
 M 2 
 
164 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 dancer. At her last performance in Eome she was 
 crowned on the stage by a deputation of Roman 
 Princes, and saluted by the young girls of the 
 congregation of St. Cecilia. At Venice, where she 
 stayed at the Hotel Danieli, a bridge of boats 
 hidden under a canopy of flowers and foliage was 
 built with gondolas from her hotel to the Fenice, 
 and the ambassadors, nobUity, and dignitaries of 
 the city gave her a magnificent farewell fete. 
 
 At that time she might have made a splendid 
 marriage, but no temptation could induce her to 
 leave the stage. A year later she made the 
 acquaintance of St. L^on, whose real name was 
 Michel, son of the dancing - master at the 
 Court of Wurfcemberg. He was himself a fair 
 performer and an excellent musician ; he loved 
 the pretty dancer, and she returned his afi"ection, 
 but he was a Protestant, she an ardent Catholic, 
 and firmly resolved never to marry a man who 
 was not of her religion, she made his conversion 
 the condition of marriage. Being profoundly enam- 
 oured, and seeing no other means of winning his 
 idol, he consented. Cerrito was so devout that 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 165 
 
 she never came upon the stage without first making 
 the sign of the cross. 
 
 Like all artists she longed for the consecration 
 which a Parisian public alone can give. It was 
 in that city that Cerrito created her finest parts 
 in La Fille de Marbre, La Vivandiere, Stella, 
 Gemma, which she composed with Theophile 
 Gautier, Count G-abrielli writing the music, and 
 Le Violon du Diable, intimately associated with 
 her and her husband, for St. Leon wrote nearly 
 all the music, having his wife's role in view ; he 
 played the violin with great skill, and between 
 them they made this ballet a world-wide success. 
 
 Cerrito was pretty, lively, and witty. Eoqueplan 
 said of her — " Dancers generally only have esprit 
 in their feet, she has wit in her whole person." 
 She went to Russia, where she made a golden 
 harvest, and was invited by the Emperor to the 
 coronation fetes at Moscow ; he drank her health 
 in flattering words at a banquet which he gave 
 to all the artists. Her marriage did not turn out 
 well. After a time she separated from St. Leon, 
 who was never heard of again, and pursued her 
 
166 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 career alone ; but a greater trial was in store for 
 the SylpHide. At a performance of the Mile de 
 Feu her dress caught fire, and she was with 
 difficulty rescued from the flames. After a long 
 and painful illness she recovered, but although 
 not disfigured her health was afi'ected, and she was 
 obliged to give up dancing. She was only thirty- 
 five, and it nearly broke her heart. She lives at 
 Passy, near the Bois de Boulogne, in a pretty little 
 hotel planned and buUt by her, surrounded by 
 birds and flowers, having retained her kindliness 
 and wit, actively charitable among the poor, and 
 visited by friends among whom she can count 
 the highest names of aU countries. Once she was 
 threatened with blindness, but an operation was 
 successfully performed by Doctor Galezowski, and 
 light has returned to the gentle little fairy's bright 
 brown eyes. 
 
 Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, brother of 
 Napoleon!., was twice married. His second wife, a 
 Madame Jouberthon, widow of a stockbroker, pre- 
 sented him with nine children. The eldest daughter 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 167 
 
 married an Irish, gentleman, Mr. Wyse, who was 
 afterwards British Ambassador at Athens, and their 
 two daughters married respectively — one, General 
 Turr ; the other, first a Prince Solms Solms, and 
 secondly Signer Eatazzi. Both sisters achieved 
 a certain notoriety in Piedmont. Madame Eatazzi, 
 who had not her sister's beauty, was clever to 
 eccentricity, and unconventional to impropriety. 
 She went so far that she was snubbed at a Court 
 ball by Victor Emmanuel, who if more than lax 
 in his relations with women in private life, tolerated 
 no infractions to etiquette in official circles. She 
 affected a gushing and passionate love for her 
 second husband, testified by girlish demonstrations, 
 kissing him in public, rumpling his scanty locks, 
 addressing him by childishly endearing appellations, 
 and even going so far that when she invited a 
 party of twelve to dinner she had only eleven 
 chairs in the room, so that she was compelled, as 
 she archly expressed it, " to sit in her old man's 
 lap." Eatazzi, who, like a man in love, had at 
 first been entranced by these foolish antics, soon 
 tired of their incongruity, and as the lady possessed 
 
168 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 an ungovernable temper, and resented his coldness, 
 she brought matters to a crisis, and a separation. 
 
 Adeline Wyse Bonaparte lived with her husband. 
 General Turr, at Pallanza ; his title of General had 
 been given him by Victor Emmanuel in acknow- 
 ledgment of the brilliant part he had played ia 
 the war of liberation; he served with Garibaldi 
 in '59 and '60, although his military , career had 
 begun as a lieutenant in the Austrian army. His 
 sympathies, however, were always with the Italians, 
 and when in 1849 the revolutionary Government 
 of Hungary called on all Hungarians serving the 
 House of Hapsbourg in Italy to desert, Turr 
 went over to the Piedmontese, and was appointed 
 Colonel of the Hungarian legion. His martial, 
 handsome face was not often seen in Turin, but 
 during his absence in Eoumania Madame Turr 
 used to visit her sister. Her blonde beauty and 
 winning ways always brought round her a host 
 of admirers, then suddenly without a word of 
 warning the capricious woman would slip away, 
 drive or walk alone to the station, accoutred as 
 if for a drive or a call, enter a first-class carriage 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 169 
 
 and return to Pallanza, vividly enjoying in 
 imagination the discomfiture of her swains, who 
 would search for her disconsolately at the theatres 
 and in her usual haunts, with the frank disregard 
 of reserve or mystery which characterizes Italian 
 gallantry. She was, however, as far as was known 
 an irreproachable wife, and none of the conjugal 
 episodes which marred the felicity of the Ratazzi 
 marriage ever marred hers. 
 
 Admiral Persano who lost the battle of Lissa, 
 and General Cigala who never won any, but who 
 was a capital judge of horse-flesh and kept the 
 Eoyal stud up to the standard of perfection of 
 which Italy is justly proud, were brothers-in-law ; 
 they had married English sisters. The Prince 
 de Carignan, uncle of Victor Emmanuel, appreciated 
 both ladies, and showed his regard by allowing 
 theni and their friends the use of his box at all 
 the theatres. Cigala was a stout, jolly bon vivant, 
 and he must have been much maligned by report 
 if he did not aid and abet the King in many of 
 his less creditable pursuits. He was of opinion 
 
170 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 that a low-born mistress is less dangerous than a 
 high-born favourite, and encouraged rather than 
 repressed the tastes of his master for promiscuous 
 love-making. He, however, staunchly supported 
 Count Cavour in his opposition to the morganatic 
 alliance of the King with Eosina. 
 
 Count Persano was the type of a naval officer 
 in figure, manner, and general trimness. He 
 proved himself to be an inferior commander 
 when his strategic powers were called into play; 
 but he w^as liked for his personal qualities, and 
 his friends rallied round him after the public 
 disgrace of his defeat. He related, with perhaps 
 a little want of discretion, that when he left 
 Genoa with his squadron officially on a mission 
 to oppose the landing of Garibaldi m the kingdom 
 of Naples, and to make him a prisoner, if possible, 
 he saUed with secret orders on board, to be opened 
 only at a certain distance from shore. They 
 contained an intimation to deliver into the hands 
 of the great Condottiere, or his messengers, a sum 
 of two millions of francs, and not to interfere in 
 any way with his plan of invasion. The result 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 171 
 
 of this double-dealing was, that the King and 
 Queen, driven out of Naples, had to take refuge 
 in G-aeta ; it was the first step towards the final 
 annexation of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies to 
 Italy. Officers of the Swiss Guard, after returning 
 to their country, have not hesitated to say that the 
 insurrection in Naples would never have been 
 crowned with success had the Swiss regiments 
 still been in the city. They had been disbanded 
 with a purpose ; disaffection and suspicion had 
 been sown with Machiavelian foresight, and when 
 the King at last consented to their departure 
 he deprived himself by that act of the only ■ 
 defenders on whose fidelity he could count, and 
 who would have laid down their lives as loyally 
 to protect his throne and person, as their fore- 
 fathers had done to save Louis XVI. and Marie 
 Antoinette. The anger and discontent of the 
 Swiss officers was born of the feeling that they 
 had been made the tools of treachery. One of 
 them, who had lingered long in the casemates of 
 Gaeta with the heroic Queen of Naples, used to 
 shake his fist and say fiercely, when the total 
 
172 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 surrender of Naples was spoken of, " Ah ! Jiad 
 we been there all this would not have happened." 
 
 The Duke of Genoa, father of Queen Margherita, 
 in no way resembled his brother Victor Emmanuel. 
 He was taller, fairer, slimmer, and handsomer. 
 Equally brave — for he was wounded in battle — he 
 lacked the extraordinary power which the King 
 exercised over his troops. There was a strange 
 and unaccountable fascination for the army in that 
 square, thick-set figure ; in the irregular features, 
 deriving their strength from the deep, flashing eye ; 
 in the heavy moustache sp fiercely twirled over 
 the fuU lip. Victor Emmanuel in uniform, on 
 horseback — he was a magnificent rider — electrified 
 the soldiers ; never was the effect he produced 
 more flagrant than when he made his public entry 
 into Florence, after the annexation of Tuscany. 
 Side by side with enthusiasm — spontaneous or com- 
 manded — there was a strong feeling of antagonism 
 towards the usurper and distrust of the alien, 
 among the new populations he came to claim as 
 his own, as well as among the troops who had 
 taken the fresh oath of allegiance to the House of 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 173 
 
 Savoy. A disinterested spectator could note a 
 want of spontaneity in the applause, almost as 
 ominous as silence, when the head of the military 
 cortege made its appearance; but when the King 
 rode forward on his powerful charger, the same 
 that had carried him at Solferino, and as the 
 horse reared and pawed the air, lifted his sword 
 on high and saluted the crowd, a thundering cheer 
 burst from every mouth, and long shouts of " Viva 
 el Be" followed his retreating figure. Even his 
 enemies were carried away, and in that brief 
 moment, more than by statesman's craft or battles 
 won, he asserted himself King of Italy. 
 
 The Duke of Genoa had married a daughter of 
 King John of Saxony, a pale, blonde woman. 
 When he died in that winter of 1855, which plunged 
 the House of Savoy in a treble mourning — for 
 it had witnessed also the death of the Queen and 
 Queen-mother — the Duchess of Genoa, mother of 
 two young children, appeared inconsolable. How- 
 ever, not many years later, the news of her second 
 marriage took the country by surprise, and caused 
 as much consternation as wonder. There was 
 
174 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 living then in Turin a young officer called Eapallo, 
 wlio had no particular merit, no particular grace ; 
 he was able to bear the title of Marquis because 
 once at a reception of military men King Charles 
 Albert had carelessly addressed his father by that 
 title, and on being made to notice his mistake, had 
 said — " Well, let it stand, the King does not take 
 back what he has once given." It was that same 
 young officer whom the Duchess of Genoa — the 
 sister of one monarch, the daughter of another — 
 announced her determination to take as a husband, 
 in spite of all obstacles, and she carried her point. 
 She had not the excuse of overweening love, for in 
 a capital so comparatively small as Turin no 
 liaison or intrigue would have existed between 
 the Duchess and Eapallo without becoming known. 
 They had never been seen to meet or exchange any 
 but commonplace words ; no clandestine intercourse 
 was ever suspected ; and even after the marriage 
 had actually taken place there seemed no tender- 
 ness or aiFection in the relations of the strangely- 
 assorted couple. Even after the bride had suc- 
 ceeded, not without difficulty, in appeasing the 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 175 
 
 first anger of the King, Eapallo did not take, and 
 indeed never took, in her establishment the position 
 of a husband ; he never sat down before her unless 
 bidden, and his functions seemed more those of a 
 major-domo or a chamberlain. The future status 
 of the Duchess, both in her own and adopted 
 country, was the subject of delicate diplomatic 
 negotiations. The King of Saxony declared that 
 he would not acknowledge his daughter as Princess 
 of the Blood if the King of Sardinia did not main- 
 tain her in her rank and prerogatives as Duchess of 
 Genoa. The King of Sardinia made a counter de- 
 claration to the same effect, and a statu quo seemed 
 inevitable, when, through the tact and conciliatory 
 spirit of Count de Launay, Piedmontese Minister at 
 Berlin, accredited in the same capacity to Dresden, 
 who had been entrusted with the negotiation of 
 this affair, it was at last satisfactorily arranged. 
 The mother of the future Queen of Italy, and of 
 the youthful Prince Thomas, lost neither rank 
 nor position by her inexplicable mesalliance, and 
 retained the guardianship of her children. 
 
 Opinions were divided upon the motives that 
 
176 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 could have actuated her : some believed that she 
 had fallen a victim to an unscrupulous intrigue ; 
 others, and those not the least likely to know, 
 affirmed that hers was but one of the many 
 marriages hastily concluded by a frightened woman 
 to avoid the consequences and scandal of a hidden 
 liaison, and that Rapallo, who had been Officier 
 d'Ordonnance to the late Duke of Genoa, had 
 either sacrificed himself, or been worked upon . to 
 save the honour of the Duchess, compromised by 
 
 the Marchese D , a married man, who could 
 
 not take upon himself the responsibilities of a 
 possible and dreaded event. It was also added, 
 that the alarm of the Duchess proving false, she 
 had never forgiven RapaUo the step she had 
 taken to protect herself, and with feminine cruelty 
 avenged on him, by coldness and contempt, her 
 rash and causeless precipitation. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 177 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Troubled times in 1860 — Pio Nono — Talleyrand — Mcholas I. 
 — Dowager Empress of Eussia — Annexation of Naples — 
 Gaeta — The Seals of Italy — King Jerome's death — Society 
 in Berlin — Etiquette — Grand Duchess Marie of Leuchten- 
 berg — Countess Adlerberg — Baroness de Budberg. 
 
 Towards the middle of the year 1859 Piedmont 
 became alive to the conviction that it had been 
 cheated in the Peace of Villafranca, and resolved 
 to "far da se," as the universal phrase then went, 
 and to accomplish the unification of the whole 
 Peninsula by driving King Francis out of Naples ^ 
 and the Pope, Pius IX., out of Eome. At the 
 same time Poland was once more in ferment ; 
 "the great crucified of nations," as CherbuUiez 
 has called her, had another spasm of independence, 
 and harboured the impossible wish of making 
 Prince Eadziwill its king ; a plan so improbable 
 that it can only be compared to the supposed 
 
 N 
 
178 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 proposal made by the head of the House of 
 Eothschild to the great powers : they would 
 recognize him as King of the Holy Land under 
 its old name of Judaea, and in return for their 
 protectorate he would pay into their coffers a large 
 annual sum. This plan was seriously discussed by 
 some credulous people, and objected to by those 
 of religious views, on the plea that, were such a 
 combination approved of by Christians, it would 
 be flying in the face of the New Testament, and 
 authorizing the Jews to regain possession of the 
 land from which they had been exiled by the 
 word of God. 
 
 The Pope requested the Sardinian Minister to 
 leave Rome in October, and issued a proclamation 
 against the King, whom he called a usurper. As 
 the months rolled on events occurred which still 
 further embittered the relations between the 
 European States ; an alliance between Austria and 
 Prussia was strongly advocated in both countries, 
 and Napoleon avowed his intention of forsaking 
 his old ally. Piedmont, if an invasion of Central 
 Italy took place. In March, 1860, the demon- 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 179 
 
 strations against the Papacy became more and 
 more frequent in Eome ; the Pope threatened to 
 excommunicate Victor Emmanuel, whom he con- 
 sidered as the chief cause of the disaffection in the 
 States of the Church, fostered by him to suit his 
 ambitious schemes. However, when the Bull of 
 excommunication was promulgated at St. Peter 
 on the last day of the month, and a strong clerical 
 counter demonstration hailed it with enthusiasm, 
 the King's name did not appear. Pio Nono had 
 no personal animosity against Carlo Alberto's son, 
 and liked to consider the House of a Savoy as a 
 dutiful child of the Church. He was not only 
 the kindest of men but the most placable, and 
 perhaps as the consequence of these qualities — a 
 weak one. He had been carried away by a vision 
 of reforms in the Papal Government at the begin- 
 ning of his reign, and had made concessions which 
 had fiUed the Romans with joy and stimulated the 
 rest of Italy to similar efforts ; but he recoiled 
 from the further liberties which the people, 
 inflamed by the French Eevolution of 1848, 
 demanded of him, and retrograded on the road of 
 
 N 2 
 
180 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 progress as hastily and imprudently as he had 
 taken rapid strides onward. The disappointed 
 hopes of the Romans begat ingratitude, and they 
 banished the Pontiff, in whose honour they had 
 written hymns. Gentle, pious, and patient, the 
 Pope bore his exile at G-aeta and Portici with 
 the same resignation that had upheld him, when, 
 after Count Rossi's assassination in the streets of 
 Rome, he had to fly that city in disguise. He 
 harboured no animosity against his enemies, his 
 tender, beautiful smile and kindly words were 
 ever ready for all, and many traits of his forbear- 
 ance and mansuetude are on record. It was he 
 who pronounced the characteristic words, " Kneel, 
 my son, the blessing of an old man can do no 
 harm," when an Englishman, who had demanded 
 an audience out of curiosity, refused to do violence 
 to his staunch Protestant tenets by bending the 
 knee before the Holy Father. 
 
 Giovanni Mastaii Ferretti was not in his youth 
 destined to the Church ; he had a strong vocation 
 for the army, and entered the Guardia Nobile 
 of Pius Vn. As a handsome, dashing officer 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 181 
 
 he made the acquaintance of Lady Clementina 
 Villiers, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, who 
 was visiting Eome. He fell ardently in love with 
 her, and was loved in return ; no objection could 
 be raised to their marriage, as the family of 
 Ferretti was as noble as the English Earl's, but 
 Lady Clementina was a strict Protestant, young 
 Mastai a fervent Catholic ; neither would abjure 
 their faith, neither consent to a mixed marriage, 
 and they parted for ever. The Garde Noble 
 became a priest, and petitioned to be sent on a 
 distant mission to Chili. But for that thwarted 
 love he would never have been the Pope Pio 
 Nono. 
 
 Abeady in April rumours of skirmishes on the 
 frontier startled the expectant neutrals. General 
 Lamoricifere left France to take the command of 
 the Pontefici, hoping to oppose the advance of 
 the Piedmontese and the march of the Eevolution, 
 but he was defeated, and the volunteers who had 
 joined him dispersed. Garibaldi losing neither 
 time nor opportunities landed at Marsala with a 
 body of irregular troops, soon supplemented by 
 
182 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 regiments of the line, and being furnished with 
 the sinews of war by the Piedmontese Government, 
 made a successful advance. 
 
 In view of the importance of events, the Eegent 
 of Prussia meets the Emperor Napoleon at Baden- 
 Baden. In September the Piedmontese National 
 Guard is mobilized, the Count of Syracuse comes 
 to Turin, Garibaldi is triumphant at Naples, King 
 Francis virtually a prisoner at Gaeta, the Sardinian 
 troops enter the CattoUca, and France recalls her 
 Minister, Count de Talleyrand Perigord, from 
 Turin. 
 
 This diplomat, as prudent as he was astute, 
 afterwards came to Berlin. He had married the 
 enormously wealthy and only daughter of a 
 Monsieur Bernardaky, a Eussian financier, who had 
 made his fortune by lucky speculations carried on 
 with unscrupulous audacity. Madame de Talleyrand 
 was graceful and attractive without being pretty, 
 and wore the biggest diamonds with careless prodi- 
 gality. Two of those stones, as large as nuts, hung 
 from the long ends of the velvet ribbon called 
 "Smvez moijeune Jiomme," which all women then wore 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 183 
 
 round their necks, and whicli tied behind fell to the 
 hem of their gowns. She lost one of her diamonds 
 at a garden-party, and seemed in no way concerned 
 about its recovery, saying only with her languid 
 Eussian accent, " It was probably badly fastened." 
 
 Count Talleyrand, the nephew of the last Duke 
 of Montmorency, was authorized by a decree of 
 Napoleon III. in 1864, to bear the old historical 
 name and title in addition to those he already 
 possessed. 
 
 King Victor Emmanuel entering the kingdom of 
 Naples at the head of his army, a medal is struck 
 in commemoration of the victorious campaign ; 
 Eussia withdraws her whole Legation from Turin, 
 and Marquis Sauli, Sardinian Minister at Peters- 
 burg, leaves that city with his subordinates ; the 
 Eegent of Prussia goes to Varsovie to meet the 
 Emperor Alexander III., but the news of the 
 serious illness of the Dowager Empress hurries the 
 departure of the Czar, and compels him to put off 
 a review and state dinner and start precipitately 
 for his capital. The Eegent, who had gone to 
 the interview unaccompanied by his Minister de 
 
184 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Schleinitz, returned, and nothing transpired in 
 public of what had actually taken place during the 
 brief meeting. 
 
 The Empress Dowager of Eussia died on the 
 1st of November, 1860. She was sister of the 
 King of Prussia and widow of Nicholas I., who 
 visited Berlin repeatedly, a deep and mutual 
 regard existing between the brothers-in-law. His 
 last visit was during the Eegency of the Prince of 
 Prussia, and among other festivities given in his 
 honour, was a gala performance at the Opera-house. 
 The entire pit was occupied by officers ; the balcony, 
 and boxes on the left of the central Eoyal box, 
 by the Diplomatic Corps and " Excellenzen ;" the 
 opposite seats by the Berlin aristocracy and the 
 bulk of society. All admissions were, as usual in 
 such cases, by invitations issued by the Master of 
 Ceremonies. When the Eegent entered the roomy, 
 brilliantly-lit box, with its row of gilded arm-chairs 
 in front and other rows of crimson chairs behind, 
 accompanied by the Czar and the Princess of 
 Prussia, a low murmur of admiration for the 
 stalwart beauty of Nicholas I. came from the 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 185 
 
 audience as they rose to their feet. Accustomed 
 as the Germans are to the fine presence of their 
 own princes, they could not help being struck with 
 the superior physique and splendid form of the 
 Moscovite ruler, indeed " every inch a king." In 
 his dazzling white uniform, with numerous orders 
 on his breast, his silver, eagle-crowned helmet 
 resting on his arm, he realized the ideal of those 
 demi-gods of legends and traditions whose doughty 
 deeds were as natural to them as the air they 
 breathed. Without exaggeration, and setting 
 aside the glamour of the frame in which that 
 noble figure appeared that night, it is not too 
 much to say, that he stood out unequalled and 
 unsurpassed. His features and expression were as 
 commanding as his form ; it was easy to realize how, 
 in his own capital, issuing from his palace alone 
 and unarmed, he quelled the revolt of the troops 
 clamouring in the square, by the magic of his look, 
 and saw the soldiers drop upon their knees before 
 him. He then bore no trace of the disease which 
 not long after carried him off. Atrophy of the 
 lungs it was called, and scientifically speaking may 
 
186 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 have been the primordial cause of his death ; but 
 if ever a man died of a broken heart the Emperor 
 Nicholas was that man. As a ruler he never re- 
 covered from the disaster of the Crimea, or, as a 
 father, from the loss of the adored young daughter 
 he buried at Tzarcoselo. His widow, the actual 
 Empress Dowager, was always delicate, and finally 
 succumbed to a horrible and fortunately rare 
 disease, the particulars of which were too painful 
 to bear recording. She travelled all over Europe to 
 find relief, cure she knew there was none. Her 
 expenses on those occasions were stupendous ; her 
 suite consisted of no less than two hundred persons, 
 and there seemed absolutely no limit to the outia)'' 
 incurred for the accommodation of the invalid lady. 
 At Vevey, in Switzerland, where she had decided 
 to stop for twenty-four hours, the H6tel des Trois 
 Couronnes was engaged beforehand — the landlord 
 dismissing all the travellers already in residence 
 and refusing others ; the charges he made were so 
 exorbitant that they amounted to his receipts for 
 two years, admitting the house to be full the whole 
 time. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 187 
 
 When the Empress died, as had already been the 
 case at the death of Emperor Nicholas, the news 
 arrived by wire in Berlin several hours before the 
 one stated in the telegrams, owing to the difference 
 of time between the two capitals. A mourning of 
 one month was ordered, and the Princes Charles 
 and Albert of Prussia, her younger brothers, went 
 to attend the funeral at St. Petersburg. Almost 
 at the same time the health of King Frederick 
 William, which had been comparatively better 
 again, caused serious anxiety, and it was feared 
 he would not survive his sister. He was then at 
 Potsdam showing signs of flickering intelligence, 
 which, after so long a period of total mental 
 aberration, was considered as a fatal symptom. 
 
 In the month of November the Sardinian 
 Legations abroad began to seal their official corre- 
 spondence with a new seal, bearing no longer the 
 cross of Savoy, but the arms of the kingdom of 
 Italy. This gave rise to a little incident tending 
 to prove the existence of a Cabinet Noir in the 
 Prussian post-office. The Minister was asked by 
 the Department why, having received the new seals. 
 
188 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 lie continued to use the old ones, and being able 
 to affirm that all the despatches leaving his office 
 had the second imprint, it was supposed that the 
 Prussian officials had either not noticed the change 
 or were as yet unprovided with a duplicate. 
 
 The animosity between the representatives of the 
 different belligerent countries was resumed with 
 added vigour, and was, if possible, more puerile and 
 grotesque than the preceding year. It would have 
 been well if, instead of indulging in unworthy de- 
 monstrations, they had followed the example given 
 by King Francis at Gaeta, who, hearing that three 
 barques under the Sardinian flag were tossing in 
 distress at the mouth of the harbour during a 
 severe storm, gave orders that they should be 
 signalled to enter the port, and remain under his 
 prote&tion until the weather allowed them to 
 pursue their course. 
 
 The Queen of Naples, although beginning to 
 suffer from the long confinement in the fortress, 
 so foreign to her active habits, was unremitting 
 in her endeavours to cheer, console, and encourage 
 the garrison, and was the idol of the soldiers. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 189 
 
 Meanwhile Ancona had capitulated, Garibaldi had 
 captured two thousand prisoners, the Piedmontese 
 army, with Victor Emmanuel at its head, had 
 entered Naples, and in December an armistice was 
 proposed. France, in order to compel Francis to 
 accept it, threatened to withdraw her fleet. The 
 King remaining obdurate, the French ships de- 
 parted at the beginning of 1861 ; the bombard- 
 ment of Gaeta recommenced, and disorder broke 
 out in the Abbruzzi. The resistance of the be- 
 leaguered would not be long protracted ; pro- 
 vision and ammunition were exhausted, and it 
 capitulated. General Cialdini entered in triumph ; 
 the King and Queen left their last stronghold on 
 a French frigate, and sought refuge in Eome. 
 Immediately afterwards the first Italian Parliament 
 was opened by Victor Emmanuel in Turin, with a 
 short, telling address ; and out of the two hundred 
 and fifty-two deputies, two hundred and fifty 
 voted enthusiastically for the proclamation making 
 him King of Italy. Before another month was 
 over, England had recognized the new kingdom 
 — an example followed by France in June only. 
 
190 RANDOM REOOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Death had again been busy among the Eoyal 
 families. King Jerome of Westphalia died in Paris 
 in June, caring more for his son in America by his 
 first marriage than for the three children of his 
 second wife. He had never quite forgiven himself 
 for having his marriage with Elizabeth Patterson 
 annulled, in obedience to the dictates of ambition, 
 when his brother placed him on a throne. He 
 died almost obscurely — neither Prince Napoleon 
 nor Princess Mathilde Demidoff grieved much for 
 their father, and whatever popularity he had re- 
 tained was neither flattering nor enviable. The 
 people of Paris, so quick to pick up a joke and 
 point a satire, had associated him with the hero of 
 Offenbach's song, " Quand j'eiais Roi de Beotie," in 
 Orphee auw Enfers, with some justice, it must be 
 owned, for the old dethroned sovereign was very 
 prone to allude to the days of his elevation on 
 every possible occasion. 
 
 The Duke of Mecklembourg Strelitz died in 
 September ; his wife was the eldest daughter of the 
 Duke of Cambridge. In the same month passed 
 away the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, second 
 
COURTS AND SOGIETT. 191 
 
 wife of Prince Albert's father. All the German 
 reigning families being related with each other, and 
 with the countless dynasties of the Confederation 
 that were mediatized after '48, Court mournings 
 were extremely frequent, limited, in certain cases, 
 to three days only, but always strictly observed by 
 the " hoffiihiff"^ among the community whenever 
 they appeared in society or at the play, but not so 
 rigorously during the daytime. The printed an- 
 nouncement was delivered by hand at each house 
 from the office of the Master of Ceremonies, and 
 contained the most minute instructions. Some- 
 times, when the Carnival had been saddened by 
 many consecutive mournings, a mandate was 
 issued permitting white to be worn at certain 
 specified balls, instead of the obligatory black. No 
 mourning was allowed at Court, so that ladies 
 having to wear it for private bereavements never 
 appeared at the Palace. At a Royal marriage it 
 was considered in bad taste to wear white, that 
 distinction remaining the exclusive prerogative of 
 
 ^ The term applied to every person having admittance to 
 Court ; literally, " capable of Court." 
 
192 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 the bride. Certain furs — ermine, for instance — were 
 tacitly supposed to be monopolized by tbe royalties ; 
 ■ — a foreign woman who appeared in Berlin with a 
 cloak trimmed with ermine, was almost mobbed at 
 first under the impression that she was a Royal 
 Highness, and afterwards informed that she was 
 committing a vague infringement of etiquette by 
 continuing to wear it. 
 
 The Court never went to any entertainment or 
 feie given by foreign diplomats — there were no 
 ambassadors in those days — save when a member 
 of the Royal Family they represented happened to 
 be present. Thus the Court assisted at the ball 
 given by Lord Bloomfield to the Prince 6f Wales, 
 by the Marquis de Moustiers to Prince Napoleon, by 
 the Count de Launay to King Umberto ; but the 
 royalties numbered in force at the Ministeriums, and 
 at the house of the German nobles who received ; 
 they were always most gracious and sociable, and 
 seemed to enjoy themselves. The princesses danced 
 every dance, sending their respective chamberlain 
 to inform their partner of the honour they intended 
 for him, and were only invited first by princes. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 193 
 
 It was obligator}" on every lady to throw over otter 
 engagements if asked for the same dance by a Royal 
 Highness, but she maintained them in the case of 
 Serene Highnesses applying last. In Berlin, as in 
 nearly all Germany, it was customary to make en- 
 gagements, especially for the cotillon, not only at the 
 beginning of the ball, but days and even weeks in 
 advance — engaged lovers dancing for years the last 
 and first dance together. The balls at the Schloss 
 invariably began with a Polonaise, a sort of rapid 
 march or promenade ; the Sovereign leading the 
 way with the highest Royal lady present was fol- 
 lowed by other couples observing the same rules of 
 precedence, and a certain number of guests joined, 
 exchanging partners as they went, till the music 
 ceased, and the ordinary proceedings were entered 
 upon. The suppers were on a large and magnifi- 
 cent scale, but there were Wasser B'dlle that ended 
 early, and where only light refreshments were 
 served. 
 
 The Grand Duchess Marie de Leuchtenberg, a 
 daughter of Emperor Nicholas, visited Berlin with 
 
 her two sons, fine little boys wearing the Russian 
 
 o 
 
194 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 dress ; tlie red silk shirt embroidered on the 
 shoulders, the full velvet trousers tucked in the 
 high-tasselled boots, and the broad sash or belt is 
 eminently picturesque and becoming to children. 
 Their mother was still a beautiful woman ; she had 
 all the Russian adaptability and grace, and was one 
 of the most admired and brilliant women of the 
 Court of St. Petersburg. She had been the 
 heroine of a little comedy enacted off the stage by 
 the inimitable actor Bressant, not then belonging 
 to the Comedie Fran^aise, but already a distin- 
 guished artist, and giving full promise of the talent 
 which was to reap for him the envied place of 
 Societaire to the first theatre of the world. He was 
 with a French company in St. Petersburg, and 
 much appreciated. The Grand Duchess Marie had 
 been fascinated by his excellent manners and gen- 
 tlemanly bearing, and had had several opportunities 
 of judging them — actors in Russia being particularly 
 well treated in society. How far she let him see 
 her partiality, or in what way he responded to it, 
 was never clearly ascertained, only after a little 
 supper, prolonged far into the night, at which she 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 195 
 
 and Bressant were present, the actor received a 
 
 summary order to leave the capital and the country 
 
 Mrithout delay, and was accompanied as far as the 
 
 frontier by the mysterious and occult emissaries 
 
 of the far-seeing, far-reaching, omnipresent and 
 
 omniscient Eussian Police. He was, however, given 
 
 to understand that no blame whatever attached 
 
 to Jiim. 
 
 The wife of the Russian military attache, General 
 
 Count Adlerberg, was a striking figure among the 
 
 most conspicuous in Berlin society. Of German 
 
 origin, irregularly descended from a Princess of 
 
 Thurn and Taxis, she was distantly related to the 
 
 HohenzoUerns. She had been so marvellously 
 
 beautiful that the Count, her second husband, 
 
 declared he had never forgotten the impression 
 
 he received when he saw her for the first time. 
 
 She had been married very young to Baron de 
 
 Krlidener, Russian Minister in Norway and 
 
 Sweden; he was a sombre, hard, violent, and 
 
 exceedingly clever man ; he had lost one arm, 
 
 and his jealous disposition fitted him ill to be 
 
 the husband of a universally-admired woman. 
 
 o 2 
 
196 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 After several violent scenes they separated. Tlie 
 Emperor Nicholas, who had a warm admiration 
 for Madame de Krtidener, facilitated the separation 
 by every possible means, and it would undoubtedly 
 have ended in a divorce had not the Czar dis- 
 covered that he had a rival in the person of Count 
 Adlerberg. Actuated in his turn by unconscious 
 displeasure, he no longer felt the same inclination 
 to free her from her conjugal fetters, so that the 
 course of the new love ran anything but smoothly. 
 Madame de Krtidener and Count Adlerberg — who 
 found himself suddenly out of favour at Court — 
 lived apart from the world on the Bosphorus, 
 till the opportune death of Baron Kriidener en- 
 abled them to legalize their union and return to 
 society as man and wife. Count Adlerberg, re- 
 instated in the Czar's good graces, came to Berlin 
 as Military Envoy, and by a ukase of Alexander II. 
 the certificate and inscriptions of his marriage were 
 antidated by several years. 
 
 Madame d'Adlerberg, whose imposing beauty 
 survived youth, was formed by nature to hold 
 sovereign sway ; her conversation was brilliant, 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 197 
 
 her instruction vast and varied ; she had read 
 much, French was as familiar to her as Eussian 
 or German ; she was charitable and generous, a 
 second Madame de Swetchine, with the rare faculty 
 — that seems lost with the disappearance of the 
 great ladies of the last century — of saying audacious 
 things, of relating risky anecdotes, of throwing an 
 epigram or pointing a repartee without imperilling 
 dignity of manner, or the exquisite self-respect 
 of a gentlewoman. She was highly appreciated 
 by the Eegent, adored by the younger princes, 
 worshipped by her husband, and had a unique 
 salon in Berlin. Naturally she was disliked by 
 the women of the Diplomatic corps ; her position 
 icit/t them, but not of them, caused irritation, as also 
 her careless indifference to all claims of seniority 
 or precedence. It mattered little to her if at 
 Court her appointed place, in virtue of her hus- 
 band's office, was below the Eussian Envoy's wife, 
 for she was certain of being soon singled out with 
 flattering distinction by some member of the Eoyal 
 Family, and beckoned to the charmed circle around 
 the throne. 
 
198 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 The Eussian Minister, Baron Budberg, was the 
 only diplomat whose Government owned a palace 
 in Berlin for its Legation. It was, and is to this 
 day, a fine building, situated Unter den Linden, and 
 was always occupied by the Czar when he visited 
 Berlin. Although the house was his, in consider- 
 ation of any expense or inconvenience his short 
 stay might cause, he regularly compensated it by 
 allowing the Minister a whole year's extra salary. 
 A few dinners and one ball constituted the sum 
 total of the hospitalities of the Legation, with now 
 and then some private theatricals — always in 
 French. Madame de Budberg gradually became 
 more reserved and morose ; her health did not 
 seem affected, and the doctors were baffled. One 
 day she had herself driven to Charlottenburg, 
 alighted, walked into the park, stood over a small 
 bridge across the end of the lake where the carp 
 are fed, leaned over, disappeared in the water, 
 and was drowned, Nobody believed in so impro- 
 bable an accident, assigning various reasons for her 
 death — some of a purely domestic nature — but the 
 truth was never known, her husband and family 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 199 
 
 persistently denying a suicide, and keeping up the 
 fiction of a fatality. Baron Brunnow, who after- 
 wards went as Russian Minister to London, was 
 M. de Budberg's successor, and lived en gargon, as 
 was his wont, Madame de Brunnow never quite 
 liking the place to which he was accredited, and 
 under some pretext or other selecting a difi'erent 
 residence. 
 
200 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 IX. 
 
 Death of King Frederick William IV. — Traiierhof — Charlotten- 
 burg — Italian Special Envoys — La Marmora — Incident of 
 the Coronation at Koenigsberg — Death, of Pedro V. — 
 Eoyal Theatres — Trehelli — ra,ure — Lucca — Offenbach — 
 Actors — Opera Balls — Society — Ballets — Countess Eossi 
 (Sontag). 
 
 The year 1860 closed gloomily. For twenty -four 
 hours the condition of the King of Prussia had been 
 desperate. On the Tuesday morning, January 1st, 
 the news of his death came from Potsdam, but it 
 proved false, and with intermittent, lingering returns 
 to life the day wore on, till at twenty minutes past 
 midnight, on the Wednesday, he breathed his last. 
 The cold was intense, far beyond the average even 
 in those northern latitudes, and yet it increased in 
 severity, till it culminated on the day of the funeral, 
 which took place on the 7th of January, at Potsdam, 
 with an enormous display of troops, in presence of 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY 201 
 
 the whole Diplomatic Corps, who, with the Cabinet 
 Ministers and other dignitaries, had to leave Berlin 
 at a very early hour to be conveyed to the 
 Friedenskirche, where the ceremony took place. 
 Notwithstanding the distance, the snow and the 
 bitter temperature, the concourse of people was 
 immense, and the whole proceedings went off 
 without hitch or delay. The cavalry soldiers were 
 allowed to wrap their stirrups in straw, to prevent 
 the steel freezing to their boots ; all possible pre- 
 cautions were taken to protect the troops against 
 the inclemency of the weather, but yet a great 
 many men were so seriously aflfected by the ex- 
 cessive cold that a large number of frozen limbs 
 had to be afterwards amputated. Officers them- 
 selves suffered severely, and it must be confessed 
 that they bore the long immobility, under such 
 painful circumstances, with unmurmuring fortitude. 
 The Prince of Prussia, on his accession to the 
 throne under the name of William I., made no 
 immediate changes in his policy or his entourage. 
 The statu quo of the Eegency remained unimpaired ; 
 nor did he leave his own palace to take up his 
 
202 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 residence at the Schloss. A general mourning of 
 three months was commanded for the whole nation, 
 its duration being extended to six for the Court 
 and those appertaining to it — the same as for a 
 father. The carriages, even of private individuals, 
 were in many instances draped, and the harness 
 of the horses showed no gleam of varnish or flash 
 of silver. All the footmen wore black aiguillettes, 
 the only relief of colour in liveries being in the 
 uniform of the Chasseurs, who merely wore broad 
 bands of crape on their arm and over the cockade 
 of their plumed hats. 
 
 The mourning for ladies was very deep. They 
 were instructed to wear plain, long, wooUen 
 dresses, with no trimming whatever on body, skirt, 
 or sleeve, even the fastenings and buttons having 
 to be invisible — no jet ornaments, brooches, or 
 ear-rings were allowed ; a fold of crape encircled the 
 neck and wrists ; the hair was entirely covered with 
 the same material, forming a point on the forehead ; 
 this point, after the first month, was dispensed 
 with, allowing the front hair only to be seen. 
 
 On the 31st of January the widowed Queen 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 203 
 
 Elizabeth came to Berlin to hold a Trauerhof at 
 the Schloss — an imposing but painfully lugubrious 
 function. She sat enthroned in a tall, high-backed 
 chair, raised on a dais against the wall, in a com- 
 paratively small apartment entirely hung with 
 black, from which the light of day was rigorously 
 excluded, sparely lit with wax candles — -or, at least, 
 it seemed dim coming to it from the sunny rooms 
 preceding it. The Queen remained motionless in 
 her long black robes, wrapped in a veil that com- 
 pletely shrouded her — a sort of white stole falling 
 to her feet broke the deep darkness of her figure. 
 One by one the ladies passed before her in abso- 
 lute silence, curtseyed low before the throne, and 
 vanished by the opposite door. They had added 
 nothing to their high, plain, ordinary gowns save 
 long, open sleeves dropping from the shoulder, over 
 the tight ones, nearly to the hem of the dress, and 
 a crape veil very long behind and lowered over 
 their faces to the waist in front. Shoes and gloves 
 were lustreless — not a jewel to be seen. The whole 
 pageant was brief and solemn, strangely weird and 
 unnatural ; it seemed like entering into a tomb 
 
204 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 whose occupant was yet alive ; and although but 
 a minute or two had been passed in the darkened 
 chamber, when it was left behind the daylight 
 came with a shock, like the surprise of long disuse. 
 
 The apartments occupied by the late King at 
 Charlottenburg were closed, and orders given that 
 they should not be disturbed and left just as they 
 were when he last lived in them. The palace 
 was given as a residence to Queen Elizabeth, and 
 she spent there most of the twelve years of her 
 widowhood. She had never been beautiful, her 
 only redeeming feature being fine dark eyes ; she 
 was very perceptibly lame, and had to use a stick ; 
 she had taken little or no part in public affairs ; 
 without being popular she was liked for her many 
 deeds of kindness, and never elicited blame or 
 disapproval. 
 
 The Palace of Charlottenburg is old-fashioned 
 and gloomy, of a bastard style of architecture, and 
 furnished in poor taste. Its only recommendation, 
 at that time, and perhaps even now, is that it is 
 within an easy drive of the capital, reached by a 
 three-mile avenue of trees, situated in a fine park, 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 205 
 
 possessing the largest Persian lilac trees in the 
 world, and having both umbrage and water — the 
 two desiderata sadly lacking in the sandy March 
 of Brandenburg — which is only studded at rare 
 intervals by a few green oases, such as Tegel, the 
 Griinewald, and Treptow on the Spree, where the 
 Berlinese go to eat huge ecrevisses in a rustic 
 fashion, served with a pile of paper napkins. 
 
 Soon after the death of the King, Lord Bloom - 
 field was exchanged from Berlin to Vienna, and 
 was much regretted in the former city. He was 
 the most genial and amiable of diplomats ; Lady 
 Bloomfield, with just a suspicion of blue stocking 
 about her, which made her much sought after by 
 the learned and profound Germans, presided over 
 the British Legation with a hospitality that became 
 it. They left before the arrival of several of the 
 special Embassies sent from all countries to do 
 homage to the new King. Italy sent General de 
 La Marmora, and with him came Count Charles 
 Eobilant, an officer of artillery, whose career, young 
 as he was, had already been brilliant, and was 
 destined to be still more so, as in later years 
 
206 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 he successively filled the posts of Ambassador at 
 Vienna, Minister of Foreign Affairs in Eome, and 
 has been appointed to the Italian Embassy in 
 London, but not before leaving the service with 
 the title of General. He was the son of Countess 
 Eobilant, Lady-in-Waiting on Marie Th^rfese, 
 Duchess of Tuscany, wife of Charles Albert. The 
 austere Monarch had a deep regard for the beautiful 
 Countess, and a paternal interest in her son Charles. 
 It was not through this high protection only, but 
 through his own merit that the young man 
 advanced in the army. He behaved with great 
 bravery at the battle of Novara. A bullet struck 
 him, and with his shattered arm hidden in his 
 coat, he went to head-quarters to obtain from 
 his father. General Eobilant, the authorization to 
 withdraw to the rear. " What ! retire before the 
 enemy's face ? " exclaimed the irate General, not 
 noticing his son's pallor. " Never ! " The young 
 man drew forth his hand, which hung by shreds 
 from the wrist, and fell senseless at his father's 
 feet. The shed in which the amputation was 
 performed by the ambulance surgeons, was taken 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 207 
 
 and retaken three times by the contending armies, 
 and it had to be done so hurriedly that for many 
 years Count Charles suffered intolerable pain in his 
 maimed limb. 
 
 General de La Marmora was held in high esteem 
 in Piedmont, and not without just cause, for he 
 had held important posts in the army; he materi- 
 ally aided the French in the Crimea, especially at 
 the Tchernaia, and Cavour had made him Minister 
 of War in his Cabinet. He was a tall, spare man, 
 with a long, narrow face, a brusque and kindly 
 manner ; the subalterns liked him better than the 
 officers of higher rank, and he always had a 
 partiality for the artillery in memory of his earlier 
 days of service. He was not much of a man of 
 the world, and when out of uniform — in which he 
 looked every inch a soldier^he was sadly negligent 
 of appearance and dress. The martinet, whose 
 eye detected a flaw in button or epaulette, would 
 unconcernedly sit down to a dinner-party in a frock- 
 coat, the sleeves of which shamelessly displayed the 
 wristbands of a flannel shirt. In spite of this the 
 General created a very good impression in Berlin, 
 
208 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 and when not discharging official duties and social 
 obligations, enjoyed himself immensely in " doing" 
 the city and environs. He had retained a boyish 
 fondness for the circus, and patronized the very 
 excellent one Berlin possessed. He was lucky in 
 seeing there the famous Leotard, then in his prime, 
 whose acrobatic success was enormous, but who could 
 not veraciously record during his stay any of the 
 feminine conquests which it pleased him in his 
 memoirs to count elsewhere by the score. Leotard 
 was the son of a professor of gymnastics at Toulouse, 
 who invented the great swinging trapeze feat and 
 trained his son to it, making the boy practise over 
 sufficiently deep water to break his fall. To his 
 Proven9al origin may be attributed the lively ex- 
 aggerations and fabulous stories suggested by his 
 conceit. 
 
 Shortly after La Marmora returned to Piedmont, 
 he succeeded General Cialdini as Commander-in- 
 Chief of the armies of the King of Italy, and in 
 1864 became President of the Council. Then his 
 good fortune forsook him, and the battle of 
 Custozza, which he lost against the Austrians — 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 209 
 
 having once more taken active service — damaged 
 his prestige, and in the eyes of his countrymen 
 dimmed the lustre of his past exploits. 
 
 On the 11th of February a Prussian mission 
 was sent to Turin to officially announce the ac- 
 cession of the King to the throne, and once again 
 in the same year Italy sent another Embassy, who, 
 with the Envoy Extraordinary, Count de Launay, 
 represented her at the Coronation at Koenigsberg. 
 Count de Launay had been for several years already 
 Sardinian Minister in Berlin, and filled the post to 
 the satisfaction of his Government, and in a fashion 
 , that won him the confidence of Prussia. Italy, 
 through his agency, had been recognized before the 
 month of October, and the name of Sardinian States 
 was a thing of the past. The Diplomatic Corps was 
 conveyed from Berlin to Koenigsberg on the 6th 
 of October in a special train, each carriage being 
 marked with a label bearing the names of the 
 respective countries. When Count de Launay 
 arrived at the station with his suite, he was 
 directed to the carriage reserved for him, and 
 
 found written on it the word Sardaigne. He 
 
 p 
 
210 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 refused to enter it, complaining to the Master 
 of Ceremonies of an error which might or might 
 not imply a slight,, but which certainly was a 
 want of courtesy, and which, if he submitted to 
 it, might serve as a precedent to justify further 
 unpleasantness at the end of the journey. There 
 were profuse apologies, declarations of the impos- 
 sibility to remedy the mistake, and entreaties 
 that the train should not be longer delayed by 
 useless objections. Count de Launay remained 
 firm ; as Italian Envoy he would not enter into 
 a carriage marked Sardinia. Finally the affair 
 was compromised ; a workman was sent for who 
 removed the obnoxious label, and on his arrival 
 at his destination, the Minister received a personal 
 apology from the King, who expressed himself 
 much annoyed, and promised that on his return 
 to Berlin Count de Launay would travel under 
 the new accurate denomination. 
 
 The distant city of Koenigsberg had been selected 
 for the coronation, notwithstanding its difficulty of 
 access, in memory of the historical event of 1701, 
 when the Elector of Brandenburg was crowned first 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 211 
 
 King of Prussia within its walls under the name 
 of Frederick I. France was represented by 
 Marshal Mac Mahon, England by Lord Clarendon, 
 and Belgium by the Comte de Flandres. 
 
 The young King of Portugal, Dom Pedro V., 
 did not long survive his wife. He and one of his 
 brothers died within a few days of each other, of 
 malignant scarlet fever, in the beginning of No- 
 vember. The second son of Dona Maria ascended 
 the throne. A year later he married Maria Pia, 
 the younger daughter of Victor Emmanuel, who 
 resembled her sister Princess Clotilde in nothing 
 save her sincere piety ; she had a lively, joyous, 
 laughter-loving disposition, and had always been 
 the favourite of her father and brothers. 
 
 In the absence of Court festivities during the 
 beginning of 1861, and after the first weeks of 
 mourning, the theatres were much frequented in 
 Berlin. The two Eoyal houses had necessarily 
 been closed for a short time after the King's death, 
 both the Opera and the Schauspielhaus being in 
 a great measure the Sovereign's property, and 
 
 P 2 
 
212 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 receiving a considerable subvention from his privy 
 purse. Without his assistance it would be im- 
 possible to keep them open during ten months 
 of the year on the footing on which they stand. 
 Not only do they possess regular companies of 
 great excellence, but they invite artists as Gciste, 
 who are well reinunerated, and they produce a 
 variety of operas and plays which is perfectly 
 astounding. It rarely happens that the same per- 
 formance takes place more than twice in a fortnight, 
 find at the first house are given, besides the operas, 
 well-mounted hallets, and occasional perform- 
 ances of Goethe's Faust, which are acted there on 
 account of the greater mechanical resources the 
 management affords. 
 
 The State subsidy for the two Eoyal theatres 
 is annually 2,500,000 marks— taking the actual 
 currency, and not the old one of thalers. Out 
 of this sum the Sovereign pays personally 
 450,000 marks, besides regularly covering the 
 deficit at the Opera, which rarely amounts to 
 less than 300,000 marks. On the other hand 
 the Schauspielhaus generally closes its yearly 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 213 
 
 accounts with a profit. All the Royal Princes are 
 expected to have their boxes, for which they pay 
 a subscription, however rarely they occupy them, 
 and even if they are not in residence for a con- 
 siderable time. Every performance given by 
 AUerhdchstem BefeJd, that is by special command 
 of His Majesty, as on the occasion of some State 
 function, fete, or visit of other crowned heads, is 
 paid for separately by the King, who takes every 
 seat in the house, and selects the programme. 
 
 The Opera has 1649 seats, and can at ordinary 
 prices hold 5100 marks. At the higher rates charged 
 for certain spectacular operas, such as Wagner's, 
 some elaborate ballets, or when a distinguished 
 foreign artist is engaged, the aggregate " takings " 
 are 8000 marks. The general superintendent has a 
 salary of 18,000 marks and a house ; the manager, 
 10,000 ; the leader of the orchestra, 6000. The 
 company belonging to the Opera are bound by 
 their contracts to sing a certain number of times 
 every month ; the first Prima Donna sings on an 
 average seventy-five times during the operatic 
 year, and receives about 33,000 marks. All the 
 
214 RANDOM REQOLLEGTIONS OF 
 
 artists are entitled to pensions varying from 5000 
 to 8000 marks. They may be lent by the manage- 
 ment during the time of their engagement to other 
 theatres, but cannot enter into any agreement on 
 their own account. 
 
 Trebelli made her first serious debut at the 
 Berlin Opera ; she came, so to speak, on trial in 
 1860, and was so much liked in her rendering 
 of Arsace, of Maddalena in Higoletto, and other 
 contralto parts, that she soon secured a permanent 
 engagement. She was very young, with a boyish 
 face and manner, wearing her curly hair short, 
 and apparently devoid of vanity or conceit. She 
 was accompanied by her father, a certain Monsieur 
 Didier, a good honest-looking Frenchman, who 
 might not improbably have exercised the calling 
 of Parisian concierge, which was said to be his. He 
 took his daughter regularly to the Catholic Church 
 on Sundays and fete days, and was known to 
 address her as Zelie without a suspicion of Italian 
 accent. Mile. Trebelli had the opportunity and 
 advantage of singing in Lucrezia Borgia with 
 Faure, who visited Berlin in '60 ; she was the 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 215 
 
 Maffio Orsini to his Duke, and in the Segreto won 
 a rapturous encore. Some dilettanti went so far 
 as to prophesy that a second Alboni was born to 
 the stage, and that the young girl's voice 
 wanted but a little maturity to be the finest 
 contralto extant. But whether she did not possess 
 the power attributed to her, or whether she over- 
 taxed it then, it is certain, that good and conscien- 
 tious singer as she is, she never reached the fore- 
 most rank of her profession. 
 
 Monsieur Faure's greatest success was in Faust ; 
 his Mephistopheles being considered a wonderful 
 performance. However, the Germans praised his 
 acting of the part more than its musical rendering ; 
 while they did justice to his admirable voice and 
 phrasing, they criticized the tremolo, which, although 
 allowed on the lyrical stage in Paris, is against all 
 their art canons. In those days Faure was not 
 yet bald, and was considered very good-looking ; 
 those who had only seen him as the tall, supple, 
 sinewy Mephisto could not believe that he was 
 below the middle height in stature, and inclined 
 to stoutness. He had not yet made himself known 
 
216 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 as a poet and composer, but those who conversed 
 with him were invariably impressed by his gentle- 
 manliness, his instruction, and his facility of 
 expression. 
 
 Pauline Lucca was essentially a German Prima 
 Donna, it may almost be said a Prussian one, for 
 although she began her career in the chorus at 
 Vienna, she was discovered by Meyerbeer at 
 Olmiitz, where she had taken the leading part at 
 a minute's notice in the Opera of the Magic Flute. 
 He was so pleased with her voice, that before she 
 was twenty he had procured her an engagement 
 at the Berlin Opernhaus. The Maestro stipulated 
 in his will that Lucca alone should have the right 
 to create the Africaine in Berlin, Vienna, and 
 London, and his last wishes to that effect were 
 scrupulously acted upon. By birth Pauline Lucca 
 was Italian, the cousin of a musical publisher at 
 Milan. She was very pretty, although she lost 
 her good looks early ; she had many admirers ; 
 the King, who was very attentive to artistes, showed 
 her particular favour ; Count Otto von Bismarck 
 relaxed his severity before her fascinations so far 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 217 
 
 that she did not scruple to lend herself to a trick 
 played upon him, which he bitterly resented, but 
 •was powerless to avenge. He met Lucca, by design 
 or accident, at a certain photographers, Unter den 
 Linden, whose Polish name had been changed by 
 the sobriquet-loving Berlinese into Graf Photo. 
 Shortly after a carte de visite was privately circu- 
 lated representing the Count on his knees before 
 the Prima Donna. The copies were seized, the 
 negative suppressed, but still it remained proved 
 that with or without Lucca's complicity a hidden 
 lens had focussed the tell-tale attitude. 
 
 After the death of Meyerbeer, her friend and 
 protector, Pauline, faithful to his wishes and 
 teachings, declined to sing Wagner's music, in spite 
 of the pressure put upon her by the public and 
 the management, so that when Frau Mallinger 
 of Munich, a staunch Wagnerian, came to act 
 in Berlin, a strong party declared for her, while 
 the whilom favourite was received with silence or 
 hisses. Lucca warned the superintendent that if 
 a similar affront was again offered her she would 
 retaliate on the audience. The next time she 
 
218 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 appeared was in the Nozze di Figaro; she sang 
 Cherubino, and Mallinger the Countess ; the latter 
 was loudly applauded, the former as loudly hissed. 
 In the third act, when the Countess asks the page, 
 " What news, Cherubino ? " Lucca, very white 
 under her rouge, pointing to a group of her 
 enemies among the spectators, replied in clear 
 incisive tones, " The newest thing is, that ill-bred 
 people insult a woman." A formidable uproar 
 received the audacious speech ; the curtain had 
 to be lowered, the police interfered and made a 
 few arrestations ; after a while order was restored, 
 and the public rose to call for Lucca. She came 
 to the footlights, and in a voice tremulous with 
 passion she said, with her Viennese accent, " I have 
 cdways done my duty here — you have not done 
 yours to me. I shall not sing for you again. 
 Farewell." The next day she paid her forfeit of 
 25,000 marks, and left Berlin, 
 
 Her first husband was a Prussian officer ; she 
 did not live happily with him, and they were little 
 together; but hearing that he lay wounded at 
 Pont-^-Mousson, during the Franco-German War, 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 219 
 
 she hurried to his side, nursed him, brought him 
 back to Berlin, and when he was completely cured, 
 divorced him. She was married again to Baron 
 Waldhofen. Admirable artiste as she was, and 
 perhaps the most ideal Marguerite that ever sang 
 the part, she was neither clever nor particularly- 
 intelligent ; these deficiencies were more apparent 
 in the first years of her career than later on, when 
 experience, travels, triumphs, the companionship of 
 distinguished men, intercourse with two husbands, 
 both gentlemen, had formed and expanded her 
 mind. She used to see only the technical side of 
 her parts, never troubled about the story, the 
 character, or its ethics. She had been singing 
 in Faust many times, when discussing the per- 
 formance with an earnest student of Goethe's, he 
 remarked, that it had always struck him as incon- 
 sistent that a woman who had sinned against 
 chastity should be glorified in an apotheosis after 
 murdering the offspring of her seduction. " Was 
 Marguerite seduced ? I did not know ! " said 
 Lucca, utterly unconscious of the surprising naivete 
 of her question. 
 
220 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Paris had received Bizet's Carmen coldly; Pauline 
 Lucca was enthusiastic over it, and determined to 
 make it a success. The part became one of her 
 finest creations, and when poor Georges Bizet died, 
 without havino; tasted the full flavour of his 
 triumph, Lucca was already making his opera 
 appreciated all over the world, and the French 
 authors are indebted to her that they receive 
 more than 40,000 francs a year in royalties. 
 It was in the part of Carmen that Lucca — per- 
 suaded by the Emperor at Ischl to return once 
 more to Berlin — appeared in her old theatre, and 
 in the genuine and spontaneous applause of the 
 audience forgot and forgave the aifront received 
 twenty years before, and rescinded the vow she 
 had taken never to be seen on that stage again. 
 
 Offenbach, Frenchman par excellence in his com- 
 positions, was nevertheless a great favourite in 
 Germany. The Germans forgot that he was French 
 by his studies at the Conservatoire, French by 
 choice and naturalization, and only remembered 
 that he was born at Cologne, and that by virtue 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 221 
 
 of his birth they could claim him as their own. 
 His OrpMe aux Unfers was played hundreds of 
 times in Berlin with a German text, and some- 
 times his operas were given in several different 
 theatres at the same time ; it is only fair to say 
 that they were exceedingly well mounted, acted 
 and sung even on the small stage of KroU's, the 
 decent Cafd Chantant and proper concert-garden, 
 near the Thiergarten. This establishment was 
 not, however, at one time visited by the ladies 
 of the upper classes, although much frequented by 
 the lourffeoisie, who were not averse to meeting 
 the professional and fractional world, and to see 
 the officers of the garrison lounging in and out 
 of the terraces and gardens, or sitting at little 
 tables under the illuminated trees with friends 
 of both sexes. But one summer the female beau 
 monde, tired of being restricted to the theatre 
 or concert-room only, resolved to overstep the 
 boundary and to consider it quite correct to finish 
 the evening in the grounds. Several of the leaders 
 of society were actually seen mingling with 
 questionable characters, and it is said that they 
 
222 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 were as much surprised as disgusted when they 
 found that they could not lure their own admirers 
 from the side of the syrens, whose attractions it 
 suited them to ignore. After a few similar 
 attempts they retreated beaten from the field, 
 and as in the old game of " consequences " 
 the world in general said that it served them 
 right. 
 
 It is only fair to add that in those days, and 
 even now, the movement which in England has 
 brought the stage into the drawing-room did not 
 exist ; the line of demarcation was never over- 
 stepped ; actors, actresses," and singers lived apart 
 from society ; they were always courteously treated 
 when asked professionally, but far from being 
 looked upon as an indispensable component of 
 every fashionable entertainment, they were never 
 bidden on the footing of the other guests. 
 
 When King William instituted the great opera 
 balls during his Eegency, he had in his mind to 
 operate a fusion between the aristocracy and bour- 
 geoisie on neutral ground, and saw the impossi- 
 bility of banishing actors from their own territory. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 223 
 
 They were subscription balls, three in number 
 every year ; as it was known to be the King's wish, 
 they were very well attended. A committee, who 
 dispensed the tickets, had to ascertain the status of 
 those to whom they were delivered ; each applicant 
 had to declare his name and profession. One 
 man calling himself a dramatic artist obtained his 
 voucher, but was identified in the evening as one 
 of the performers at the circus, and consequently 
 not entitled to an admission ; he was not ex- 
 pelled, but the poor fellow did not gain much 
 by his euphonious subterfuge, for he was put into 
 Coventry, and spent the night in absolute solitude. 
 For these balls the King gave away the Opera- 
 house ; the front of the Royal box was removed, a 
 broad shallow flight of carpeted steps led from it to 
 the pit, which was boarded over and levelled with 
 the stage ] the back of the latter was hidden by a 
 wall of mirrors, the sides by banks of flowers and 
 shrubs ; the whole aspect was extremely brilliant. 
 The entire Court was present, the Royalties circu- 
 lated among the guests, the Princes and Princesses 
 danced. It was, however, impossible to prevent 
 
224 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 a tacit division between the classes. As soon as 
 the dance-music struck up, however affable the 
 general intercourse might have been at the onset, 
 the professionals all gathered in one spot, the bour- 
 geoisie in another, society proper at the upper end. 
 The unhappy officers found it extremely difficult 
 to reconcile the claims of the fair, those in each 
 set putting theirs forward, and on the whole came 
 to the conclusion that a public fusion of classes 
 necessitated tact and diplomacy beyond their 
 limited strategic powers. 
 
 German actors are conscientious and painstaking, 
 satisfactory also as long as they do not attempt to 
 reproduce French plays ; they have enough literary 
 respect not to mutilate them by adaptation, but 
 they are constitutionally unable to represent vola- 
 tile Frenchmen or high-born grandes coquettes. Le 
 Roman d'un jeune Homme Pauvre was an artistic 
 failure when given in German at Wallner's theatre, 
 and so were many translations of good plays, while 
 in original German ones the same companies were 
 excellent. Comic actors in the estimation of com- 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 225 
 
 petent judges were superior to tragic or dramatic 
 ones, and in that respect, admirable as were the 
 performances at the Shauspielhaus, where a certain 
 classicality is maintained, the minor theatres drew 
 more appreciative audiences. Helmerding and 
 Weirauch were both remarkable comic actors, and 
 imparted a racy individuality to such plays as the 
 Gebildete Hausknecht, the Gold OnJcel, the Welt- 
 umsegler, and others, eliciting roars of laughter by 
 a quiet, humorous rendering, more than by loud 
 effects. The above-mentioned artists were cleverly 
 assisted by a sharp little woman named Schramm, 
 who pattered the Berlinese dialect with imperturb- 
 able gravity. A talent for reproducing the unmis- 
 takable Hebraic accent seems to belong to all 
 German actors of any proficiency, and it is a sign 
 of the innate dislike inspired by the Jews in a 
 community of which, however, they form so large 
 a portion, that any disparaging allusion, irony, 
 ridicule, or contempt, cast at one of them in farce 
 or comedy is always received with unalloyed 
 enjoyment. 
 
 Nevertheless, undoubtedly the best exponents 
 
 Q 
 
226 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 of Shakespeare in a foreign tongue, as well as the 
 most conscientious, are to be found in Germany, 
 and this is due entirely to their profound admir- 
 ation and reverence for his genius. 
 
 Marie Taglioni — a niece of the great Taglioni 
 who married the Count Gilbert des Voisins, and 
 having lost all her property ended her days ob- 
 scurely in London — was for many years the reign- 
 ing danseuse in Berlin. She was plump, graceful, 
 dark-haired, and possessed the hereditary gift of 
 her art. She was bound to the Opera-house by a 
 long contract ; she created the ballets of Satanella 
 and JEllinor, written for her, and which after 
 twenty-eight years are still on the repertoire, a little 
 less fresh and pretty, however, than in the heyday 
 of their popularity. Taking into account the great 
 progress made in stage-machinery and scene-paint- 
 ing, the second of these ballets, called also Veder 
 Napoli e poi Morir, strikes one retrospectively as 
 having been a prodigy of scenic art. The now 
 stale stage device of letting the scenery shift while 
 the actors, who are supposed to move, remain 
 stationary, was then first applied, and a really 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 227 
 
 magnificent panorama of the Bay of Naples was 
 thus unrolled before the spectator. In the course 
 of the action all countries were represented by 
 their national dances ; France among others by 
 the " Savate" a popular exercise dear to the lower 
 classes. At the period when the anti-French 
 feeling was so general, in 1859-61, the Savate 
 was regularly hissed. 
 
 It can be said with perfect veracity that there 
 never was a time when a deep-rooted if suppressed 
 animosity did not exist, actively or unconsciously, 
 in every German breast, against France. It was 
 not unusual to hear officers telling their partners 
 at balls what they should do when they had taken 
 Alsace and Lorraine, and how the rails were all 
 ready to be laid down in the conquered provinces 
 to take the armies onward. There never seemed 
 to be in the military mind, young or old, the 
 slightest doubt as to the eventual undertaking of 
 this campaign, or its ultimate success. 
 
 Another instance of the barrier raised between 
 professionals and society occurred in the case of 
 the great singer Sontag. After she married Count 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Eossi, the Sardinian diplomatist, and, as a matter 
 of course, left the stage, she came with her husband 
 to Berlin, where he had been appointed Minister. 
 As his wife, she was received and treated exactly 
 as any other lady of the Diplomatic Corps. She 
 sang and acted in private theatricals, and Frederick 
 William IV., who was very fond of this sort of 
 entertainment, had little operas performed at the 
 palace, where she sang, supported by members of 
 her Legation, and of the Prussian aristocracy. She, 
 however, always regretted her early triumphs, and 
 when Count Eossi suddenly lost all his fortune, 
 she promptly availed herself of the pretext thus 
 afforded her, and returned to the stage on the 
 plea of making money for her children. She gave 
 several performances in minor German towns. 
 The whole society of Berlin went to Hanover to 
 give her an ovation, but when she sang at Berlin 
 afterwards she was made to understand that, as 
 far as social relations were concerned, she was no 
 longer Countess Eossi, but the Sontag and Prima 
 Donna she had elected to become once more. 
 No one blamed her decision, but it was deemed 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 229 
 
 only fair that she should not reap the double 
 privileges of the position she had abandoned, and 
 the one she had resumed. Sontag, who had ex- 
 pected a different result, was deeply hurt, and 
 left Europe for America, where she died. Her 
 daughter was at Berlin awaiting the body of her 
 mother, which was t© arrive, vid Hamburg, to 
 be thence carried to Italy and buried in the 
 family vault of the de Eossis ; but the Elbe 
 being frozen, the ship that conveyed the coffin 
 remained many days at the mouth of the river, 
 unable to proceed. Mile. Marie Rossi, who had 
 a fine voice, beguiled the tedium of expectation 
 by singing at private parties, and accepting in- 
 vitations. Her father used to wonder, somewhat 
 querulously, how long " his poor dear wife " would 
 remain frozen in the Elbe, as he wanted to 
 hurry back to Italy and his occupations. 
 
230 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 X. 
 
 Deatli of the Duke of Brabant — Typhus in Brussels — Prince 
 de la Tour d'Auvergne — ^Benedetti^Empress Charlotte — 
 Devaux — van Praat — King Leopold II. — Franco-German 
 "War — Marguerite Boulanger — Gounod — Salvini — Ristori 
 — -Schneider — French Actors in London. 
 
 Eighteen hundred and sixty-nine brought a sore 
 affliction to the Eoyal family of Belgium ; the 
 heir to the throne, a handsome, promising boy of 
 ten, died at the castle of Laeken, on the 22nd of 
 February. The King and Queen were beside 
 themselves with grief ; the former, especially, was 
 entirely prostrated, and could scarcely command 
 himself during the funeral ceremony ; he broke 
 down utterly when the small coffin was lowered 
 into the vault. Sad little photographs were taken 
 of the child after death, with a crucifix and flowers 
 on his bosom, and they were treasured by many 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 231 
 
 as relics. The young Prince had an affectionate 
 and engaging disposition; he was devotedly 
 attached to his mother, and would listen at night 
 for her return from the theatre. When he heard 
 the carriage enter the courtyard, he slipped out 
 of bed, and running barefooted to the window, 
 threw her a kiss as she alighted. Captain Mercier, 
 an Englishman, painted a large picture of the 
 young Prince in the act of lifting a curtain and 
 looking out of the window, holding an allegorical 
 branch of lilies in his hand. This painting, ex- 
 ecuted shortly after the Due de Brabant's death, 
 was presented to the King by the artist, but he 
 was then still so morbidly sensitive about his 
 recent loss that, although he accepted the portrait, 
 he declined to see it, and asked Baron Beaulieu 
 to keep it at the Belgian Legation. He sent 
 Captain Mercier a letter of thanks and a cheque 
 for four hundred pounds. A few days later a 
 paragraph appeared in several English papers 
 relating the acceptance of Captain Mercier's picture 
 by Leopold IL, but fixing the sum received at 
 six hundred pounds. 
 
232 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Captain Mercier had busied himself energetic- 
 ally with the Belgian volunteer movement, and 
 generally managed the visits paid by the con- 
 tingent to England. In 1871 Colonel Chambers 
 gave a grand fete at his villa at Putney, for the 
 distribution of prizes to the men, his wife dis- 
 pensing her hospitality, and making appropriate 
 speeches. Her strong Garibaldian propensities, 
 her devotion to the Italian condottiere were cha- 
 racteristic enough to have entitled her to the 
 honour of serving as a model for Disraeli's 
 patriotic heroine in Lothair. 
 
 In the February following the death of the 
 young Prince, a most malignant typhus raged 
 in Brussels, and as if to give a grim denial 
 to the doctrines of sanitation and good living, 
 as if to overthrow the theories that bad drainage 
 and overcrowding alone breed pestilence, the 
 disease attacked almost exclusively the prosper- 
 ous and healthy quarters of the city, and carried 
 off its victims among the noble and wealthy. 
 Hardly a house in the fashionable streets and 
 avenues escaped the infection ; the fever had 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 233 
 
 come with great suddenness, was at its height 
 nearly as soon as it commenced, and raged itself 
 out abruptly, having been as deadly as if it 
 had extended over several months. The doctors 
 were far from unanimous on the best treatment 
 for this form of typhus ; but it was afterward s 
 found that the patients to whom the cold spray 
 on the forehead had been administered, recovered 
 in greater proportion than any others. The courage 
 and abnegation of the clergy during the epidemic 
 were truly admirable. Priests already feeling the 
 approach of illness, or barely recovered from it, 
 would drag themselves to the bed-side of their 
 parishioners, carrying the sacraments and the 
 consolations of religion to the sufferers, or saying 
 the last prayers for the dead over the coffins that 
 had to be closed and buried so soon after death 
 had occurred. 
 
 During that time the political horizon was cloud- 
 ing over. European complications were appre- 
 hended. There had been disturbances in Paris 
 already in June ; the Prince de la Tour d'Au- 
 vergne, ambassador in London, had been recalled 
 
234 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 and intrusted with the portfolio of Foreign Affairs. 
 He was a great and loyal advocate of peace, and 
 although he strove to exercise a wise restraint 
 upon the Emperor, and one which might have 
 borne its fruits, the secret antagonism of the 
 Empress counteracted at St. Cloud many of the 
 plans matured at the Tuileries, and the Prince, 
 recognizing the futility of his conscientious efforts, 
 resigned. During the whole Franco-German War 
 he suffered severely as a patriot and a statesman ; 
 the capitulation of Sedan was a blow from which 
 he did not rally. In 1871 he wrote in a private 
 letter to a friend — " You can never know how 
 cruel it is to survive the degradation of my beloved 
 France." His health failed, he retired to his estate 
 in the country, caught the smaU-pox, and, unable 
 to fight against a relapse, succumbed in May, 1871. 
 One of his brothers was Archbishop of Bourges, 
 the other a General; they were all three dis- 
 tinguished men and devoted to their widowed 
 mother, the Princess de la Tour d'Auvergne, a 
 woman of superior qualities and energy. For her 
 the Prince built a fine hotel on the Boulevard des 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 235 
 
 Invalides, where he and his brothers had each their 
 apartment, so that they could be all under the 
 same roof, whenever they were able to inhabit 
 Paris for a time. 
 
 Monsieur Benedetti succeeded, but did not re- 
 place the Prince de la Tour d'Auvergne in Berlin, 
 when that nobleman was transferred to London in 
 1864. He obtained the double and deplorable 
 notoriety of the secret treaty between France and 
 Prussia, published at the commencement of the 
 war, and of the historical incident at Ems, between 
 the King of Prussia and himself, out of which 
 that war sprung. Since his recall from Berlin, 
 Monsieur Benedetti's public career has ended, he 
 fell to obscurity, having been more the instrument 
 of politics than an active factor therein. He had 
 the craft and flexibility of his Italian origin, some 
 of the vindictiveness of his Corsican blood ; he 
 had passed from distant consulates to equally 
 distant legations, till he had reached the political 
 department of the Foreign Office. He had the 
 good fortune to be secretary to the Congress of 
 Paris in 1856, and to be appointed Minister of 
 
236 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 France to Turin in 1861 ; but he left no record 
 in his career of having distinguished himself as 
 a diplomatist in any of his posts. 
 
 The unfortunate sister of the King of the 
 Belgians returned to her country after the tragic 
 denouement of her short Mexican reign. She came 
 back insane, and the doctors slowly gave up all 
 hope of her ultimate recovery. Strange stories 
 were told about the origin of her madness ; it was 
 said that it had been, as it were, inoculated into her 
 system by a subtle vegetable poison, of which some 
 savage Mexican tribes had the secret, and which 
 her enemies had mysteriously succeeded in placing 
 in her food. The effects of the drug were invari- 
 ably the same; they did not manifest themselves 
 at first, and if a known counter-poison was admin- 
 istered in time, the subsequent calamity might be 
 averted ; if not, the mind became gradually affected, 
 till by slight degrees the victim grew excited, 
 and degenerated into a violent, unmanageable 
 maniac. The Empress Charlotte passed through 
 all these phases. It was thought, in the beginning, 
 that the shock sustained by her experiences in 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETT. 237 
 
 Mexico, and the death of her husband, sufficiently 
 accounted for her wanderings, but it was soon 
 necessary to place her under restraint. She would 
 tolerate only the presence of the Queen, whose 
 behaviour towards her afflicted sister has always 
 been angelic. She refused to eat when watched, 
 crouched and crawled like an animal, snatching 
 her food with her teeth, and not amenable to any 
 representations. When this most distressing form 
 of her malady abated — and it lasted many years — 
 she returned to more human habits, and was again 
 able to have attendants, not keepers, and to walk 
 in the fine secluded grounds of the Castle of 
 Bouchout, which the King had given up entirely 
 to his sister, and arranged especially for the com- 
 fort and privacy of the unhappy Empress. He 
 visited her occasionally, the Queen twice a week, 
 and Prince Baudoin, the son of the Count of 
 Flanders, and heir-presumptive to the throne, at 
 stated intervals. Twelve Belgian ladies, belong- 
 ing to the best families, have voluntarily under- 
 taken the task of being her ladies-in-v\^aiting, 
 and take duty two-by-two, for a week at a time. 
 
238 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 She never talks ; birds and music seem to aflfect 
 her agreeably, and out-door exercise is apparently 
 necessary to her, for when the weather precludes 
 her going out she becomes restless, and wanders 
 about the rooms, feverishly picking up any little 
 article dropped on the floor and hastily secreting 
 it. She was, before her misfortunes, a bright, in- 
 telligent woman, having received a superior educa- 
 tion, and possessing a real talent for music and 
 painting. The friends of her girlhood talk with 
 deep emotion of the days when they were admitted 
 to be her companions at Brussels and Laeken, and 
 the Queen is sincerely attached to her in remem- 
 brance of their past intimacy. On whomsoever the 
 onus rests of having sent her and Maximilian to 
 Mexico — to treachery and to a cruel fate — he has 
 assumed a heavy responsibility. 
 
 Two of Belgium's biggest men, setting aside the 
 founders of its young monarchy in 1830, were 
 ]\Ionsieur Devaux and Monsieur Jules van Praat. 
 The former was a remarkable historian, and devoted 
 the best part of his life to a history of the Eoman 
 Empire. Before it was nearly completed he was 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 239 
 
 totally blind, and by a prodigy of memory lie dic- 
 tated the maps with wbich the volumes are pro- 
 fusely interspersed. His only daughter was his 
 faithful and untiring amanuensis ; he would tell 
 her which book of his complete and valuable collec- 
 tion she must bring down, and at what page seek 
 the passage he wished to consult. He had two 
 sons : one, Jules Devaux, was a brilliant talker, an 
 excellent musician, and sang, as few foreigners can, 
 the typical Spanish songs ; a man of the world, 
 a conscientious, honourable friend and adviser of 
 Leopold II., whose secretary he was at first, and 
 later the Minister of his household. He paid fre- 
 quent visits to London, partly for the sake of his 
 tailor, partly to visit his numerous English friends. 
 His younger brother was secretary to the Belgian 
 Legation under Sylvain van de Weyer, and would 
 undoubtedly have achieved a brilliant career, had 
 he not relinquished it at his father's death to make 
 a home for his sister in Brussels. They have 
 many tastes in common, and both are very good 
 painters. 
 
 Monsieur van Praat was their uncle ; he was the 
 
240 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 finest statesman Belgium possessed, and occupied a 
 prominent place in the King's council. He found 
 time to form tlie most valuable collection of paint- 
 ings in the kingdom, and one which the country 
 will acquire, now that death has recalled him. He 
 had all the ancien regime charm and courtliness of 
 manner, joined to the most active and energetic 
 mind. There was not, for many years, a man in 
 Brussels as popular and as highly esteemed ; the 
 most convincing proof being that the fierce anta- 
 gonism of parties was quelled, and that even his 
 political enemies unanimously conceded to Van 
 Praat their respect and their esteem. 
 
 King Leopold II. often crossed the Channel and 
 went to England. Those visits, to which an unde- 
 sirable interpretation has been too frequently given, 
 had almost always a motive of utility, and resulted 
 in some material advantage for Belgium. The 
 King was deeply interested in the amelioration of 
 artisans' dwellings, and once when he came to 
 London and made but a short stay, he would rise 
 at six, and, accompanied only by a younger member 
 of the Legation, visit the poor quarters of the 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 241 
 
 city, and take notes of the tenements and improved 
 habitations for the lower classes, so as to form an 
 opinion and decide on his plans. When it was his 
 desire to make the town of Ostend prosperous by 
 adding to its attractions, he had a wooden pavilion 
 built at Lowestoft, by Messrs. Lucas and Brothers, 
 which was sent over in- sections, and reconstructed 
 on the spot where it was to stand. He had origin- 
 ally intended this building as a residence for 
 himself alone, but the Queen was so pleased with 
 it that he had great additions made, and large 
 subterranean kitchens constructed. The appropriate 
 furniture of the new palace likewise came from 
 England. 
 
 Another of the King's hobbies is architecture 
 and horticulture, including the laying out of 
 gardens, and building improved hothouses and 
 conservatories. He gave the parish of St. Gilles 
 in Brussels a splendid park, and another to the 
 township of Laeken. In the Bois de la Cambre 
 he purchased for 700,000 francs a piece of land, 
 which he bestowed on the public for the free enjoy- 
 ment of the magnificent panorama stretching at 
 
 R 
 
242 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 its feet — a Royal and munificent gift. He fre- 
 quently commissioned Belgians residing abroad to 
 give him prompt notice of every modern invention 
 — designs and plans of steam-ploughs and road- 
 engines, heating apparatus, or any fresh importation 
 of shrubs and flowers in the conservatories of Kew, 
 or in the equally rich ones of English landlords. 
 When Leopold II. was in London in 1869, he was 
 waited upon by a deputation of workmen, eager 
 to offer the expressions of their sympathy and 
 respect. 
 
 The breaking out of hostilities was not long 
 staved off by the strenuous efforts of neutrals ; and 
 if the year closed without the actual commence- 
 ment of war, all felt that it was imminent, and that 
 as soon as one pretext was set aside another would 
 arise. It came in July 1870, with its first deluding 
 success for the French at Saarbruck, its crushing 
 defeats, its faults, mistakes, humiliations and 
 horrors; with the cruelties of BazeiUes, the hesi- 
 tation on the Loire ; with the disaster of Sedan, 
 the flight of the Empress from Paris ; with the 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY, 243 
 
 proclamation of the Eepublic on the fourth of 
 September, two days after Napoleon's surrender 
 with his army of ninety thousand men to the King 
 of Prussia. It came, sweeping away in its track 
 Strasbourg and Metz, the proud fortresses that had 
 stood sentinel on the French frontier ; it brought 
 the victorious German armies into Paris, on the 3rd 
 of March '71, to wipe off the humiliation of Queen 
 Louise of Prussia at the feet of the first Napoleon 
 with a humiliation deeper still, as a condition of the 
 peace signed in February more galling and less 
 easily effaced than the war tribute of five thousand 
 millions ; it left behind it the Commune and its 
 horrors ; and while it brought into dazzling and im- 
 perishable relief the figures of the King of Prussia, 
 his son, his nephew Frederick Charles, Moltke, 
 Bismarck, and a score of German generals, it 
 showed only on the other side, through the gloom 
 of defeat, the heroic defence of a few isolated 
 hataillons, the valour of the Pontifical Zouaves, 
 the useless resistance of brave men like Trochu, 
 Faidherbe, Chanzy, Aurelles de Paladine, the 
 shameful mismanagement of the administration, 
 
 E 2 
 
244 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 the " bapteme defeu " of the sixteen year old Prince 
 Imperial, and the treachery of Bazaine. 
 
 With the fall of the Empire a woman dis- 
 appeared who had achieved an unenviable notoriety, 
 not only because she had been a caprice of 
 Napoleon III., but on account of the grave scandal 
 in which she played so conspicuous a part. When 
 the Emperor first remarked Marie Bellanger at 
 Vichy in '63, she was still called Frangoise Leboeuf. 
 She came from the west of France, her origin was 
 of the lowest, she had tried several livelihoods 
 before going on the stage, where she was a failure ; 
 but she had the feminine shrewdness and adapta- 
 bility which in one hour can fashion a duchess out 
 of a figurante. A year later Paris became aware 
 of the Imperial liaison, of the openly expressed 
 dissatisfaction of the Empress, and shortly after a 
 mysterious story was circulated to which Marie 
 Bellanger was said to owe her elevation. Her 
 " cher Seigneur" as she called the Emperor, was at 
 once blasi, sceptical, and credulous ; he was caught 
 by wiles that would not have deceived a roue of 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 245 
 
 twenty, and by an affectation of sentimentality 
 which awoke in the man of fifty-five an echo of the 
 dreamy education he had long ago received in 
 Germany. Under pressure, and the Emperor 
 recognizing the necessity of the act, "Margot" 
 acknowledged as her own a child that was not 
 hers; this complicity was rewarded with one 
 million of francs, and the estate and castle of 
 Mouchy were purchased and settled on young 
 Auguste Bellanger. When these negotiations were 
 successfully terminated, the part of Marie was 
 ended, her fascinations were played out. After 
 1871 she left France for Cassel, where she married 
 an Englishman, a sailor, got tired of him, aban- 
 doned him, returned to France, bought a pretty 
 little hotel at St. Cloud, and lived there, unknown 
 and uncared for, on the spoils of her one great coup, 
 till her death. 
 
 Another of the self-made exiles of the war was 
 Charles Gounod. The sojourn of Paris had become 
 odious to him, and he did not find in his home 
 enough happiness and congeniality to soothe his 
 irritation and discontent from other causes. There 
 
246 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 is no more delightful companion than the author of 
 Faust. His genius is not one-idead ; it pervades 
 all he does, animates his speech, gleams in his 
 deep eyes, colours his conversation, lends an 
 extraordinary fire to his gestures and pictur- 
 esqueness to his words. The fine bust made of 
 him by Carpeaux — the sculptor whose group in 
 front of the New Opera was one night disfigured by 
 a flood of ink — realizes, as far as it is possible for 
 marble to do so, the inspired features of the 
 maestro. To his friends Gounod shows a frank 
 and winning confidence ; on his enemies he showers 
 the fluent eloquence of his condemnation. He was 
 as young in mind and heart in 1871 as he was 
 twenty years before, and he had the talent of 
 making his pupils, his chorus, his singers, even 
 the children he liked to have about him, enthusi- 
 astically fond of him. He had none of the stiff" 
 self-consciousness of so many celebrities, which is 
 but another form of conceit, and he did not require 
 an illustrious audience to put forth his delightful 
 powers. In a small circle, after an almost family 
 dinner, he would sit down at an indifferent 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 247 
 
 cottage piano and play his Marche funebre d'une 
 Marionnette — with a running commentary as good 
 in its kind as the music — -then hum or sing some of 
 his compositions, "pot boilers," he called them, 
 which he was compelled to write. He had suffered 
 severe losses ; the obligation to refund a large sum 
 received for his opera, by a contract invalidated 
 later, had crippled his resources. Gounod had 
 never been a man of business, his artistic tempera- 
 ment was too strong to enable him to have a 
 prudential eye for his own interests ; he was 
 cheated right and left ; he said himself that he got 
 for the rights of Faust, throughout Germany, only 
 forti/ pounds! He was for months the soul of 
 Tavistock House, — Dickens' old residence, — then 
 occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Weldon ; he encouraged 
 the training of the infants rescued from the gutter 
 who were taught by his hostess to sing before they 
 could speak, and he organized concerts in the draw- 
 ing-room enlarged for that purpose. He was an- 
 noyed and wounded more than he liked to confess 
 by his altercations with the management of the 
 Albert Hall, in consequence of which he had to 
 
248 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 transfer his concerts to the St. James' Hall. Mrs. 
 Weldon was a sincere and loyal friend to him ; he 
 recognized both her friendship and her talent. As an 
 artist he said of her that she was the only woman 
 who loved and understood music well enough not to 
 alter or add to the text of the great masters ; as 
 a friend he praised her goodness, disinterestedness, 
 esprit, and charm. Their mutual aflfection was 
 founded on mutual esteem, and might have lasted 
 for ever, had not Gounod suddenly grown tired 
 of London and craved for the exciting, feverish 
 atmosphere of Paris. He returned to it, capriciously, 
 almost brutally breaking the ties of habit and in- 
 timacy that bound him to the Weldons, apparently 
 indifferent to the effects of this behaviour. Had 
 those ties been loosened with a gentler hand they 
 would no doubt have fallen asunder without caus- 
 ing the ulceration that turned to gall the old warm 
 feelings, and gave rise to incidents equally regret- 
 table for the great composer, who could afford to 
 disregard them, and for the incensed woman who 
 had not the strength of mind to avoid the publicity 
 they entailed. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 249 
 
 The Franco-German War drafted many French, 
 celebrities across the Channel — at least, momen- 
 tarily — among others the company of the Theatre 
 Frangais. It was the first time in the annals of 
 that institution that its members had acted abroad 
 en masse. They took the Opera Comiqne, then a 
 new and very prettily decorated theatre, and on 
 its comparatively small stage gave many pieces of 
 their repertoire. Bressant was still alive, as good 
 an actor as ever, but already morose and ailing ; 
 his mental condition was attributed to his grief at 
 the misfortunes of France. Soon after his visit to 
 London he grew rapidly worse, left the stage, and 
 softening of the brain with partial paralysis having 
 set in, he led the life of a recluse in his pretty 
 viUa of Passy till he died. 
 
 In the absence of Sarah Bernhardt, Madame 
 Favart took the leading female parts, and was 
 particularly good in VAventuriere, with Coquelin 
 as Annibal. Delaunay and Got were there, and 
 so many others whose names are dear to all play- 
 goers. Yet it was remarkable that this excellent 
 company gave its first series of representations to 
 
250 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 almost empty houses ; it was only towards the 
 end of their stay that London woke up to its 
 merits, and then the theatre was nightly crowded. 
 The same, thing happened in '75, when Salvini, 
 the greatest living Italian actor, came to England. 
 It seemed almost as if he would be suffered to 
 leave without a recognition of his talents, when 
 suddenly the scale turned, and his Otello won 
 him as many laurels as in his native country. 
 In modern comedy at Turin, Salvini — a much 
 younger man then — used to be the most elegant 
 and fascinating stage lover. It was almost im- 
 possible to realize that the rugged lion- tamer of 
 the " Gladiatore " could be the same persuasive and 
 pathetic Jeune premier, who whispered the language 
 of civilized passion in a drawing-room. 
 
 Madame Eistori had not to contend with the 
 indifference of foreign audiences, or, at least, the 
 hard struggle of her early years was succeeded by 
 constant and undisturbed success. Meeting her 
 in society, finding her an educated and refined 
 gentlewoman, it was difficult to believe that she 
 had not always been a member of the aristocracy. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 251 
 
 to whicli slie now belonged by her marriage with 
 the Marchess del Grillo, and that, as the daughter 
 of a poor obscure actor of the Province of Friuli, 
 she had step by step climbed the histrionic ladder. 
 She appeared in Paris for the first time at the 
 very time when Eachel was at the zenith of her 
 fame, and was accused of imprudent audacity in 
 challenging a comparison with her. The French 
 public was disposed to resent the contest, and 
 the critics were ready to dispute the merits of the 
 Italian tragedienne; but she conquered opposition 
 by the sole force of her genius, and was equally 
 applauded in Myrrha — Alfieri's unnatural heroine — 
 Medea, and Maria Stuart. Strong in the approval 
 of the most enlightened audience in the world, 
 Adelaide Eistori travelled to Spain, Holland, 
 and Russia, winning laurels. After acting Lady 
 Macbeth, Phfedre, and Francesca di Eimini in 
 Berlin, in 1862, she received from the King 
 the Medal of Arts and Sciences. Ill -health, 
 and the weakness of her chest and voice, made 
 her leave the stage for fifteen years, but in '73 
 she gave several performances in London, and later 
 
252 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 still her last appearance was before an English 
 public. 
 
 Another of the French artists, who visited 
 London after the war, received a reception as 
 flattering as it was unexpected. Hortense Schneider 
 brought over her most risque and completely un- 
 expurgated plays, Barbe Bleue among the rest, 
 and created a furore. Some foreigners, who had 
 seen her in the same parts at the Parisian Bouffes, 
 wondered at the excessive licence she permitted 
 herself on the English stage, and the marked 
 suggestiveness of her looks and gestures. On 
 being asked what devilry possessed her, Schneider 
 answered quietly, "I do it on purpose ; I know 
 it would not be tolerated in Paris, but the English, 
 who dare not have naughty things in their own 
 language, are delighted to get any amount of 
 impropriety in French. It pleases them both 
 ways ; they enjoy it, and they can censure it 
 afterwards." With all her levity, both in her pro- 
 fessional and private capacity, Hortense Schneider 
 was a prudent and thrifty mother; she educated 
 her daughters with rigorous decorum, gave them 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 253 
 
 dowries, married them well, and placed her sons 
 into honourable professions. 
 
 Chaumont, the female gamin, who sang without 
 a voice, and was equally charming in all her parts ; 
 Judic with the bewitching smile and laughing 
 eyes, the once child-pupil of Landrol, also about 
 that time made rapid excursions across the 
 Channel, and returned to their respective theatres 
 having established a claim on English audiences, 
 which was sure to lure them back again on many 
 successive visits. In fact, it may be said that the 
 exodus following the war naturalized, so to speak, 
 French acting in London, where it had only been 
 seen at rare intervals and moderately appreciated. 
 
254 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 XL 
 
 William Prescott — Longfellow — Agassiz — Charles Mathews in 
 Boston. 
 
 The three most interesting men in the United 
 States to know intimately were, as far back as 
 1857 — although it might seem invidious to say 
 so now — Mr. William Prescott, Mr. Longfellow, 
 and Professor Agassiz. 
 
 The first — all but totally blind from the effects of 
 the inflammation of the eyes, produced by a piece 
 of bread thrown in jest across the table at him 
 at a college supper, by a fellow Harward student 
 — was still at fifty-one a more genial and amusing 
 companion than many much younger men. He 
 had retained the delicate wit that flavoured all his 
 repartees, and to strangers this delicacy was more 
 palatable than the ruder humour of his compatriots. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 255 
 
 One could well fancy him seriously answering 
 
 an English lady next to whom he sat at a dinner 
 
 given in his honour by the Duke of Somerset, 
 
 who, after hearing that he lived at Boston, asked 
 
 if the Mississippi flowed anywhere near his house, 
 
 " Oh, yes ; it passes my back door, and my cook 
 
 washes the dinner things in it." Also taking a 
 
 foreigner, who was paying a short visit to New 
 
 England, for a walk on the Common of Boston on 
 
 a Sunday, with the intention of showing off the 
 
 fountains, he found the water turned off, and said 
 
 with sad apology — " I knew that little boys were 
 
 not allowed to play on the Sabbath, but I did 
 
 not know that fountains were not permitted to 
 
 do so." 
 
 Mr. Prescott had several warm and old friendships, 
 notably for a Mr. William Gardiner, Councillor at 
 Law ; they had been boys together, were married 
 at the same time, were respectively godfathers to 
 each other's eldest sons, met nearly every week, 
 and then seemed to begin life da capo and be boys 
 again. Prescott was a great sufferer from dyspepsia, 
 and had been ordered by his physician to eat no 
 
256 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 bread, only a species of biscuit resembling pull- 
 bread. This was so generally known that when- 
 ever he dined out he found it at his side, and it 
 was called at all the confectioners and bakers in 
 Boston, " Mr. Prescott's biscuits." He divided his 
 time between his town-house, a large farm-house, 
 and a comfortable summer residence near Salem his 
 birthplace. " I have roamed about so much," he said, 
 " that by a dispensation of Providence I was placed 
 near a locality where shoemakers abound," the 
 speciality of his birthplace being effectively shoe- 
 making. His writing-table stood in a large pro- 
 jecting bow window, from which nothing but the 
 sea could be seen ; he used to tell how, before his 
 sight got quite so bad, he would sit there, and 
 gazing out upon the water — at the time he was 
 writing his Conquest of Mexico — fancied he saw 
 the meeting of fleets and the confusion of a naval 
 fight. He wrote to the end with a "grille" placed 
 on the paper, that marked the space of the lines 
 and guided his hand, and a species of stylite pen. 
 At the end of the day what he had composed was 
 read out to him, he dictated the necessary correc- 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY, 257 
 
 tions, and had the sheets re-copied for the press. 
 He usually gave five or six hours a day to his 
 literary labours, walked regularly between four 
 and five miles, accompanied by a friend or his son- 
 in-law, and in the evening was read aloud to from 
 his favourite authors. He was Catholic in his 
 tastes. Among the English novelists he preferred 
 Dickens and Walter Scott ; among the French, 
 Eugene Sue and Alexandre Dumas. He was very 
 methodical in his habits, fastidiously neat in his 
 person, and extremely charitable. Pale and slight, 
 he was not above the medium size, with clear, rich, 
 calm features, and thin brown hair brushed back 
 from his high forehead. His voice was low and 
 melodious ; he spoke slowly, with a certain deliber- 
 ation, but always in the most choice and naturally 
 elegant language. He died in January 1859, after 
 a short and apparently slight illness, leaving his 
 last work, the History of PJiilip II., unfinished. 
 
 Mr. Longfellow was a very difi'erent man in all 
 externals ; large, massive, broad-chested, with his 
 marked features and flowing white hair, he looked 
 
 much less the poet than Prescott, and to those who 
 
 s 
 
258 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 first met him or knew him little, he appeared 
 slightly pompous, and far more impressed with 
 his own personality, and preoccupied with the 
 effect he produced. There was a consciousness, 
 an atmosphere of importance, a feeling as of a 
 reputation to sustain, which never was apparent in 
 Mr. Prescott, and which may have lain only on 
 the surface, and vanished entirely in closer com- 
 munion ; it did not detract from, and was curiously 
 coupled with, a certain attractive bonhommie and 
 good-nature, which was like a reminiscence of early 
 youth. Longfellow accepted naturally the fact 
 that he was a great man ; he considered it so in- 
 evitable that all the world should do the same, 
 that the naivete of the assumption rendered it 
 inoffensive. Spontaneously, without having been 
 petitioned to do so, he sent a young lady, staying 
 with some Boston friends of his, and whom he 
 had met three or four times, half-a-dozen auto- 
 graphs on different sheets of note-paper, with ex- 
 tracts from Excelsior, Evangeline, and the Psalm of 
 Life, accompanied by a pleasant little note, saying 
 that no doubt on her return to Europe she would 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 259 
 
 tell people that she had met him, and like to 
 present them with a personal souvenir of " hers 
 very affectionately, H. W. Longfellow." 
 
 Bustling, genial, frank, cheerful, and broken- 
 English-speaking Agassiz was again as different 
 as possible from the other two, which did not 
 prevent him from being the most fascinating of 
 mortals. He had been warmly adopted by his 
 American family, and their name was legion, for 
 he had married Lizzie Carey, one of the numerous 
 grandchildren of Colonel Perkins, whose seven 
 daughters had been prolific in olive branches. Not 
 only the family, but Boston and all America had 
 adopted him from the hour wt^en, fresh from 
 Switzerland, he delivered his opening lecture, at 
 first through the medium of an interpreter, and 
 then, becoming impatient of that assistance, waving 
 him aside and continuing alone, using Latin words 
 for technicalities, supplementing his French with 
 rapid demonstrations on the black board, and such 
 eloquent gestures and intonations, that he was 
 perfectly understood and loudly cheered. Without 
 
 ever losing his hold on America, Agassiz kept a very 
 
 s 2 
 
260 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 warm corner in his heart for the little village of 
 Motier, on the lake of Morat, where he was born, 
 and cherished the memory of those by-gone days 
 when the boy in his tastes was already father to 
 the man. His birthplace was endeared to him by 
 other associations besides family ones ; it is precious 
 to all the Swiss for the history of its past. On 
 the shores of Morat was fought the great battle 
 against Charles the Bold, when Jean de Hallwyl 
 led his legions to victory and liberated Helvetia. 
 At sunrise the gallant knight bade his soldiers kneel 
 and implore God's blessing, then lifting on high 
 his banner, with the motto of his house. Prompt 
 comme Vaigle, pur comme Vor, he led them on in 
 the first rays of the rising sun, and fought tiU 
 sunset, wrenching from the enemy a bloody but 
 decisive victory. Morat, or Murten as they call 
 it, is a name that thrills every Helvetian breast, 
 and Hallwyl one that will never be forgotten. 
 His descendants still exist ; some dwell in the old 
 feudal castle, with its lake-girt walls, others are 
 in Austria ; some of them have oecomei Catholic ; 
 one daughter is an Austrian Countess, another an 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 261 
 
 Italian ambassadress. Agassiz, meeting a member of 
 that family in America, wbose mother had married a 
 gentleman of the Canton de Vaud, he greeted her 
 with beaming eyes, saying — "Ah, how well I re- 
 member going through the obligatory military drill 
 on the grass at Montbenon (the Place d'Armes of 
 Lausanne), side by side with your father. We were 
 very young ; he a fine gentleman, I a struggling 
 youth ; but he was very ' bon ' to me. He hated the 
 exercise as much as I did ; ^e was too delicate for 
 it, and it took me from my fish and insects.' 
 
 In 1857 he was spending the summer in a pretty 
 cottage at Nahant, built and presented to him, com- 
 pletely furnished, by his father-in-law, provided 
 with a laboratory, and surrounded by a charming 
 deep verandah. He was then absorbed in the study 
 of jelly-fish, anemones, and medusae ; in every room 
 of the house they were seen floating in bowls or jars. 
 The fishermen of the Massachusetts coast, who 
 were devoted to Agassiz, used to perpetually bring 
 him specimens they thought rare ; even if absolutely 
 worthless he always thanked them in his hearty 
 manner, and dismissed them content and rewarded. 
 
262 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 He was ever ready to show off those marine 
 curiosities to any one who took a genuine, even if 
 ignorant, interest in them ; it was thus that he 
 allowed a youthful friend to watch the feat of a 
 carnivorous anemone, placed on a marble-topped 
 tablo, gradually, and with a double but imperceptible 
 motion attract and assimilate a piece of raw meat 
 a foot and a half away from it. Longfellow was 
 very fond of Agassiz, and it was a pleasing sight 
 to see the two men together — so dissimilar in all 
 externals, so united by a sincere bond of regard 
 and affection. Agassiz showed with honest pride 
 the verses and notes which the poet had at different 
 times inscribed to him ; his voice broke when he 
 recited the last verse of the poem sent on his 
 fiftieth birthday, — 
 
 " And the mother at home says, ' Hark ! 
 For his voice I listen and pray ; 
 It is growing late and dark, 
 And my boy does not return." 
 
 His disposition was so sociable, and his tastes so 
 youthful, that he loved to see his children and their 
 friends about him, even when he was at work. He 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 263 
 
 never seemed disturbed by their laughter and play, 
 and allowed himself to be shoved into a corner, 
 with his small table and writing materials, when the 
 floor was cleared for dancing. He had no touchi- 
 ness or techiness, and nobody laughed more heartily 
 than himself when he heard a story told against 
 him. His wife once related how one day he had 
 come to her quite early in the morning in great 
 distress, because three little specimen snakes he 
 had brought home the night before had escaped 
 from the box in which he had secured them ; 
 he had been searching high and low for them, 
 and only succeeded in recovering two. Madame 
 Agassiz advised him to let the other unhappy 
 reptile go, and to get ready for breakfast ; but he 
 rushed off frantically to institute another quest. 
 Meanwhile his wife, beginning to dress, proceeded 
 to put on her boots. To her dismay she found the 
 snake coiled inside, which, being disturbed, rose 
 hissing and glided out. Her scream of surprise 
 brought Agassiz, who, hearing what had occurred, 
 exclaimed in great trepidation — " Oh, Lizzee, how 
 very terreebleit might have been." " What ! " said 
 
^64 RANDOM RECOLLEOTIONS OF 
 
 his wife, " are they poisonous ? " " Oh, yes, the 
 most poisonous leetle serpents you can think — so 
 rare — and you might have crushed the nice leetle 
 thing." 
 
 It was during the same August of that year, 
 that Agassiz received through Monsieur Rouland, 
 Minister of Public Instruction in France, the very 
 flattering oflfer of a chair in the Museum of Natural 
 History in Paris, at the special request of the 
 Emperor. Such a post at the Jardin des Plantes 
 had once been Agassiz's wildest dream of ambition, 
 and he was even then by no means insensible to 
 the projected honour, but he was engaged on a 
 work of great importance on shells and fishes, and 
 he felt that he owed it to America, who had given 
 him so much encouragement, so many testimionies 
 of high appreciation, not to leave it unfinished, as 
 it had been undertaken under ,her auspices. He 
 loved New England, and all the ties he had formed ; 
 he loved it for the labours accomplished on its 
 soil, for the disciples he had made, for the honour 
 he had won, and decided to remain faithful to it. 
 He declined Monsieur Rouland's proposal. Some 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 265 
 
 blamed, others — among whom Humboldt — ap- 
 proved him. The Emperor Napoleon showed that 
 he understood his motives, for not long after he 
 sent him the Legion of Honour. Agassiz died 
 at sixty-five, in the full possession of his multiple 
 qualities of heart and soul, without pain and 
 without fear. He had dipped too deeply into the 
 secrets of Nature to dread a return to her bosom, 
 and his intellect had soared too high to apprehend 
 the great hereafter. From his cherished Switzer- 
 land came the boulder, taken on the Aar glaciers, 
 that stands over his grave ; and from the forests 
 of his native land also the pines that cluster 
 round it. 
 
 Eighteen hundred and fifty-seven was marked in 
 the United States by one of the financial disasters 
 which seem the periodical crisis of its business 
 organization, which for a time become an engross- 
 ing topic, and elicit, with much that is not of a 
 nature to impress a foreigner favourably, numerous 
 acts of genuine kindness, unostentatious generosity, 
 and loyal solidarity. It is true that the bankrupt 
 
2G6 RANDOM Bi: COLLECTIONS OF 
 
 of yesterday sets up a carriage the day after his 
 failure has ruined thousands, and that the wife of 
 .a runaway defaulter appears blazing in diamonds ; 
 but to the struggling beginners, ruined by no fault 
 of theirs, prompt and substantial assistance is 
 tendered, which enables them to start in the race 
 afresh, and most frequently by those whose 
 resources have been hampered by the same crash. 
 Charles Mathews, who gave a round of represent- 
 ations in Boston that autumn, alluded to the money 
 crisis in his farewell speech, saying, that it had 
 been his fate to visit America before, in a similar 
 financial storm, and to witness the same brave 
 energetic weathering of it. The English actor was 
 very popular ; young men of the best New England 
 families vied with each other for the privilege of 
 appearing in dumb parts on the stage with him, 
 and one handsome young fellow was hated by all 
 his friends because he had been so far favoured 
 that he actually brought in a letter on a salver, and 
 after handing it to Mathews, was empowered to 
 answer, " Yes, sir," to a remark of his. Although 
 the actor had just lost his first wife, Madame 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 267 
 
 Vestris, who was a good deal older than himself, 
 he seemed to bear his bereavement with cheerful 
 composure. It is true that she was sixty, looked 
 her age, and tiiat he showed ten years less 
 than he really possessed. He gave evidence of 
 resignation to the inevitable, and proof that his 
 flow of spirits was not forced at all the dinners and 
 parties given in his honour, by marrying again, 
 during that same visit to the United States, the 
 American actress, Mrs. Davenport. Some few 
 years later he acted " Cool as a Cucumber" in 
 French, under the weak title of " L'homme faible," 
 before a Parisian audience, with great success. 
 This feat did not surprise those who had heard 
 him speak the language with perfect ease and 
 fluency, and very little accent. To the spectators 
 familiar with the French stage of the epoch, it was 
 evident that he had taken the then famous Palais 
 Eoyal actor, Levassor, for his model, and on being 
 taxed with it, did not deny it. Mathews excelled 
 in comic parts, although his elegant figure and 
 refined features fitted him especially well for high 
 comedy. 
 
268 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 XII. 
 
 Death of Victor Emmanuel — Charles Albert — Prince Imperial 
 of Germany in Italy — General MacMahon — Paris in '79 — 
 Theatres — Count Harry Arnim — Herr von Hinokeldey — 
 The Will of Queen Louise — Emperor William's Lamp. 
 
 Few events within the last twenty years, not 
 involving the fate of nations, caused the sensation 
 created in January 1878, when the news of the 
 death of King Victor Emmanuel was flashed through- 
 out the world. Kingdoms and Eepublics alike 
 seemed to feel vaguely that, with him, a legendary 
 epoch had closed, and that a figure had dis- 
 appeared which never quite belonged to the prosaic 
 every-day nineteenth century. A man who had 
 been headstrong, foolhardy in his loves as his 
 ambitions ; a mighty hunter inaccessible to fatigue ; 
 a soldier inaccessible to fear ; a patriot in heart and 
 soul ; a King, without the conventional Eoyal 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 269 
 
 characteristics, and yet who had made Italy one 
 and united ; a head of a State who barely under- 
 stood politics, but who had ranked his country 
 among the great powers ; generous to prodigality ; 
 leaving debts, mistresses, and bastards behind him ; 
 and when all was reckoned for and against him, 
 leaving also more genuine regrets and truer love in 
 the memory of his people than perhaps any other 
 sovereign. Italy, free at last, not only from Genoa 
 to the Adriatic, but from the Savoyan Alps to the 
 crater of Etna, mourned sincerely for her dead 
 monarch, her He Galaniuomo. His subjects forgot 
 for the nonce the difference of race, which must, for 
 a long time to come, make the Turinese jealous of 
 the Sardinian, the Florentine suspicious of the 
 Neapolitan, the Koman disdainful of the Venetian. 
 They thought only of the laying low of that brave 
 scion of the house of Savoy, the descendant of the 
 oldest reigning family in Europe, the son of Charles 
 Albert — the chivalrous, unfortunate monarch who 
 died at Oporto, in self-made exile, and who, having 
 struck the first blow for the liberation of Italy, and 
 put in the small end of the wedge, paid the price 
 
270 RANDOM REQOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 of all crusaders in a great cause, applauded when 
 they start, blamed when they fail, and reaping the 
 ingratitude which defeat engenders. 
 
 Fugitive after Novare, the crowds — who had 
 acclaimed Charles Albert for his freely given 
 reforms in 1848, who had entered enthusiastically 
 into the half-theatrical movement of "Young 
 Italy," when men and women adopted mediaeval 
 costumes and romantic aspirations — turned to hiss 
 and deride him. Caricatures were circulated, in 
 which he was represented with his arms extended ; 
 on one hand was written " order," on the other 
 " counter-order," on the forehead " disorder." In 
 others he was drawn as Don Quixote, and those 
 who depicted him as the simple-minded, God- 
 fearing, unselfish, unworldly knight, did not know 
 how the intended insult was, perhaps, the most 
 flattering recognition of the King's innate, but 
 dangerous qualities. Almost alone, a broken- 
 hearted wanderer, he left the battle-field of 
 Novare, on which he had staked and lost his 
 all, and with a handful of faithful followers, began 
 his dreary journey to Portugal, in March 1849. He 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 271 
 
 crossed the Spanish frontier on Holy Thursday. 
 ■Owing to the religious observances of the country 
 he could not find a single conveyance on wheels to 
 take him further on his flight, and had to spend 
 twenty-four hours in a wretched roadside inn. 
 His last resting-place was Oporto. He did not long 
 occupy the little villa by the sea, placed at his 
 disposal by the English consul ; after a few weeks 
 of sad, hopeless wasting away, without energy to 
 bear his disgrace, or hope to efface it, Charles Albert 
 expired, on the 28th of July, stretched on his 
 narrow soldier's bed. His body was brought home 
 to be deposited with his ancestors in the vaults of 
 the Basilica of Superga, built on the summit of a 
 mountain near Turin, a lonely, solitary spot, lending 
 grandeur to the mortuary of kings. The journey 
 was accomplished by sea as far as Genoa, and then 
 by slow stages to the capital. The funeral cortege 
 entered each town in the same order. The charger 
 of the dead king followed the coffin ; his sword and 
 orders were carried by two of those who had stood 
 at his distant death-bed ; his gloves and plumed 
 General's hat lay on the hearse. A deputation from 
 
272 RANDOM, RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 the municipality and a regiment of soldiers formed 
 the escort as far as the communal boundary, and 
 were relieved by other deputations and other regi- 
 ments as they crossed it. In that invariable order 
 they entered Turin at last. Whether from the 
 mournful simplicity of the procession coming so 
 far from across the seas, or from a remorseful sense 
 of past ingratitude and injustice, it was received 
 with the awe-stricken grief of the population. 
 
 The young man who walked bare-headed behind 
 the bier, and followed it step by step through the 
 valleys of Piedmont, was the son of General de 
 Launay, ex- Viceroy of the Island of Sardinia 
 when that post conferred almost sovereign power, 
 and whilom Minister of Foreign Affairs. The 
 young Count belonged to the Diplomatic service, 
 afterwards filled several posts in Switzerland, Spain, 
 Germany, and Eussia, returned to Berlin, was raised 
 from the rank of Minister to that of Ambassador 
 in 1875, when Italy decided to convert her Legation 
 into an Embassy, signed the Congress of Berlin 
 in '78, repeatedly refused to accept the portfolio 
 of the Foreign Office at Eome, and Vi^as rewarded 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 273 
 
 for his numerous and loyal services with the Collar 
 of the Anunziata, of which there are only twelve 
 extant, and which confers on the recipient the title 
 of " Cousin of the King." 
 
 The Prince Imperial of Germany came to Kome 
 to represent the Emperor William at Victor Em- 
 manuel's funeral. It was his second visit to Italj^ ; 
 the first had been paid on the occasion of the 
 marriage of Princess Margherita of Genoa, with her 
 cousin. Prince Umberto, which was celebrated at 
 Florence. At the Court ball, given in honour of the 
 event, the Crown Prince was dancing with the 
 bride, when she perceived that a lace flounce of 
 her gown had been caught by an officer's spur, was 
 torn, and a long shred of it trailing on the ground. 
 In her youthful impetuosity she was about to drag 
 the whole trimming off", but her partner quietly 
 stopped her, and kneeling, took a small pincushion 
 from his pocket, and dexterously began pinning 
 up the delicate fabric, refusing the assistance 
 of a maid of honour, who had hurried to his 
 assistance. This little act of gallantry from the 
 stalwart warrior won him golden opinions among 
 
 T 
 
274 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 the Italian ladies — wlio were already captivated 
 by his handsome face — and one of the beautiful 
 Margherita's most bewitching smiles. 
 
 When the funeral ceremonies, which had brought 
 Prince Frederick William to Eome, were concluded, 
 he prepared to depart ; but the new King asked 
 him, as a personal favour, to remain till after the 
 oath of allegiance had been taken, adding, " I feel 
 that your presence will bring me good luck." 
 The Prince Imperial came to Eome once again in 
 1883, at the termination of the negotiations be- 
 tween Germany and the Pope. As he was then 
 the guest of the King of Italy at the Quirinal, it 
 proved a matter of some delicacy to arrange his 
 visit to the Vatican, so as not to wound the sus- 
 ceptibilities existing between the spiritual and 
 temporal rulers of Rome, and at the same time not 
 to convey to the suspicious inhabitants and jealous 
 Government any premature or erroneous indication 
 of reconciliation. It was finally arranged that 
 the Prince and his suite should be driven in the 
 Royal carriages from the Palace to the German 
 Embassy, where they would be dismissed; that after 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 275 
 
 partaking of luncli with the Ambassador, the latter 
 would proceed with his host in his own equipage 
 to the Vatican, and that the same route should be 
 followed after the termination of the visit. This 
 mezzo termine gave universal satisfaction by turning 
 the difficulty of a direct communication between 
 the Quirinal and the Vatican. 
 
 One year after King Victor Emmanuel's death, 
 and in the same month. General MacMahon, who 
 had been associated with him in the campaiga of 
 '59, — and at his side won the titles of Duke and 
 Marshal, — abandoned the presidency of the French 
 Eepublic, which he had retained not quite six years, 
 and to which he had been elected when M. Thiers 
 resigned it. His retirement did not create the 
 commotion that such an event ought to have 
 elicited ; it barely ruffled the life of Paris for three 
 days. There were a few groups in the streets, a 
 more active sale of newspapers, a slight fall at the 
 Bourse, a rapid, exodus of the floating population 
 of timid foreigners who take wing at the first 
 suspicion of political earthquakes or report of 
 cholera — that was all. The bulk of Eepublican 
 
 T 2 
 
276 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 France was calmly indiflferent ; the army naturally 
 preferred at the head of the State a military Presi- 
 dent whose name was coupled with victories in 
 Africa, the Crimea, and Lombardy ; the people 
 probably leaned towards a pacific and inoffensive 
 bourgeois ; but neither the departure of the one nor 
 the advent of the other ,was important enough in 
 the eyes of either class to excite their partisanship. 
 Tlie petifs journaux, according to the opinion they 
 represented, had highly-coloured caricatures revert- 
 ing to the' defeat of the Marshal at Woerth as 
 heralding his presidential one, or extolling the pro- 
 fessional culinary talents of Papa Grevy's wife ; and 
 when the public had fumed or laughed at them ifc 
 became interested in Longchamps, in the new 
 Opera of Zamora, in the " Etincelle " and Delaunay 
 at the Frangais, in the early appearance of leaves 
 in the Champs Elys^es, and became quietly obli- 
 vious of the change in the Presidency as a fait 
 accompli. 
 
 After all, no play enacted off the boards of a 
 theatre will ever have for the Parisians the vital 
 interest of a dramatic performance. The theatre 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 211 
 
 is their great pre-occupation, the master-passion 
 of their lives ; and it has made their judgment 
 severe, critical, and generally just ; they are at 
 once impartial and catholic in their tastes, they 
 have no parti pris, no established favourite, no 
 impeccable company. "When in the distant Theatre 
 de Cluny the Juif Polonais was given for the first 
 time, as far back as September '69, its merits were 
 immediately recognized, and the small playhouse 
 was crowded. The author certainly never expected 
 to see his play taken hold of by Irving, and the Jew 
 made one of his principal parts ; yet at the time of 
 its appearance it had the privilege of turning atten- 
 tion entirely away from the real crime of Pantin, 
 which for its atrocity was rarely equalled and 
 never surpassed, and which till then, to use the 
 consecrated expression, had passionne tout Paris. 
 
 At the same time Chaumont was taking lessons 
 from acrobats to stand on a bottle in La Cigale, and 
 from circus-riders to play in the Grand Casimir. 
 Dupuis the Belgian acted in farce, Dupuis the 
 Frenchman in high comedy, filling the parts taken 
 by Lafontaine when he played lover in Dumas' 
 
278 BANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OE 
 
 leading parts, and revived the Pere Trodigue. 
 "Patrie" Sardon's finest play had a second lease 
 of life and success, Mile. Rousseil replacing Mile. 
 Fargueil, and giving no indication of a future 
 claustral vocation ; in the part of Karloo, Charles 
 Lemaitre proved himself worthy of the name he bore ; 
 a few months later, in a fit of brain fever, he threw 
 himself out of the window of a fourth floor before 
 his attendants could restrain him, and dashed his 
 brains out. Sarah Bernhardt was a vision of the 
 mediseval ages in Ruy Bias and Hernani, while 
 Lassalle and Mile. Krauss filled the new Opera to 
 overflowing in I'Africaine. Austere republicanism 
 was more luxurious in dress than the profligate 
 Empire, and gilded vice as insolent if not more so ; 
 Paris still retained a little of the old prestige of 
 being the most civilized city of the world, but 
 there were already visible flaws in the veneer, as 
 easily distinguishable as the mutilated front of the 
 Tuileries amid the glories of its architecture, gardens, 
 and squares, because so imperfectly hidden by the 
 ever-recurring legend, Liberie, Fraternite, Egalite. 
 However, French theatres compare badly with 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 279 
 
 those of other countries, as far as the interior of 
 the house is concerned ; they are dingy contrasted 
 with those of London, where the men wear evenino- 
 clothes ; with Berlin and Vienna, where the military 
 uniform gives brightness and colour, as well as the 
 Court costume of the Chamberlains, who in the 
 former city can occupy the Eoyal box in the 
 Royal theatres as well as the Maids of Honour any 
 evening in the year, provided both ladies and 
 gentlemen are in full dress. 
 
 There the box, which is very broad and deep, is 
 lit by large chandeliers, and rarely occupied by the 
 Royalties, who each have their private boxes near 
 the stage communicating with each other, so that 
 the Emperor can pay visits to his relatives between 
 the acts. It could accommodate easily twenty -five 
 to thirty people, but hardly more than four or five 
 avail themselves of the privilege, on ordinary nights, 
 including the ladies in attendance on any Princess 
 in the house, who sit there during the perform- 
 ance when not wanted, ready to be summoned by 
 a look or message. The front row of arm-chairs is 
 never occupied by any save the Royal Family. 
 
280 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 There were many lovely women in Berlin society 
 twenty or twenty-five years ago. Prince Charles, 
 the King's second brother, always selected hand- 
 some Maids of Honour for the Princess ; and be- 
 sides the Countesses Luichesini and Seidowitz, the 
 beauties were Countess Lothom, Countess Pourtales, 
 Countess Freda Arnim, Madame de Benkendorfi", 
 born Princess Croy, who was the wife of the 
 Eussian military attache; the Princess Hatzfeldt, 
 who became Princess Carolath, and whom Eichter 
 immortalized in that magnificent portrait where he 
 represented her robed in white, her hand dreamily 
 sinking in the curly hair of a large dog, and whose 
 romantic love-story with the son of the greatest 
 living statesman lent her another and sadder 
 celebrity, extinguished at last in the gloom of a 
 useless divorce. 
 
 In 1857 Sophie von Arnim Boytzenbourg, the 
 eldest sister of pretty Countess Freda, married 
 her cousin. Count Harry Arnim, a widower, and 
 followed him to Eome, where he was sent as Am- 
 bassador. He was morose, reserved, unsociable ; 
 lie looked more like an Italian than a German 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 281 
 
 in face and colouring ; his dark eyes roamed nerv- 
 ously without ever frankly meeting the gaze of his 
 interlocutor. He had made his first wife — a Mile, 
 de PrHlwitz — anything but happy, and his second 
 marriage elicited some surprise, for Sophie Arnim 
 by birth and position was a most eligible parti. 
 It has been said that a misunderstanding arose 
 between him and Count Bismarck after the supple- 
 mentary agreement with France at Frankfort in '72, 
 but the Chancellor never really liked Harry Arnim. 
 When Thiers fell, Bismarck, suspecting the Count 
 of a strong leaning towards the French legitimists, 
 recalled him summarily from Paris, where he was 
 then Minister, and appointed him to Constantinople, 
 a post which he declined. He presented his letters 
 of recall to Marshal MacMahon, and soon after- 
 wards, although he denied any complicity in the 
 breach of official discretion, his Roman despatches 
 were published in Vienna. Bismarck seized that 
 opportunity of placing Count Arnim in disponi- 
 bUity and on half pay, and in October of the same 
 year, 1874, he was arrested in his estates near 
 Stettin, conveyed 'to Berlin, and placed in prison 
 
282 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 on the charge of having abstracted State Documents 
 from the archives of the German Legation in Paris 
 for fraudulent purposes. At the trial the court 
 rejected the count of embezzlement, but convicted 
 Harry Arnim of having subtracted and made away 
 with a certain number of papers, pertaining to 
 the Government, relating to ecclesiastical affairs, 
 and he was condemned to three months' imprison- 
 ment, one being remitted in consideration of the 
 incarceration already undergone ; also to pay all 
 the costs of the trial. The scandal caused by 
 these revelations was enormous, the majority of 
 Berlin society being directly or indirectly allied 
 to the Arnim family ; and unpopular as Count 
 Harry had ever been, there were those who traced 
 in the prosecution and the sentence the inflexible 
 animosity of the iron Chancellor, who had never 
 been known to relent or forgive a fancied or real 
 affront. Count Arnim, whose health was always 
 delicate, became severely ill in prison, but could 
 obtain, even in appeal, no commutation of his sen- 
 tence. He had one son by his first marriage, who 
 was in the army, and three daughters by the second. 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 283 
 
 He laboured all his life under disadvantages of his 
 own making, conscious of a latent antagonism, 
 making no efforts to remove unfavourable im- 
 pressions, content to remain friendless and solitary ; 
 all these reasons militated against him at a time 
 when he found himself in need of support and 
 sympathy. 
 
 Gambling had taken an excessive development 
 in Berlin clubs and at the officers' quarters. The 
 Minister of the Police could not extend his inter- 
 ference to the barracks, but he enforced a rule that 
 if gambling was carried on at a club or private 
 residence on a forbidden scale, the offenders should 
 be dispersed by the police, and the chief culprits 
 punished. In a community almost exclusively 
 composed of the military element, and under an 
 administration where the uniform carries such 
 immunities, this decree created a strong indigna- 
 tion, and a resolution to oppose it. The same men 
 who were willing to conform to the most vexatious 
 measures of discipline without a murmur when 
 originating with their own superiors, rebelled 
 against the interference of civil authority, and 
 
284 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 agreed to disregard all restrictions put upon their 
 play and mode of enjoyment. The Police Minister, 
 Herr von Hinckeldey, was obstinate, and bided his 
 time. A conflict was inevitable — it came. His 
 subordinates entered one night into the Club Unter 
 den Linden, or the " Casino," as it was called, sur- 
 prised a party of young men gambling late and for 
 high stakes, and made several arrestations. The 
 next morning a lieutenant called on Herr von 
 Hinckeldey and insulted him. A duel was ar- 
 ranged, but the Minister of Police was privately 
 informed by an emissary in uniform that the body 
 of oflicers had determined to renew the insult in 
 succession, whether or not their comrades were 
 put hors de combat, till their adversary was killed, 
 as they had determined to avenge the indignity 
 placed upon them as a Corps, in defiance of the 
 fair warning they had tendered to the Minister 
 of Police before he attempted it. They persevered 
 in their resolution ; it fell to the fate of a Lieu- 
 tenant von Rochow to fulfil this iniquitous threat, 
 and Herr von Hinckeldey paid with his life the 
 accomplishment of his ofiicial duty. His funeral 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 285 
 
 was a solemn one ; tlie whole garrison was ordered 
 out to render tHe last honours to the man doomed 
 by its indomitable esprit de corps, and found no 
 inconsistency in obeying the command. Save for 
 the punishment of the three or four officers who 
 actually fought the duels, no further notice was 
 taken in high quarters of this strange vendetta. 
 
 The situation of a Prussian officer with regard to 
 a challenge is inextricable. Duelling is prohibited 
 by the military authorities. If an officer fights his 
 career is broken ; if he does not, and the affair is 
 brought before the Tribunal d'honneur of the regi- 
 ment, and considered sufficiently grave to require 
 satisfaction by arms, the man who has evaded it is 
 made to resign. And yet in justice it must be said, 
 that those overbearing, fire-eating, apparently in- 
 flexible warriors are individually very polite and 
 courteous with women, gentle, kind, and domesti- 
 cated in their family circle, devoted lovers, con- 
 siderate husbands, and the most filial of sons. 
 It may be that in their absolute devotion to their 
 Emperor and King they have unconsciously followed 
 his example, and imitated his profound veneration 
 
286 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 for his mother, the beautiful Queen Louise ; to him 
 her slightest wishes were law, aud he has never 
 wavered in his observance of them, alike in great 
 things and in small. 
 
 There is a picture in Berlin representing King 
 William paying a last visit to his mother's tomb at 
 Charlottenburg before starting for the army in 1870. 
 This painting is the second of a trilogy fraught with 
 meaning for those who care to read it : the first 
 shows you Napoleon I. and Queen Louise after the 
 battle of Jena, the last Napoleon III. and William L 
 after Sedan. In her will Queen Louise left to her 
 husband and to her son the duty of avenging the 
 shame and humiliation under which she could not 
 live ; Jena, Friedland, Eylau had killed her. She 
 died indignant against Austria, who had forsaken 
 Prussia ; breathing vengeance against France ; 
 grateful to Russia, who had stood her country's ally, 
 and proved her fidelity on the Niemen. That 
 last testament is almost prophetic in its bequests. 
 The retaliation evoked on the head of a Napoleon 
 explains the conduct of Prussia throughout the 
 century ; her equivocal attitude towards Austria 
 
COURTS AND SOCIETY. 287 
 
 in '59, towards France in '66 ; it foreshadows Sadowa 
 and Sedan, and is the key to the sympathy existing 
 quand meme, between Germany and Russia. The 
 will of Queen Louise has been her son's gospel — her 
 memory, his loadstar in public and in private life. 
 
 Is there not something inexpressibly touching in 
 
 the following trait, almost pathetic in its homely 
 
 simplicity ? The Emperor, who would allow only 
 
 wax candles in the White Hall, because they set off 
 
 the beauty and dresses of women better than gas, 
 
 burnt oil lamps in his own apartments. He had 
 
 been staying on a visit with his Marshal of the 
 
 Court, Count Stolberg Wernigerode, and on his 
 
 return to Berlin observed to his aide-de-camp a la 
 
 suite. Count Lehndorff, that certainly none of his 
 
 lamps gave half as good a light as other people's. 
 
 He was told the reason of it ; other people burnt 
 
 mineral oil, and he had always refused to do so. 
 
 Convinced at last, the Emperor allowed all his lamps 
 
 to be fitted with new burners, and when the system 
 
 of kerosine was inaugurated one winter day before 
 
 dinner, he expressed himself vastly pleased with 
 
 the experiment. But his joy was short-lived, for on 
 
288 RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 returning to his usual sitting-room after the meal 
 he found it filled with a thick, pestilential smoke. 
 Summoning his faithful old valet Engel, he de- 
 manded what this meant. The aide-de-camps 
 knew perfectly, but had feigned ignorance. " Your 
 Majesty," said the old man, " always turns down 
 the lamp when he leaves the room, and these new- 
 fangled things won't be turned low without 
 smoking. " " Well then, " said the Emperor, " let 
 the old burners be put back again. When we 
 were very poor," he added, turning to his generals, 
 " and I was only a little boy, my mother invariably 
 lowered our lamp Avhen it was not wanted ; I have 
 always done so in remembrance of her, and I never 
 mean to do anything else. " 
 
 THE END. 
 
 R. Clay and Sons, Limited, London and Bungay. 
 

 
 
 
 
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