YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT OF FREDERICK SHELDON PARKER B.A.j LL.rS* YALE 1873 THE MEMOIRS OF THE BARONESS CECILE DE COURTOT LADY-IN-WAITING TO THE PRINCESS DE LAMBALLE PRINCESS OF SAVOY-CARIGNAN COMPILED FROM THE LETTERS OF THE BARONESS TO FRAV VON ALVENSLEBEN, NEE BARONESS LOE, AND THE DIARY OF THE LATTER BY HER GREAT-GRANDSON MORITZ VON KAISENBERG (MORITZ VON BERG) TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY JESSIE HAYNES NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1900 Copyright, 1900, BT HENRY HOLT & CO. RPPERT DRUMMONO, PRINTER, NEW YORK. PREFACE. In an attic of my father's house in the neighbourhood of Halberstadt there stood, among other out-of-date and disused furniture, an ancient carved oak chest. It had belonged to my mother's grandmother, and on its lid was carved the name: Sophie Hedwig von Alvensleben, verwittwete [widowed] von Biilow-Gross-Schwechten, geb. [nee] von Rauchhaupt auf Hohenthurm u. Landin. 1692. That was the mother of my great-grandfather; the oak chest might therefore well command our veneration as a family heirloom. On the rare occasions when we children were permitted a peep into this chest, there was no end to our wonder and de light; for the spirit of a strange and by-gone world seemed to breathe from it and the marvellous things that lay therein. It was a very reliquary in our childish eyes. Then very carefully with those dear slender hands of hers our mother would lift the things out one by one — curiously fashioned gowns trimmed with real old point, dainty little ivory fans, potpourri boxes and reticules, embroidered Pom padour bags with their varied store of tiny scissors, tabatieres IV PREFACE. for Spanish snuff and the like. Besides all this there were ladies' poetry albums, illuminated prayer-books, costumes and fashion plates — in short, the chest was a treasure-house of bewildering delights, each of its fair owners, as it was handed down from one generation to the other, having stored away in it what seemed of special value in her eyes. On the death of my beloved mother, this treasure passed into my hands. It was a frequent and never-failing delight tp me to turn over its contents, and one day, quite at the bottom, under a quantity of old documents, I chanced upon a thick packet of letters tied together with a blue ribbon and having on the outside wrapper the inscription : Cecile's letters. 1801 and 1802. There were seventeen in all, some of them many pages long, written in French on stout — according to our present ideas coarse — paper, dropping to decay, torn in parts, and the writing half obliterated with age. I began to decipher them and discovered that they were, letters from the Baroness Cecile de Courtot, one time dame] d'atour to the Princess de Lamballe, to my great-grand mother, Frau Anna Gottliebe Luise Wilhelmine von Alvens-* leben, nee Freiin von Loe of Overdiek. But this was not my only treasure trove. Besides many other letters dating from the beginning of the century, I found a red velvet book bearing on its cover the inscription " My Album." In this book, my great-grandmother, following the fashion of her day, had made a varied collection of things that had struck her fancy. Here I found somewhat overladen effusions of the poets of the time, her impressions on this or PREFACE. V the other subject, and accounts of the various important days of her life. By degrees the contents of the book assumed the character of a " diary," as we should call it now-a-days, though in reality it is more than that, for it includes conversations and | descriptions of persons interesting to her, records important/ events that happened to them, and a multitude of other at-j tractive matter not connected with herself. What makes the book of special value in my eyes, how ever, is that it supplements the above-mentioned letters and helps one to thoroughly understand many of the occurrences of those days. Added to which, its pages reveal the deep feel ing and noble character of my great-grandmother, a woman who for culture, charm, and lovable disposition ranked high in the opinion of her contemporaries and whose memory is still green in the family at the present day. This diary is also written in French, which may be ex plained by the fact of my great-grandmother having been brought up in a French convent in Holland; besides that, ini those days, it was the language of social intercourse in the] upper classes. Thus, from the following translation of the diary and the letters, I have endeavoured to construct a faithful picture of those times and the persons mentioned. The Baroness Cecile de Courtot lived for eight years in the house of my great-grandparents at Kalbe on the Milde. She had been an eye-witness of the French Revolution, a sorely tried victim in the days of the Terror, and her position and rank brought her in contact with the Emperor Napoleon I. and many famous personages of that period. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE HOME OF MY GREAT-GRANDPARENTS. PAGH History of the Family of von Alvensleben. Werner IV. von Alvens- leben. First War of the Coalition against France. Overdiek Castle. Werner makes the acquaintance of Anna Gottliebe von Loe and loves her. He is wounded before Verdun. Is nursed at Overdiek. Wemer leaves the army and marries Annaliebe von Log. Their home at Kalbe. ... I CHAPTER II. THE EARLY MARRIED LIFE OF THE VON ALVENSLEBENS. Annaliebe's Diary. Frau von Bismarck-Schonhausen. Old Herr von Briest. The Poet Gleim. The Pastors and their families. The War. Arrival of a letter from Major von Rauchhaupt in Roermonde in which he / begs the young couple to receive an\emigr when I had been for about a year with the Princess de Lamballe at the Court of Versailles, that the affair occurred which afterwards proved so damaging to the Queen's reputation, although the unfortunate lady was ab solutely blameless in the matter and only learned the truth when it was far too late to combat the intriguers. No one can speak with better authority on the subject than myself, as, unhappily, I was implicated in the judicial enquiry that fol lowed. " In order that you may the better understand my story I must go back to the year 1770, when Louis Rene, Prince de Rohan-Guemenee, at that time Prince-Bishop of Stras burg, was sent as ambassador to the Court of Vienna to ar range the preliminaries connected with the betrothal of the Dauphin and the Princess Marie Antoinette. " Despite his ecclesiastical position the great Church dig-i nitary was a confirmed libertine and many were the stories' in circulation of his amours and his reckless extravagance. His mission in Vienna naturally brought him in contact with the young and lovely Archduchess, and the story goes— though I cannot vouch for the truth of it — that he became so violently enamoured of her that, disregarding the object of his embassy, he sought by every means to win her love for himself. So far did his folly and his belief in his own irresistible qualities lead him, that he is reported to have' applied to the Pope to be relieved of his ecclesiastical charge and for a dispensation enabling him to marry the Arch* duchess. " Be this as it may, he actually did make the young Prin- CARDINAL ROHAN. 107 cess a violent declaration of love one day, when he was sp unlucky as to be surprised by the Empress Maria Theresa: who, they say, hotly indignant at his unwarrantable boldness, heaped him with contumely and insisted on his immediate recall to Paris. It was this rejection which laid the founda1 tion of his hatred against my poor unhappy Queen. "When Louis XVI. came to the throne Rohan fell into disfavour and was banished to Strasburg, but the good- natured King recalled him in a year or two and even made him Grand Almoner of the kingdom. The Queen, however, never forgave him his former presumption and invariably treated him with marked disdain, wounding the man's in ordinate vanity to the quick ; till, blinded by the all-absorbing desire to win Her Majesty's regard, the Prince-Bishop al-i lowed himself to become the tool of a band of unscrupulous! swindlers. " There lived at that time in Paris a couple of adventurers, a ci-devant gendarme and his sister (though I think the re lationship was more than doubtful), who called themselves Valois and claimed to be descended from the ancient royal family of that name. This worthy couple made some show of position, and their house was the favourite resort of those Illuminati who gathered round the so-called Count Cagliostro — otherwise Joseph Balsamo — as their prophet. " By some means or other, Cardinal Rohan was drawn into this set, with the result that he soon stood on a very intimate footing with the self-styled ' Countess ' Lamotte- Valois, whose motive herein was to persuade the Cardinal to introduce her at Court and so obtain acknowledgement of her alleged name and rank. Being himself in bad odour at Court, Rohan was unable to gratify this wish of hers, but 108 THE STORY OF THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE. when, taking advantage one day of his tender mood, the Countess persistently returned to the attack, he disclosed to her that he loved the Queen with a consuming passion and] would give his life to win her favour. On this avowal thel woman seems to have based her shameless intrigue. I " Her first step was to assure the Cardinal that she was on intimate terms with some of the Court ladies, mentioning me — who had never set eyes on her — in particular, and showing herself frequently on the stairs and in the corridors of the Palace at Versailles to give an appearance of truth to the statement. " It happened that just at that time the Court jewellers Bohemer and Bassange were offering a wonderful diamond necklace for sale. The Queen saw it and very much wished to possess it, but on learning that the price was over two mil lion francs she at once abandoned the idea. " The Lamotte now set herself to persuading the Cardinal that the Queen was ardently in love with him — so Cagliostro had discovered in seance with his familiar spirits — and that her coldness was merely a cloak to hide her all too violent flame. Let him seize this opportunity for breaking down the barrier of coyness, let him lay the famous necklace at his idol's feet- she even engaged to bring about a meeting between- him and the Queen on some evening to be decided on later. " And this brings me to the crowning villainy of this gang of reprobates. "It was the 14th of July, 1784, and a marvellous summer evening; a well-nigh tropical atmosphere lay over the Park of Versailles and the Petit Trianon, where we had been taking tea in Her Majesty's apartments, and afterwards went out to breathe the freshness under the portico. Besides the Queen THE INTRIGUE IN THE PARK OF VERSAILLES. IO9 there were the Princess de Lamballe, Mesdemoiselles de Noailles, de Laval, and myself. The stars shone in dazzling brilliance, but in the bosquets and the broad avenues of the Park the shades of evening were already deep. " Presently the Queen left us in order, as was her frequent custom, to take a little exercise before retiring. She strolled in the direction of one of the avenues, and we ladies remained beneath the portico wrfile Mademoiselle de Laval went to fetch lights ; the Queen allowing no lacqueys at the Trianon. We then seated ourselves round a table and chatted about the events of the day. " Suddenly a shrill scream broke the stillness, and as we started up and ran in the direction from whence it came, the Queen rushed breathless towards us. When she came within the region of the light, we noticed that her beautiful face was ghastly pale and her eyes strangely fixed and glassy. My Princess asked in terrified solicitude if she felt ill, whereupon, she replied, in a voice we hardly recognised, that she had just j encountered an apparition. ' An apparition ? ' we cried. ' Yes, I can call it by no other name,' she gasped. ' A figure glided past me, so exactly resembling myself in every particular — even down to the dress I am wearing — that I could not but take it for my wraith (mon fantome). When, startled almost out of my senses, I called to the apparition, it vanished among the trees.' " Such evidences of terror on the part of our Royal mistress, whom we had always known as the most fearless of beings, alarmed us beyond measure. Snatching up the lights we hastened to the spot she described and thoroughly scoured the whole neighbourhood. Not a sign of anything could we dis- 1 10 THE STORY OF THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE. cover, only Adelaide said she heard a sound as of someone moving through the thicket in the distance. " The occurrence was long the subject of conversation be tween us, but it presently faded from our minds, and the Queen herself came at last to believe that she had been the victim of a delusion. We were destined to remember it in the time to come. " In the course of the subsequent trial, it transpired that the Lamotte had chosen that evening for the consummation of her vile scheme. It seems she had come across an infamous creature called Oliva, a figurante at one of the low theatres, who bore a most striking resemblance to the Queen. Having apprised the Cardinal of the promised rendezvous, she dressed this woman in clothes such as the Queen was in the habit of wearing and secreted her in a shrubbery close to the Petit Trianon. Here the Cardinal found her, and never doubting that she was Marie Antoinette, fell at her feet and clasping her knees declared his passion. "The supposed Queen then graciously raised him, em braced him, and addressing him in endearing terms, expressed her ardent longing to possess the diamond necklace. In the midst of these tender passages, a warning cry came from Madame Lamotte, who was playing sentinel close by. Acting her part to the life, Oliva hurriedly slipped away, promising the Cardinal to meet him again the next evening. " The Lamotte had now brought the Cardinal to the de sired point. He acquired the necklace and handed it over to her to give to Marie Antoinette. But no sooner had the wily person secured her booty than she passed it on to her brother, who incontinently fled with it to England, while she herself THE CARDINAL'S TRIAL. Ill remained with insolent audacity inTaris, where she imagined herself perfectly secure from suspicion. " In the course of the next six months, however, the jew ellers applied in vain to the Cardinal for payment, till at last, driven to bay, he confessed that he had bought it in the Queen's name. " The King and Queen now heard the whole story from the jewellers, and the indignant King at once ordered the most searching investigation. Thus it was that I too became im plicated in the affair, and was brought before the Court as having received the jewels from Madame Lamotte to be given to the Queen. It was terrible! Happily I had no difficulty in establishing my innocence, for on the day mentioned by the vile creature I had not been in Versailles at all, but with my parents in Paris. The charge against me consequently fell to the ground; indeed, the whole nefarious plot presently came to light. The Lamotte was pronounced guilty, publicly] v scourged and then incarcerated in the Salpetriere. " Nevertheless, the Cardinal satisfied his base desire for revenge by saying, when he was under examination, that ' he might possibly have been deceived in the person of the Queen ' ; his whole demeanour at the same time being calculated to give both the Tribunal and the public the impression that he was concealing the truth to shield the Queen, and that a liaison actually existed between them. Accordingly hgjK&s_a£q.Ui£t£d. — a flagrant miscarriage of justice, for he should, at least, have been punished for Use majeste in thus defaming the Queen. The King banished him, it is true, and had Cagliostro and his precious disciples driven from the kingdom. " Nevertheless, the people seized upon the various un- \ savoury details of this trial, which lasted nearly a whole year, 112 THE STORY OF THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE. for building up fresh accusations against the Queen. That evening at the Trianon played a part herein, the majority assert ing that it was Marie Antoinette herself who then met the \ Cardinal, and that the story of the double was a mere fiction to divert suspicion from the real culprit. Unfortunately, colour was given to this story from the fact that Oliva was nowhere to be found, her friends having succeeded in getting her out of the country so that she should not be produced to give evidence at the trial. " This calumny therefore became a fixed idea with the people, and from that time forth all manner of love intrigues were brought against the unfortunate Queen. She was even accused of a liaison with her brother-in-law of Artois, despite I the well-known fact that he was most happily married. ' " But at the bottom of all these base aspersions, as of the Necklace affair itself, was the vile Philippe *d 'Ori pan s — of that* the Queen and we ladies were unalterably persuaded. He was intimately associated with Cagliostro and his band, and ini tiated the entire plot to ruin the Queen's reputation, out of spite for her indignant rejection of his proposals. — I hold that man capable of any crime. " Here are two letters," continued Cecile, handing them to me, "from Marie Antoinette to her sister Marie-Christine of Sachsen-Teschen, wife of the Stadtholder of the Nether lands, in which the Queen gives her view of the story. They are copies of the originals in the possession of the Marquis de Stainville, who vouches for their accuracy. The complete in nocence of the sorely tried Royal lady is unmistakable from both of them. THE QUEEN TO HER SISTER. II3 FIRST LETTER. " Chere soeur! "L'affaire aff reuse du collier forme toujours la conver sation publique, tout le monde en parle. Tant que le cardinal cherche a sauver son honneur, il n'y reussira pas ; son effron- terie et son audace ont rencontrees trop d'obstacles, tant qu'ils sont supportees. "Votre regne m'assistera j'en suis convaincue, en faisant la recherche de la femme qui a joue ce role dans la scene du jardin et s'est refugiee chez vous. Donnez les plus severes ordres a cet egard, je t'en prie. Le Dauphin joue a. mon cote avec ma fiUe et ils ont se portent en bonne sante; maintenant ils ont une querelle et me demandent, que je sois juge entre eux — je ne quitterai pas done les tribunaux! "Adieu, chere soeur, je t'embrasse, " Marie Antoinette. " Versailles, samedi, 178s." [Translation.] "Dear Sister: "The dreadful scandal of the Diamond Necklace is still the talk of the town, it is in everybody's mouth. Let the Cardinal try as he will to save his reputation, he will not succeed; his effrontery and hardihood have too often stum bled against obstacles, no matter what support they have re ceived. " Your government will, I am sure, assist me in the search j for the woman who personated me in the garden scene and | then fled into your territory. Give the strictest injunctions in this matter, I entreat you. " The Dauphin is playing beside me with his sister ; both 114 THE STORY OF THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE. are in good health. Now they are quarrelling and want me to be judge between them — it seems that I am never to be free of the law! " Adieu, dear sister. I embrace you. " Marie Antoinette. " Versailles, Saturday, 1785." SECOND LETTER. " Versailles, 13 juin 1785. " Chere Marie Christine! " Je suis heureuse, chere sceur, que tu sois maintenant mieux informee de la chose terrible. Tu te souvenirs de l'au- dace et de l'effronterie de Rohan, qu'il montra a Vienne et de l'irreverence incroyable en passant en costume de chasse par une procession de Fete-Dieu ; lui, le dignitaire de l'eglise. — Au proces il a montre la meme effronterie. II m'a brave meme a presence du roi. Cet homme est d'une morale cor- rompue, et la Lamotte entretenait une liaison condamnable avec lui. Dans toute l'affaire il y a un rets d'intrigues qui echappe le tribunal. Des memoires et refutations suivent les uns aux autres et on ne voit pas plus clair. Un accomode- ment raisonnable est impossible. L'infame est alle jusqu'au point d'affirmer qu'il avait eu un rendezvous avec moi dans le jardin a Versailles et qu'il avait recu la mon consentement formel pour l'achat du collier. " L'audace de cette deposition a pousse le roi a bout et m'aurait rendue malade, s'il ne me fallait pas combattre et epargner toutes me forces, pour tenir tete a des orages tant cruels, Je n'ai pas encore vu les lettres de change, je les ai THE QUEEN'S SECOND LETTER TO HER SISTER. I15 exigees ; il sont absurdes et portent la signature mal contre- faite : Marie Antoinette de France. " Le roi, moi, monsieur de Breteuil, tout le monde se de- mande, comment un grand aumonier, un homme, qui autre ment ne passait pour un imbecile, pouvait etre ebloui jusqu'a un tel degre. Aussi ne peut on pas avoir la conviction, qu'il soit sincere a cet egard. Je me reproche, que j'ai attribue trop de consideration a cette affaire. " Torget, qui est l'avocat du cardinal, travaille, comme on dit, a un memorial; c'est un homme honnete, mais il pousse son metier et Dieu sait, quels mensonges il nous fera accroire. Le charlatan Cagliostro a aussi publie un memoire et de meme un citoyen d'Arras, c'est a present le sujet de toute conversation. Le roi le croit impossible, que la verite ne soit pas decouverte. "Adieu, chere sceur, ton amitie est ma consolation; j'y pense, que ton sang, qui roule dans mes veines est celui de la reine Marie Therese. Notre mere est toujours presente devant mes yeux tu n'apprendras rien ce qui ne serait pas digne d'elle. " Marie Antoinette." [Translation.] "Dear Marie Christine: " I rejoice, my dear sister, that you are now more fully acquainted with the details of this abominable affair. You remember Rohan's presumption and effrontery that time in Vienna and how he had the incredible irreverence to join a Corpus Christi procession wearing a hunting-dress — he, a Il6 THE STORY OF THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE. high dignitary of the Church ! During the trial he has dis played the same brazen front, insolently defying me in pres ence of the King. He is a man of thoroughly corrupt morals and entertained a guilty liaison with the woman Lamotte. Underlying the whole business is a network of intrigue which escapes the judges. Memorials and refutations follow on one another's heels, but throw no light upon the subject. Any reasonable adjustment of the matter is out of the question; the wretch has gone so far as to affirm positively that he had a rendezvous with me in the garden at Versailles during which he received my formal consent to the purchase of the necklace. "The audacity of this assertion drove the King to fury and would have made me ill had I not felt the urgent neces sity of reserving all my strength if I were to hold my own against these cruel onslaughts. I had not yet seen the bills of exchange, so demanded their production. They are the clumsiest of frauds and bear the signature ' Marie Antoinette de France ' in a badly simulated hand. " The King and I, Monsieur de Breteuil — in fact every body is asking how a man in his position and, for the rest, of no mean intelligence can have allowed himself to be so grossly duped. It is imposible to believe him sincere on this point. I regret having wasted so much consideration on this affair. "Torget, the Cardinal's advocate, is reported to be en gaged on a memorial; he is an honest man, but — it is his business, after all, and Heaven alone knows what lies he will ask us to swallow. The charlatan Cagliostro, too, has pub lished a memorial, as has a citizen of Arras — it is the one subject of conversation at present. The King deems it im- ANNALIEBE'S COMMENT. 117 possible that the truth should not eventually be brought to light. "Adieu, dear sister, your friendship is my great consola tion. Our mother is ever present to me, and I do not forget that the blood of Maria Theresa flows in your veins and in mine. You shall never hear anything of me unworthy the daughter of such a mother. " Marie Antoinette." Surely it is enough to make one shed tears to read these \ frank and single-hearted letters from the hapless victim of a' cruel plot. What an overwhelming amount of sorrow is often contained in one person's life ! One cannot but wonder what judgment will be passed in after days on this unfor tunate Queen. Will God never let the whole truth of this | miserable intrigue be known? During the winter that followed, the Alvenslebens seem to have been well-nigh chained to the house by the cold, which was so severe as to preclude all possibility of visiting or receiv ing even their near neighbours. Annaliebe writes in Novem ber already of twenty degrees of cold, and complains of the badly constructed stoves which devoured whole forests of wood. It must have been about this time that Cecile carried out her intention of writing to her friend the Duchess Edmee in Paris; at least, so the following letter among my great-grand mother's papers would lead one to conclude: 1X3 THE STORY OF THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE. " Paris, Faubourg St. Germain, The 3d Frimaire, Year VII. "My sweetest, best-beloved Cecile: "Words cannot express my joy and delight at receiving your dear letter. Why, it was as good as hearing that you had risen from the dead ! To think that you are alive, sweetheart, that God has preserved you to me! I mourned you with many bitter tears, for, hearing no tidings of you, I had perforce come to the conclusion that you had fallen a victim to those butchers. And so you were saved and found a refuge in Prus sia? Fancy, cherie, my being quite near you and never know ing it! For two years I lived in Gotha with some dear kind people and often thought of you while there. What an endless pity that I had no knowledge of your whereabouts! " I have been back here a year now, living in my own house and in possession of all my former estates. I have re opened my Salons and you would stare in astonishment at the company that assembles there — almost ancien regime, for there | are a good many old friends among them. " So you heard through the Marquise de Navaillac that it was through Barras I obtained restitution of my property? You remember Monsieur le Vicomte, a kind of cousin of mine? He is an extraordinary creature; a compound of un utterable baseness and a few good qualities. What has he not been in his time! A noble by birth and related to some of the first families, such as the Pontave and the Castellane, he was in turn officer, Republican, Jacobin, and at last Terrorist. And now having reached the summit of power, he is once more a Moderate — a complete weathercock, as you perceive, turning with every wind that blows. Decidedly his most meritorious action was in rendering that tiger-cat Robespierre harm- LETTER FROM THE DUCHESS EDMEE. 119 less. He lives in the Palais de Luxembourg now, and what with his millions and his dazzling fetes gives much food for talk. He is the greatest egoist in the world. " A few good qualities, however, he undeniably has. He is faithful to old friends and has helped others besides myself. They say too that he is kind to his wife, a gentle, unassuming creature of provincial origin. He does not have her in Paris, Men compris, because of his numerous amours. " He did me good service by advancing me a sum of money to purchase Assignats, for the face value of which the gov ernment allowed me to buy back my Palace and my estates. Enfin, I find myself quite comfortable here. " You write, chere petite, that you feel yourself quite at home in Germany — but do you never long to see your own country again? Come back to us and I will see that you too are reinstated in your possessions. — But you must make haste, for I fear me matters are going to be serious ere long. The misery of the people increases day by day, and I cannot think this Directorate can hold out much longer. "There is one man to whom they all look for salvation, and that is General Buonaparte, whose fame has doubtless reached you too. The millions he acquired in Italy alone pre serve the State from bankruptcy. Possible that he is the Man of the Future, but, nevertheless, I am afraid no change of gov ernment can be effected here without much bloodshed and a world of trouble of every description. If, therefore, sweetest, you cannot come at once, better stay where you are till the crisis is over. I will write you frequently and keep you au courant of events. I daresay I shall be able to give you more information presently of this enigmatical Corsican. I may as well tell you at once that I am very much interested 120 THE STORY OF THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE. in the valiant General, who has, as yet, been accompanied by the most unprecedented success in all his enterprises. "Answer me soon and I will write quickly in return. Though I may not have the joy of embracing you very soon, our intercourse must not be interrupted. I can only hope that this distressing period of indecision may soon pass. My compliments to your — as you tell me — so charming friend. Take the utmost care of yourself. Adieu, sweetheart, love me as I love you. "Always your devoted " Edmee." The correspondence between Cecile and the Duchess ap pears to have been very brisk during the next year or two, for, although there are but two more original letters from her among my great-grandmother's documents, frequent allusions in the diary lead one to conclude that they often wrote to each other. These remarks bear mostly upon Bonaparte and his family and give the impression of having been written down from some account of the Baroness that Annaliebe might the better remember them. As they often refer to hitherto little- known circumstances in Napoleon's life, I will quote them as occasion offers. CHAPTER X. THE YEARS 1797 AND 1798. In the summer of 1797 we find Annaliebe and her friend under Uncle Briest's escort in Heligoland, whither my great grandfather had sent them by the old family doctor's advice. Frau von Alvensleben had evidently been suffering from the effects of several severe colds, though she does not mention this, and Dr. Nikolai considered that the sea-bathing would be very beneficial both to her and Cecile's nerves. Accord ingly, with old Herr von Briest as courier, they set out for a six weeks' visit to the island, Werner being in all probability detained at home by the harvest. There was a constant interchange of letters between hus band and wife, and Uncle Briest also contributes occasional highly original epistles. The visit, which appears to have done for Annaliebe all the good doctor hoped for, lasted till the beginning of August, when her husband came to conduct the party home. The long-promised journey to Berlin was to have taken place that winter, but the death of King Frederick William II. upset this plan, and the presentation at Court was put off till the following year. During the intervening time there is little of any moment to be recorded; the family pursued the even, kindly tenor of 121 122 THE YEARS 1797 AND 1798. its way and the two ladies devoted themselves to the pleasant task of bringing up little Phillinchen in the way she should go. In February of the following year came another letter from the Duchess: Paris, 10 Pluviose, 1798. Faubourg St. Germain. It is quite a long time since you heard from me, my dear est Cecile. Many thanks for your delightful letter from the Island where you stayed with your friend. I often think of you and long to have you near me; but, believe me, my dear, you do well to stay away from Paris just now, for things are still very far from being settled. Within the last few months I we had another Revolution, only this time it started from | above instead of below. As I wrote you already, the financial affairs of the govern- \ ment were in a desperate condition ; in fact, nothing less than I complete bankruptcy wa> anticipated. Then came the 18th ' .Fructidor, on which day the Directory, with Barras at their / head, put an end to the existing state of things and, assisted by Bonaparte and his soldiers, took the whole controlling power into their own hands. How that all came about I am not in a position to say. I only know that on the morning of the 19th a proclamation appeared at the street corners de claring that the Directory had come upon a Royalist con spiracy set in motion by Pichegru, Barthelemy, and others, ally of whom had been arrested. No one seemed more delighted at this turn of affairs than*/ Cousin Barras. When, a day or two after the coup d'etat, he came to see me, he rubbed his hands gleefully and said that now his time had come at last! — He is at the head of the SECOND LETTER FROM THE DUCHESS. 1 23 government and, I suppose, the most powerful member of the Directory. He lives on a scale of fabulous extravagance, dis- 1 playing an almost regal splendour, indeed his establishment j is said to be considerably more costly than any of the Royal ones in the old days. General Bonaparte then left to join the Army in Italy, whence he returned three weeks ago with many trophies of his conquests. He was received with frenzied enthusiasm by the people, who gave a great fete in his honour at the Luxem bourg and did homage to him as to a demi-god — a reception, in fact, that had all the signs of a counter-demonstration against the Directory. Did the great General, I wonder, come back with the in- j tention of taking the reins of government into his own hands? j Who shall say? It may well be, however, that he does not think the time is yet ripe. He has left Paris again now, but whether with the object of joining the Army in Piedmont or of going to Brest — where they say an army is being collected against England — I could not ascertain. You ask for more personal details of this Bonaparte. That, mon ange, is no easy matter, for he is so enveloped in mystery and legend that it would be difficult to say where; fiction left off and truth began. I can only tell you the stories j that are current about him latterly in our own circle to which, since his marriage with the widow of the Marquis de Beau harnais, he now belongs to a certain extent. More than this I do not know myself. Of course you remember the lovely Creole, Josephine Tacher de la Pragerie, ab^uj_j^^an_there , us_ed_to be a good_deal of talk? She is now Madame Bona- | parte. 124 THE YEARS i?9? AND 1798. (There follows an account of Bonaparte's family history and his native island, offering, however, no special interest; but further on the Duchess relates a few incidents of his school- life at Brienne which may not be so generally known.) At Madame de Montesson's a little while ago, Baron Leon Laurier, who was at Brienne with Bonaparte, was telling us stories about him. He said he was almost the only onei among the cadets with whom the young Corsican had frater-| nised. Madame de Luys asked how Bonaparte came by his singular Christian name, whereupon Laurier told us an amus ing incident in connection therewith. " In the course of the confirmation service the officiating bishop asked the young Corsican his name. ' Napoleon,' answers my friend with an assurance in startling contrast to the nervousness displayed by the rest of us. ' What did you say ? ' the bishop asked again, and Bonaparte repeated im patiently ' Napoleon.' The bishop turned in surprise to the priest at his side — ' Napoleon ? There is no saint of that name in the calendar.' 'Parbleu!' cried the cadet, 'I dare say not — it is a Corsican saint ! ' " We got up some fireworks one evening," resumed the Baron, " and some of the boys damaged Bonaparte's garden- plot in which he took a great pride ; then and there he rated them in such a tone of imperious authority that they were all constrained to offer humble apologies. I was standing close by and said in astonishment to my schoolfellow Dijon, ' Doesj he not seem born to command? ' " ' Presently Madame de Montesson asked who had first drawn attention to the young soldier, and Laurier answered that we had Barras to thank for that. It was at the siege of Toulon and a deputy ordered the young artillery officer to ANECDOTES OF BONAPARTE. 12$ change the position of his cannons. " Be good enough to at tend to your own business as ' representant,' " came the brusque reply, " and allow me to manage mine as artillerist. That battery stays where it is and I will answer with my head for its success ! " From that hour Barras took him under his protection and has ever retained a great regard for Bona parte, who reminds him in appearance of his friend Marat. It was Barras who afterwards placed him at the head of the Army in Italy. On another evening the Baron read us a copy of the gen eral orders issued by Bonaparte on taking command of the forces in Italy. I give it you here, petite, as it seems to me to sum up the whole character of this remarkable man : Promettez-moi de m'obeir aveuglement et ej vous garan- tis, victoire et 'tresors. Cest l'union qui fait la force. Plus vous me respectez, plus vous vous ferez respecter. II faut une tete a un corps bien organise. Si vous croyez qu'il y ait par- moi, vous n'avez qu'a me le designer, et je serai le premier mis vous quelqu'un plus en etait de vous commander que a executer ses ordres. Dans le cas contraire soumettez-vous a tout et comptez sur ma reconnaissance. Persuadez bien a vos officiers, que l'obeissance a la guerre passe avant tout, meme avant la bravoure. N. Buonaparte. [Translation.] Promise to obey me blindly and I guarantee to you vic tory and treasure. Union is strength. The more you respect, me, the more will you make yourselves respected. A well 126 THE YEARS 1797 AND 1798. organised body requires a head. If you think there is a man among you better fitted to command than myself, point him out to me, and I shall be the first to execute his orders. If such be not the case, then submit to my judgment in every thing and you may count on my gratitude. Instil it thor oughly into your officers that in war obedience counts before every other quality — even before bravery. N. Buonaparte. That is now about all I have heard about the famous Gen eral. Doubtless I shall be able to tell you more presently. But I have still to answer your questions regarding the Paris of to-day and more especially the reigning Modes. Do you know, cherie, it is really difficult to combine decency and fashion at the present moment? I assure you that some of the women leave positively nothing to the imagination. The craze for the so-called Neo-Greek . r.osrum e, which has been in favour since the Revolution, demands that every line of the female form should be in evidence and lays stress on much that were better concealed. In point of fact, the mode discloses more than it hides. To me it is all quite disgusting. I enclose you one or two fashion plates from which you can judge of this for yourself. I daresay it will be some time before this style is imitated in Germany. But, sooner or later, your Court is certain to adopt it. They tell the most extraor dinary stories here of the Prussian Court. The Bishop of Londonderry was at Madame de Montes son's lately on his way to Italy. He told us amazing things of your Royal residence, and spoke enthusiastically of the Countess Lichtenau — he ought to be ashamed of himeslf, the old imbecile! The Chevalier de Saxe was there on the same GOSSIP. 127 evening, and the two nearly came to blows when the Chevalier boasted of the lady's favour. Have I gossiped enough with you now, petite? You will, I trust, give me as many details of yourself and your doings in your foreign home. Remember me to your friend with the singular name. I think we are on the eve of tremendous events. I will write as soon as there is anything fresh. How I wish I had you here! Toute a toi, Edmee. CHAPTER XI. EVENTS OF 1798 TO 1800. In the middle of 1798 the long talked of visit of the Al venslebens and Cecile to Berlin at last took place. Adjutant- General von Kockeritz had evidently sent them an invitation in February which he repeated in July, and my great-grand parents decided to take the opportunity of the King's birth day on the 3d of August, on which date the Court went out of mourning, for presenting themselves to the new sovereign. Many Altmark families must have adopted the same plan, for Annaliebe remarks in her diary : " I expect there will be at least twenty von Alvenslebens in Berlin at the same time, not counting other relatives. How shall I ever remember their names? We are looking forward eagerly to our visit to Ber lin. I have only been there twice and know very little about it and Cecile is much excited at the prospect of seeing some thing of a foreign capital. I had quite a business to persuade the dear soul to make some change in her wardrobe, for of course she could not go to Court in the mourning garments she has never laid aside since she came to us. At last, how ever, she yielded to my entreaties and a beautiful costume was procured of deep blue gauze worked with silver leaves, 'a l'ame d'argent,' as it is called. A gold fillet will be woven in her hair, and I am sure she will look lovely. For myself, I was 128 THE ALVENSLEBENS AND CECILE AT COURT. 1 29 the lucky recipient of a perfectly delicieuse robe of white silk. Unfortunately it is cut very low, but I have had the neck partly filled up with tulle. To this I wear a turban of white crepe spangled with silver, and trust I shall do credit to my Werner in this costume. Kockeritz has secured lodgings for us at the ' Golden Ball.' How I am looking forward to it all ! " The diary is silent till August 20, 1798. We are at home again and I can once more devote a little time to my dear diary. I am still half dazed at the mass of new impressions that crowded in upon me and the many new faces I saw in the days that are just past, but I will do my best to write down something of it for remembrance in the days to come. (There follows here the account of their arrival in Berlin and the events of the first day — all of purely private interest.) . . . On the following day came the " Gratulationscour " for the King's birthday. We ladies had to assemble in the " Red Eagle Room " of the palace, where Countess Voss put both us and our dresses under rigorous examination. She de clared herself not entirely satisfied with the drapery round the decolletage of my bodice, so I pretended to push it down a lit tle but, in reality, it remained very much as it was before. The Countess welcomed Cecile very affably and added a few courteous words on her appearance and her presence there that day. She then beckoned to the Marquise de Navaillac, who was overjoyed at meeting her compatriot. It soon got about who Cecile was, and many of the ladies begged to be in troduced. Our gentlemen, meanwhile, were in the " Rittersaal." The 130 EVENTS OF 1798 TO 1800. " Cour " took place in the great white Saal, where the King and Queen were seated on crimson velvet Thrones. The gen tlemen filed past first, headed by the Princes of the Blood, who afterwards took up a position behind Their Majesties. Then came the ladies, under the guidance of Countess Voss. The Queen wore a white robe trimmed with ermine, a necklace of magnificent diamonds, and on her hair, which was gathered into a Greek knot, a flashing diadem. Round her throat was the fine diaphanous scarf Werner described, from which her fair face rose like a lily. When it came to the turn of the ladies, His Majesty rose and stood beside the Queen with a hand on the back of her seat, bending his head slightly as each one curtsied. He is tall and thin with regular features, whose stern gravity only relaxed somewhat when the Queen turned to him with some remark. Cecile came immediately behind me, her former posi tion as Lady-in-waiting entitling her to rank as a married woman. As she sank in a deep curtsey and the Countess men tioned her name, adding — " one time Dame d'atour to the Princess de Lamballe," something quite unexpected occurred. The Queen suddenly bent forward, and taking Cecile's dear little face between her slender hands, she kissed her on the brow! In defiance of all etiquette I turned and caught the heartfelt words — " Ma chere, I am delighted to receive you— most faithful of faithful friends! I hope to see you frequently here." Countess Voss shook her head reprovingly at this breach of etiquette, but the tears rose to my eyes at my sweet Queen's spontaneous kindness and I felt myself honoured in my friend. The " march past " over, Her Majesty held a " cercle " and had those ladies presented to her again who were here to-day THE KING'S BIRTHDAY. 131 for the first time. It chanced that we Alvenslebens — seven of us in all — were standing together. While we were being pre sented, and the Countess Voss again and again repeated the name of Alvensleben, the King came up. The Queen had just come to me, and as Countess Voss once more said — " Frau von Alvensleben " His Majesty broke in — " Half Altmark seems to be assembled here to-day.— Glad to see so many Al venslebens — good old family." He nodded affably as he spoke, though the short dis jointed sentences did not sound very encouraging. But the Queen was all the kinder and was pleased to enquire after the cousins in Wissen, whom she remembered from her Rhineland days. She then passed on to Cecile, who was standing beside me, gave her her hand again and said, half - turning to me and with that exquisite graciousness which is her special trait, " We hope to see both the ladies to-morrow evening in the Palace." Refreshments were then handed round and the ceremony was over. Next evening we were en petite cercle at the Palace. Be sides ourselves there were only Kockeritz, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Count Arnim-Boitzenburg with his lovely wife and the immediate suite. The Royal establishment is on the sim plest scale, not much better than our own. The furniture is quite homely, not a sign of regal splendour, whereat Cecile is much astonished. The souper, which was served at separate small tables, was also of the plainest. But an air of happy domesticity reigns over all, the royal couple live like simple private people and in perfect unity of heart. My admiration for our matchless Queen knows no bounds; such irresistible charm and tactful cordiality I have never met with before. — 1.32 EVENTS OF 1798 TO 1800. My Cecile was asked for various details of her tragic story, and Her Majesty could not hear enough about the Princess de Lamballe. Tears stood in her beautiful eyes at the ac count of her terrible end. — After the souper, Countess Voss read aloud a few chapters from a tale of Lafontaine, the King listening too with great attention. But I was not sorry to be seated at a considerable distance from the reader, as I knew the book and thought it very dull — Kockeritz's somewhat ma licious whispered remarks were decidedly more entertaining, My poor Werner did not appear to be enjoying himself much. He was beside Countess Arnim, who only speaks English, of which he knows very little. In his escarpins and tie-wig my husband looked a little conspicuous, all the other gentlemen wearing, like the King, pantalons and boots, and their hair cut short "a la guillotine." The next day was full of bustle and fatigue — in the after noon a grand family dinner at the " Preussischer Hof," at which all the Alvenslebens now in Berlin were present. Forty-two persons sat down to table and Cecile was the only stranger. On the last evening of dur stay we took tea in the apart ments of the Queen Dowager, but it was very stiff and dull. I afterwards sat alone with the Queen while most of the com pany played " Boston," a form of entertainment which never appealed much to me. She asked after my relations and my dear home, and we chatted in quite an easy, familiar strain. Poor dear lady, she has had much to bear ! She is very kind- hearted and seemed to take quite a fancy to simple me. And now these days of turmoil and excitement are over. We have seen and done much that was interesting, but the best of all is to be back in my beloved home again with my DUCHESS EDMEE DESCRIBES TALLEYRAND. 1 33 precious little Phillinchen beside me. Once more I say em phatically : " Go East, go West, At home is best ! " During the succeeding months nothing occurred of any great moment. Now and then, however, letters must have come to Cecile from the Duchess, and in the middle of De cember the diary gives extracts of one relating chiefly to the notorious Talleyrand. December 18th. Cecile read me the letter she received yesterday from the Duchess. It contained passages referring to the much talked of statesman Talleyrand which interested me greatly, as they give a different impression of the man from that I entertained hitherto. " You know of course " — she writes — " that the Marquis de Talleyrand-Perigord belongs to one of our oldest and most distinguished families; nevertheless, the Marquis — then Bishop of Autun — went over to the 'tiers etat' during thel Revolution and formed later on with Sieyes one of the Com mittee of the ' Assemblee Constituante.' In conjunction with Mirabeau and others he afterwards founded the Jacobin Club. It was he who first proposed the sequestration of the Church properties and was the bitterest antagonist of the priesthood. It was he who celebrated Mass at the Altar of Liberty on the ] Champ de Mars and consecrated the banners of Liberty. / " Affairs threatening to become dangerous for the Assem-\ blee, and his letters to the King on the storming of the Tui leries being discovered, he fled to America, whereupon the > 134 EVENTS OF 1798 TO 1800. Convention placed him on the list of emigres and confiscated his immense fortune. " After Robespierre's fall, he returned and obtained— through Barras' agency, I believe — the post of Minister, with J restitution of his property. They say he is the most ter-' rible egoist, but he certainly has an amazing influence over the minds of the persons with whom he comes in contact. " Madame de Stael, for example, is a very clever woman, yet he has always made her do exactly what he wanted. It was through her influence with Barras, they say, that he got this post. We always call him ^p Sphiny — he is so inscru table. He has chosen the most extraordinary person for his wife, a certain Madame Grant who is said to have lived with him for long; a woman in every respect — birth, intelligence, education — infinitely beneath him. " This is the man then who now represents the State in foreign affairs — and very cleverly, too, I believe. Here in Paris Cousin Barras is still at the helm ; but I can assure you( the grumbling of the people waxes louder every day. The financial prospects do not improve, and the great sums from Bonaparte's conquests in Italy have ceased to flow in. The Directoire is hated, and everybody judges a catastrophe of some kind to be imminent. Meanwhile General Bonaparte — whom many look upon as the Man of the Future— is piling victory upon victory in Egypt, and a sort of fabulous halo is beginning to surround the name of this man, who already ranks almost as a demigod with the nation." These were the most interesting points in the Duchess's letter. Conversing with Cecile afterwards, and speculating on the actual fruits of this bloody revolution and what the French LOUIS XVI. AND FREDERICK WILLIAM III. COMPARED. 1 35 nation had obtained in exchange for its well-meaning King, Cecile made a comparison which struck me forcibly and in which I cannot say she was altogether mistaken. "Louis XVI.," she said, "was an honest and single minded man and his ideas of government were undeniably just and conscientious. He could not endure to see any one suffer, . nor did he ever intentionally give offence. He was most un- pretentious and diffident and of so retiring a disposition as to be often accused of misanthropy. In society he was always iJLaL£aje_andJai±ingJn_sel^ ' Now are not all these the characteristic qualities of your King Frederick Wil liam III. ? ' she asked. " Indeed I would carry the similarity between the Royal houses still further and compare the two Queens with one another. I firmly believe that had not our Marie Antoinette been placed upon the throne as a mere child, she would have developed the same noble qualities that adorn your matchless Queen Luise. The two august Ladies have otherwise much in common — the same classical type of beauty, the same regal carriage, the same ineffable grace and sympathetic manner. Both love dancing and all the harmless pleasures of life. Under the rule of the late King you had much the same unprofitable condition of things as that which obtained under Louis XV. and the same legacy fell, in this respect, to the two young Royal couples. Where now lies the enormous difference in the results here and yonder? It lies chiefly in the character of your people, who are not to be named in the same breath with the rabble that hounded my poor King and Queen to their death. It lies furthermore in the qualities of the Hohenzollerns themselves, whose rule has planted loyalty so deep in the hearts of their people that it cannot be rooted out." 13$ EVENTS OF 1879 TO 1800. In the spring of 1799 the following entry occurs in the diary : April 8, 1799. Darling little Phillinchen, how she grows and flourishes, God bless her ! She is getting to be quite a big girl now and is raised to the dignity of having a tutor in the person of the Herr " Candidatus " Vultejus.. What a queer creature he is, to be sure ! Apparently no thought for anything outside, his teaching and his eternal Latin. Cecile, who is so clever and anxious to learn everything, insists on taking lessons of him. in this language of the savants! The Candidatus is very se vere with her and it is rare fun being present at one of these lessons. My Phillinchen, bless her, gets on well in her studies with the good man. A day or two ago Cecile received a letter from her young cousin in Brussels, telling her that he had passed his exami nations well last year and now wished to train for the, diplo matic service. He wrote further that his stepmother was in failing health and their pecuniary circumstances far from flourishing. Could Cecile not help him towards pursuing his career, and did she know of any means by which, like so many emigrants, she might move the present Government in Paris to the restitution of the family property? Then all would be well. It was a very nicely expressed and sensible letter, and Cecile of her kindness forthwith sent the young man a sum of money for the furtherance of his studies. And now the idea of regaining the family estates occupies her day and night. She has already written on the subject to her friend in Paris. I cannot bear even to think that I may thus perhaps1 lose ANNALIEBE FEARS TO LOSE HER FRIEND. 1 37 my friend. No words can say what she has been to me. The years she has spent at my side shine with a starry radiance in my memory ! Nor can I think it at all beneficial to her ' to plunge again into the whirlpool of the dreadful city where she has already endured such heavy sorrow. God will doubtless order all things for the best, and it is at least some consolation to me that the affairs of that Baby lon of a Paris seem not quite so desperate as they were. CHAPTER XII. THE YEAR 1800 AND BEGINNING OF 1801. The year 1799 passed and a new century began. Cecile diligently pursued her Latin studies under the Candidatus, whose teaching of Phillinchen, my dear little grandmother, appears to have given the utmost satisfaction. Meanwhile the eyes of the whole world were upon France, and the events there caused a great stir even in this little sleepy corner of the Altmark. On October 9th, 1799, General Bonaparte returned un-\ expectedly from Egypt. The campaign against Austria in the } preceding year had fallen out most disastrously for the Direc- toire, and Austria was victorious at every point. This sudden change in the fortune of war was viewed with astonishment and dismay by the French people, who were at a loss to un derstand why the victors of Rivoli and Castiglione should now be the vanquished. Each reverse was accordingly laid I to the charge of the Directoire; from all sides came angry/ mutterings of betrayal, and the existing government grew ever more obnoxious to the people. This was doubtless the^ moment Bonaparte had always foreseen. The fruit was now ripe to his hand — here was his cue for suddenly appearing upon the scene as the Deliverer of the Nation. He handed over the command of the Army in Egypt to Kleber and re- 138 BONAPARTE AS FIRST CONSUL. 1 39 entered Paris on the 9th Brumaire. The people received him with frantic jubilation, and offers of advancement poured in on him from every side. Barras invited him to resume command in Italy, but Sieyes and Ducos, who carried the majority of the Council of the Five Hundred with them, proposed that he should over throw the Government and combine with them in forming a new Constitution. Accordingly on the 1.8th Brumaire (Nov. 9th), supported by his brother Lucian, Murat and the troops, who idolised him, he dissolved the Council, the Government was overthrown, and the executive power vested in three Con suls : Sieyes, Ducos, and Bonaparte. Barras resigned and cheerfully withdrew with his ill-gotten millions to his coun try seat. At the very first sitting a struggle ensued between the Consuls on the subject of precedence, Ducos, against Sieyes' wish, yielding the place to Bonaparte, because he had the sense to perceive that Bonaparte, with his energetic and force ful character, was more fitted to pilot the ship of state through these stormy waters than the cowardly and vacillating Sieyes who, during the recent coup d'etat, had shut himself up in his carriage and cautiously awaited the result on the outskirts of St. Cloud. Events followed thick and fast. On the 3d Vende.miare. Bonaparte, supported by the blind devotion of the Army, placed himself at the head of the State as First Consul with the privileges of a monarch, and the French nation received a ruler invested with supreme power. Bonaparte nominated ministers and generals, he filled all offices of state with his creatures, and the Army and the National Guard were en tirely subservient to him. The other two Consuls resigned 140 THE YEAR 1800 AND BEGINNING OF 1801. and were at once replaced by Cambaceres and Lebrun, men wholly devoted to Bonaparte. This new disposition of office was made known on the 25th Nivose (Feb. 19th, 1800), and Bonaparte took up his residence at the Tuileries with almost regal pomp. His first decrees from thence excited universal astonish ment. He abolished the fete in memory of the execution of Louis XVI. and re-established the practice of religion, after] which he closed the " emigrant list " and called upon all refugees to return to France. The nation declared itself per fectly satisfied with it all. Bonaparte knew exactly how to impress the people. His rule promised them peace and order and security, but above all things " gloire." For now he turned upon the enemies of the country. He and Moreau defeated the Austrians at Hochstadt, Biberach and Memmin- gen and annihilated their Army at Mjy£ggo. By July 28th ' an armistice — the forerunner of a conclusive peace — put an end to the hostilities in Germany and Italy, and the laurel-' crowned First Consul was received on his entry into Paris with regal honours. In him France had obtained what she so urgently required — a strong hand to hold her in check, and besides that glory and fame enough to flatter her vanity. Is it to be wondered at that, as his valet Constant tells us in his memoirs, he should have said of this people whom he had set himself to govern : " Le peuple francais est une bete que chacun monte a son tour," and — " la France avait plus besoin de moi, que moi d'elle." THIRD LETTER FROM THE DUCHESS. I4I THIRD LETTER FROM THE DUCHESS. Paris, 15th Messidor 1800. If, my dearest Cecile, you have followed in the news papers the amazing course of events over here, you will do me the justice to acknowledge that I was a good prophetess. Did I not foretell all that has happened? If I date my letter to-day by the republican reckoning it is probably for the last time. France is at long last returning to her senses. Bona parte, whose firm hand is now upon the reins, will soon sweep X away all this republican joolery, Truly, my dear, when I look back upon the events of the last few years and consider the difficulties this extraordinary man had to overcome, I am filled with admiration and amaze ment at his dauntless energy in quelling the Revolution. How he dominates the men he has about him! You saw that his first action after coming into office was to do away with the emigrant list? As he has begun so he will continue, and it will not be long before he brings in the old calendar once more, unless, indeed, he follows the old style and makes the new French era date from the first year of his reign. What will be the final outcome of it all, I wonder? My friends here look forward to the ultimate return of our be loved Royal House and already imagine they see Louis XVIII. in the Tuileries. But I think they are deluding them selves. Two or three evenings ago there was a soiree at Madame de Montesson's at which the Comte de Neufville and the Sieur de Dadigne, the two Bourbon agents, were present. The former was speaking of his recent audience (you see, the term has cropped up again) with the First Consul, during which 142 THE YEAR 1800 AND BEGINNING OF 1801. Bonaparte had said he would forget the past and readily ac cept the submission of all Legitimists if they would acknow ledge him as the Head of the State, but as to placing the Bourbons on the throne again — that would only be possible over five hundred thousand bodies ! You may take my word for it, Cecile, that man will never lei the reins slip from his hands. Must I say unfortunately? — do you expect me to believe Louis XVIII. capable of fill ing Bonaparte's present position? The favour which the First Consul extends to such of the nobility as have returned is already making itself felt. I hear almost daily from my friends of offers to re-enter the service of the State. Already j you may see the names of some of our first families, such as the Montmorencys and the Montgomerys, figuring in the official list. Some of them have obtained restitution of their property, and that brings me to your enquiry whether I could not assist you towards regaining yours. That, I am sadly afraid, is not in my power. For that it would be absolutely necessary that you should come to Paris yourself and, even then, it would be difficult enough. What have you — a woman —to offer the First Consul in return? And without an equi valent he will do nothing. Would you consent to enter Madame Josephine's Household? Hardly, I fancy. You would do better, therefore, I think, to postpone your coming for a while, dearly as I should love to have you with me. Wait for a more favourable conjuncture of affairs. If, however, you would care to become First Lady-in-waiting to Madame Bonaparte, why then come without a moment's delay and you will get anything you choose to ask for. Bonaparte, you must know, has not hitherto been very successful in the fill ing of these posts. He offered the highest appointments both BONAPARTE AND THE NOBILITY. 143 in his and Madame's households to members of the old no bility, but only to meet with polite refusal. All the worthy citoyens with the de to their names who now occupy these] posts are drawn from the class of small landed or financial] aristocracy. Only one of us, the Vicomte de Segur, has followed the invitation and has been created Viceprefet du Palais. But the old families all hold aloof from him in consequence; be sides, he is not actually one of us. He was only reckoned so because of his great-grandfather and grandfather having been Marechal de France. The fact is there are just a few things Bonaparte cannot get for glory or money. He has crossed the Alps and passed through the Syrian deserts, has con quered lands and holds almost autocratic sway over thirty millions of French subjects, and yet he feels there is some thing missing — to wit, that caste which for a thousand years has ruled the land under our old Kings. Seeing those Dukes and Marquises, whose services he so greatly covets, slowly gathering again in the houses of the Faubourg Saint Germain he sends his agents to them with promises of gold and hon ours and all their hearts may desire. But in vain. These ] nobles will have all or nothing, and the all means the Throne for their hereditary Rulers. That, of course, is the one thing , he will not give them. And yet he is perfectly aware that it would be a gross mistake to destroy the nobility — as doubtless he has every desire to do — for he sees that he has need of them. A Monarchy without a Nobility — the link between the King of the People— is-J?°t— conceivable. And so he waits and waits for the moment which shall bridge the gulf between him and this haughty caste. It would flatter his vanity enor mously to see some of them in personal attendance on him, 144 THE YEAR 1800 AND BEGINNING OF 1801. the upstart, but also he would regard that step as a proof that the old order of things had made way conclusively for his — the new. Apropos of which, his former confrere, Sieyes, is reported to have said to him once that he would not believe in the permanence of Bonaparte's rule till he saw the old no bility once more in the ante-chambers of the Tuileries.* And that, my dear Cecile, is what this great man is look ing forward to — for that this Corsican is a great man there is no denying. Gladly as I would welcome a descendant of our Royal House to the throne, I am bound to confess that God has endowed our present ruler with extraordinary gifts. For look you — in setting up this new throne of his he must begin at the very foundations. Nothing remained of the old structure, and he had no materials but his military fame. He must institute a new order of things and that almost without one necessary adjunct — no ecclesiastical sanction, no powerful aristocracy to support the throne, no background of family tradition; in short, absolutely nothing but his brilliant military record. So what does he do? He makes haste to re-establish the Church and the supremacy of the Pope — with a view, I should imagine, to demanding his sanction in the future. Next, see ing that he cannot have the old, he does his best to create a new nobility, taking it, like Charlemagne, from among his old * Madame Recamier relates in her memoirs how, later on, when Bonaparte was Emperor and Marie Louise of Austria shared his throne, the Emperor whispered to " Count " Sieyes as he stood among the Dukes and Counts of the old regime: " Do you believe now that it is all over ? " To which the old diplomatist, now turned courtier, replied with a low bow: "Your Imperial Majesty has succeeded be yond my utmost expectations." — Note by the Editor. BONAPATRE AND THE CHURCH. 1 45 companions-in-arms. Thus he has gradually built up a new Court with Chief Butlers and First Lords of the Bedchamber and all the rest of it; he has even evolved a fresh code of Court Ceremonial. Aad^lJbjs_he_dQfis_entkely„ alone and unaided. But he thoroughly understands the nation he has to deal with. Let this people ever open its mouth to oppose him and he has only to stuff a piece of the gilded gingerbread of " la gloire " into! \ it and all is well. Speaking of Bonaparte's re-establishment of the Church, the Duke de Guiche told us the other evening at the de Noailles' of a conversation between Girardin and the First Consul over the arrangements of the gorgeously appointed chapel in the Tuileries. Girardin ventured the opinion that Bonaparte ought to attend the services himself. " Possibly," returned the First Consul, and then added : " It is necessary and so I must, but in that case have the goodness to provide the best music that is to be procured. It keeps the people awake. During the past years they have entirely lost the habit of religious observance of any kind. The only way to lure them back to the churches and cathedrals is by offering I them an attractive ceremonial." Girardin obeyed this command, with the result that the music here is absolutely unrivalled. The singers, both male and female, receive salaries such as no theatre can offer them, and the churches are crammed to the very doors. Madame Josephine is to be seen every Sunday kneeling in pious meditation on her crimson velvet prie-dieu, a diadem of brilliants on her hair, coiffee a la grecque, and a trailing robe of pale blue velvet with short sleeves. Candles burn, the censers swing, and the priest stands at the altar celebrating Mass, and I46 THE YEAR 1800 AND BEGINNING OF 1801. nobody remembers what a short time has elapsed since a frenzied Government decreed to abolish the Almighty, and the whole Nation bowed down and worshipped the Goddess of Reason! And, vois-tu Cecile, all this the great man has achieved alone, still surrounded as he is by the howling pack of Jacobins from whose jaws he tore the bleeding remnants of their mur derous rule. They are ever prowling round him, seeking how they may destroy him ; but he goes on his way undaunted, following the guidance of his Star, which has already brought 1 him to the highest pinnacle of earthly fame. There you have a sketch of the present state of affairs in Paris, and any one who, like myself, has watched the course of events for any length of time is thankful for the stability this Government appears to promise. It is devoutly to be hoped that things will remain as they are and that no assassin's dag ger may reach the phenomenal, well-nigh superhuman, man who now stands at the head of the nation. Monsieur my cousin Barras is living in splendid retirement at his Chateau of Pierrefitte ; very well satisfied, I expect, with his condition, for, between ourselves, he was terribly frightened lest they would take it into their heads to deprive him of the millions he had so industriously collected. It is a great pity you did not come here while he was in office; I could have done more for you then. However I will talk over tes affaires with our good friend de Montesson. She is in high favour with the First Consul and will be able to advise you better than I. I will write as soon as I hear anything to your advantage. Till then and always your Edmee. CECILE'S DEPARTURE. 147 More than a year passed before another letter arrived from the Duchess. This time it was to say that the propitious mo ment had come for Cecile's appearance in Paris, everything had been put in train for her reception. On September 21, 1801, my great-grandmother writes in her diary: To-day has brought me sorrow to the very depths of my soul! I cannot, cannot believe that I am to lose my Cecile. And yet how can I do otherwise than approve of her plan? Her slender fortune will never suffice for her — I trust — long life and the demands her cousin makes upon it, and of course it is but natural that she should wish to recover what the Revo- \ lution despoiled her family of. Paris seems in a more settled \ state now. The Duchess writes she has done what she could to interest Madame Bonaparte for Cecile's affairs, which sounds encouraging. But oh, how hard — how hard the parting will be to me ! How shall I get on without my sweet friend — she who has won my whole heart during these years of dear companionship? How am I to fill the gap thus made in my life? My husband has his many outdoor occupations, Phillinchen grows daily less dependent on me and has her regular hours with her tutor, and I, till now, always had my Cecile to turn to — nothing occurred throughout the day that we did not consult over together. And now I am to let her go — oh, it is too hard! I can do nothing but weep. I make the very most of every day, every hour that is left to me. Only three short weeks and she will be gone, and there is so much to be done, to be thought of before then. Besides it is so far, so far to that horrible Paris. She is going by way of Cassel, having received an invitation to be present at the wedding of the Princess of Hesse. 148 THE YEAR 1800 AND BEGINNING OF 1801. Cecile tries to comfort me and promises to write as often as possible, but what are letters compared with the spoken word, when heart answers to heart? Shall I ever see her again? A dismal foreboding whispers — no. Oh, these are days of bitter sorrow hastening towards me! We shall let Cecile have our carriage, it will be more comfortable for her than the stage-coach, and she can get relays of post-horses. We are going to accompany her as far as Magdeburg and dear old Uncle Briest too; he is so warmly attached to Cecile. Oh, I dare not think of the day when I shall clasp the dear creature in my arms for the last time. God be with us both! Cecile left on the 15th of October, 1801. The parting at Magdeburg was very harrowing to all of them, and even old Uncle Briest could hardly speak for emotion. Annaliebe alone accompanied her friend to the Ulrich Gate of Magde burg ; then came the last embrace, the last fond kiss — a wave of the handkerchief out of the carriage window and the Baroness drove forth to meet the uncertain future. CHAPTER XIII. LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. FIRST LETTER. Cassel, October 25, 1801. My own darling Annaliebe: This will be the first of many letters to you, now that I am far away from the dear spot that came to be my second home. They shall tell you of all I see and feel and all that happens to me, so that, in spirit at least, we may be almost as much to gether as before. You know, dear heart, how bitterly I felt parting from my beloved friends, and even at the last moment I hesitated whether I would not do better to cast these ambitious plans to the winds and remain with you in that haven of peace and sweet content. But the thought of Camille's future and the honour of our old name forced me to thrust my personal de sires into the background and so with an aching heart I tore myself away. — For how long? — It is impossible to say. It all depends on the course my affairs take. Though correspondence is but a poor substitute for our delightful gossips in your cosy little boudoir, I will write as often as ever I can and so bring my spirit a little nearer to yours. In the week that has passed since our parting, at each 149 1 50 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. beauty of the scenery, at every fresh acquaintance I made, I found myself calling upon you for an opinion, and many were the bitter tears I shed when I realised anew that my life must henceforth be passed apart from your dear companionship. I was received with the most flattering cordiality by all the people — the Wulffens, Krosigks, Alvenslebens, and so on — to whom you so kindly recommended me. At the Spiegels in Halberstadt, where I stopped the night in their beautiful house behind the stately Cathedral, I enjoyed a delightful sur prise. They had asked a few friends to meet me, and who should be among them but our dear faithful old Gleim! You may imagine how pleased I was. The conversation turned a good deal upon Madame Maria Antonia von Pessima Branconi who is just dead. I was much interested to hear something of this cultivated and charming woman — the mis tress, you know, of the Duke of Brunswick — because Cag liostro, that arrant impostor who also played a part in the affair of the Queen's necklace, was a frequent visitor at Lang- enstein, the estate given her by the Duke, where she was fond of gathering round her a circle of poets and other notabilities. Cagliostro is said to have duped her too. I was rather sur prised that the somewhat strait-laced Baroness Spiegel should openly associate with a recognised "maitresse en titre," but the Branconi was really a most interesting and exceptional creature, and so the worthy lady doubtless overlooked her past. I have been in Cassel two days now and the famous wed ding is over. My friend Madame Schlotheim, the First Lady- in-Waiting, had made all the necessary arrangements for me and I received my card of invitation immediately on my ar rival. THE ROYAL WEDDING AT CASSEL. I$I Yesterday was the great day; the Bridegroom with Prince Frederick and the Hereditary Prince and Princess having ar rived the day before and taken up their residence in the Palace on the Paradeplatz. In the morning I went to look at the Trousseau of the Bride which was on view in one of the apart ments of the palace. The dresses were displayed upon a long table in the middle of the room and round about stood smaller tables on which lay the body linen, the bridal robe, hats, coiffes, shoes, and various nippes. Many of the dresses were extremely rich and elegant ; all had immensely long trains and separate sleeves, either of old point or embroidered muslin or lawn. The bridal robe, I was told, was a gift from your divine Queen Luise, who had chosen and had it carried out after her own design in Berlin. I was much struck by two other dresses, one a rose-coloured ball robe wrought with silver and edged with garlands of roses, the other a white silk tunic with a border of golden wheatears round the train, and the overdress consisting of a short chlamys formed entirely of gold fringe. All the dresses looked to me like more or less embroidered chemises or robes a la turcque. Among all these latest fashions I was surprised to find that the shoes, even down to the pantouMes, had very high heels, for you remember Aunt Kroecher telling us, only a short time ago, that they were not to be worn any more as they spoilt the walk. With flat soles the gait is firmer, more assured, more self- reliant so to speak, and that is perhaps why the Lords of Creation do not approve of them and always advocate the stilt heel for their wives. You see, it lies in the nature of the stronger sex to wish to lead and support the weaker one (please be sure to read this passage to your Werner, and Uncle 1 52 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. Briest had better hear it too), and nobody can deny that high heels impose a certain restraint upon a woman, making the man's supporting arm well-nigh a necessity to her. The dis carding of the high heel thus marks a certain form of emanci pation, a breath of the new spirit of freedom, as it were, to which the gentlemen are naturally averse (compris, Uncle Briest?). The Bride was described to me as a gentle and amiable girl of a clinging and somewhat helpless disposition — hence the stilted shoe. Her mother, on the contrary, being of very energetic and independent character, has long since thrown off these trammels. Thus, Annaliebe, is a woman's character re vealed in the kind of shoe she affects. Just ask your lord and master which of us two ought to wear high heels. But to go on with my description. — From early morning onwards a closely packed crowd stood in the Paradeplatz, where I too was lodged in one of the dependances of the Palace, staring steadfastly at the Princess's windows, for all the world seems much more interested in a bride than a bridegroom. The Duke of Meiningen was given a State dinner in the after noon at Schloss Wilhelmshohe, but as we had plenty of time before then, Madame Schlotheim and I drove out to see this magnificent palace and its surroundings. One could wish to be Landgraf of Hesse if only to possess this Elysium which, with its marble groups, its fountains, and long vistas, reminds me not a little of Versailles, though its splendid outlook towards the Harz and the green forests of Thuringen with their castles and picturesque ruins in the foreground makes this really much finer. We returned about four, leaving ourselves just time to dress before the Court assembled at 6 o'clock, when we drove THE WEDDING FESTIVITIES. 1 53 across to the Palace. The gentlemen were collected in the Audience Chamber, where the marriage ceremony was to take place, while the ladies to be presented — myself therefore among the number — were in a gallery adjacent to the Land- graf's apartments and my old friend, as Mistress of the Cere monies, had the kindness to place me in the front line. One of the ladies, a Countess Bocholtz, if I caught the name rightly, was distinctly conspicuous by her antiquated style of dress. She wore a great fichu menteur, and instead of the high coiffure now in vogue, a huge blonde chignon, a la Dubarry of infamous memory, hanging in the nape of her neck, the colour of the chignon forming a ludicrous contrast to the lady's otherwise gray hair. At 7 o'clock the Landgraf, accompanied by the Prince and preceded by the Marechal de Cour and the rest of the Court dignitaries, set out to fetch the Bridegroom, while the He reditary Prince and the Landgravine traversed our gallery on their way to the apartments of the Bride. As they passed between the long lines of curtseying ladies, the Landgravine stopped in front of me, and on Madame von Schlotheim mentioning my name, she drew me up to her and kissed me with a few gracious words about my mission to England that time, also referring tenderly to my beloved Princess. She then proceeded on her way and again there was the crackle and rustle of silk and rich brocade as the ladies sank almost to the ground at her approach. They had taken but little note of me up till then, but now they stared as if I had suddenly received a Decoration. Hardly had the Landgravine and her escort left the gallery, than I was be sieged with congratulations on the honour accorded me. " One alone amongst them offered me no empty phrases I$4 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. of courtesy and that was a young and lovely Baroness von der Malsburg, who had already attracted my attention because, in her dainty girlishness, she reminded me of Adelaide de Noailles. She only stood near me, gazing at me tenderly with her beautiful blue eyes full of tears. Almost involun tarily I opened my arms and she flew to me and sank upon my breast while she whispered, " Oh, I have heard so many beautiful things of you and have loved you so much without knowing you ! " Believe me, Annaliebe, the homage of this pure unsullied young heart was more, far more to me than the words of the Princess or the stereotyped congratulations of the ladies. I stroked the sweet child's golden curls with a loving hand and kissed the dewy lips. Meanwhile the Bridal Procession had been conducted with much ceremony and blaring of trumpets to the Audience Chamber, whither we ladies now followed. The fair Bride wore the lovely robe of drap d'argent given her by Queen Luise and had a circlet of diamonds on her dark hair. Four charming girls, chosen from the first families of the land, bore her train. These Demoiselles were in white and wore wreaths of white roses. The nuptial ceremony over, there followed a grand cour de felicitation, the Landgrave and Landgravine being seated in the Throne Room, while the entire Court, headed by the newly wedded pair, filed past them, two and two. Oh my dear, I wish you could have seen the Landgrave with his stiff peri wig and all his eccentricities ! You remember how Kockeritz used to describe him to us — if you could but have seen him sitting huddled up on the Throne, his head poked forward, CECILE LONGS TO BE AT KALBE. 1 55 scanning with severest exactitude every button on the uni forms, every fold in the dresses of the couples as they bent low before him ! " Le roi soleil " himself would almost have been put to shame. When, at last, it came to my turn to offer my respectful homage to this austere sovereign, and the Marechal de Cour murmured my name, adding, " Sometime Lady-in-waiting to the Princesse de Lamballe," I heard the nasal tones of the Landgrave: " Princesse de Lamballe ? Qui qa? We don't know her ! " — My sweetest princess — so soon forgotten, and by this princeling! Yet I could scarce repress a smile. Herewith the wedding festivities were over for me, as I was not invited to the State dinner; so I drove back to my lodging. When Madame de Schlotheim returned in the evening we sat together for a long time in front of the fire, while she told me a number of diverting stories about the Landgrave. Un fortunately I have no room in this letter to retail them to you. Oh, my Annaliebe, when shall we two sit together again by the fire in your pretty room? How delightful it was when the great elm trees swayed in the wind and tapped against the window-panes, while the wood crackled and flamed mer rily on the hearth, and no human sound broke the stillness but Phillinchen crooning her baby songs in the next room. No words can describe the healing effect of that sweet peace- fulness upon my worn and shattered nerves. And all this I owe to you, my dear ones — oh, would I were back again at your side ! Farewell for to-day, my sweetest friend; kiss Phillinchen from me and convey my affectionate greetings to your hus band, to Uncle Briest and all who took such kindly pity on 156 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. the forlorn alien. My next letter will reach you from Stras burg, the next halting place on my journey. Adieu, my best beloved. Love me as I love you. Toute a toi, Cecile. In my great-grandmother's diary under the date of the Baroness Cecile's departure there is affixed a little work of art: a posy of forget-me-nots and red roses surrounded by a wreath of immortelles, all exquisitely painted in water- colours. Written underneath are the words : aime que j'aime, tu aimeras toi meme. Cecile. Kalbe, October 14, 1801. Touching this fond little memento and the already quoted letter there is the following entry in the diary : November 2, 1801. I have had to let some days pass before allowing my grief to find vent in my diary ; I was almost afraid to put my feel ings into words. My tears have not yet ceased to flow, I miss my friend so terribly. When we got back from Magdeburg, I found this delicate little bouquet on my worktable — a last sweet souvenir from my Cecile. I have fixed it here to mark the boundary across which a new life must begin for me, be reft of my soul's companion. How they all loved her! Everybody clamours for news of her, and now Aunt Kroecher writes begging me to send Cecile's letters round for each of them to read. But I think we will arrange it so: when ever one of these dear missives arrives I shall ask our intimate ANNALIEBE'S GRIEF. 1 57 friends — the Pastors, Uncle Briest, Aunt Kroecher, and per haps the Schulenbergs, to come here and I will read them the most interesting parts aloud. It shall be a Temple of Friendship, like dear old Gleim's, dedicated to Cecile. Dear sweet soul, how I miss you at every turn! Werner constantly turns round when we are alone, thinking Cecile is entering the room, and Phillinchen's cry is, " When is Auntie Cissy coming back again? " Uncle Briest seems quite lost without her, and as to the poor Herr Candidatus, his long sad face is piteous to behold. My Cecile had such a happy gift of treating all the trivial daily occurrences of life with grace and a pretty sprightly humour, so that nothing appeared dull or uninteresting. Ah, Cecile, you have left a gap in our lives which I doubt can never be filled ! God hold thee in His keeping, my best and sweetest of friends. CHAPTER XIV. SECOND LETTER. Strasburg, 3d Brumaire, Year X. You will perceive by the above dating, cherie, that I am I now in Republican France, and I suppose one must just put 1 up with the custom till it pleases Bonaparte to recall the dear old months from exile. Your German proverb says, " It is best to howl with the wolves" — eh bien, let us then, by all means, howl with these brave republicans! You cannot conceive, my Annaliebe, how utterly absurd these people are with their pompous affectations and their everlasting " citoyen and citoyenne." I feel all the time as if I were at a masquerade and can scarcely help laughing in their faces. Of course it is all the more ridiculous in a little town like this — I assure you it is as good as a play. Under the toga of their unaccustomed dignity the outline of the little German bourgeois is everywhere visible. They evidently consider this] inflated demeanour a necessary part of their new role as mem- 1 bers of the great French Republic. Yet I find many evidences of deep attachment to the old reigning house. An old lock smith came the other day to mend my travelling trunk, and when he read the name on it tears came into the good creature's eyes and there was no more word of " citoyenne," I assure you. He at once addressed me by my title and asked 158 DESCRIPTION OF STRASBURG. 1 59 with profound emotion for details of the last days of our poor King. And this after eight years! I was touched to the heart. I travelled here by way of Mainz, which city I found still practically in a state of siege, all the magisterial and police duties being performed by young French officers. The next morning I had a long walk round the poor bombarded town and my guide pointed out great rubbish heaps which had once been stately residences, and spoke with shuddering horror of the past war which cost Mainz and its neighbourhood alone 150,000 lives. I proceeded on my journey and arrived here the day be fore yesterday in brilliantly clear weather, putting up at the Hotel de VEsprit, where they gave me a charming room over looking a sort of quay and a busy bridge. Yesterday I viewed the sights of the town, my first thought being of course for the Minster, but as the weather was very windy and I did not wish to forego the view from the platform, I put off the visit till to-day and made my guide show me the town instead. The magnificent monument which Louis XV. erected to the Marechal de Saxe in the Lutheran Church of St. Thomas is really beautiful. The Marshal, in full armour, descends the steps towards the tomb, which Death opens for him with an imperious hand, holding an empty hour-glass before him. Be hind him stands La France, who tries to hold him back — al together a wonderful piece of sculpture. By a miracle this monument has escaped the destructive fury of the Terrorists j and is absolutely intact. < Otherwise the men of the Terror have simply raged here, one monster in particular, called Schreiber, having played the part of a local Robespierre. Not content with the au- l6o LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. thorised guillotine in the Market Place, he constructed a so- called " guillotine ambulante " with which he drove about the country, and by this means butchered thousands of people who might otherwise have escaped him. Finally, however, a like fate overtook him; they dragged the infamous wretch to Paris and put him to death by his favourite instrument. Here too the population seems in the last degree dispiritedl and at every turn you hear groans and lamentations of " Ah,j how different it all used to be ! " Many emigrants have re turned, but almost destitute. The Republic has few friends here outside the usual mob, and all look longingly to Paris and the First Consul, devoutly hoping that he will put an end to \ this state of things by placing one of the Bourbons or even I himself on the Throne of St. Louis. This morning I was able to pay my visit to- the venerable Cathedral, the most magnificent piece of architecture after Westminster Abbey I have ever seen. A dim mysterious light filtered through the splendid stained windows of the clerestory making a sort of magical gloom in the lofty nave. There is an immense stained window at the end of the chancel, and just as I entered the Cathedral the sun shone through it casting a broad band of jewelled light upon the pavement. The beauti ful marble Altar, the cupola, and the famous Clock were all de molished by the Jacobins, and the fragments are still lying about the Cathedral. I next mounted the 360 steps to the third platform, from whence I enjoyed the most superb view you can imagine, and I longed to have you at my side. The town lay spread but beneath me ; further off I caught the sparkle of the Rhine and the bridge across to Kehl; towards the east the long range of THE WINDMILL TELEGRAPH. l6l hills and close at hand a mass of high-gabled roofs with storks' nests on many of them. From here too I could follow the line of telegraph, about which our good pastor read to us a while ago and, its first sta tion being in the tower above me, I determined to go and inspect it. So I clambered up the additional 230 steps into the tower, and the official in charge had the goodness to ex plain the matter to me. It turns out to be somewhat different from the account in the Aschaffenburg newspaper. There are 42 of these windmill-like telegraph stations between Strasburg and Montmartre near Paris, and supposing each attendant to be at his appointed post, one can send a message from here to Paris in 45 minutes. The official was very anxious that I should await the answer to a message he had sent off half an hour before, but I did not care particularly to do so, and thank ing him kindly for his trouble I made my way down the many steps and returned to the lower world. Down in the Place the guard was just being changed and I stopped to watch the military spectacle. But what a con trast to the mounting of the guard in Berlin which we once watched together! The drummers — all half-grown boys — chased one another up and down the front, while the soldiers were being pushed into place. The officers wore cravats of every conceivable colour and the soldiers' uniforms were ill- fitting and, moreover, no two alike. There was no question of military discipline, and if one of them sneezed the rest ex claimed in chorus, " a votre sante, mon brave! " Actual insuhordinaJion,. however, is vetx severely jpmv ished, so my guide informed me, and my host told me that for an officer to pay a visit in uniform was considered a grave breach of good form. Therefore, naturally, none of them wear 1 62 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. uniform unless they are compelled, seeing that it closes the doors of the best society to them. However, I daresay this will presently be changed, since Bonaparte never appears otherwise than in his general's uniform. I was undecided whether to remain here for the New Year's festivities (new style !) or not, but as it began to rain heavily, nobody knew whether there would be any fete at all. So I shall proceed calmly on my way; besides, I have had more than enough of this republican nonsense, though I fear it will grow worse the nearer I get to Paris. My love to you and yours and our dear friends. You know that my thoughts are ever with you all. In faithful friendship Your Cecile. CHAPTER XV. ; THIRD LETTER. Chalons, 9th Brumaire. Only a day or two more, my Annaliebe, and my letters will be dated from Paris. Your sweet words reached me just before leaving Strasburg. Yes, my dearest heart, what have we two not had to renounce in parting from one another! And the written word is so poor a substitute for the perfect interchange of sympathy in our two hearts. How sweet of you to set up a little " cercle " for the reading of my letters. But the best part of them — my feeling for you — you must keep to yourself. Well, I shall soon be at the end of my journey — to-mor row, perhaps. Nor shall I be sorry, for the weather has broken and it is not exactly entertaining to jolt along all day in the streaming rain with the carriage closed. I changed horses at Stutzheim, a very pretty and well-built town. But what a lovely country Alsace is altogether, and the people — especially the girls in their picturesque costumes with the great black bows on their dark hair — amazingly handsome. As I neared Zabern the landscape grew yet more beautiful, and in the middle of the town, which belongs to the Bishop of Strasburg, lies the Chateau of Rohan Gue- 163 164 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. menee surrounded by its splendid park destroyed during the Revolution. I could not resist the temptation to have a peep at the place where my arch-enemy, the Cardinal, passed the years of his exile, and persuaded my postilion to make a slight detour for that purpose. It was a mournful sight! Everything destroyed, the grounds laid waste ; the outer walls of the chateau still stand ing, but the whole interior burned out. Nothing remained to testify to the glory and splendour of the ancient race withji their haughty motto: roi ne puis, prince ne daigne, Rohan suis. Time was when all the country round, as far as the eye could reach, belonged to the Rohans, and where are all their great possessions now? Gone from them, every rood, and the Rohans themselves who bore the proud title of " cousin du roi " have dwindled down to the despicable Cardinal — the last of his great line. They tell me that he is still alive some where in Germany — at Ettenheim — where, I believe, he has some property. I turned from the depressing scene and pursued my jour ney through the gorgeously tinted woods to Pfalzburg, where I intended putting up for the night. I have had hard work accustoming myself once more to the difference in the meal times here in France — more espe cially the lateness of the dinner hour — 7 o'clock. As I find it dull to take my meals alone in my room and it amuses me to listen to the conversation going on around me, I usually join the table d'hote. AT THE "VILLE DE METZ." 165 Thus here, at the " Ville de Metz," I dined in the general room and was much diverted by the conversation of some young officers of the 42d Regiment of the line, at present quartered here, who were freely discussing " le roi Bona parte." Bottles of the red " vin du pays " — not unlike Bur gundy — stood about uncorked upon the table, and these " sous- lieutenants " drank it out of large tumblers. This may well have added something to their high spirits, for they abused the Re public roundly, heedless of the presence of other guests, and made themselves extremely merry at the expense of Bona parte's two colleagues, whom they were pleased to dub " the Shadows." Barras. too, came off very badly and they de- 1 clared that he should have been made to disgorge his stolen I millions. For the rest, their opinion of the Vicomte tallied in most respects with what Edmee wrote about him. Not that messieurs les lieutenants spared their idolised 1 . Bonaparte either, and with the calmest assurance retailed the I most extraordinary stories of hj^ private life. The name of a certain Madame Rose occurred with great frequency who, before making the General's acquaintance, had had numberless liaisons — had been the mistress of Gene ral Hoche for one. In any case, they said, Bonaparte's con nection with her had distinctly been an after-thought on his side, for he had first paid court to the wife of the deputy Ricord; had tried to marry a wealthy old theatre manageress, Madame Montarsier; had been rejected by Madame Tallien, and had finally fallen into the clutches of the fair Rose. I could not think, at first, to whom they could possibly be alluding, till it suddenly occurred to me that Madame Bonaparte's maiden name, before she married the Marquis de Beauharnais, was Josephine Rose Tascher de la Pagerie. Bonaparte was the ' 1 66 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. first to call her Josephine, that name being more to his liking and also, no doubt, because the lady's reputation as Rose was decidedly not as dewy fresh as he could have wished. The First Consul seems altogether to have a weakness for fine sounding names. Latterly, all his decrees have been signed Napoleon, which he evidently prefers to his surname. I sat half-hidden behind a great vase of flowers listening, I must confess, with great interest to all this gossip, and thus I gathered a good many details of Bonaparte's life which were quite new to me. It so happened that one of the party — a little, wiry, black- eyed creature whom they called " Prezzo " — was a Corsican, attracted to France, no doubt, by the fame of his great com patriot, and he had much to say of the Consul's home in Ajaccio. He described the unpretentious little house in which the advocate Carlo Buonaparte used to live with his beauti ful wife Laetitia who came of the family of the Counts Collato. Here she bore him four sons and three daughters whom the little officer alluded to familiarly by name. These were Giu- seppo, Napolione, Luciano, Luiggi, Gierolamo, and the beau tiful sisters Elisa, Paolina, and Caroline. He then went on to speak of the vendetta which had existed between the Buona parte and the Pozzo di Borgo for centuries and had claimed many a victim; indeed, he declared it was still in full force and that Napoleon had kept up a feud with the youngest Pozzo since boyhood. From all they said, I gathered that these young officers regarded the General himself with adoring enthusiasm but felt no great admiration for his family. They spoke of the eldest brother, Joseph, as being Inspecteur de vivres at Mar seilles, where he had married a wealthy but fearfully ugly DETAILS OF THE BONAPARTE FAMILY. 1 67 Mademoiselle Boyer; Lucian was Controleur de fourrage at the little town of St. Maximin and had married the daughter of a rich wine-merchant called Clary, who refused a younger daughter — Desiree — to Napoleon on the ground that " one Bonaparte was quite enough in his family." I have no doubt that a goodly proportion of these stories was pure gossip and scandal, but you know that our learned Dr. Vultejus is fond of saying " semper aliquid hceret," and so it probably is in this case. Commend me, please, to my revered tutor and tell him that his Latin lessons will never be for gotten by me. A day or two ago I had a Cure for my neigh bour at the table d'hote and you should have seen his astonished face when I suddenly joined in a Latin disputation he was carrying on with a confrater! However, to return to my gay young lieutenants — I would have listened much longer to their gossip, but as nearly all the other guests were gone and the stories began to be a little too highly spiced even for my eight and thirty years, I thought I had better retire from the scene. So I left the gentlemen to their confidences and went to my own room. And this is the family of the future reigning House in, France, these are the successors of the Bourbons who ruled over us for a thousand years! Is the exchange worth all the blood that has flowed to effect it? What, I wonder, would Rousseau, Diderot, and the other Apostles of Freedom say to this as the ultimate fruit of the Revolution which was to end , in universal Liberte, Fratemite, Egalite? What would they and the crew of pamphletiers, who so be smirched my poor Queen and the whole Court, who, with their high-sounding phrases, would have you believe they were going to create a very Heaven on earth for us poor mortals l68 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. — what would they have said to this Court of the near future, to this Dictatorship which Bonaparte already exercises over the whole nation ? Surely they must have cried, " Tant de bruit pour cette omelette ! " And what has this nation yet be fore it? Possibly much glory, but, most assuredly, a servitude! unparalleled in its history and which is even now making itself | felt at every turn. I was very tired by the long drive that day and crept with joy into my beautiful bed, there to rest from my fatigues. In one respect, my dear thoughtful, industrious little Ger man hausfrau, I must say you beloved Prussians are behind my country people, and that is in the arrangement pf your beds. Sweetly and comfortably as I slept on your beautiful home-plucked feather-bed, a French one is still better, and even during the years I have been away they are vastly im proved. Now let me describe one to you and I think you will agree with me when you compare it with the cramped little German beds, and you must not be angry with me if, for once, I find something more to my taste here than in dear delightful old Kalbe. To begin with the beds are all very high, perhaps three or four feet from the floor and wide enough for two people. Two thick mattresses are laid one on the top of the other; there is a large round pillow called a " traversin " and on it a smaller soft oreiller and one or two eiderdown covers, very light and generally quilted with silk. The bed stands on casters and can be rolled into the middle of the room to be made and has a canopy over it. An hour before bedtime a warming-pan is placed in it to assure the absolute dryness of the linen. — There, FRENCH BEDS. 169 my love, now arrange a bed like that and write me quickly how you like it. I slept profoundly and, the next morning, was in excellent trim to continue my journey by way of Saarbourg, reaching Chalons yesterday. I went to look at the beautiful Chateau in which my old friend the Bishop of Clermont Tonnerre — now, as you know, in Vienna — used to live. Both it and the ^ Cathedral, one of the finest in France, were destroyed by those Vandals of Jacobins. My royalist host tells me that they actually sold the magnificent organ, a chef d'ceuvre which had cost over a hundred thousand francs, for two thousand! This, my Annaliebe, is my last halting-place before Paris. I think I shall have a good rest here and then do the remain ing journey at one stretch. I find the people here terribly ugly, or has my taste changed in the ten years since I left France? I can only say that since Nancy I have not seen a single pretty face. My next letter, then, will be from Paris. What has the great city in store for me? I look forward almost with terror to the impressions and recollections that are bound to crowd in upon me there. Put yourself in my place — you know all I endured and all I lost there! Adieu for to-day, my Annaliebe, dear companion of my soul. — Whatever happens I shall ever be mindful of your loving kindness and the many words of comfort you have be stowed upon me. Yours now and always, Cecile. With regard to the Desiree Clary to whom the Baroness alludes in the foregoing letter, she married General Berna- 170 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. dotte, afterwards King of Sweden. I very much doubt if the version of the story told by the officers at Pfalzburg is the right one. From other sources, for instance the Memoirs of Barras and those of Constant, it would rather appear that it was Bonaparte who forsook Desiree, though she loved him sincerely, in order to marry Madame Josephine, the union with whom promised him greater advantages. Constant tells us that Napoleon often reproached himself for this desertion and did his utmost to make it good to Madame Bernadotte by giving her splendid presents — Madame Recamier says the same — and that he showed himself so lenient to Bernadotte's many faults of incapacity, not to say disloyalty, because, we are told, of his consideration for his old love. By a strange ruling of History, of all the Queens by the grace of Napoleon, Desiree Clary, the wine-merchant's daughter, was the only one to retain her crown. She was the mother of the present reigning House of Sweden. As to the vendetta between the houses of Buonaparte and Pozzo di Borgo, it apparently exists to the present day. Not long ago, a descendant of Napoleon's implacable enemy bought up the ruins of the Royal palace of the Tuileries, which had been Napoleon's residence, and with them built himself a lordly castle overlooking Ajaccio. Carved in the stone above the portal stands the inscription : " Built to the glory of his country From the Ruins of the Tuileries." Below, in the city, stands Napoleon's statue; there the great Emperor's name and his glorious deeds are held in un dying reverence, while the remodelled palace of the Tuileries THE MUTABILITY OF FATE. I71 looks down upon it from the heights — the palace from which the Bonapartes were obliged to fly ; which, collapsing behind them, buried the Napoleonic Legend beneath its ruins. Oh, strange mutability of Fate! CHAPTER XVI. FOURTH LETTER. Paris, 22d Brumaire, Hotel Bateillere. Herewith, my Annaliebe, my first letter from Paris, from this great Babylon on which the eyes of well-nigh the whole world are fixed. The high road from Chalons here was more like the wide street of a faubourg than a country chaussee; small towns, villas, and smiling hamlets succeeding one another along it in an unbroken chain. I arrived at the barriere at 5 o'clock, showed my passport, and with a flourish of my postilion's horn drove into Paris. The last posto to the capital is charged at double the usual rate; it used to be called the "poste royale," now it has no name, but the charge is still the same. How enormously a city can alter in ten years! I assure you that, at the first glance, I did not recognise my old Paris in the least. The suburbs looked quite different, the streets are widened, and new houses and palaces have arisen on every side. Only when I approached the centre of the town did I recognise with a shudder the old familiar streets and squares, and the whole picture as I had seen them last rose before my eyes. 172 CECILE IN PARIS. 1 73 You were quite right, my Annaliebe, in advising me to give up my idea of surprising the Duchess and rather to an nounce my intended arrival. Surprises are so seldom success ful and this was no exception, for when I drove up to the Palace I knew so well of old in the Faubourg St. Germain I found, to my chagrin, that its dear mistress was not there. — Madame la duchesse, I was told, had gone to her estates in Lorraine. I was comforted by the assurance that she would return in a few days ; but, for the moment, I was really at a loss where to go. However, I soon made up my mind and drove on here to the Hotel grange bateillere, which I had heard very favourably spoken of. There are two sides to every question, and I was not averse in this case to have the first few days to myself and thus be at liberty to revisit the scenes of my youth undisturbed. I obtained very pleasant quarters, although the house was particularly full, the Russian Am bassador, Prince Kalitschef, and his suite occupying the entire bel Stage. A contingent of the garde consulaire is on duty down-stairs as his guard of honour, and two sentinels in high bearskin caps pace solemnly up and down before the hotel door. My suite of apartments consists of three rooms with a charming outlook on to the Boulevard. To be sure it costs me 50 francs a day, but every thing Jsdreadfully dear here, ^/ and I must just put up with it for a few days. My other ex penses are, sad to say, very high too ; my valet de place gets 4 francs a day, and the carriage, which is absolutely indispen sable, costs me 15. The fiacres, on the other hand, are very cheap, only 30 sous the drive, but they are not allowed to drive in under the hotel porte cochere, and no valet de place would consider it compatible with his dignity to stand behind 174 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. one, so I am perforce obliged to use the hotel carriages. All the prices have risen, in fact, since I was here, a loge at the Theatre frangais costing 6 francs 30 sous, and one at the Italian Opera, Bonaparte's favourite theatre, even 2 francs more. Dress, too, has become quite ruinous; imagine, to give you one instance among many, that I had to pay 19 francs for a pair of silk stockings to-day! I do not think one could live here under 1500 or 2000 francs a month. And what a change, too, in our manners and customs !v In my day it would have been an unheard of thing for a lady of position to be living alone like this in an hotel, and now nobody thinks twice about it; indeed, there are several quite young Miladies from London here in just the same circum stances. After breakfast I take a walk through the fine boulevards close by and amuse myself by watching these light-hearted Parisians. No visible traces remain of the sea of blood and horror they have waded through, and you never believe this I laughing, good-natured populace capable of the monstrous cruelties they committed so short a time ago. They are but children who repeat parrot-like what they are told. The fiends who once yelled death and destruction to the upper classes have slunk away into the dark hells from which they came forth, and the people have forgotten that they ever lis tened to them — till the next time. The First Consul and the never-ending praise of his mili- 1 tary genius is the theme of every discourse. His victories | have effaced all recollection of the late defeats in Egypt. I sent for a list of the plays going on at present and, if you will believe me, they have never ceased acting during all these terrible years — even during the Terror — in fifteen AT THE THEATRE. 1 75 theatres! Now there are four and twenty in all. I shall go to the Theatre Feydeau this evening, where " Le Comte Albert et sa suite " and " Palma " are being given. I am going chiefly to see Madame Dugazon, who now plays the part of a mother, and I remember her fifteen years ago as the jeune premiere. I have just come from the theatre, my Annaliebe, and will finish my letter before going to rest. It was a very brilliant scene and the loges and parquet were filled with a gaily-dressed audience. Nevertheless, neither during the performance nor in the intervals when everybody promenaded up and down the salons did I see one familiar face. In these salons there are great buffets filled with every kind of refreshment, and waiters rushed about, even into the boxes, crying, " Qui vent de ponch, orgeat, glace s ou sorbet? " The acting was good, but the pieces very dull and pointless. When I went into the salon after the second Act, I noticed a tall elegant-looking man in uniform conversing with a group of elderly officers. He might have been about 35 and his uni form proclaimed him to be a General. The box-keeper in formed me that he was General Leclerc, the brother-in-law of the First Consul. I was much interested to see the famous General, the same, you remember, who on the 18th Brumaire two years ago dissolved, with Murat's assistance, the Council of the Five Hundred at St. Cloud and by Bonaparte's orders shouted to his soldiers — En avant, mes grenadiers, au nom du GSneral Bonaparte, le conseil legislatif est dissous! Bonaparte has really General Leclerc to thank for the suc cessful issue of that coup d'Stat, for things might have turned 176 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. out very differently, and his own life hung in the balance at the moment. So I had another good look at the man with his sharply cut profile, great eagle nose, and flashing blue eyes who played so important a hand in the making of this country's history. However, chere arme, it grows late and I will finish this rambling epistle. It is to be hoped that Edmee will soon re turn and then I can go to her. I am anxious, too, to take the first steps towards accomplishing my mission here. I shall learn from the Duchess whether to begin by paying a visit to Talleyrand, or what other means I had best adopt to gain an audience with the Consul. I look forward to it all with dread and shrinking, but I will face it courageously; it is my duty. I know that your loving thoughts and prayers go with me. And now good night, dear heart, I must try to get a little rest in spite of the noisy street outside my windows. In what a turmoil do I live now compared to the soothing peace which surrounded me in your dear home! I will write again in a day or two. Recall me to your good husband and all my friends. Ever your truest friend, Cecile. Touching General Leclerc, the Baroness must have beem mistaken in thinking the gentleman she noticed was he, for the husband of Bonaparte's eldest sister was at that time in St. Domingo, whither the Consul had sent him with an expedi tion. The Baroness especially mentions this fact in one of her later letters. From the description she gives, the officer was probably General Berthier, who was in the Chasseurs and- was certainly in Paris at the time she writes. CHAPTER XVII. FIFTH LETTER. Paris, 8th Frimaire, Year X. Palais Brancas. I have been somewhat longer in writing to you again, my Annaliebe, than I intended, but you will see by the heading of my letter that Edmee speedily returned and that I am now living with her. As you may imagine, she has occupied a great deal of my time, so that I had little or no leisure for writing. The last few days were full of interest and excitement and I have seen and made the acquaintance of a number of people on whom the eyes of all Europe are fixed. However, I will begin to-day by telling you about myself and my new sur roundings. The Palais Brancas is one of the finest in the Faubourg and lies quite near the Seine with a beautiful park-like gar den behind it full of magnificent old trees and shady avenues and mythological statues. My rooms, which are in the upper storey, are quite charming and furnished a la Louis quinze. On one of the walls hangs the latest portrait of the Consul which Edmee, who, as you know, is an enthusiastic admirer of the great man, has put there with a view, no doubt, to ac customing me to the sight of the All-powerful One! It is a copy of the portrait by Greuze. The face wears a totally dif- i77 178 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. ferent expression from any picture I have yet seen of him; it is not nearly so grim and stern. Edmee declares it is ex actly as she saw him last at a soiree at Madame Hamelin's, a friend of Madame Josephine's, where he appeared with his step-daughter Hortense, to whom they say he is much at tached. On the frame there is an epigram by Thevenon: Qui pretera jamais pour ecrire son histoire Une plume a Clio ? l'aile de la victoire ? I think you will admit that that is laying on the homage thickly enough ! When I woke the first morning the sun was shining into my beautiful bedroom through the green silk curtains. I jumped out of bed and ran to the window. All Paris seemed spread out before me under the cheerful rays of the morning sun, and the Seine was dotted with gaily flagged boats. There was the Pont Royal, there the Louvre, and there the Tuileries where HE now lives who has stepped into Louis XVI.'s place. I could see the two sentinels distinctly as they marched backwards and forwards in front of the palace. I leant against the window and gazed out at the dear familiar, never-forgotten scene and my eyes grew dim with tears. As I stood thus, lost in recollection, there was a knock at the door. I hurriedly slipped back into bed, and there stood Edmee on the threshold of my room. I had only seen her by lamplight on my arrival the evening before, and now she looked quite different in the blaze of golden sunshine. She embraced me, then seated herself on the edge of the bed and asked what had been my dreams in the first night un- EDMEE. 179 der her roof. Tears of conflicting emotions rose to my eyes as I looked at the dear, kindly face of my old friend. The years had left some footprints of course, but it was the same sweet bewitching face which used always to remind me of my darling Princess, a likeness of which Edmee had ever been proud; besides, she has a right to the Carignan features, being distantly related to that family. She still retains the elegant figure of earlier days, and the brightness of her lovely blue eyes is undimmed. Although it was still early she wore her hair slightly powdered and curled a la Marie Antoinette. Altogether her appearance, as well as the exquisite courtesy of her manner, are quite ancien regime You can imagine, my dear, how much we had to say to one another after nine years ; every other sentence began with " Do' you remember? " She told me all about her life in Gotha and could not hear enough in return about you and our dear friends. We then came to Talleyrand and my proposed visit to him, to which Edmee urged me strongly since, despite the ] Consul's personal antipathy to him, hfiJsjery powerful. J However, I shall have to defer the visit for some time yet, as he is with the Consul just now inspecting some factories in the neighbourhood of St. Quentin. By the way, this jour ney of Bonaparte's may result in a great change in present fashions, the Consul having promised the starving factory hands that at the approaching Peace Fete all the ladies of the Court and in society should be dressed in lawn or batiste from the St. Quentin factories, instead of the muslin with which England is flooding Paris. I wonder if he will be able to keep his word? It remains to be seen what Josephine and her autocratic man-milliners Messieurs Despreaux and Leroy will say to it. 180 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. During our delightful causeries over the fire in my room (so like those I enjoyed with you, mon ange!) during the fol lowing days, Edmee and I made out a list of the families and persons with whom I had formerly been acquainted, and also of those whose influence wouldbe of use to me now. Alas, against how many names had I not to put a cross ! Either they had been guillotined during the Terror without my knowing it, or were dead; or not yet returned, or come to grief in exile. Nevertheless, a goodly number remained, and so we shall start without delay upon our round of visits. First, however, Edmee wants to show me Paris as it is, and we will reserve the afternoons for our friends. pth Frimaire. — I was interrupted yesterday at this point and will now resume my description of my doings. At 12 o'clock every morning we drive out in Edmee's "berline," as they call the great hooded cabriolets here, and make a tour of the town. Oh, my dear, how many things the Revolution has altered,] but how few has it improved! The very first Place we drove through, the beautiful " Place Royale," built by the Due de la i Feuillade and where the bronze statue of Louis XIV. used to stand was hardly recognisable. It is now called the " Place des victoires," and they were busy putting up a monu ment which the Consul has raised to the glory of the army and two of its leaders — Kleber and Dessain. He laid the first stone of it himself a few weeks ago. Then we drove on and came to the " Place de la Con corde " — but where was its name and the imposing equestrian REVISITING OLD SCENES. l8l statue of the Well-Beloved Louis XV. ? It has become the " Place de la Revolution," and in Louis' place on the pedestal ! is a dreadful rose-pink, half-naked plaster figure of " Liberty." And, indeed, she looks it, and is a faithful presentment of that misbegotten daughter of the Revolution. I covered my eyes with a trembling hand to shut out the sight of the spot where fell the head of my blameless King and my sweet Queen. For it was here they set up the hideous instrument, on one of the most lovely spots in Paris between the Champs Elysees and the Tuileries gardens. This was the place too where my own poor head would have rolled in the dust, but for the goodness of God and my lover's heroic bravery at the last moment. The statue of the Roi soleil on the Place de Vendome is also destroyed, and they have not yet decided with what monument to replace it.* And now the Place de Greve with all its memories lay before me. I have told you, dearest, that it was here my father met his death, and you can imagine with what emotion I viewed the spot where he laid down his noble life, a sacri fice which really cost me both my parents, for it broke my mother's heart. And we forlorn survivors of those who were guillotined have not even a spot where we can give ourselves up to the cult of our fond memories, no grave that we can deck with ] flowers and water with our tears. Nothing remains to us. * Here, in 1805, Napoleon erected the Vendome Column cast from the 450 cannons taken in the battle of Austerlitz. The bas-reliefs picture the victories, and on the summit stands the colossal statue of the Emperor. The column was destroyed by the Communists in 1871 but has since been re-erected. . j 1 82 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. The inhuman monsters flung their victims into one common pit — some say in the catacombs, others in the Place de la Madeleine. Quicklime was thrown on the layers of corpses, then more bodies, then lime again, and so on till the pit was heaped. Whenever I asked any one where the victims of the guillotine were buried in those days, a shrug of the shoulder was all the answer I received. No one knew, or rather would not admit that they knew. It looks to me, in fact, as if the whole nation were ashamed to be reminded of those years of bestial madness. So all I can do is to pray for both my be loved parents at the grave of the one, my mother, in Pere la Chaise. But imagine, Annaliebe, what a horrible story Edmee told me apropos of this. They say that when Robespierre's fate at last overtook him, his body was laid in the coffin of King Louis. And how do you think they justified this impious^ act? By saying that as Robespierre had intended marrying the daughter of Louis Capet he belonged to the family and ought to share their tomb! Can one imagine a greater irony of History? The execu tioner and his royal victim in one grave! And to think that for years this grave has been the Mecca of all true and faith ful adherents of the Royal House ; here they have wept bitter tears over the memory of the martyred King, and all the while the hateful monster of the Convention, the dastardly ring leader of that band of ruffians, is lying in that sacred spot. Oh, it will not bear thinking of — nor does it seem to me credible that Robespierre should have dared to raise his eyes to our little Madame de France, the Princess Maria Theresa Charlotte, and to have conceived the idea of being the King's successor. He was too fanatical a Republican for that and, VISIT TO THE CEMETERY. 1 83 in spite of Edmee's assurance of its truth, I look upon the whole story as a fiction, just as I do the report that our poor little Dauphin escaped out of the clutches of his tormentors and is still alive somewhere. I saw the sweet boy too often in the Temple and know how ill and weak he was then. I can see him now lying in his tiny bed that was hardly larger than a cradle. His poor little knees and ankles were swollen to twice their natural size, and death was plainly written in the glazed blue eyes. No, he never came out of there alive. Therefore the story' about the King's grave is doubtless an invention too ; it would] be top .hiJ£Qiis_aiLxait.rage upon decency. I begged Edmee to spare me the visit to the Temple which stood next upon our list — it was more than I could bear that day, so we drove instead to my dear old nurse, providing our selves first with flowers and wreaths for my mother's grave which she was to point out to us. I found my good old Madeleine wonderfully hearty still, and you can imagine the joy of our meeting. She knew me directly and was as pleased as a child to hear how happily I had lived in Germany and had found such good friends. We took the dear old woman with us and drove at once to the Cemetery. The grave of my be loved mother was soon found and I could not thank old Madeleine enough for the devoted care she had expended on it during all these years. Tears of sorrow, even a little of re morse filled my eyes as I knelt there and prayed silently for both my dear ones, for I could not help thinking that I had perhaps absorbed myself too exclusively in my love for my sweet mistress, neglecting my father and mother thereby. And now it was too late to repair the fault. My only comfort lay 1 84 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. in the thought that there had never been one moment's dis cord between us, never an unkind look or word. After covering the grave with flowers we returned to the Palais Brancas, keeping Madeleine with us. I had, of course, much to tell her and we spoke of my wonderful escape from death. Madeleine said that the Revolutionary Tribunal had been greatly alarmed by my Hector's bold expedient and had subsequently used the greatest precautions during the trans port of prisoners through the streets. — Of the Vicomte d'Aubignac neither she nor Edmee had ever heard another word. Like my Hector he must have fallen a victim to these infamous butchers. Adieu, my dearest, for to-day. I can write no more. The many and varied emotions have been a great strain upon me. My devoted love to you and our dear mutual friends. Edmee begs to be remembered to you. Cecile. I enclose a copy of Robespierre's death-warrant for your collection of rarities. Edmee is, like you, an ardent collector of historical and other curiosities. It is from the Moniteur of the 6th Fructidor, Year II. DECRETS D EXECUTION. I. Maximilian Robespierre, age de 35 ans, ne a Arras, ex-depute du Convent national. L'accuse est atteint de vouloir mettre au trone le fils de Louis Capet et a trahi par ceci la patrie. 11 est convaincu. 2. L. J. R. T. Lavalette, age de 40 ans, ne a Paris, ex-noble, ex-com mandant de l'armee francaise du Nord etc. etc. (Ici il suit les noms de: Custine, Houchard, Barnare, Baylly et d'autres, ensemble 12 numeros.) .ROBESPIERRE'S DEATH-WARRANT. 1 85 Sont par ceci declares tous hors de la loi par decrets du Convention du 9 et 10 Thermidor. Apres qu'on eut constate leur identite, ils furent delivres au bourreau pour etre, mis a la mort en 24 heures a la place de la Revolution. Ont ete executes. Le Directoire. Signe: Barras, Rewbell, Lareveillere, Carnot, Sieyes. CHAPTER XVIII. SIXTH LETTER. Paris, 15th Frimaire X. A thousand thanks, my Annaliebe, for your sweet delight ful letter. Believe me, dearest, my heart yearns for you as fondly as ever, and many a night I lie awake communing with you in spirit. — And how comforting your tender solicitude is to me! But you must not be anxious about me, dear heart, nor fear that I am putting too severe a strain upon my nerves by thus reviving the memory of the terrible and heart-rending past. Edmee does much to counteract these sad impressions. Besides, the worst is over; I have seen nearly all the places connected with my martyrdom and, the first sharp pangs over, it is in the nature of things that, though it never forgets, the heart grows calmer, and can contemplate its losses with un abated sorrow but without the bitter agony of the first days. The day before yesterday, however, brought my whole tragedy before my eyes again when I visited the Temple and the prison of La Force. The apartments in which the Royal family spent their days of terrible captivity have been pulled down, but the great round hall past the windows of which they carried the head of my beloved princess is unchanged. Then we went down into the underground dungeons where I was imprisoned for many long weeks, and I had to show 186 PAINFUL MEMORIES. 1 87 Edmee all the well-remembered places and the little niche where I lay on my poor straw pallet. The La Force was entirely unaltered and I passed with streaming eyes through its gloomy cells thinking of the dear friends who had set out on their last journey from thence. We afterwards drove through the street where the tragedy of my life had culminated. There were the same houses that had passed before my eyes on that death journey, and once again I seemed to see the hideous faces of the crowd and hear the thunder of the explosion and the mad shrieks of the terrified mob. Here were probably the selfsame stones on which I had last seen my Hector's blood-stained head when he gave his life for mine. — Oh Annaliebe, how my heart sickened with pain as I caught sight of the well-remembered spot! I left ' the carriage and kneeling down pressed my lips to the cold stone on which my Hector's head had lain. Edmee put her arm round me and led me away, and we drove off quickly to escape the gaping crowd that had begun to gather round us, astonished, no doubt, by my proceedings. Arrived at home, I found your dear letter awaiting me to distract me from my painful thoughts — never was letter more welcome. Every little detail of your family life interests and delights me. Ah, my Annaliebe, your tranquil but deep affec tion restored the shattered balance of my life. And now, my best and sweetest of friends, I have told you all I felt and suffered in reviving the memories of the past — it was inevitable — but I have done; I will neither excite myself nor pain you any more. My letters now shall concern them selves only with the present and what happens to me day by day. In these days I have met many old friends again and we 1 88 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. have, of course, had endlessly much to say to one another. But oh, my dear, what sufferings many of these poor things ^ have endured in foreign lands ! and have occupied the / strangest positions to keep themselves from absolute starva tion. Few, if any, among them found such faithful loving friends as I did. I quite believe that in your utter unselfish ness you do not realise what gift you bestowed upon me. The fervent gratitude of a lifetime could not adequately repay you. Adieu, dearest, truest heart. Ever your own Cecile. from annaliebe's diary. Kalbe, December 26, 1801. Christmas is just over, that sweetest idyll of our childish days whose fairy radiance shines on softly through the later years till it beams out brightly once more in our children's happy eyes. Oh, my Cecile, how I have missed you ! How I wish you had been with us yesterday and seen the children's joy. The Pastors' children were invited for the Christmas tree, and really it made one a child again to be amongst them. Phil- linchen's speechless delight did one good to look at. It seemed so strange not to set out Cecile's presents among the rest. I do hope the little gifts I sent her to far-off Paris arrived in time. To my joyful surprise I found a large parcel with the Paris postmark on my already heaped up Christmas table, and on opening it discovered the beautiful little new-fashioned musical instrument they call a guitar. How sweet of Cecile FROM ANNALIEBE'S DIARY. 1 89 to think of giving me this melodious present; its shape is so charming and it is so light and easy to hold. She says not a word about it in her letter, and I am ignorant of the proper method of playing it; but as there is a little parcel of music with it and I already play the harp, I daresay I shall soon find out. Her dear long letter, however, pleased me most of all. My poor darling, what sad, heart-stirring emotions you must have struggled with during these last weeks! Everything in Paris must remind you of those days of terrible suffering and of your lost love. Oh faithful heart, that neither time nor Death can turn from its allegiance, that cannot conceive the possibility of seeking to replace the lost delight! CHAPTER XIX. SEVENTH LETTER. Paris, 3d Nivose XI. My beloved Annaliebe: A thousand thousand thanks for your loving letter and the fascinating little gifts you made for me with your dear clever hands. I trust my letter reached you by Christmas and that the little guitar pleased you. It is greatly in vogue here with the ladies, and I do not think you will find any difficulty in learn ing to play it. It will form a charming accompaniment to your sweet voice — would that I could hear it! — as a solo in strument it is not very satisfactory. I thought much on Christmas Eve of you all and the many beautiful Christmas festivals I had shared with you at home. Here, you know, there is nothing of the kind, though Edmee invited a few friends to spend the evening with us and distributed her Strennes amongst us instead of waiting for the New Year. These were mostly confiseries, the finest of which I pass on to you herewith for Phillinchen. Kiss her from me and tell her she is not to forget Aunt Cecile. Since writing to you last, we have made most of the visits set down upon our list. One of the first was to the Marquise de Montesson, whom 190 THE MARQUISE DE MONTESSON. 191 you know from Edmee's letters and also as an old friend of my youth. Her amiability and tact have made her beloved and re spected by all parties and the First Consul holds her in high esteem. He has given her a pension and induced her to open her salons immediately after the Revolution, but it is princi pally the old nobility who go there whom Bonaparte is so anxious to win over. She received me with open arms and embraced me ten derly. Though aged the Marquise has lost none of her ex quisite charm and distinction. She receives three times a week at 6 o'clock, and when we arrived there were already some thirty or forty ladies and gentlemen of all ages assembled in the rooms. Among them I found many friends and acquaintances of old days, and look ing round these rooms filled with pictures of the Royal family and all that was in fashion before the great upheaval; when I saw the servants in their powdered wigs and gala liveries handing round tea to these beautiful women with their soft voices and cultured speech, I almost felt that the interval had been a horrid dream and that I was back in the old days of my fair Queen Marie Antoinette. Several of the ladies told me that this circle of the old nobility lives quite to itself and takes no part whatever in the new Court and the festivities given there. — They alone will not adopt the new fashion of dress. Even those who have managed to save their fortune make not the slightest show of luxury, living quietly and forming a society in them selves, but — it is nevertheless the first society of Paris. They are nearly all people of high culture and refinement, and many of them — women as well as men — famous in one way or an- I92 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. other. Besides, they have been joined by many of the old French savants and members of the Academy, also by more than one distinguished foreigner who find themselves out of touch with the manners of the new society. Although this circle professes to ignore the parvenu Bona parte and all his works, I found that, nevertheless, conversa tion turned perpetually upon the nesz_Court, and many were the bitingly satirical stories that were told about its short comings. The Prince de Poix led the van in this respect, though Edmee whispered to me that in spite of his scandal he was much inclined to the new regime. One of the Prince's stories had for its heroine the Madame Grant whom Talleyrand married, and whose life formerly had been, I believe, extremely loose. The first time she entered the salons of Madame Bonaparte as the Marquise de Talley- rand-Perigord the Consul is said to have remarked to her — " I trust that Madame Talleyrand will make us forget Madame Grant." To which she replied — though I can scarcely believe this part of the Prince's story, for they say she is dreadfully stupid — " Monsieur le Consul, I shall endeavour to follow Madame Bonaparte's example in every way." If this answer is true it was a very clever slap at Madame' Josephine's past. The newly organised Court bows down before the First Consul with truly military subservience though to all alike he is brusque and harsh; and even when he tries to be polite he only succeeds in being patronising. His whole manner there fore gives one an impression of roughness and ill-breeding, MADAME DE STAEL. 1 93 and he often employs expressions which are more fitted for the camp than the drawing-room. No wonder then that Madame Josephine, as I hear, does not feel quite in her element in this new Court and tries to re gain access to the society into which she was born. She does her utmost to entice the ladies of our set into her Household, but it is love's labour lost. Edmee listened with an ironical smile to these stories against her hero, and remarked as we drove home that, despite the sarcasm of the company, she could name several who had managed to accommodate themselves to the new order of things. But the people who interested me most on that evening, after my dear Maman Montesson, were the Baroness de Stael and the Marquis de Luchesini who seemed quite on the footing of a member of the household. Place aux dames, dearest, and so I will begin with Madame de Stael. I knew her slightly before when her father, Necker, \ / was Minister of Finance to the King. She must be 34 now, ; but I was quite astonished at her beauty and youthful appear ance. She is quite lovely and the very personification of grace, with splendid hair and wonderful dark eyes that seem to ex press every passing emotion, every changing thought. She seems to possess an unerring instinct for the manners of the great world and bears herself as nobly as if her forefathers had been dukes and princes instead of little provincial bourgeois. Her fame as an authoress and the part she played in the Revo lution are known to all the world. However, since her life was in danger during the Terror and she fled with her father to Coppet on the Lake of Geneva she has entirely reversed her opinions and, like most converts, is now an extreme Legitimist. 194 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. She married the Baron de Stael-Holstein in 1786, but the union has not been a particularly happy one, I hear, and the two have lived mostly apart. Latterly, however, since the Baron fell seriously ill there has been a rapprochement and Madame nurses her husband with unfailing devotion. Other- jwise she is wholly absorbed in her literary work. When this celebrated lady came up to me and, embracing me affectionately, spoke of the days of our early acquaintance, I was subjugated by the charm of her manner and the influence of her great mind, and returned her greeting most cordially. She is indeed an extraordinary woman. In the days when we were young girls together, and the rest of us thought of noth ing but dancing and amusements, she was already writing the most thoughtful books on the profoundest problems of life. As to the Marquis Luchesini, I was of course particularly interested in him, first as being the ambassador for Prussia, my dear second home, and then because of the crowd of amusing stories Philipp Alvensleben and Kockeritz used to tell us of him, his femme irrSsolue and her sisters. What a funny black-haired, Jewish-looking mannikin it is, to be sure! I must say, I was ashamed to see Prussia represented by such a man. I heard a great deal about him, for everybody seems to know him and his peculiar qualities well. They say that he stands well with Talleyrand, but that the First Consul cannot endure him. The Marquise was there too, an extremely stout and by no means pretty woman in a hyper-fashionable toilette, so dScolletSe as to be absolutely indecent. The two made a mysteriously sinister impression on me and no one seemed to affect their company much, although the Marquise raved about Paris, saying it was her dearest wish to be able to spend the rest of her life there. The Marquis made himself very ATTEMPT ON BONAPARTE'S LIFE. 195 agreeable and told me much that was interesting about my dear Berlin, but, for all that, the man was thoroughly distaste ful to me, and I believe him to be so self-seeking and un scrupulous as to sacrifice the interests of your country to further his own ends. Yesterday evening we were at the Italian Opera. This is Bonaparte's favourite theatre. The house is extremely well decorated and splendidly lighted — altogether Paris is far in advance of Berlin in the matter of lighting. The orchestra was perfect and the company unsurpassable; it is a disgrace to Paris that the opera house finds so little support, one sees only actual musical connoisseurs there. I believe the Paris- . ians are too blindly devoted to their own productions to admit the claims of foreigners to any merit. ' Bonaparte was present with his wife and step-daughter Hortense, but he sat so far back in the loge behind his wife that I scarcely saw him, the loge being on the same side of the theatre as our own. The Consul had about thirty of his guards with him, who were distributed over a number of loges. He left an hour before the end of the opera, but Madame remained to the last and drove away in an elegant English carriage with two footmen. As Bonaparte rose to leave, the whole audience stood \ up and gave him a perfect ovation. For a moment, then, I j saw his face as he gazed down unmoved at the cheering crowd. Then he bent his head slightly and disappeared. This demonstration is doubtless the result of his late nar-\ row escape from death, a plot hatched by the Jacobins, who 1 are for ever on the outlook for a chance to assassinate him. j Madame de Montesson, who was with us that evening in the theatre, told me all about it. The plan was to blow up the Con- I96 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. sul by an infernal machine, something of the kind employed by my Hector when he saved me from the guillotine. But Providence mercifully averted this calamity which, in these unsettled times, might have had incalculably mischievous re sults. The coachman driving the Consul's carriage was a cool-headed German who, catching sight suddenly of a small handcart with a barrel on it just in front of him, and some suspicious-looking men prowling near it, without a moment's hesitation whipped up his horses and dashed past at a furious gallop. — Almost at the same moment the barrel exploded with a report like thunder, the houses rocked, glass and bricks rained down upon the pavements, and a number of people! were frightfully injured or killed outright — but the Consul es- J caped unhurt. He was on his way to the Opera House, where Haydn's " Creation " was being performed that evening. By the time he appeared in the Royal loge, his usual marble demeanour no whit disturbed, the news of the attempt on his life had reached and spread through the house. The performers were no doubt affected by this ; in any case, the singing did not meet with the Consul's approval. When, at the close of the performance, some of the leading singers presented them selves before Bonaparte to congratulate him on his escape, he answered gruffly : " Je vous remercie, messieurs, mais vous avez chantS comme des cochons! " By which, my Annaliebe, you will see that the great man 1 cannot be accused of too excessive politeness. Even his I adored Josephine came in for a share of his harsh temper that evening, for when, bathed in tears, she flew out of her loge to meet him, he begged her sharply to collect herself, add ing, " Remember, Madame, you are not a fishwife." He evi- THE FIRST CONSUL AT ST. CLOUD. 197 dently expects the same imperturbable coolness and self- control from his surroundings as he possesses himself. The First Consul has now removed his official residence to St. Cloud and only comes to the Tuileries on business of the State. It is very doubtful if he will return to Paris at all this winter; everything is being arranged for a permanent stay at St. Cloud. The immense regiment of domestics is lodged in some great monastery buildings close by the pal ace. But Mistrust goes the rounds and Suspicion is the sen tinel, and the poor inhabitants of St. Cloud have been for bidden, by express order of the First Consul, to use any promenade but the one along the river; the Park is inexo rably closed to them. In other respects his Household is daily conforming more \ and more to the pattern of a royal one_, in fact the whole cur- J rent of things is setting rapidly towards a Monarchy, and you will see that the strong man now at the head of affairs will not suffer these half measures much longer. My visit to Talleyrand must still be deferred, as he has not yet returned from Luneville, where he is drawing up the final conditions of the Peace. After all, he is a great states man and has just secured for France by the Peace of Lune ville a territory about a third as large as all Prussia. Here he is almost as much talked about as his great master. You write that I am to describe the latest modes in vogue here. That is no easy task, I can assure you ; but I enclose you herewith a fashion-plate which will give you some idea of a really new costume which combines elegance with de cency — a pair often more widely separated than one might wish. As to the men — they all wear their hair now cut short a la ^ I98 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. Titus, blue coats with black collars and -brass buttons, a short yellow gilet with large collar and revers, and long black cassi- mere pantalons. If one wishes to be ultra-modish, an enormous three-cornered hat under the arm must be carried. But now I really must close this unconscionably long let ter and say good-bye for to-day, my sweetest friend. How ever, as we are on the subject of fashions, let me send you herewith the very latest frivolity — a glove-nut. I think the pair inside will just fit your pretty little hands, and if, after wearing them, you fail to pack them into the nut again, never mind — I could not either with my own. It is only a toy. And now adieu, mon ange, I look forward confidently to a letter from you to-morrow. Cecile. How justly the Baroness gauged the character of the Marquis de Luchesini was amply proved by his subsequent actions, which were most disastrous for Prussia. Napoleon's ever-growing distrust of Prussia must be ascribed solely to Luchesini's influence. It was the triumvirate Haugwitz, Lombard, and Luchesini who brought about Prussia's down fall at that period. When in 1806 Luchesini concluded the shameful armistice with the Emperor Napoleon which the King refused to accept, he was dismissed. From that time till his death in 1825 he was Chamberlain to the Princess Elise, Napoleon's youngest sister, who married the enor mously wealthy Prince Bacciochi. CHAPTER XX. EIGHTH LETTER. Paris, 14th Nivose XI. My darling Annaliebe: At last, my great wish has been fulfilled and I have had a good view of the mighty Bonaparte, the man on whom the eyes of the whole world are fixed in wonder and expectation. There was to be a grand parade of troops in front of. the Tuileries at n o'clock in the morning; accordingly Edmee and I drove there, but found that having omitted to procure tickets we were not allowed to pass the grille and so only ob tained an impression of the parade as a whole; we were too far off for the details. This was the spot on which on August loth, 1792, the\ Swiss guards were so brutally cut down defending the palace i against the onslaught of the populace. Oh, if the King had/ only had some of Bonaparte's energy at that time, how dif-| f erently things would have turned out ! At 11 o'clock the troops, numbering about 7000 men, be gan to march up, the cavalry being the garde consulaire and the infantry the corps des vStSrans. It is considered a great distinction to belong to the former extremely elite regiment, as only the finest men with at least three campaigns behind them are admitted to it. 199 200 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. On the stroke of 12 Bonaparte came galloping up on a superb white horse accompanied by several Generals — among whom Edmee pointed out Berthier and Lannes — and his Adjutants. Immediately behind him rode his Mameluke Roustan, whom the Sheik El Bekri had given him in Egypt and who is never far from Bonaparte's side. At night he lies across the Consul's door and is devotedly attached to him. He was riding a thoroughbred arab with gorgeous trappings and wore a most striking costume — a red velvet fez with a tuft of white feathers fastened by a gold agraffe, a short gold- embroidered jacket, and wide trousers of the same material stuffed into high yellow leather boots. At his side hung a curved Turkish scimiter, the hilt and scabbard encrusted with brilliants that flashed in the sunlight as he rode. And now the drums rolled and the air resounded with the shouts of "Vive Bonaparte — vive notre General!" It was the first time the Consul had appeared in public since the! Peace, and the people received him with frenzied enthusiasm.) I saw him about four times as he galloped up and down the ranks. He is not tall and wore a red gold-embroidered coat and a large hat without any feathers. I was too far off to distinguish his features, but he is extremely pale. His in spection over, he went to the middle of the Place surrounded by the Generals and distributed a few swords of honour and rifles. During the whole parade he never once touched his hat, but as he galloped past the veterans he bared his head. The troops then all marched past him and so out of the Place. The uniforms of the Generals were very richly embroi dered, and as to the drummers, their coats were simply stiff with gold. As each drum-major marched past Bonaparte he threw his great baton, decorated with an enormous crimson MILITARY PARADE AT THE TUILERIES. 201 tassel, high in the air, almost to the first-floor windows of the palace, and caught it again most adroitly; I did not see one baton fall to the ground. In distributing the decorations the Consul said a few words to each recipient, and to some of them he gave his hand. There was another long roll of drums and the massed bands burst into the Marseillaise. Oh Annaliebe, I cannot describe the sensation of hearing that song for the first time since the Revolution! Rouget de Lisle little dreamt, when, full of en thusiasm for Diderot's noble ideals of liberty, he wrote it, to what base uses it would fall during the Revolution ! To-day it was played in honour of the Dictator. Again there were deafening shouts of " Vive notre General Bona parte! " and the Consul rode slowly back to the Tuileries. This, dearest friend, was my first sight of the omnipotent man who can make or mar my future. If I only knew how best to obtain an audience of him! Madame Josephine will be the best medium I think. After the Parade we drove out to Longchamps, where there is a sort of Corso now every afternoon, and the elegants of both sexes show off the very latest fashions in toilettes and carriages. Apropos of the latter, I notice that the coachman's box is now set so low that it seems in danger of scraping the ground, whereas, in my time, it was so high that one might almost step from it into the first-floor windows. We met numbers of cabriolets containing really beautiful women, some of whom Edmee named to me, for instance, the lovely Madame Lannes who drove past us with her husband the Marechal, known as the " Roland of the Army " because of his statuesque appearance. She is like one of Murillo's Madonnas and wore a very pale-coloured robe a la Grecque. 202 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. All the toilettes are in very light tints, as the First Consul dis likes dark colours. The fashionable colour is still brown " terre d'Egypte," though since the late sanguinary battles there it will probably be changed to crimson " terre d'Egypte." Enormously long trains are still prevalent and the promenade on foot is conse quently intolerable from the dust. Please reassure Uncle Briest at once, however, by telling him that I have no inten tion of following any of these abnormities in fashion. But ask him, with my love, if he has riot yet become the proud possessor of one of the new high hats I observed to be the latest thing for gentlemen on the Corso. These are tall cylinders of black felt, smooth as mirrors, and look exactly like chimney-pots. I really thought I must be at a masque rade. Edmee told me that the hatter — Thierry is his name — who invented them made a wager that he would introduce the very most absurd shape imaginable and it would become fashionable. And he won the wager, for these tall black pillars are now quite de rigueur with the exquisites. Your dear letter was as welcome and sweet as ever. My love to good Aunt Kroecher and thank her for her affectionate interest in my life and doings here. We are expecting the re turn of the troops from Egypt very shortly; there will, no doubt, be many military fetes in consequence. Adieu for to day, dear heart. My love to your husband and sweet Phil linchen. CHAPTER XXI. NINTH LETTER. Paris, 22d Nivose XI. The week that has passed since I last wrote to you, dearest, has brought me one step nearer to the end I have in view. I have great hopes of being able to present myself to you soon as the chatelaine of Mont Courtot and Retrazet. Still, I may yet find myself disappointed, in spite of the favour able aspect of affairs. I will not set my mind upon it too soon. I wrote you that my friends here proposed various ways of my obtaining an audience with Madame Josephine, and as one of these plans led me also to Talleyrand, I determined to make a beginning with him as soon as he returned from Luneville. I felt less shy in addressing myself first to this famous statesman because, during my childhood and while he was still Bishop of Autun, he had frequently been the guest of my dear parents. In fact, for some reason or other, he took a great fancy to me, and used always to bring toys for me, so that my dear mother would tease me about the evi dent fondness of the ugly old man whom I could not bear. And now I was going to him as a suppliant ! However, as many of my acquaintances assured me that he made a very good business out of this restitution of property, I too re- 203 204 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. garded the matter more from the practical than the senti mental point of view. At the Marquise d'Assas the other day somebody told a story illustrating his venality. It seems that the great water-works at Marly which dur ing the last century had cost millions to set up and keep in order, had fallen into such a state of dilapidation that a tho rough restoration of the machinery had become imperatively necessary. A Versailles without fountains was, of course, inconceiv able; moreover, the First Consul had expressed his intention of using the palace as another official residence; so the busi ness firms were called upon in all haste to submit their plans, and a Company, with the famous Montgolfier at its head, offered to supply, in the shortest possible time, entirely new machinery, which should also bring a larger volume of water into play. And for all remuneration they only asked for the material of the old machinery. But Montgolfier, never dreaming that an offer so bril liantly advantageous to the Government would require Talley rand's patronage, omitted to buy over that statesman, with the result that his offer was refused. Other machinery was then put in, at a cost of three million francs, and proved itself later to be almost worthless. This circumstance was, however, of minor importance; Monsieun Talleyrand had his 100,000 francs " commission " safely in hisj pocket and that was all that mattered ! And that is the way many a large fortune is made just now — Talleyrand's is al ready computed at twenty million francs. The man is as ginning as a fox and as slippery as an eeh— there is no getting hold of him. He gave proof of that when TALLEYRAND. 205 he, the ci-devant Bishop, induced the Pope to give him a dis pensation, whereby he was free to marry this Madame Grant, and after all his sins against the Church, too. There is every reason to believe that he made the recall of the priests de pendent on this dispensation. They say that his influence with the First Consul is daily\ becoming greater, and though Bonaparte hates him, he can-) not do without him. The Prince de Poix showed us a caricature the other day representing Talleyrand with his club foot holding Bonaparte by both hands and making him dance, while Cardinal Caprara, who is very influential here too, stands grinning by and plays the fiddle. This open ridicule of public personages, which was the ' first sign of the Revolution, is coming up again; I trust, however, with less serious results. Having given you a slight sketch of Talleyrand's public character, let me go on to describe my visit to him two days ago. I was decidedly nervous about this first meeting with him, Edmee having heard that his manner towards ladies was, if anything, worse than Bonaparte's. However, thank Heaven, things turned out better than I could have hoped for. I was ushered into a sumptuously furnished salon by a lacquey in a richly laced coat, who handed me over to a gentleman-in-waiting, who proceeded to announce me to the Minister. Immediately afterwards the door opened and the " Marquis citoyen," as he calls himself, entered en petite tenue, namely, a blue coat with gold-embroidered collar and revers, a lace jabot and white pantalons en escarpins. But in spite of this becoming uniform he looked- positively hideous., and I 206 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. could hardly repress a shudder as I faced him. It was not so much his ghastly pallor and staring fishy eyes, his turned- up nose and enormous, long-lipped mouth, not even his mis shapen feet, one of which he dragged behind him as he walked, that disgusted and terrified me — it was his appalling likeness^ to, the monster Robespierre. It made my flesh creep — they might have been twin-brothers. It is hardly possible that the observant Minister should not have noticed my start of horror, but a marble statue could not have remained more unmoved. Whether this immobility of feature is his by nature or an acquired mask I know not — perhaps he is aware of the peculiar impression he makes upon strangers — at any rate, he let no sign escape him and ad vanced towards me with a friendly outstretched hand. Oh Annaliebe, I cannot describe to you what I felt as I timidly laid my fingers in that cold and clammy hand! The thought of all the evil he had wrought upon my beloved Royal House came over me in a rush! " Well, mademoiselle, and so you are safe back in your own country again — you poor little lady," he began. " I was sincerely delighted to hear of your escape and only regretted that I was out of the country at the time and could not be of assistance to you. But why did you and your Princess not stay quietly in England where you were out of harm's way?" The tone of his voice was harsh and rasping and without the slightest modulation, and yet there was undeniably a cer tain kindliness in his words. What could I answer to his last question? Tell him what I more than suspected of Philippe Egalite's share in the mat ter? To what end? How would it serve me? The villain VISIT TO TALLEYRAND. 207 had paid the price of his crimes, had long since received his just reward. So I merely replied that we had felt it impossible to desert the Queen in her hour of peril. A horrid, half-mocking smile passed over the Minister's cold features at these words and he murmured to himself, " II y a done des singulieres! " — " What extraordinary senti ments you women do indulge in, to be sure! " he went on. " The Queen's case was hopeless, you could not possibly have saved her ; of what use then could it be to Marie Antoinette that you two should come back to certain death? " What did this egoist know of devoted love; of the love that will ever sacrifice its own good to that of the friend; how could he understand the solace we derived from offer ing our poor services to the Royal sufferer? I could only falter, " These are questions of feeling, Monseigneur, about which it is useless to argue." He then went on to ask about my personal circumstances and my parents. He alluded to the by-gone days in which he had known me as a child, and it seemed to me that with the recollection of that time another expression came upon his hard face and there was quite an affectionate warmth in the tone in which he murmured, " Yes — yes — they were dear good people ! " He made me tell him where I had been all these years and the manner of my escape from death — he had never heard the details. " Ah, my little friend," he went on, " I pitied you with all my heart and have often thought of the little girl I used to dance upon my knee." I can assure you, Annaliebe, I was struck dumb with astonishment, I could not believe my ears. Could this be the 208 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. same man who had spoken so cynically just now? The half- closed eyes had a totally different expression; he looked at me almost tenderly and held out his hand. When I came to the scene of my rescue by Hector the pangs of memory were too much for me and I burst into tears. " Poor girl, what have you not had to go through," he said, laying his hand kindly on my shoulder, "to be saved from death as by a miracle and then to lose your lover immediately afterwards — poor little Cecile, that was indeed hard! " " So Hector de Trellissac was your fiance's name ? " he went on after a pause. " Are there any more Trellissacs? " I told him no, that Hector was the last of his line. " Where can I have heard that name? " he pondered with a shake of the head. " It must have been in the old days, I suppose." You may imagine what I felt at these words, Annaliebe. For one instant a dazzling, heavenly hope flashed through my mind. But it was madness — I had seen my lover's head covered with blood, I had seen him die, there was no linger ing possibility of doubt or hope. Burying my face in my hands, I burst into tears and gave way utterly under the pain these memories reawakened in my heart. At this Talleyrand laid a hand gently on my shoulder. " Do not cry like that, my poor girl," he entreated, " I cannot bear to see it; and pray forgive me for having grieved you thus by my questions." I did my utmost to control myself, and presently he took my hand reassuringly and asked : " Now tell me how I can be of service to you? I gather from your letter that you have a definite object in coming here — the restitution of your TALLEYRAND'S UNEXPECTED SYMPATHY. 209 family property, no doubt? Are there any others of your name? " Drying my tears, I answered falteringly that I had a young cousin, Camille de Courtot, attached to the Embassy in Brus sels. " Well, my little friend," he resumed, " I will do all for , you that lies in my power, but I think it advisable that you should enlist Madame Josephine's sympathies — for the mo ment, I am almost powerless, my mediation would do you more harm than good, I fear, as I am on the First Consul's black books. Stay — I will give you a letter of introduction to the Marquis de Coulaincourt, who has just entered upon his \ duties as Master of the Household to Madame Bonaparte and who will soon procure you an audience with that lady. Never fear, you shall have your property restored to you — I will take care of that. You will doubtless have observed, Mademoi selle," he continued and his cynical smile returned, " that things have changed considerably since you were here. Surely you knew something of our fair Queen-Consul in former days? Ah — of course. Well, do not fail to establish yourself in the good graces of this all-powerful woman, there is hardly anything impossible to her just now! " "The Marquis is Master of the Household to Madame Josephine? " I cried in astonishment. Talleyrand laughed aloud. " What, another aristocrat ! you will say. But mark my words: every one of them will come round in time. Coulaincourt, however, has a certain excuse for accepting a post near Madame, for, if you remember, the lady was long undecided whether, of her many wooers, Coulaincourt was not preferable to the much older Beau harnais. And now instead of being her husband he has be- / 210 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS come Master of her Household. Well, well — I tell you they will all come by and by. Why, only the other day the Laroche- foucauld offered herself as dame d'atour. You would never believe from what quarters petitions pour in on the Consul nearly every day. Between ourselves, the Bourbon Princes are drawing settled incomes from him, even the so-called Louis XVIIL, at present in England, petitioned Bonaparte a little while ago to help him to the Throne. But, though Madame Josephine implored her husband on her knees to re store the Bourbons, Bonaparte seems to have no leanings towards the part of King-Maker. If he makes anybody into a King it will be himself and no one else in the world, you $/ may be sure. But pray regard these confidences as strictly be tween ourselves. — By the way, Mademoiselle, should Madame Josephine procure you an audience with the First Consul, stand up to him fearlessly and prefer your request in as few words as possible, he does not like long speeches. However, should he ask you if you would like to enter Madame's House hold, give him an evasive answer — say for instance that the last male member of the family is already in the service of the State. — Of course if you liked to accept the post you would be welcomed with open arms. You can think it over. — Now, I think that is all the advice I can offer you. Keep up your spirits, all will go well, I hope. If you will take the trouble to go to the Marquise for a few moments I will bring the letter of recommendation to you there." The Minister herewith brought his long speech to a close and held out his hand. I thanked him warmly for his kind ness, curtseyed low and retired, the gentleman-in-waiting con ducting me to the apartments of Madame la Marquise. As you may imagine, I did not anticipate much pleasure INTRODUCTION DE MME. GRANT. 211 from this visit. The little, corpulent, very common-looking lady received me graciously, her flabby old face thickly plas tered with red and white paint, and short as my visit was, I had ample time to convince myself of her extremely limited capacities. She has the manners of a bourgeoise from the provinces, and once more I had a glaring proof of the strange fact that the cleverest men often fall into the hands of the stupidest, ugliest women. I wonder why it should be so? I believe that with most men, and old ones in particular, it is a question of habit. And so it is with Talleyrand probably. The woman thoroughly understood his peculiarities and his tastes, indeed to the extent — so Monsieur de Volnay said maliciously the other evening — of affording the old roue opportunities of meeting ladies in her salons with whom he could satisfy his taste for a little change of company. Hence her influence over the otherwise astute man. And for all that, you cannot help being surprised that this keen-witted schemer should have braved the Papal thunders lor such a woman! To my relief, my tete-a-tete with the lady did not last very long. The Minister soon appeared and handed me the promised letter, whereupon I took leave of the strangely assorted couple. This letter, my dear Annaliebe, you may well label " The Talleyrand," for it deals almost exclusively with him. But you take such a sympathetic interest in all that concerns me and my affairs, that I knew you would like to know the details of this first important step towards gaining my object. I shall send in my letter of recommendation to-day to Coulaincourt in his new character of Master of the House hold, accompanied by a request for the honour of an audience 212 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. \ with Madame Josephine, and then await further developments. One thing I look forward to with malicious joy, if I do have an audience, and that is Monsieur le Marquis' face when he has to introduce me to his mistress. Oh, it is a queer world, Annaliebe, and I often feel as if my former life here was only a dream. A dream that I was ever a Lady-in-waiting at the Tuileries, a dream that other princes ever ruled here, and, finally, a cruel dream of all I once suffered in this city. At times, even, I begin to doubt if this , is the same people I lived among nine years ago — it seems Kj like another race altogether. Farewell, my soul's beloved, I will write the moment any thing fresh occurs. My faithful love to you and yours. P.S.— Should you chance to meet any one from Berlin, please find out more for me about the Luchesinis; it would interest me to hear further details of the curious pair. Part of Talleyrand's enormous fortune found its way later into Prussia, when Duke Edmond de Talleyrand married the Princess of Kurland and Sagan and so acquired the Duke dom of Sagan. His sons, the Dukes of Valencay and of Dino have settled in Silesia, where they have considerable landed property. CHAPTER XXII. TENTH LETTER. Paris, 28th Nivose XI. My darling Annaliebe: " L'homme propose mais Dieu dispose." — My audience with Madame Josephine has fallen through for the present. But I must tell you the whole story. I sent in my letter of recommendation to the Marquis in all due form and received an answer, on the next day but one, informing me that Her Excellency Madame Bonaparte would be pleased to receive Mademoiselle de Courtot at 12 o'clock on the 1 6th inst. at the Palais de Malmaison. There were only three days till then, so you may imagine that I was in a great state of nervousness as to whether I could make myself sufficiently fine, in that short space, to present myself before so critical a feminine judge as the elegant Josephine. Edmee threw herself into the breach, and we instantly set out for the celebrated Magazin de Modes of Messieurs Des- preaux and Leroi, where we bought some lovely dress ma terial of a colour called "gorge de pigeon." Then to Josephine's own Court dressmaker, Madame Germon, who actually sent me home the dress in two days' time! I enclose the fashion-plate on which the costume was modelled, so that you may have some idea of how your Cecile 213 214 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. will look on the important occasion. I shall wear a jabot of Flemish lace fastened on the bosom with a diamond clasp, which Edmee will kindly lend me. My hair will be dressed a Vantique by the renowned Monsieur Duplan, with the addi tion of an enamel and diamond coronet, also out of Edmee's jewel-box, and a great ostrich plume at the left side. You know, dearest, that I never wear anything but black and of the simplest design; so you may imagine how strange I felt when I first tried on this fashionable garment with the waist up under my arms and its long train. Nevertheless — now, do not laugh at your old friend — I was not ill-pleased at my appearance. The chignon of airy curls gathered high at the back will quite suit me, I think, and Edmee declares flatter ingly that I shall look ten years younger. You must be surprised, my Annaliebe, that I still write of this interview in the future tense, but, at the last moment, my audience had to be deferred indefinitely. On the day before the appointed date, Coulaincourt sent me word that Madame had met with a slight accident and therefore could not receive me. It appears that Madame Josephine was visiting a friend of hers, a Madame de Campis, at Plombieres. Several other ladies, Madame Savary, I think, for one, were there, and while sitting in the drawing-room one of them happened to notice a charming little English terrier in the street below. Josephine, who is very fond of animals, went on to the balcony with her hostess to look at the dog, but hardly had they set foot on it than the balcony broke and precipitated both ladies into the street. Madame de Campis fractured her hip, but Josephine escaped with a few slight wounds on her hands and arms — mere scratches — but she is in bed, suffering from nervous NAPOLEON AT THE MINT. 215 shock, and no wonder. The First Consul is said to have been much alarmed and upset and put off his journey to Lyons for several days in consequence. And that is why my au dience could not take place. I am very glad, however, that the lady — who seems to be deservedly popular — came off with such slight injury. It might have been a very ugly accident. It seems to me the nation cannot make enough of its J Bonaparte. Every week you find the statuesque head — on) which, as Lebrun sang the other night at the Opera, the Peace of the World is founded — reproduced in some new style, sometimes uglier, sometimes handsomer than the origi nal. From the reticules of the ladies it has now passed to the newly invented paper fans. Of all the portraits I have seen as yet, that by David seems to me the most noteworthy. I send you herewith a little copy, which is to be had now in all the shops. Latterly, too, another new medal was struck on which he is associated with the other two Consuls in the style called, in numismatics, " capita jugata," but with this peculiarity, that whereas the other two heads are merely in dicated, his is surrounded by a nimbus of rays. Beneath is an allegorical group and the words, " Peace and Plenty under the Consul's rule have recalled Art and Science." Apropos of numismatics I must tell you a story Madame de Guiche told us, demonstrating how little artistic sense the First Consul possesses. New five-franc pieces were to be issued, and it was necessary that Bonaparte should come to the Mint to decide upon the portrait to be used for the stamp. The Director of the Musees and the Mint, Monsieur Denon, a littSrateur (he wrote a description of Napoleon's wonderful campaign in Egypt) eminently suited to the post, ordered the head man of the department, Magnier, to prepare a portrait 2l6 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. of the Consul in a few days, so that when he appeared in the Mint he might have the pleasure of seeing the coins struck on the spot. Magnier declined to do this, saying the time was too short to prepare a work of real artistic value, and that the Consul would have to sit to him for the portrait. Monsieur Denon persisting in his demand, however, a subordinate named Thierry, a clever but superficial workman, offered to carry out the order so that the coins should be stamped in the actual presence of the Consul; and accordingly the matter was entrusted to him. On the appointed day Bonaparte appeared in the Mint With a numerous following. The moment he entered the machine room the wheels were set in motion, the stamping be* gan, and shortly afterwards Monsieur Denon was able to hand to the Consul the first of the new five-franc pieces stamped with a tolerably successful Bonaparte head. The Consul ex pressed himself as entirely satisfied and gave the order on the spot for the two million five~franc pieces. Properly speaking, the Consul has no right whatever to issue such an order on his own account, the sanction of the entire corps legislatif being necessary, but it is an open secret \ that this body has become a mere cipher in Bonaparte's hands, I and he acts as autocratically as he pleases^ But there was a sequel to the story. — The two million coins were duly struck and ready for issue in ten days, but alas, Monsieur Denon and his spirited young colleague had for gotten, in the hurry of the moment, that these five-franc pieces were not medals but the ordinary coin of commerce, and had made the stamp in such high relief that the coins could not be laid on the top of one another, and were thus totally unfit for CARNIVAL TIME. 217 business purposes. So there was nothing for it but to con sign the whole two millions once more to the melting-pot and have them re-struck, whereby the deeply offended Magnier got his rights ; but the whole affair cost a great deal of money and the First Consul had to suffer much annoyance at the hands of the ever watchful caricaturists. For painting, too, the Consul seems to have little appre ciation, never giving any commissions but for his own por trait — David's extraordinary picture of the General prancing up the St. Bernhard on a dapple-grey charger had to be copied several times. The only branch of Art he has any real taste for is the tragic drama, more especially when acted by his favourite Talma. I will tell you more about this actor after I have seen him, which will happen before long, I think. He is expected back shortly from Italy, where he has been spend ing three months for the good of his overworked voice. The Carnival time has been particularly uproarious and gay this year. When we drive out, the streets, especially the Rue Richelieu and Rue St. Honore, are full of masks till late into the night. Plaster mice, confetti, and straw wreaths were thrown into our carriage and there were roars of inextin guishable laughter if anybody chanced to be hit. They say that the government has expended an enormous sum on pro moting this apparently spontaneous display of festivity among the populace— it cost the police 30,000 francs on Mardi Gras alone for the masqueraders they provided. This plan of filling the streets with paid masks was entirely done away with under the last reigns; it seems a pity that the new regime should have to fall back on it again. A disagreeable intermezzo to this joyous Saturnalia has been furnished by the thunder-bolts launched by the Jupiter of the Tuileries against some of the 2l8 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. aristocrats who were foolhardy enough to express their disap proval of certain measures adopted by the present govern ment. The Marquise de Champanetz, for instance, was given one hour to prepare for banishment to Antwerp, with the al ternative of taking up her abode in the Temple. It quite carries one back to the days of the lettres de cachet. And this although the Marquise was one of the most universally popular ladies and quite at home in Josephine's set. Since Peace was definitely concluded and people have be come reassured as to the future, foreigners are streaming into Paris in extraordinary numbers, especially Germans, who readily obtain employment, being well known for their in dustry and trustworthiness. You cannot think how refresh ing it is to me to hear the familiar accents of my adopted country once more— and to speak it too! I went into a glove shop the other day and at once divined the nationality of the blonde girl behind the counter. You should have seen how her blue eyes lit up when I addressed her in German. The con stant intercourse between France and Germany during the long wars seems to have removed a good deal of mutual prejudice, and I hear that many people have begun to learn German in order to study the literature in the original, transla tions being as a rule but poor affairs. There are German read ing parties, German clubs, even a German theatre up till a short time ago, but that has evidently come to grief, for when Edmee and I went there one evening we found that the Di rector, a Herr Haselmeier, had just vanished, leaving the poor company in the lurch. There is no doubt too that French literature is beginning to bloom out again in the genial atmosphere after the long winter of the Revolution. Delille, Mason, and many others THE AERONAUT GARNERIN. 219 have arisen to charm us with their writings, and the older poets, such as Racine, Corneille, Boileau, and Lafontaine are receiving fresh appreciation. It is to be hoped that this state of things will continue and soon obliterate all traces of the degrading effects of theJTexcQr. We consoled ourselves for our disappointment about the German theatre by going to the Place des Victoires to see the Aeronaut Garnerin go up with his wife in a balloon, a specta cle which was quite new to me. As we approached the Place we caught sight of the great air balloon floating about five feet above the heads of the assembled crowd. It was made of silk and ornamented with enormous initials — N. B. — in honour of the First Consul. Under it burned a fire of wood and straw which inflated it with warm air, till the balloon must inevitably have flown up into the sky had it not been restrained with ropes held by at least a hundred people. To the balloon was attached a great basket into which the bold aeronaut and his wife proceeded to climb. He then fired off a pistol as a signal for the people to let go the ropes, and the balloon mounted majestically into the air amid the deafening applause of the crowd. It was borne along on the current of wind at a height of about 500 feet and presently the aeronaut threw out a little dog attached to a parachute, the poor little creature landing, quite unhurt but as wet as if it had come out of the water, on the roof of a house, from whence it was rescued by a chimney sweep. Meanwhile the balloon came down without any injury to itself or its daring occupants at Gonesse, on the other side of the Seine, but we heard afterwards that the frightened peasants, taking it for the work of the Devil, had torn it in a thousand pieces — a terrible pecuniary loss to its owner. I was very sorry for the poor aeronaut and trust he will soon be able 220 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. to replace it— they say the exhibition draws enormous crowds. There, my Annaliebe, I have had another long, long gos sip with you ! Each day brings so many new sights and im pressions that I could go on writing pages. I hope in my next letter to be able to tell you that I have seen Madame Josephine and so advanced another step in my affairs. And now, fare thee well, my darling— the best of greetings to all my dear friends and hearty congratulations to the Herr Can didatus on his engagement. May dear little Kathchen be very happy at his side and perhaps lighten his pedantry just the least little bit! Toute d toi, Cecile. CHAPTER XXIII. ELEVENTH LETTER. Paris, 16th Pluviose XI. Palais Brancas. My sweetest Friend: This is going to be another of my long letters, for so much has happened to me in these last few days that I hardly know where to begin. Well, my audience with the all-powerful Madame Jose phine has taken place. Thank Heaven, I have that behind me ! On the 6th of February, I received notice that Madame would see me the next day at 12 in the Chateau de Mal maison. Accordingly I began my toilette early on the event ful day and am bound to confess that I was well pleased with the result when it was finished. Goodness knows, I had no idea of making conquests ; on the other hand, I did not wish to appear in a pre-historic costume at this ultra new-fashioned Court, and so was glad that the various artists to whom I was indebted for my smart appearance had done their work so well. Warmly ensconced in Edmee's carriage, I drove out through the bright wintry sunshine to Malmaison, reaching my destination a little before 12. The Chateau and even the park surrounding it were much changed from what I remembered. I heard from Edmee that 221 222 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. Bonaparte found the beautiful property in a terribly dilapi dated condition on his return from Egypt, and that Madame Josephine had incurred a mass of debt on it which her hus band had to pay — over a million francs, I believe. However, he had both Chateau and park put in repair, and Madame dis played a very elegant taste in the laying out of the latter. As I drove through the great avenue leading to the Chateau, I met a cavalcade composed of two young ladies and several gentlemen, in one of whom, to my intense aston ishment, I recognised the Prince de Poix. Edmee's old man servant sitting beside the coachman replied, on my question ing him, that one of the ladies was the sister and the other the step-daughter of the First Consul. Of course I looked then with increased interest at the two beautiful young creatures of whom I had heard so much, par ticularly since their marriage on the same day had created such a sensation :— Caroline Bonaparte's civil marriage with General Murat having received the sanction of the Church on the same day that Hortense Beauharnais was forced to marry the Consul's brother Louis. I will return to this later on and give you further details. One of the gentlemen, ac cording to Baptiste, was General Murat himself, besides which I noticed Monsieur de I'Aigle, whom I was as much surprised to see here as the Prince de Poix. " Oh, oh, messieurs," I thought to myself, " how does this fit in with your remarks the other evening at Madame de Montesson's? " But now my carriage emerged from the avenue, and the palace with its wide flight of steps lay before me. For the imposing household of the First Consul it looked to me de cidedly inadequate; indeed, Madame Josephine said after wards that she would only be there for a few weeks longer VISIT TO MALMAISON. 223 and was then going into residence at St. Cloud. General Berthier would, in all probability, receive her beloved Mal maison; the Consul was said to have promised it to him. I should think, however, that the real reason for the change is that Bonaparte has taken a dislike to the place since the attempt made on his life a short time ago. A snuff box, almost exactly similar to the one used by the Consul, was placed upon his writing-table filled with poisoned snuff. Bonaparte, toying idly with it for some time, happened to look more closely at the figures on it and noticed some slight differences. The matter was at once investigated and the snuff discovered to be highly poisoned. On alighting at the Chateau I was received by the maitre du palais, who, on my presenting my card, conducted me to the Marquis de Coulaincourt. By him I was then ushered into a reception room with chairs stiffly ranged along the walls. Several ladies were seated here engaged in lively con versation, among whom, to my renewed surprise, I again found some old friends. The first to hurry towards me was Madame de Campan. Mon Dieu, the things that had happened since I last saw the governess of the Royal children in the Temple ! Was it con ceivable that she should have forgotten it all and accepted a place in Madame Josephine's household ? But the first words she whispered to me as she embraced me tearfully dis pelled this thought. She told me that she had a girls' school in St. Germain-en-Laye in which Hortense Beauharnais had been educated, and that she had come to-day with some of Hortense's former schoolfellows to congratulate her on her marriage. These young ladies she proceeded to present to me — a most striking, dark-haired American, called Eliza 224 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. Murray, and two charming sisters, Adele and Eglee Augnier. I also made the acquaintance of Madame Savary, the grace ful Madame Junot, and Madame Hamelin, who, after Madame Tallien, is the most noted of our Mervilleuses. Edmee had already told me of her eccentric and ultra-modish toilettes, and to-day she wore an under-petticoat of white satin with a tunic of green silk crepe trimmed with gold spangles and fringes, while a gold-embroidered green bandeau was wound through her hair. The costume was somewhat bizarre, but became her admirably. She is about thirty and in the full bloom of her beauty, with a pair of glowing dark eyes, a charming little mouth with rather full red lips, a complexion like ivory, with a delicate peachy flush on her cheeks. Her fair white brow is framed in naturally waving, unpowdered golden hair gathered into a Greek knot behind, from which the most fascinating little curls peep out inquisitively. I de scribe her to you so particularly because she is one of Madame Josephine's most intimate friends and has much influence over her. i\nd who was there besides? Four young ladies of whom I should never have believed it. The Marquis presented them to me under a decidedly peculiar title. '" Madame de Re- musat," he said, " and Mesdemoiselles de Talhuet, de Lucai, and de Lauriston, four ladies appointed by the Consul to assist Madame in doing the honours of the palace."— I must say, I did not think to find Adele Talhuet and Eglee Lucai here as Josephine's Maids of Honour — for of course that is the plain meaning of the ambiguous title— after all I heard at Madame de Montesson's. And you should have heard the fluttering and whispering among the ladies when the Marquis pronounced my name! JOSEPHINE'S EARLY LIFE. 225 From their manner I plainly read the question — " What is she i doing here? — we thought she was long since dead." I felt a I hundred years old, and could not but smile sadly as I realised what an enormous gap even nine short years can make in a i life! However, I took my dear little god-daughter Adele Talhuet joyfully in my arms and welcomed Eglee Lucai as a daughter of my old friends. Both had grown up to be beauti ful dark-eyed girls. We then seated ourselves and waited. Dear me, how little I thought, ten years ago, that I should ever sit waiting thus in Josephine Tacher's ante-chamber! In voluntarily I fell to dreaming of the past and recalled how sur prised every one was at the little Creole's good fortune — there was already a good deal of gossip in circulation about her life before she came to Paris — in being chosen by the Marquis de Beauharnais for his wife. Their happiness was short-lived, however, and they had not been married five years when there J were rumours of the Marquis divorcing his wife for her dis- j creditable behaviour. In any case, they had lived apart a long time when the Marquis' fate overtook him and he was guil lotined in company with the Prince of Salm-Kyrburg and that unfortunate Baron Trenk, whose romantic love story with Frederick the Great's sister Ulricke you once told me. — We j none of us could discover from what source Madame Josephine I derived her income afterwards. She spoke of a large in heritance in Martinique, but she lived in most indifferent cir cumstances. Edmee was telling me only a few days ago how she had met the lady at that time in the house of Claude de Beauharnais, Comte des Roches Baritaud, whose wife, when Josephine appeared in a marvellous robe of pale blue velvet, 226 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. had declared to Edmee that Josephine possessed five gala dresses but only two chemises. The position of the beautiful Creole was, as you see, a very doubtful one under the old regime, and I am sure Bona parte might have made a better match had he consented to unite himself with the aristocratic party in those days. Be this as it may, his choice seems to have turned out well, for every one agrees in saying that her life now is quite with out reproach, and whether he married her out of calculation or not, he certainly was madly in love with her afterwards. I was awakened out of my dreams by a movement among the ladies, who now all stood up as the Marquis opened the door of an adjoining salon and entered it. There was a brief pause and then a knock on the parquet floor of the same room \ — yes, Annaliebe, iust as_in the-cM. days of Royalty! The ' doors were then thrown open by two gentlemen-in-waiting in petite tenue, and preceded by the Marquis and followed by her cousin Madame de Valette and her son Eugene, Madame Josephine made her entry. Let me say, en passant, that I have seldom seen a more pleasing and sympathetic face than that of this youth of twenty. He is remarkably handsome, very graceful and elegant in his movements, and has more the air of the grand seigneur of former times than the modern Incroyable. I had withdrawn somewhat behind the other ladies in order to have a good look at the much talked of beauty, the all-pow erful Madame Josephine, who could sometimes bend the iron will of the great Consul. What, I thought, is there no such thing as Time the De stroyer? Have the years passed over her without leaving a single trace? — Standing there against the background of vio- DESCRD?TION OF JOSEPHINE. 227 let velvet portiere, she seemed to me the very same girl I had met years ago at the house of Talleyrand's cousin, Madame de Casaux. Her waving chestnut hair may have become somewhat thinner with time, but who is to say now-a-days where nature leaves off and art begins? Her peculiar ivory-pale complex ion, which I remembered of old, may have grown a little faded and yellow, but I was unable to judge, for the red and white was so artistically mingled and laid on that her skin was like lilies and roses. But the charming mouth, the bewitching, slightly retrousse nose, the almost night-black eyes with their long lashes and the glance that flashed out so strangely at times were unaltered; and her voice has a most enthralling sweetness. Her figure is, if anything, more beautiful than ever; she is slender and yet admirably round, and no tight lacing trammels the grace and freedom of her movements. Altogether, she reminds one in her languid exquisite grace of a full-blown rose — a rose that must ere long drop its petals. I wish I could show you the portrait Edmee possesses of her, painted by Gerard; — the wanton, straying curls, the coquetry of the glance — it is herself with all her alluring faults and charming weaknesses. I hear that this picture is to be re produced, and if so you shall have a copy, though the en graving unfortunately gives one no idea of the colouring. But I had no more time to observe her, for she was ap proaching me. Before the Marquis could mention my name she hurried forward with outstretched hands — " Oh Cecile," she exclaimed, " can it be really you? Surely there was no need of all this formality before seeing one another? Why have you waited so long? — I expected you ever since I heard 228 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. of your arrival in Paris." And with that she drew me up from my deep curtsey by both hands. I must own that I was completely won by her irresistible charm of voice and manner and responded in the same tone, and you know, my Annaliebe, that if I want to make myself very agreeable I generally succeed — at least, so you have often told me, you dear little flatterer. Madame Josephine then drew me down beside her on a sofa and whispered rapidly — " You have come about the res titution of your family property, have you not? I will speak to I Bonaparte about it. You need have no fear — it shall be ar- ' ranged," and she took my hand in her small slender ones, on which the red marks of the recent wounds were still visible, and pressed it affectionately. " Of course the decision lies in Bonaparte's hands," she continued when I tried to express my thanks. " He will wish to talk it over with you personally. I expect him back from Lyons very soon and will do all I can for you with the Consul. Yes, mesdames," she said, turning to the other ladies, " I was dreadfully anxious about the First Consul, especially as I could not accompany him this time as I invariably do. Lyons with its excitable, revolutionary elements was bad enough, but to have this crowd of Italian deputies added, who want to sub mit their list of possible presidents to Bonaparte's approval, frightened me, so that I have hardly closed my eyes the last few nights. However," she went on with a brilliant smile, " my fears were, thank Heaven, quite unfounded — once again my star watched over Bonaparte. I have just received news that the matter is successfully concluded. I am sure you will con gratulate me, ladies, when I tell you that Bonaparte has ac cepted the Presidentship himself; he is now the Ruler — I mean rH- ^ THE NEW FANCY WORK. 229 of course," she corrected herself hastily, " the head of the Cisalpine ^Republic as well as our own." We all rose and offered her our congratulations in due form, and again I had good occasion to observe the tact and charm with which she said something pretty and appropriate to each lady in turn. She is really fascinating, arid though now that I was quite close to her and realised how much of her charming appearance was due to art and a consummate knowledge of how to make the utmost of her waning beauty, I perfectly understood the glamour she exercises over thes Consul and indeed every one with whom she comes in contact.! She was good enough to beg me to spend the rest of the day with her and sent one of her carriages at the same time for Edmee to join us. I must admit, dear Annaliebe, that I was by no means unwilling to stay — no one could withstand the extraordinary charm of this woman — and she promised us a treat in the shape of a delightful little play, " Les fausses con sultations," to be acted that evening in her small private theatre by her two children and several friends. We then repaired to an adjoining salon, decorated entirely in blue, and the ladies grouped themselves round Madame in front of a delightful, glowing fire, laughing and talking in the pleasant unrestrained manner that made me think of our never-to-be-forgotten cercles in the Petit-Trianon. Most of the ladies were busily employed with a kind of fancy work which was quite new to me. They had a quantity of real gold threads which they knotted and twined into all sorts of charming de vices, such as chains and bracelets. The goldsmiths provided delicate clasps and fastenings expressly for this work, a little box full of them standing for general use on the table. These 230 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. clasps are of the most fragile filigree work in highly artistic designs. Observing my interest in the work, Madame Josephine sent for a packet of gold thread and wove it rapidly with her clever little fingers into this dainty bracelet which I have much pleasure in passing on to you, dearest, as a memento of a very important day in your friend's life. Looking round upon the company, I could not help think ing of the old ladies at Madame de Montesson's and wondered what they would say if they saw me sitting here. And then I recalled Talleyrand's prophecy : " You will see — they will all come — all." And after all, why should they not? Do I lower myself in any way when I accept my family possessions again from the hand that struck down the wretches who tore it fromy me? Nor can my fidelity to my beloved Royal House be in any degree diminished by my associating now with those who dragged my country out of the moral slough into which it had' sunk, and raised it to a position which excites the wonder and enyy of the whole world. I make this little declaration now, dear heart, lest you should think me fickle and disloyal. But you will have noticed that with each letter my admiration for the man who has eyolved a new world out of chaos increases. I still cannot grasp how this foreigner, this Corsican, has managed to cast such a glamour over this nation of mine, otherwise so jealous of its rights. Well, I suppose it is because he follows the old plan of giving them "panem et cvrcenses," and that goes a Very long way here. Please be so kind as to read my quotation very particularly to the Herr Doctor Vultejus, that he may see how little I have JOSEPHINE'S KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN NATURE. 23 1 forgotten of what he taught me. I trust he will accord me due appreciation. But to return to our cercle. I had to give Madame Josephine many details of my life in Prussia. You would not believe how well informed she is on the subject of your country, and as to Queen Luise, she spoke of her with positive enthusiasm. It interested me very much to observe how rapidly things are drifting on towards a Monarchy. Madame Hamelin told me of an incident in the Italian wars which was new to me, il lustrating this tendency very vividly. When, on the conclusion of peace, the Milan ecclesiastics asked the General how he wished to be received on his entry into the city, he replied: " come Imperatore." And this was five years ago ! A fond, proud smile lit up Josephine's features at this anecdote; ,she said nothing, but her eyes beamed as if she already saw the I u, crown upon her husband's head. I expect she is well aware J of his plans for the future. Altogether, she shows a remarkable knowledge of human nature and has the most skilful — though perfectly graceful — knack of drawing out her companions. Madame de Campan whispered to me that one must be careful what one said before her, as Madame Josephine was fond of entertaining the Consul with any anecdote or little scandal she could gather from the conversation around her. Presently the famous painter Isabey was announced, and I was not a little interested to meet this favourite artist. He is a man of about thirty, with an intellectual and handsome face and very engaging manners. He regretted not seeing Madame Murat and Madame Hortense, with whom he daily plays a game of " jeu des barres." 232 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. Meanwhile it was time for the DSjeuner, and several of the ladies took their leave. Madame de Campan remained, how ever, with her pupils, also Madame Hamelin, the four dames d'atour, Eugene Beauharnais, and Isabey, whom Madame Josephine invited to share the meal. I took advantage of the departure of the other ladies to have a little conversation with Adele Talhuet and to ask after her parents. Poor little Adele, who with her soft dark eyes and glowing tints looks the thoroughbred Vendeenne she is, told me her sad story, and how she, a daughter of the Chouans, came to be in the service of the Consul's wife. Pressing fondly to my side she told me how her old father, like mine, had fallen a victim to the Terror and her mother had remained for a long time in hiding with relations in the Vendee. When the fright ful conflict between the Vendeans and the Government troops under Bernadotte broke out, Madame Talhuet fled with her daughter to Holland, where she lived for some years in great penury, supporting them both by the labour of her hands. On Bonaparte's appointment to be First Consul, she returned to Paris and made all sorts of attempts to earn money, but with out success — things seemed only to go from bad to worse. At length, she turned in despair to Madame Lsetitia, Bonaparte's mother, who procured her an audience of the First Consul. This interview chanced to take place on the day following the attempt on Bonaparte's life with the infernal machine. The First Consul received Madame Talhuet in the presence of the Minister of Police, Fouche. As she stood trembling before the all-powerful Consul, trying to find words in which to ex press her humble petition, she suddenly had the happy in spiration to congratulate the General on his fortunate escape. The Consul smiled kindly, and then turning to Fouche said, BONAPARTE AND MADAME TALHUET. 233 in his brusquest manner — "What do you say to that? Madame is an aristocrat; she belongs to one of the highest families of the Vendee, and yet she offers me her congratulations on my deliverance from death. Spare me, in future, these everlasting insinuations against the Vendeans, who have absolutely noth ing left to them but their firm loyalty to their King, for whom they fight like heroes. You will find no hole-and-corner assassins amongst them. It is your Jacobins who are the traitors, the skulking murderers, and not the Vendeans ! " The Consul then granted Madame de Talhuet a pension and placed Adele in Madame Josephine's Household with a salary of 8000 francs. This, she said, enabled her to assist her dear mother as well, and she was sincerely grateful to Bonaparte. Madame Josephine, too, was extremely kind to her. So you see, dear Annaliebe, this strange man seems to have a heart in his breast, after all. Adele's story of the misery she and her mother endured in exile, and indeed most of the accounts I hear of the emi grants, poor things, makes me more and more thankful for my inexpressible good fortune in falling into the hands of such true and tender friends as you, my dear ones. How can I ever repay you for the great gift of happiness you bestowed upon me! And now, my sweetest Annaliebe, I must close this volu minous epistle or I shall never be able to send it off at all. I will reserve the rest of my description of my day at Mal maison for my next letter. Adieu, dearest heart. Ever in undying affection Your Cecile. V 234 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. The Chateau of Malmaison was last year put up for auc tion in a state of utter dilapidation. Bought by Napoleon in 1789 for 100,000 francs, it was not presented to General Ber thier, as the foregoing letter states, but remained in Jose phine's possession as a sort of dower-house. After her death it went to her son, Duke Eugene Beauharnais, and on his demise was bought by a Swedish banker for 250,000 francs. Queen Christine of Spain acquired the Chateau in 1842, from whom Napoleon III. bought it for the sum of 1,500,000 francs and presented it to the Empress Eugenie. It was par tially destroyed during the siege of 1870 and now, divided into thirty lots, sold by auction. Sic transit gloria mundi ! The promised portrait of the Empress Josephine, as also the filigree bracelet made by her, were among the posses sions of my great-grandrnother. Both were left by her will to the sister of my grandfather von Luderitz (husband of Philippine von Alvensleben). I do not know if they are still in existence. CHAPTER XXIV. TWELFTH LETTER. Paris, 2d Ventose XI. My beloved Annaliebe: I have let a week pass before continuing my account of my day at Malmaison, and I have seen and done much that is interesting and worth telling you in between, so I will begin at once before my material gets beyond all due limits. I think I left off in my last just where we were going in to the dSjeuner. We went standing about in groups, when the lacqueys suddenly threw open the great folding doors and two ladies entered whom I at once recognised as the fair riders I had seen in the avenue. Madame Hortense at once flew to her mother and embraced her tenderly and then greeted us with a pleasant bow. Josephine then presented me to both ladies, who each had a little graceful remark for me. As you may imagine, it was to Madame Hortense that my sympathies were more especially drawn, and her beauty and charm attracted me from the first. She has her mother's deli cate, spirituelle features, only that the aquiline nose, night- black eyes and dark hair give the face a different character. She has a great air of distinction which, with the aquiline nose and classically rounded chin, she probably inherits from her father's side. 235 236 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. But on her sweet young face there lay a shadow of gentle uncomplaining melancholy which probably is to be traced to her compulsory union with Louis Bonaparte, for whom, they say, she always felt an invincible dislike. Of course there are numerous stories in circulation as to the reason. According to one, her regard for her stepfather, the First Consul, amounts to positive idolatry, and there is no doubt that he is most fondly attached to her and that great sympathy exists between them, but that the feeling — on either side — exceeds the proper limits of their relationship is, from what Edmee tells me, a malicious invention spread abroad by a few persons in high position who ought to know better. Another and certainly more probable story is that she has for years been deeply in love with General Duroc, Bona'- parte's adjutant. The handsome officer is said to have re turned the feeling, but whether he fancied it was hopeless to aspire to the hand of the First Consul's daughter, or whether, as Bonaparte's favourite officer, he looked still higher, suffice it to say he waited and waited till finally Bonaparte gave Hor tense to his brother Louis. What the Consul's reasons were for this unequal union it would be difficult to understand, for he must have known them both well enough to be aware of their entire lack of compatibility. Louis Bonaparte is said to be clever and by far the best educated of the brothers and, when he likes, both kind-hearted and of pleasing address, but the fatigues and hardships of his military campaigns added to his many debauches have ruined his health and made him of a melancholy, not to say hypo chondriacal, turn of mind, in strong contrast to Hortense's lively temperament. MADAME HORTENSE AND MADAME MURAT. 237 Her very natural distaste for him led, in the first weeks of their marriage, to some highly conspicuous passages be tween them, and Hortense is even reported to have fled from her husband one night and taken refuge with the Consul in . the Tuileries, and it was only by using the utmost severity that Bonaparte finally induced her to return. Nevertheless, the relations between the couple continue to be of the worst, and Hortense has now been living for weeks past with her mother in Malmaison. Bonaparte's youngest sister, Maria Annunciata Caroline, has been the wife of General Murat for two years, but, owing to the unsettled state of ecclesiastical affairs, had never re ceived the sanction of the Church. At Hortense's very quiet marriage in the chapel of the Palace, the Consul determined to let his sister share the priestly blessing, and Cardinal Caprara performed both ceremonies on the same day. On this occasion Bonaparte is said to have remarked to the Car dinal that this was the last private religious ceremony which should be performed in his family, he should very soon wit ness some splendid public ones ! I wonder if he meant his own re-marriage to Josephine? It is impossible to say; but! there is no doubt that he is taking steps to restore the Church f to its legitimate position in the State. Madame Murat, who is barely twenty, has the faultlessly regular features of a classical statue and a lovely bright com plexion, and is as gay and lively as poor Hortense is the re verse. Both ladies were still in riding dress with redingotes of black cassimere opening over red silk vests and carried their large felt hats in their hands. Their cavaliers, having meanwhile changed their riding costumes, now entered, and you should have seen the Prince 238 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. de Poix's droll, astonished face when he caught sight of me — his surprise at my presence here was quite as great as mine on first seeing him. However, we only exchanged an amused smile and kept our thoughts to ourselves. On presenting me, Madame Josephine added the somewhat astonishing remark, une vieille amie a moi. We then repaired to a large oval dining-room, decorated and furnished in the very latest style, where the dejeuner was served. Behind each chair stood a lacquey in magnificent green and gold livery. Madame Josephine was pleased to appoint me a seat at her left hand; General Murat sat on her right and Madame Hortense beside him. Next to me sat Madame Murat, and the Prince de Poix was at Hortense's other side. Thus I had General Murat for ; my vis-a-vis and had a good opportunity for observing this famous warrior. He is about thirty-five, and deserves the | popular epithet of " le beau Murat " in so far as regular features, a red and white complexion, flashing black eyes, and bushy whiskers entitle a man to be so described. But do you know whom he reminded me of ? The agent for the wine-mer chant in Mainz who came once a year to Kalbe and always amused us so much with his would-be elegant manners. I took a dislike to Murat from the first moment. He cannot conceal his low_origin, and was formerly so frenzied a Repub- ' lican that he altered his name to that of Marat, his more than questionable ideal, and came to the fore and was made a Gen eral during the Terror. With his sharp eye for the main chance, he soon attached himself to Bonaparte's rising for tunes, and has undoubtedly served him well and given fre quent proof of courage and resourcefulness. He has accom panied Bonaparte on all his campaigns, and was mainly instru- > mental in dispersing the Council of the Five Hundred. In | DESCRIPTION OF MURAT. 239 short, he is one of the most faithful followers of his great brother-in-law, and may be said to have helped him to his present position. Not that he has omitted to help himself at the same time. Edmee says that as Governor of Milan he amassed a fortune of many millions of francs. He and his lovely wife inhabit a magnificent palace and live in princely style. No doubt he has I a great future before him, but he strikes me as an irretrievable egoist, and in his shifty eyes, which neyer look you straight J in the face, duplicity is written in plain characters. His costume was almost grotesque in its extravagance, and I remembered how the Prince de Poix had alluded to him one evening " tout ce qu'il y-a du plus Franconi." And that is just what he looked like — a circus-rider. He wore a short, black, heavily braided Polish jacket, red trousers, and high boots of yellow leather, while his jet-black hair hung in ringlets over a white embroidered collar. Then you should have seen his self-satisfied airs and the 1 boastful manner in which he spoke of his military prowess till, j had I not been incontestably assured of his great merit as a soldier, I should certainly have taken him for an unmitigated fanfaron. Nor does the fair Madame Caroline seem wholly blind to her husband's failings, for I noticed that while he told his self-glorifying stories she shrugged her classical shoulders disdainfully and a supercilious smile played round her beauti ful lips. What with the Prince de Poix's wicked face opposite and the glances he threw at me from time to time, I could scarcely restrain my laughter, and admired Josephine greatly for the tactful patience she exercised towards her bombastic brother- in-law. 24O - LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. Hortense took little or no part in the conversation and sat for the most part with dreaming eyes fixed on the distance. Was she thinking of the handsome Duroc, I wondered? There was a good deal of talk about the illness of General Leclerc, the husband of Bonaparte's eldest sister Pauline. He had been sent out, a little while ago, with an expedition to St. Domingo, where he seems to have concerned himself more with his own private advantages than those of the State. Gen eral Murat remarked that he expected his brother-in-law to return as the richest man in Europe; Branchi, the great real estate agent, had been with him (Murat) only yesterday and said that General Leclerc had commissioned him to buy property in the Dauphinee to the extent of six million francs. " If he dies now," he added with a cynical laugh, " our dear Pauline can buy herself an entire Princedom here in France; she certainly will have money enough and to spare." You have no idea of the concentrated spite of his tone as he said this; one could see that he was simply devoured with I envy of his brother-in-law's good luck! The conversation then turned on the Consul's journey to Lyons, and various interesting remarks were made on the Constitution he had given his new Republic. Murat then pro ceeded to give the details of Bonaparte's election, by which he had become President over two Republics. — " I wonder," he added with a sarcastic smile," how long he will remain so? " This, at last, seemed too much for Madame Josephine, and with a glance of disapproval at the General, she put an end to his indiscretions by rising from the table. On our return to the salon we found my Edmee. She was most cordially received by Madame and the other ladies, and I NAPOLEON'S FATALISM. 24 1 seized the first opportunity to give her a hurried outline of the promises made me by Josephine, which pleased her greatly. The afternoon being bright and sunny, Madame proposed that we should take a little walk through the grounds, where upon Edmee, Madame Hamelin, and I accompanied her, while the others went off to their " jeu de barres." The paths in the beautiful park are kept as smooth and clean as a parquet floor, so I was relieved of all anxiety as to my fine train. We had strolled about the grounds for some time, Madame Josephine pointing out the various improve ments she had made, and at last entered the broad avenue that leads to the plain of Ruel. Josephine was just telling me how much she regretted having to leave Malmaison, when she sud denly stopped and held up a silencing hand. I looked at her in surprise. Profound silence reigned around us, only broken by the solemn strokes of the church bell in Ruel ringing for afternoon Mass. "Do you hear those bells?" she whispered softly, and the whole expression of her face seemed to change, to become al most devotional. I could not understand why the tones of these simple village bells should make such an impression on her, especially as she had no great reputation for piety. "Do you hear them? " she repeated. " Those are Bonaparte's bells!" "The Consul's bells?" I asked in surprise, thinking per haps he had presented them to the church. " Yes — you know he is so fond of the sound of bells, and I have stood here many times with him listening to them," she explained fondly. "They affect him so strangely," she went on, " that I can hardly understand it — sometimes even to tears — and he does not like me to break the spell by speaking. He is I 242 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. quite vexed that I cannot feel the same about it as he. I fancy the bells remind him of his youthful days at Brienne, where he was so happy. Altogether, his spiritual side is a most peculiar one; he believes firmly in a supernatural world all about us, ex ercising its influence upon every human life." The bells died away and we proceeded on our walk, but I was much struck by her words. Who would ever have credited this cold and impassionate man with such imaginative power and feeling? We then returned to the Chateau, and while waiting in the drawing-room till it was time for the promised theatricals Lucian Bonaparte and his wife arrived. As you may imagine, I was immensely interested to meet this man, who is said to be the most crafty and astute of all Bonaparte's brothers. It was he, they tell me, who gave Napoleon the hint as to the most opportune moment at which to return from Egypt; he also played an important part in the coup d'Stat that followed. I must confess, however, that I was greatly disappointed in his appearance. He bears a certain family likeness, of course, to the First Consul — it is the same antique Roman type — but with his short, squat figure and general air of living too well, he looks like a well-to-do corn dealer or small shop keeper, and his common-looking, much-bejewelled wife forms a worthy pendant to him. He too is said to have amassed an enormous fortune, for the most part while he was ambassador in Madrid. It cannot be an easy task for Madame Josephine — who certainly looked like a princess beside this sister-in-law — to associate comfortably with these queer relations of her husband's, but so far as I could see she managed them all with the most perfect tact and seems to be on an excellent footing with them all. END OF THE VISIT TO MALMAISON. 243 The little comedy, in which Hortense and Eugene Beau harnais took the chief parts, could not have been better acted by the most skilled professionals and fully deserved the hearty applause it got. It was immediately followed by dinner, a somewhat noisy meal, at which Monsieur Lucian drank a great deal of wine, but. also told us some, very interesting stories of his stay in Madrid. We took our leave at about 9 o'clock, Madame Josephine repeating her assurances to help in my affairs directly Bona parte returned. Thus ended my visit to Malmaison. The small events of the last few days I must defer till my next letter; this one has spun itself out to an unconscionable length, but I knew the subject would interest you particularly. My fondest love to you and yours. Cecile. The scene referred to by the Baroness, in which the un happy Hortense fled, on the night of her marriage, to the Tuileries, as well as other stories maliciously spread abroad about her, may probably have given rise to the report that Hortense's son, Louis Napoleon, afterwards Emperor, was the son of the great Napoleon. There is absolutely nothing to justify this scandal, which is also emphatically refuted in the Memoirs of the valet Constant. Bonaparte's adjutant Duroc had every opportunity of bit terly regretting not having secured Hortense Beauharnais' hand while there was yet time. Three years afterwards, when Hortense had long been Queen of Holland, he married the daughter of a wealthy Spanish banker, a Signora Hervas 244 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. d' Almenara, a capricious, scatter-brained little person, who led him a dreadful life. On the death of General Leclerc Pauline Bonaparte mar ried Prince Borghese, and taking her fabulous wealth to Italy led a life of the most extravagant luxury. Her classical beauty has been preserved to us in a statue by Canova, in which she is represented as Tizian's Venus Victrix reclining on a couch. The original is in the Villa Borghese in Rome, and a very good copy by Hesemann in the Museum in Hanover. The Baroness's judgment of Murat is amply borne out by later history. Napoleon made him King of Naples, but he was the first to desert the Emperor when his fortunes waned and side with Napoleon's enemies in the hope of retaining his crown. His treachery met with its due reward, for being taken prisoner in the attempt to regain his lost kingdom, he was called before a Court Martial and shot. A second glaring instance of ingratitude to Napoleon was furnished by General Bernadotte whom, partly for his old love, Desiree Clary's sake, he had heaped with benefits. He too be trayed and deserted his Emperor's cause, but, more fortunate than " le beau Murat," managed to retain his throne. CHAPTER XXV. THIRTEENTH LETTER. Paris, 12th Ventose XI. My Annaliebe, I am really quite ashamed to think that my last two letters were full of nothing but my visit to Malmaison; but, in truth, one of my reasons for going so much into detail was that I was thinking of the circle of dear good friends to whom you tell me you read my epistles aloud. I can see them all so plainly — the good Pastor puffing at his long pipe and listening so earnestly to your every word; Aunt Kroecher having a war of words with Uncle Briest over this or the other personage in my letter or some opinion brought forward by me. I can see Uncle Briest's disapproving shake of the head at any word of praise from me for the per son or the actions of the First Consul, whom, you remember, he always called the " lawless son of the Revolution," and then the fierce clash of Aunt Kroecher's knitting needles as she turns upon her ancient foe with " But, Monsieur Briest, that last remark of yours was hardly tenable, I think." How often we have laughed to see her throw down the gauntlet and chal lenge Uncle to mortal combat over an opinion in which, not five minutes before, she had agreed with him entirely. What an endless pity that, when Aunt Kroecher became a widow, these, two did not marry! They could neither of them ever 245 246 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. have complained of dulness, nor, on the other hand, would they have been the least unhappy, for, at the bottom of their hearts, these two delightful people are very fond of each other. Perhaps then the old name would not have come to end with Uncle — there would have been a son to carry it on. — Imagine, my dear, if you can, the child of these two opposite natures! But for Heaven's sake don't read this passage aloud — I should never get over the outcry it would cause. — I will put a mark against it so that you may be warned in time. I would give anything to be able to see you all, to arrive suddenly in your midst instead of my letter. When, I wonder, shall I see you again, my dearest? — Not for some time yet, I fear; I must first await the result of my audience with the Con sul. He is still away and seems to be occupying himself in Lyons with his Italian subjects, or rather their representatives, longer than Madame Josephine expected. And now they say he is going on to Toul from Lyons, and when he does return there will be first the re-establishment of the Church and then the many fetes in connection with the confirmation of the Con- ' cordat, so that who knows when the great man will find a moment to spare for poor little me and my private petition? Edmee takes care that time should not hang heavy on my hands, and arranges so many entertainments for me that I often long for the peace and quiet I used to enjoy with you. What will you say to your grave and retiring Cecile having been to a ball the other night? — as an onlooker only, of course. Edmee had not breathed a word of it and I had not the least idea of what was coming after the charming little souper at Madame de Fontenay's, where the amusing Prince de Poix was once more my neighbour, when the couples suddenly ar ranged themselves for the dance. TALMA AS ORESTES. 247 What a long, long time it is since I saw gay young couples such as these footing it so merrily! Besides, so much of it was quite new to me, so that I watched with additional interest. The Polonaise, Francaise, and Minuet were danced, and an English country dance and Scotch reel as well, but how the Landler or Swabian country dance, which even the least prudish of moralists could not but decry as utterly indecent, has found its way into this circle I fail to understand. Your German valse, my dear, does not make much headway here, the mamas taking exception at the attitude. So a compromise has been made by giving two ladies to each gentleman or two gentlemen to the lady, thus preventing the dangerous tete-a- tete and the unseemly arm about the waist! And mama is re assured. It is a pity that the all-prevailing Grecomania which has given us so many artistic improvements has not brought the pantomime dances, which are sometimes produced here on the stage, into society as well. For instance, in the Theatre Royal — as it is still called — the other evening we saw "Ariadne and Bacchus," a pantomime after Xenophon, in which the most exquisite dances occurred. As we are on the subject of dancing I will add a word about the dresses. They are airier and more transparent than ever, and the long train shows no sign of diminished popularity, in spite of the mishaps that constantly occur at balls when they wind themselves in Laocoon folds about the legs of the gentle men, with results which are better imagined than described. The evening before last we saw the great Talma — his first appearance since his return from Italy — as Orestes in " Iphi genia in Tauris." The theatre was filled to the very last place, and it was fortunate that Edmee had taken our tickets in good time. I was of course looking forward with intense in- 248 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. terest to seeing this actor of whom I had heard so much, and was distinctly disappointed when he first came on the stage, for though his features are regular and of the antique Roman type, he is small and insignificant and his movements, in the beginning, very languid and uninteresting, doubtless as a re sult of his recent illness. However, as the play went on, he warmed to the part and soon exhibited a fire and passion which thrilled his audience to the marrow; in fact, he was so carried away by his emotional excitement that one almost feared for his health. Yet, in spite of his passion, his movements were so dignified and withal so entirely natural that involuntarily one seemed transported to the classical days of which the drama treated. It seemed incredible, watching his youthful fire and the elasticity of his movements, that the actor should be nearly sixty years old. Edmee tells me that the Consul thinks very highly of him and is almost on terms of intimacy with him; also that Talma often gives him hints for his deportment in public. Hearing Bonaparte spoken of on every occasion and wherever I go, it seems quite strange that I should have been here four months and yet never seen him properly, — for both in the theatre and at the parade he was too far away to afford me anything but an indistinct impression. You know, Anna liebe, that I am not precisely shy and that the presence of great people does not alarm me, but I must frankly confess that with Bonaparte's reputation for always acting as one least expects, I am decidedly nervous at the prospect of this audience. — Well, after all, he is not superhuman, and if he refuses my peti tion, he refuses, and there is an end of it. I shall have done all that lay in my power, and for my personal happiness Heaven knows I do not require more than I already possess. EXTRAVAGANT LUXURY IN DRESS. 249 After the theatre, in order to calm our excited nerves and bring ourselves back to the level of every-day life, we drove to Frascati's, a place of which Monsieur de I'Aigle had given me such a glowing account that I begged Edmee to take me some time. It stands on the site of the Rochefoucauld's former magnificent palace and is surrounded by a great garden illu minated by thousands of coloured lamps. We were lucky enough to chance upon Monsieur de I'Aigle as soon as we ar rived, and he kindly did the honours. The ground-floor of the house, which has been built by a private individual, con sists of a suite of ten or fifteen large rooms, all brilliantly lighted and decorated with garlands of flowers. Ice and sorbet only are sold here and are of the very best quality, of which we were able to judge for ourselves when our gallant cavalier took us out into the garden and had it brought to us there. The company becoming somewhat noisy as the night wore on, we very soon left and returned home. In my day it would have been out of the question for ladies to be seen at a public resort of this kind, but, as I said before, great changes have occurred here which may, no doubt, be ascribed to the enormous influx of strangers, particularly of the English, into Paris. You ask me with regard to the great luxury displayed here by the SISgantes in their dress, if they are all so rich as to be able to pay for it. Edmee tells me that there certainly is a great increase of wealth, but the most extravagantly lux urious people are those who have succeeded in amassing for- 1 tunes as purveyors to the Army during the wars. Many, how- j ever, had managed to enrich themselves by the Revolution, and among these, I am sorry to say, Edmee mentioned several names belonging to the noblesse, who, while singing the 250 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. praises of Liberty, had taken every opportunity of increasing their fortunes at the expense of others more quixotically honest. Let me horrify you by giving you a list of Madame Tallien's yearly expenditure set down the other day by some ladies who know her intimately. I call it a deplorable evidence of the length fashionable folly will go : 365 head-dresses, capotes, and hats 5,000 frs. 2 Cachemire shawls 600 365 pr. shoes.. 600 250 pr. silk stockings 3,000 400 robes 20,000 12 chemises 300 Red and white face paint 150 2 veils 2,400 Corsets, wigs, reticules, umbrellas, fans, etc. 3,000 Essences, perfumes, elixirs 800 Bijoux and other ornaments 5,000 Furniture — Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Persian, Egyptian, Gothic 30,000 6 horses (2 for riding) 10,000 Dancing master 3,000 One bed 15,000 Theatres, concerts, etc 10,000 Charity 100 108,950 frs. " O vanitas vanitatum vanitas! " Eh, Dr. Vultejus? How can one woman possibly use all these things ! Ever, my dearest heart, your faithful C. This time, for once, the Baroness was wrong in her esti mate of character. Talma was no more faithful to his Imperial TALMA'S FAITHLESSNESS. 25 1 friend and patron than the others whom Napoleon benefited, j When Napoleon was banished to Elba and Talma appeared before the new King Louis XVIII. in the Tuileries, he said with an air of servile flattery : " I greatly prefer a kind word from your Majesty to a pension from a Bonaparte! " CHAPTER XXVI. FOURTEENTH LETTER. Paris, 22d Ventose XI. My own dear Annaliebe: The great event is over! But before I give you any details let me at once relieve your mind by telling you that I have come off victorious — Mont-Courtot and Retrazet are mine once more, are settled on me personally by the First Consul's express command. And now let me proceed to give you a full account of the extraordinary incidents that happened to me in the Tuileries yesterday — so extraordinary, that when I compare my position before the audience with that of to-day, I can scarcely believe it is not all a dream. Last Friday came the order to present myself before the First Consul at midday yesterday in the Tuileries. Of course I found that many changes had taken place in the Royal palace since I was last there. The centre " Pavilion," built by Kath- erine de Medici and Henri IV., which connects the two wings of the palace, is now used as the Salle des MarSchals. The left wing contains the private apartments of the First Con sul and Madame Josephine when they happen to be in resi dence here, and the right wing all the official rooms, the Council Chamber, the Chapel, the Theatre. 252 THE AUDIENCE WITH NAPOLEON. 253 The Adjutants, the Prefet du Palais, and the Com mandants of the Consular Guard are lodged in the former " Pavilion des enfants de France," looking on to the Rue de Rivoli. I had to pass through a suite of rooms, the doors of each of which were opened for me by two lacqueys in green-and- gold-embroidered coats and black velvet knee-breeches. Ar rived at the last salon, I was received by the newly appointed Chamberlain Monsieur de Remusat, who conducted me to the ante-chamber in which a number of persons of all conditions were already assembled. It was quite a pleasure to me when among that crowd of strange faces my eyes suddenly lighted on Talleyrand leaning negligently in one of the deep windows. A flash of recognition passed over his sallow face at sight of me, and he at once advanced towards me and whispered, " Je vous fSlicite." I looked at him blankly. " Your petition will j be granted," he explained in the same low tone, " for the Con- | sui never receives any one whose petition he intends to refuse." You may imagine my joy at this news ! It inspired me with a certain confidence, and I felt myself braced for the coming ordeal. On the stroke of 12, Monsieur de Remusat scratched on the door leading to the Consul's private cabinet and then en tered. Shortly afterwards the door opened again and the Chamberlain called my name out. The fateful moment had arrived; I crossed the threshold and the doors swung to be hind me. The Consul was standing opposite the door in front of a great marble fireplace in which a fire burned brightly. Rising from my deep curtsey, to which he responded with a curt nod, I stood up straight and looked at him. Yes — it was the 254 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. Roman Imperator-head I knew so well from the pictures and coins, with strands of dark hair falling over the brow. The shape of the head alone, with its massive outline and firm square jaw, sufficed to warn one that here was no averagei man, and recalled the sculptured heroes of the classic age. J He wore the sumptuous consular uniform which, as the Prince de Poix told us the other day, he had devised on the pattern of one he saw belonging to his brother Joseph at Mar- fontaine. It consisted of a scarlet coat without revers and with a wide embroidery of golden leaves up each seam, unusually small gold epaulettes, a long waistcoat of white cachemire, knee-breeches of the same material, white silk stockings and buckle shoes. A sword with a gold hilt and gold and tortoise- shell scabbard hung at his side, and on his broad breast glit tered the Star and the other orders of the Legion of Honour instituted by him only a few weeks before. In his right hand he held a small three-cornered gold-laced hat, with which he gesticulated violently at times during the ensuing conversa tion, and in his left a paper, apparently containing notes of the person interviewed, as he consulted it from time to time. Of course, as you may suppose, I did not see all this in the first moment, but I know you will like to have a full descrip tion of the omnipotent man before whom your poor Cecile now stood quite alone. Letting his large clear eyes rest on me for a moment with a piercing gaze, he asked brusquely : " Eh bien, what have you come about? " I knew that the Consul was not inclined to be very polite to ladies who expressed themselves at any length, and had heard besides that he sometimes put the most grossly imperti- J nent questions, so that, despite the granting of their petition, I CECILE'S RECOGNITION OF BONAPARTF 255 they often left the Consul's room in high and justifiable dudgeon. Remembering Talleyrand's - advice I therefore gathered up all my courage and simply replied: " The restitu tion of my family property." The great man seemed decidedly taken aback by this laconic answer. He threw up his head with a quite peculiar movement, turning it a little aside, so that I saw his face al most in profile. He frowned and stuck out his underlip. " Of a truth, Madame, I cannot complain that you are too prolix — but," and he raised his voice to an angry pitch, " why are you staring at me so strangely? I would have you remem ber, Madame, that I am the head of the State, and, as such, de mand to be treated with proper respect." But his tone of angry annoyance had no terrors for me now. A strange feeling of security had come over me, and I felt no trace of alarm at the fierce frown and Imperator-glance (as Edmee calls it) of the man who stood so menacingly before me. For, vois-tu Annaliebe, no sooner did he give that im perious jerk of the head than a curious change came over me. — Even at his first few words, the sound of his voice and the peculiar accent carried me back to some long forgotten time, calling up dimly before me a picture I had not thought of for years and years. I groped in my memory — where had I seen that cold stern face, those clear-cut marble features before? Then, as he threw up his head and frowned and stuck out his underlip, the scales seemed to fall from my eyes, the veil woven by the busy years was rent asunder and I suddenly knew where and when this man had played a part in my former life. I came a little closer to the All-Powerful Consul, who was kicking his foot impatiently against the fender awaiting some reply from me, and touching his arm I said with a smile, 256 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. " Monsieur le Consul, will you permit me to tell you a little story? " Oh, you should have seen his face, dearest! I am sure he thought I must be quite mad for daring to lay my hand on his arm and also because his harsh manner only called forth a smile from me. "Out with it, then!" he thundered, stepping back from < me, " but waste as few words as possible over it, if you please." j And once more he fixed me with a searching look, obviously uncertain if I were in my right mind. So I began in a low voice (I never told you this story, dearest Annaliebe) : " It was an evening in July in the year 1783 and I was on a visit to Mademoiselle Laure Permon, the daughter of the Finance Minister Charles Permon and the Princess Com- meene of Corsica, who had a beautiful villa near Brienne in the Champagne. I had wandered away by myself into the fields to pluck flowers and was so absorbed in my occupation that I never noticed a large herd of cattle grazing close by. I was nearly seventeen, but a severe illness in my childhood had left me small and weakly for my age — " " If you intend giving me an account of your life's history, Madame," the Consul broke in roughly, " I may as well say at once that I have neither time nor inclination to listen to it." " Pardon me, Monsieur le Consul," I returned, " I am coming now to the point of my story. I had gathered a large nosegay," I went on, " when I suddenly heard an infuriated bellow behind me, and turning round, saw to my horror that an enormous black bull, irritated perhaps by my red parasol, was bearing down upon me with blazing eyes and lowered horns. BONAPARTE AS A BOY HERO. 257 " I gave one piercing shriek of terror, dropped my flowers and fled, as fast as my feet would carry me, towards the high road. But the bull rushed after me; I could hear his snorting breath. ' Help ! Help ! ' I screamed as loud as I was able. A voice answered, and the next moment a pale-faced boy in the uniform of the Brienne cadets came running towards me. He waved his sword and rushed at the bull from the side, trying to divert its attention to himself. But I entirely frustrated the boy's plan by flying to him for protection. He called out something to me, but I was too frightened to understand, and, in any case, it was too late now. The bull reached me, felled me to the ground, and I lost consciousness. When I opened my eyes my preserver was supporting me with his arm, while with the other hand he wiped away the blood that was trickling from a wound in his cheek. But the bull was stag gering blindly about the field, the courageous boy having man aged at the last moment to pierce the brute's eye with his sword. " I began to falter out some words of heartfelt thanks and tried to seize my preserver's hand. But he checked me with an authoritative gesture and said sternly : " ' It is extremely silly of girls to run about alone in fields where there are herds of cattle — remember that another time.' He nodded curtly, and without troubling himself further about me ran off in the direction of the College. " Maybe you knew that boy, Monsieur le Consul? " I asked gently. There was a curious light in his dark eyes as if he were gazing into his long-forgotten happy youth; but as he caught my expectant look fixed upon him, he frowned and answered coldly, " No, I cannot say I remember." 258 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. Will you believe me, Annaliebe, that I had nothing in my heart but kindness for this man? He had saved my young life — himself hardly more than a child — at the risk of his own. I remembered no longer his fame, his exalted position; I only saw the little pale cadet who had rescued me from deadly peril. I was deeply moved, but controlling my emotion as best I could I murmured, " Monsieur le Consul, may I venture on one more recollection of my youth? " He said nothing, but nodded his head musingly. " About a year after the incident I have just related," I re sumed, " I was once more in the neighbourhood of Brienne at the country house of the Marquise de Montesson, a friend of my mother's. " This lady proposed one day to take me to the Military College at Brienne, having received tickets for the annual ex amination of the cadets. It was the custom from time imme morial that the scholars who gained prizes should be crowned by the ladies, to which end the guests — this time the Marquise among the number — always brought wreaths with them. " I was looking forward eagerly to this ceremony, for I had never forgotten my youthful preserver and hoped I might now see him again. I had never even told my parents of my nar row escape, but had raised an altar of gratitude in my heart to the boy — whose very name was unknown to me. What added zest to my anticipations was the thought that he would not be likely to recognise me, seeing that in this year I had grown out of the weakness of my childhood and had become tall and strong — a very different creature from the delicate little girl of the year before. So with a beating heart I took the wreath from the servant who was carrying it and secretly hoped I might have the good fortune to be able to give it to my youth- NAPOLEON'S BELIEF IN HIS STAR. 259 ful hero. The wreath was a large and beautiful one, composed entirely of laurel leaves." I had got so far in my story when I was suddenly inter rupted by a strange sound — half sigh, half exclamation of joy — and the next moment the Consul had sprung forward and clasped both my hands in his. Overwhelming emotion shone, in his dark eyes and trembled in his voice when he spoke. " So you were that sweet kind girl, Mademoiselle? Oh, ask what you will of me, I promise you beforehand to grant it — no matter what it is. Will you accept a pension — a post of any kind? You shall have your property back — I am more than overjoyed to have it in my power to serve you ! " You may imagine, my Annaliebe, how startled and amazed I was at this sudden outburst, this rapture of kindness, from the man who, but a moment before, had shown himself so stern and unapproachable! I had no answer ready, all I could do was to falter without reflection, " Oh, Sire, what have I done to deserve this gratitude? " " What, this too ! " broke in Bonaparte in a tone of meas ureless excitement. "The royal title — for the first time — from your lips, my dear, infallible little Prophetess! — And once more your words will come true," he continued, with the strange, far-away look of a Seer. " Yes, I shall one day wear the crown and clasp the Royal mantle round my shoulders — now I know it for certain. — You set that laurel wreath on my young head in the far-off days at Brienne — the laurel crown that was to be followed by so many others. You whispered to me then — 'May it bring you good luck!' and truly it did, as you very well know. — I am a fatalist, Mademoiselle, and since you have foretold it me, I feel the Crown of France upon my 260 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. brow, I see the Sceptre of the great Realm already in my hand ! How can I ever thank you enough? " But first the restitution of your property — " He seated himself at the great writing-table, wrote a few hurried lines, rang the bell and called to the Chamberlain, who entered at the summons — " Bourrienne." I assure you, Annaliebe, I felt so dazed and bewildered by the rapid and extraordinary change in the Consul's manner as well as by his evidences of amazing superstition, obviously uttered in entire good faith, that I sank into a chair and cov ering my eyes with my hand endeavoured to collect my scat tered senses. Very soon the door opened and Bourrienne, the Consul's private secretary, entered. " Take this paper to the Minister Regnier," said Bonaparte, " and tell him to arrange at once for the restitution of Mademoiselle de Courtot's property." When the secretary had left the room Bonaparte turned to me, and holding out both his hands, with a beaming face said, " Now was that right — will you consider this as the first fruits . of my gratitude? " I could only bow my head and stammer a few confused words of thanks. Then, drawing up a large tapestry-covered chair beside his writing-table and seating himself in another, he said with a smile — " Now please sit down here and let us have a little chat about my young days in Brienne, the only really happy ones, despite my later fame and splendour, I ever knew. You see," he added almost sadly, " I have so few people about me ^ in whom I can place any real confidence and stand so lonely here upon the heights, that it is an unspeakable relief to be able to unburden myself to a friend out of my far-off youth. They NAPOLEON'S CONFIDENCES. 26l tell me that you are known here as ' la plus Mele des fideles.' I trust you to keep all I confide in you now faithfully locked in your own bosom." So we sat there like two old friends, I leaning back in my great arm-chair, the Consul sitting before his writing-table, his eyes generally fixed on a painting on the ceiling represent ing the Triumph of Minerva, or starting up from time to time to pace the room excitedly. I felt myself — as you may imagine — in a very peculiar sit uation, and yet strangely moved as I listened to the great man's account of his life. It seemed to me that, excited by the unexpected encounter with the person whom, in his fatalistic way, he regarded as the augurer of his good fortune, he felt an irresistible impulse to unburden his heart of matters which he otherwise kept strictly secret. It was in some sort a con fession, during which he confided things to me which moved my soul to shuddering admiration, so strangely were they com pounded of the highest and noblest sentiments and the most glaring egotism. Some day perhaps I may tell you something of it; for the present I am bound in honour to be silent. I told the Consul that I was deeply touched and grateful that he should think me worthy of this glimpse into his innermost feelings. He had been talking thus to me of himself and his past for about half an hour, when he glanced at the clock and broke off suddenly, saying a number of people were waiting still to see him and that he must therefore take leave of me for the present. " But, Mademoiselle," he added, " I have not finished yet; you must come here frequently and let me pour my con fidences into your faithful ear ! " What could I answer? A strange sense of fear and shrinking 262 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. had mingled with my admiration while I listened to the con fidences of this man of might, whose deeds set him among the demi-gods of old. The thunder of the World's History rolled past me and stunned my brain. I am but a poor weak woman, and part of what I had just heard was so terrible, so soul-com pelling that I rather hailed the interruption as a relief. I rose. " Let me thank you once more, Monsieur le Con sul, for the honour of your confidence," I said. "Whatever you think fit to tell me shall never go any further. And as to your faults, the political sins of which you accuse yourself, who can judge them by the ordinary standard? The most of them are virtues in a ruler. What is commendable in the private in dividual may be the ruin of the Head of a State. It was too much goodness that brought your august predecessor to the scaffold." " I thank you, Mademoiselle," returned the Consul gently, " you have understood me. And now adieu and au revoir." He gave me his hand with a winning smile; I curtseyed low and left the room. I seemed to move in a dream, I saw nobody; I scarcely heard Talleyrand's congratulations on the unusual length of the audience. And it was not the thought that I had achieved my object, that I was restored to ease and fortune that so moved me, it was the consciousness that from the plain un assuming woman of yesterday I had suddenly become the con fidante of the most secret emotions of this omnipotent Hero. On leaving the Tuileries I made Edmee's coachman drive me out into the Bois de Boulogne for a little while to give me time to collect my agitated thoughts, and when I finally re turned to my friend, who had become quite anxious at my long absence, I told her of my wonderful recognition of the NAPOLEON'S MYSTICAL TENDENCIES. 263 Consul and of the prompt restitution of my property, but not a word of the rest. When she heard of the Consul's firm persuasion that my wish had brought him luck, she said that in that case I had the ball at my feet here and could do what I liked with the Con sul. She then gave me other instances of the great man's superstition, from which one must infer that he is very mys tically inclined. Thus she described how artfully Madame Josephine had contrived to work upon these mystical tendencies for her own advantage by persuading Napoleon that it was her star that 1 controlled his destiny, quoting as her reason for this assertion the fortune foretold to her by an old gipsy in Martinique: " You will one day be more than a Queen and yet die in a hos pital." " More than a Queen " — you see the inference, my Anna liebe? And in truth, I fancy the fulfilment of this presage is not far off; the second half of the prediction may yet be made clear in the time to come. Then here is a rather interesting anagram which Edmee gave me to puzzle over and which I enclose for your diversion. It runs thus — " On a decouvert dans les mots ' revolution francaise ' une anagramme fort singuliere. Voici la maniere de la faire: on tire d'abord de revolution francaise le mot ' veto ' qui s'y trouve, et apres qu'on l'a supprime, on reunit ce qui reste de lettres et Ton en forme la phrase — ' Un Corse la finira.' " I am curious to see how soon Bonaparte will shake off his two "shadow" colleagues. There was a very tumultuous scene in the Legislative Chamber the other day when one of the members ventured to hint at the Imperial Crown being offered 264 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. to Bonaparte — a certain Monsieur Bougival and his party made a frightful uproar against it. Nevertheless, I firmly be lieve the day is not far hence when Bonaparte will be the abso lute monarch of this realm, — whether under the title of Con- j sui or Emperor is quite immaterial. My next step will be to visit my chateau of Mont Courtot and take possession of it again. Retrazet, unfortunately, was burned down during the Revolution. I hardly think I shall rebuild it — Camille must see to that some day. The land is let out on lease by the government but the rents are to be paid in to me now, beginning from the ist of October last. This is a very welcome arrangement; altogether, you cannot think what a delightful feeling it is after all these years of straitened pecuniary circumstances to be once more a chatelaine and to have ample resources at my command. The moment I have got Mont Courtot in proper order you, my dearest and best of friends, must both of you come to visit me. My first errand to-day was to go to Edmee's carriage builder, of whom I bought a " berline " to be sent to you in re turn for the carriage you so generously gave me for the journey. It will be despatched in a few days. And now farewell, darling Annaliebe. I am so thankful to have the dreadful weight of the audience off my mind! How earnestly I thank God too that matters took such a favourable turn for me. My devoted love to you all. Cecile. The prediction made to Madame Josephine during her early girlhood in Martinique has been much doubted; but, sup posing it to be true, the second part may find its explanation in NAPOLEON'S STAR. 265 the fact that the Chateau of Malmaison where Josephine died actually was once a Hospital. That Napoleon was deeply imbued with the belief in an j ever active spiritual world is confirmed by the writings of ] many of his contemporaries. Madame de Remusat speaks of Bonaparte's love of ghost stories. His true connection with the fortune-teller Lenormand has never been explained, but it certainly had some spiritualistic foundation. Turquan too speaks in his Memoirs of the great weight attached by Bona parte on all occasions to presentiments and dreams, which he often allowed to influence his actions. Constant confirms the story told in the foregoing letter of Madame Josephine and her star. He even quotes her actual words to Napoleon: "They talk of your star, but it is mine which influences your life, for it was to me the high destiny was foretold." Later on, as Empress, Josephine had ever the fear before her eyes that Bonaparte would cast her off for her childless ness, and succeeded in deferring that catastrophe for long by assuring him that his good fortune would forsake him if he ' repudiated her. And so, to a certain degree, it actually fell out, 1 for Napoleon's fortunes began to wane almost simultaneously with his divorce from Josephine and his marriage to Marie Louise of Austria. Not till Waterloo, however, did Napoleon's firm reliance on his star forsake him. When all was lost there, he is said to have turned to Coulaincourt with the words, " My star has set — I see it no longer." CHAPTER XXVII. FIFTEENTH LETTER. Paris, 3d Germinal XL My Annaliebe: I still feel as if I were living in a dream. The extraordinary succession of events that have just happened to me, the un expected change of fortune — it quite bewilders and confuses me. My days pass now in one round of pleasures and entertain ments. Whether the story of my long audience with the Con sul and the subsequent restitution of my property has spread abroad and people are curious to see me, I know not, but Edmee and I are simply overwhelmed with invitations. These alternate with visits to the theatres and other places of pub lic amusement till I feel as if I were living in a whirlpool. What a contrast to the peaceful calm of the never-to-be- forgotten years spent at your side, my best and dearest! But now to tell you something of these gay doings. — A few evenings ago we went to the Opera House to see the per formance of a hunting ballet, " La chasse du jeune Henri," with Mehul's delightful music. There were about twenty horses trotting about the stage at once, and my delighted Parisians roared themselves hoarse with applause. Next morning Edmee persuaded me to accompany her to 266 THE ENGLISH IN PARIS. 267 the Pantheon where, amongst many others, I saw the tombs of Voltaire and Rousseau. All-conquering Death has wiped away the enmity that existed between these two in life and there they lie now peaceably side by side. These were the men whose writings helped to bring about the cataclysm of the Revolution. They have gone to their long home, the Revolution is over and done with and — things are_yery much the same as they were before. To what end then all that horror and bloodshed ? . . . Oh, it is a strange and enigmatical world! As to society, one might almost say that the Thames had suddenly emptied itself into the Seine. There are over 8000 sons and daughters of Britannia in Paris just now, and the ob server has many opportunities for making interesting com parisons between the rival nations. I should not like to swear that ces dames are without ex ception " Miladies " ; some of them look to me as if they hailed from the near neighbourhood of Covent Garden Market, but money confers all the distinction necessary in Paris at present. There are also several rSunions in which Englishmen of similar political opinions congregate. The Duke of Cumberland, who has taken the charming house of the well-known Dr. Willoun, receives the highest English nobility, while the members of the Opposition gather round Lord Holland and are much in request at Madame de Recamier's country house. British Art is also hurrying into Paris — Mr. Kemble, who competes with our Talma, and Miss Vinci at the Opera Bouffe. The great Madame Mara too is daily expected from London. An exhibition of National Products was held in the Louvre lately, and when we visited it we could not but notice how dif ferently the many English present behaved from our own 268 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. countrymen. While the latter laughed and gossiped and seemed to look upon the whole affair merely as an excellent opportunity for making bad puns, these foreigners examined everything with interested attention and expressed themselves most ably on various points of the Exhibition. We were in the Theatre Frangais the other evening for the debut of a Mademoiselle Duchesnois, who has since be come the rage. The play was Phedre, but my attention was much distracted by the Prince de Poix, who shared our loge and who persisted in whispering all sorts of nonsense and wicked stories in my ear during the performance. There was one, for instance, of the crafty Fouche and the trick by which he had forced a certain prelate, one of the chief opponents of the Concordat, to give his vote for it. This prelate, it seems, was intimate with a lady of somewhat doubtful reputation, a Madame Visconti, which circumstance Fouche ferreted out, and surprising him late one evening with the lady in a very compromising situation, he threatened him with publicity and so won over an enemy on whom even the First Consul had tried his hand in vain. The Prince then went on to speak of Bonaparte's appoint- it ment as Consul for life and his intention of removing his resi-j dence to St. Cloud, whither his Court choir and Chaplain had already preceded him; also that the First Consul had just nominated his brother Lucian chief officer of the Legion of Honour — perhaps, after all, we should soon have another Connetable de France! And more to the same effect, though I could see that he was more cautious than formerly in what he said to me, especially on the subject of the Consul, having heard of course of the results of my interview with the Great THE NEWEST THING IN GENTLEMEN'S HATS. 269 Man. But you should have seen his droll roguish eyes all the time! He brought with him the very newest thing in gentlemen's hats which I had not seen before — the brim turned up sharply back and front against a flattened crown. This shape is called " a la Ventinelle " — I do not know why — but I should dearly love to see the Herr Candidatus in one, he would look too de lightfully comical ! (But, if you love me, do not tell him I said so.) With this hat many gentlemen still wear the perruque a nceuds, though Bonaparte has long since discarded the fashion. In a few days I shall start on my journey into the Vendee. What memories it will awaken of my happy untroubled child hood! Farewell then for to-day, my own Annaliebe. Ever in fondest affection thy Cecile. CHAPTER XXVIII. SIXTEENTH LETTER. Paris once more, 19th Germinal XL What a long time since you had news of me, amie de mon ame! Your last welcome letter was forwarded to Mont Courtot and reached me there the day before my return to Paris — a long journey for it to make; for my old home is a hundred miles further from you than this city. These have been days of pleasure, but, as you may imagine, fraught with pain, that I have spent in my childhood's home. I travelled — in your dear familiar carriage of course — over Chateaudun, Tours, and Poitiers, and arrived at my destina tion on the fifth day. Oh, my Annaliebe, can you not imagine my feelings when the tower of the Cathedral of Poitiers rose before me on the horizon, when I caught the first sparkle of the blue Charente and the irresistible glamour of " home " began to weave itself about me? There were the well-remem bered leafy woods, the peaceful herds grazing in the pastures, and I heard once more the familiar patois which in its mixture of Latin and French sounds so unintelligible to the stranger. The racial type too is quite peculiar to this part of the country, and has remained so unchanged in feature, customs, and characteristics since the days of the great migration of tribes into the West, that they are still known to the surround- 270 CECILE'S OLD HOME. 271 ing provinces as " the Huns." Handsome my beloved country men are not with their large heads, sallow complexion, and small twinkling eyes, but in return they are God-fearing and faithful unto death, as indeed they proved in the past years. They beggared themselves for their King and fought to the last drop of blood, and if there had been more unity of pur pose among their leaders — d'Elbee, Jacquelin, Charette, and the rest of them — who can tell but what they would have i driven the Terrorists out of Paris and placed the King upon j ' the throne once more? But as things fell out, they have had ! to suffer incredible hardships. After their defeat at Chollet \ the entire population of the Vendee was outlawed. With I tigerish frenzy the Jacobins slaughtered women, children, and aged people, and smoking ruins marked the path of the victors. The horrors they witnessed as boys have left indelible traces on the faces of the men, and they are a grave and sad-eyed people, but they have won for all time their title of " les fideles," and herg^th£_£aurliQils. are jtilljkings. Their por traits share with the Saints the private altar you find in every house, no matter how small. A bitter disappointment awaited me at Mont Courtot. The house of my fathers was still standing and my heart beat in joyful anticipation of finding things as I remembered them of old. But on nearer inspection I discovered that this chateau had not escaped the universal destruction which laid waste the rest of the country. The walls were intact, but the interior was ravaged beyond description — a scene of horror and deso lation — and all idea of living there out of the question. So I lodged for two days with the man who has rented the property for years and lives at the foot of the castle hill. This tenant has certainly made the most of his time! He is one of those 272 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. astute foreigners who swarmed into the country at the time of the Revolution, seeking what they might devour. He still wraps himself about in a mantle of devotion to Liberty, but, nevertheless, is a merciless tryant to his people and universally hated. The good old Cure, who only returned some weeks ago, told me they were all thankful I regained possession of the property just in time to prevent Monsieur le Maitre — so my worthy tenant is called — from carrying out his rumoured intention of buying Mont Courtot with the money he has got by cutting down the wood. Imagine my feelings if I had ar rived here to find this man in full possession of the lands of my forefathers ! Of course, I took the first opportunity of get ting away from this intolerable hospitality, and going over to Poitiers, went to a notary recommended by the Cure and placed my affairs in his hands. Monsieur le Maitre at once received notice to quit, and it will not be long, I trust, before Mont Courtot will be restored to its former condition of com fort and beauty. What I should have done without the assist ance of the good Cure I really do not know. In any case, some six months must elapse before the chateau is habitable, and I must look out for a trustworthy man to perform the duties of steward. How thankful I should have been for some advice and assistance from your clear-headed husband or Uncle Briest! I am so terribly ignorant in all business matters and had not a soul I could consult. I hope I may soon have the joy of hear ing that you think favourably of my plan of your all coming over to stay with me as soon as Chateau Courtot is at all pre sentable. I returned to Paris the way I came, only making a slight detour in order to visit Chateau Trellissac. I will not open up MARIE ANTOINETTE'S FURNITURE. 273 the old wounds, dearest, — no need to tell you what my emotions were on seeing the dear spot again where I had spent many a happy hour as a child with my lost love ! The ancient castle is in ruins like the rest, but the splendidly wooded park — our favourite playground — is but little changed. Tearfully I bade farewell to this grave of some of my happiest memories and turned my face once more towards Paris. Edmee received me with open arms and at once handed me a missive from the ConseiUer d'etat Benezeth informing me that the Consul desired my attendance to-morrow at St. Cloud. In the forenoon of the following day a coach with four horses arrived to fetch me to the palace, and in it sat my god daughter Adele de Talhuet, whom Madame Josephine had thoughtfully sent to bear me company. Madame welcomed me first in her apartments, when I took the opportunity of thanking her for her good offices in further ing my cause with Bonaparte. Her husband, she told me, had given her an account of our mutual recognition, and she ex pressed herself as delighted that the Consul had had some one to talk to of the happy old days in Brienne. The Chateau is really very fine since its restoration, though the government has had to pay a pretty sum from first to last — over a million francs I believe. The apartments were magnifi cently furnished and decorated, though somewhat too gaudily for my taste. Madame Josephine presently took me into her exquisite boudoir — a surprise from the Consul on leaving Malmaison. It is entirely hung — walls as well as windows — with rose- coloured and white silk. The first moment I entered the room I was struck by the strangely familiar aspect of the furniture — all delicate carving and gilt, and covered with rose-coloured 274 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. silk embroidered in darker shades with here and there a glint of gold thread; then catching sight of the sphinxes that formed the arms of the chairs, I recognised with a sharp pang the. whole ameublement. It was from the private apartments of my J sweet Queen Marie Antoinette in the Trianon! Josephinef admitted the truth of my surmise, adding that that was why Napoleon's present had given her so much pleasure. Alas that the owners should go and the inanimate objects remain! Well, we seated ourselves in the dainty chairs we both had seen before under such very different circumstances and con versed on old friends and new events, many of Josephine's ex tremely candid remarks reminding me of Madame de Cam- pan's words the other day when she declared that Madamei only did this to lead people on to similar frankness. There-I fore I was very guarded in my replies. At one o'clock Benezeth appeared to conduct me to the Consul, who greeted me with the utmost cordiality, and made me give him a full, true, and particular account of my journey and its results. The state of affairs in the Vendee interested him greatly, and I could see by the questions he put to me how ex- j haustive was his knowledge of all matters concerning the country in general. Afterwards, he begged me to be seated, as he wished to continue his account of his life. And thus, my Annaliebe, passed another hour which I may count as one of the most im portant in my life. Once more I was filled with admiration and yet with fear of the man who had raised himself by sheer force of intellect and indomitable will to such heights as probably no man has ever reached before, but trampling mercilessly on every obstacle, be it friend or foe, that barred his upward progress. < BONAPARTE IS TOLD OF HECTOR. 275 Possibly the Consul read something of this in my face, for he suddenly rose from his chair, laid a hand on my shoulder, and said kindly: " Now, you see, I have frightened you. But do not be afraid ; my heart has room for gentler emotions too, as you will discover in time. I have told you so much about my past," he went on in a lighter tone, " supposing now you tell me something of yourself and the experiences you went through. I know that you were the inseparable companion of the unfortunate Princesse de Lamballe and that you were condemned to death; how did you manage to escape?" So I told him in as few words as possible of my wonderful rescue by Hector, my flight into Germany, and my quiet happy life with my dear friends. The Consul nodded his head musingly. " Yes," he said, " these Prussians are a strong and loyal nation; I should like to have them for my allies. Ah," he added, returning to the subject of the Terror, " Paris was one great madhouse in those days, but I shall take good care \ that such a thing does not happen again. I shall keep those p Jacobins down with a strong hand ! " The period of my audience was at an end, for Monsieur de Remusat now announced the Minister Talleyrand. The Con sul rose, and going to his writing-table said, " By the way, what did you say was the name of your brave fiance who met his death in rescuing you? " " The Vicomte Hector de Trellissac," I answered in a low voice. " Ah, then a Vendean, too? " observed Bonaparte, evi dently writing the name on a sheet of paper. Then, turning to me and holding out his hand — " You hear, Mademoiselle, that Talleyrand wants me, so our conversation must be interrupted for to-day. I hope, however, to see you again ere long. To morrow the solemn function of the re-establishment of the 276 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. Church takes place, which I daresay you would like to see. I will have a place reserved for you in Notre Dame. Adieu, my dear confidante, and au revoir! " I curtseyed and departed, the Consul's carriage again being placed at my disposal. And so, my Annaliebe, there was an end of my second au^ dience with the great Consul, during which I got a still deeper insight into the character of this most unique man. Perhaps some day I may be able to give you an account of it by word of mouth. The next morning — the first celebration of Easter Day for. nine years— the church bells rang in the day of the restoration of the Church and her doctrines. The Pope has been obliged to consent to the curtailment of the number of Festivals, only Easter, Whitsuntide, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and All Saints' Day being retained, but otherwise the position of the Church is very much as it was before the Revolution. As the clock struck 11 one of the state carriages arrived to carry us (my invitation had been extended to Edmee) to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the whole road being lined by thousands of spectators. We were received at the door by de Remusat, who conducted us to a platform to the right of the Choir. These platforms, of which there were sev eral, all richly draped as well as the entire nave of the Cathedral, were already filled to overflowing and the clergy in full canonicals were assembled at the altars. Oh, my Annaliebe, it did one's heart good to see the great 1 Cathedral once more thronged with reverent people and decked in all its stately ornaments. Could this be the same church which had been the scene of so many shameless deeds in the past years ; where the vile mob and its leaders had danced CEREMONY AT NOTRE DAME. 277 round the high altar howling impious songs to the Goddess • of Reason? So low had it fallen that only ten years before Beaumarchais boasted to the King's very face that he would have his Figaro performed in Notre Dame if he were forbidden the theatres! To-day the mighty columns were festively decorated, the pictures of the Saints were in their old accustomed places, and white-robed acolytes swung their censers at the various altars. And now the thunder of sixty cannon boomed out over the city, the majestic tones of the great organ rolled through the edifice and mingled with the jubilant shout which rose from the thronging multitudes, the massive portals of the Cathedral swung slowly back, and, accompanied by a regal suite of Min isters, Generals, and foreign Ambassadors, Bonaparte entered the Cathedral. The assembled clergy received him with great pomp of incense and the sprinkling of holy water and con ducted him to his place under a sumptuous baldachin in front of the chancel. There he stood, his General's uniform looking plain and unpretentious beside the gorgeous, gold-laden uniforms of the various State and Military officers, and yet every eye was ir resistibly drawn to that impassive clear-cut face, stony and I J inscrutable as Destiny. In spite of his insignificant stature J:h&, } nianjookedjp^i^nch .aking- — It was with strangely mixed feelings — half proud, half fearful — that I reflected that this man with whose name all France — nay, all Europe — was ring ing should have held me worthy to obtain a glimpse into his innermost soul, should call himself " my friend." It was a study to watch his absolutely unmoved demeanour while the Archbishop of Aix extolled him and the new gov- 278 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. ernment to the skies — the same Archbishop who crowned Louis XVI. The ceremony did not last very long. Again the cannons roared, and amid prolonged and deafening shouts of " Vive Bonaparte — Vive le premier Consul ! " the Omnipotent One drove back to the Tuileries, where a grand gala-dinner took place. All this will interest you greatly, and I know that you re joice with me that my affairs have taken so lucky a turn. Ever in unalterable devotion, Your Cecile. CHAPTER XXIX. SEVENTEENTH LETTER. Paris, 5th Floreal XI. " Rest in the Lord — wait patiently for Him, And He shall give thee thy heart's desire." You remember, my Annaliebe, how dear old Uncle Briest comforted me with those words years ago — and oh, how right he was, the good staunch-hearted man! For my heart's de sire has been granted me — in full, in overflowing measure, till I can only clasp my hands and pray in deepest gratitude and humility, " Oh my God, make me worthy of the joy Thou hast brought to me." -. Annaliebe, my Hector lives — God has given him back to 1 me! But let me begin from the very beginning. We were in vited yesterday evening to a large assembly at the house of the Marquise de Noailles in the Faubourg St. Germain, but did not start till pretty late because the streets were very crowded and noisy, the return of the troops from Egypt having occa sioned great rejoicings. Companies of soldiers marched through the streets, colours flying, bands playing; the Consul had held a grand review at the Tuileries, after which he dis tributed a number of decorations among his brave old compan- 279 280 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. ions in arms and several officers had been promoted. These gallant sun-burnt warriors were the heroes of the day, and even invaded the exclusive circles of the Faubourg St. Ger main, several of its members having entered the Army of Egypt to fight for their country under Afric's burning sun. Well, as I said, it was somewhat late before we reached the Palais Noailles and the rooms were already filled with guests. The Marquise, on receiving us, said she could promise us a variety of entertainment for the evening. She had engaged the celebrated " mystificateur " Duguesclin for the amusement of the young people, and also expected her nephew Victor Noailles with several of his brother officers from the Egyptian Army, who would doubtless entertain us with stories of their experiences in the Wonderland of the Pyramids. Entering the salons I was soon hailed on all side's with congratulations on the agreeable turn of my fortunes, those of the guests to whom I was a stranger begging to be pre sented for that purpose. Among those I knew were the old Abbess of Abbeville and her niece Lady Tollendal with two pretty daughters, the Due de Liancourt and Princess Therese, Madame de Sabatier, Comtesse Montesquieu, and of course the ubiquitous Prince de Poix. When " Monsieur le mystificateur " arrived presently the youngest Tollendal came to me and begged me to join in the games. I do not know how it was — perhaps a presentiment of coming happiness — but I felt gay and young that evening as I had not done for years, and acceded to the pretty creature's request, though I had no business by rights in that frolicsome galere. This game of " mystifications " has become very popular here and was talked of that evening in Malmaison, though it THE GAME OF MYSTIFICATIONS. 28 1 is really very childish — much the same as " the stool of peni tence" our Phillinchen used to play with her little friends. Here each player is seated in turn in front of a large mirror into which he gazes and has to guess the meaning of the scenes depicted behind him by the others, representing a word, a line of poetry, a bon mot, etc. If he guesses correctly — which is of course made as difficult for him as possible — he receives a prize; if not, he must pay a forfeit. The ingenious originator of the game being present him self, the choice of words and pictures was particularly mys tifying, and the company enjoyed themselves hugely over the extraordinary mistakes that very naturally occurred. Luck had favoured me so far, and I had always managed to guess correctly, when, late in the evening, it came to my turn to seat myself once more in front of the mirror. While I waited for the development of the enigma, I amused myself by gazing into the curious vista which pre sented itself before me. The long suite of rooms was open, the great folding doors thrown wide, and at the extreme end of the enfilade hung another large mirror, exactly opposite the one into which I was looking, thus producing an effect to the eye as if the rooms stretched away indefinitely into the dis tance. While I was engaged in following out this optical delusion, I suddenly saw an officer in the becoming uniform of the Chas seurs appear at the extreme end of the vista. He was evidently no longer young, his hair and moustache were gray, and a glittering Order hung on his breast. A great scar ran from the bronzed cheek right up over the high fore head and a black shade concealed the left eye, but the other one was large and dark and the nose handsome and aquiline. 282 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESSi I cannot describe the strange impression this officer made on me coming out of space like a ghost and advancing towards me through the long line of rooms, apparently unknown to the groups of gentlemen standing about, who gazed after him in astonishment. He came slowly nearer and nearer, that glow ing dark eye fixed upon me in the glass. Oh, Annaliebe, when he entered the salon next to the one in which I was seated a cold shiver ran through me, as when something apparently supernatural confronts one. A mys terious spell seemed to emanate from that figure, which re minded me so strangely of one who lived only in my heart and memory. I started from my chair, clasping the arms with convulsive fingers, and leaning far forward gazed with fixed and staring eyes into the depths of the mirror. What was it? — could the dead arise? — was it a phantom, the apparition of my lost lover? Edmee and the other ladies, alarmed at my strange behaviour, hurried up to me. " Cecile, Cecile," cried my friend, " what is it? What is the matter? " At the mention of my name I saw a smile of beatitude pass over the man's features. I turned round — saw two arms stretched out to meet me, and with a cry of " Hector — my Hector! " sank fainting on his breast. But my unconsciousness lasted only a few moments. Opening my eyes again I saw the beloved face bending over me, and the very words he whispered when he rescued me from death trembled on his lips once more. " Cecile, my Cecile, have I found you again? " " Yes, Hector," I cried, throwing my arms round his neck, " and this time never to part again ! " The entire company had hastened in from the other rooms HECTOR. 283 and gazed bewildered at this extraordinary scene. They did not know that two people who had each thought the other dead had now come together again after long weary years. " But who is this strange officer? — how did he come here? — does anybody know him? " were the questions asked by sev eral of the gentlemen. Suddenly through the confusion came a clear ringing voice — " Ah, mais c'est le colonel Hector! Mon sieur le colonel, je vous salue, but where did you spring from ? " and Victor de Noailles hurried forward with outstretched hand. " What! " exclaimed my lover with a beaming smile, " do none of you recognise me? — at least only this one? Have I really to tell you my name ? Well, then, I am Hector de Trel lissac, and Cecile de Courtot here is my fiancee ! " Their astonishment beggars description. At first they woud not believe' that the valiant Colonel Hector of the Egyptian Army and their dear friend and cousin the Vicomte de Trellissac whom they had long counted dead were one and the same person. Then of course they overwhelmed us with joyful congratulations, and I assure you the reunion of this old pair of lovers will long remain a tale of wonder and amaze ment to them all. Paris, 7th Floreal. My Annaliebe: I was interrupted in my letter to you by Hector — you will not be vexed with me, I am sure. Our abiding friendship can in no wise be altered by my great hap piness; on the other hand, you can well imagine how much we have to say to each other. I am hardly used to it yet, my heart has not yet accustomed itself to the thought that it has really found him again, my be- 284 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. loved, my long lost. Oh Annaliebe, what it was to wake on the morning after and to remember — he is alive — you have found him once more! The joy is almost more than I can bear. I still cannot help thinking it is a dream, and yet there he stands, my beloved, my Hector, and draws me to his warm and faithful heart. You will ask, dearest, how it all came about — Ms recovery from the jaws of death and subsequent career, so I cannot do better than describe the happy conversation that took place between us yesterday, letting Hector speak for himself. We went down into Edmee' s beautiful grounds behind the palace and seated ourselves on a secluded seat under the mag nificent old trees. A flood of morning sunshine bathed the smooth green lawns, the roar of the great city came muffled to us out of the distance, an'd the bushes close by were alive with a fluttering, twittering crowd of little birds. It was like a fairy tale. I had awakened from my long deep sleep and the Prince was beside me. Hand clasped in hand we sat together, and Hector began his story. " That blow which felled me to the ground, my Cecile, de prived me of consciousness, out of which, however, I was soon roused by the trampling of the crowd. I must have rolled then to one side and come under the cart, nothing else could have saved me from being trodden to death by the terrified mob. " Here I must have been found later on and taken to a hos pital, but I know nothing for certain, the blackness of night lay upon me. That blow had struck out one of my eyes and, for a time, injured my brain — my memory was utterly gone. " Long weeks and months passed before I regained some gleam of consciousness, but a heavy cloud still lay over my HECTOR'S STORY. 285 mind, and my memory did not return. I was alive — that is all you can say, but the past was a blank. At times when I felt the bandage over my eye or caught sight of myself in the little mirror of my sick-room I would ask myself puzzled, ' Who are you and how did you come here?' But I found no answer, I had forgotten my very name and passed my days in fruitless ponderings. There was no one who could enlighten me; my only attendant was aged and half-witted, and to the taciturn old doctor who occasionally visited me I was a total stranger. " About a year must have passed in this way, when the veil began slowly to lift, your dear name, my Cecile, came back to me and with it the full consciousness of my terrible loss. I knew that I had failed to save you, that you had fallen a victim to the executioner." Here I broke in on Hector's story to ask if Tancred d'Au bignac had never brought him news of my rescue, but he said he had never seen nor heard of him again; he, too, must have been swept away by the all-devouring flood of the Revolution. " By the time my mind had slowly recovered its balance," he continued, " and my bodily strength in some degree re stored, the Terror was over and the Directoire reigned in its stead. " At last I was discharged from the hospital and managed to make my way on foot, by slow and painful stages, into the Vendee. There I took part in the struggle against the Re publican troops, but when Charette concluded peace with Gen eral Hoche and so put an end to the fighting I felt that my occupation was gone. My property was sequestrated, the chateau of my fathers in ruins; you, my beloved, were dead — what was life to me any longer ? I saw the misery of my down trodden people, saw the hopelessness of their cause; I myself 286 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. was a half-blind oeggar, relations and friends I had none — all 1 had been swallowed up in this accursed revolution. Despair I took hold on me, and thoughts of death by my own hand be gan to creep into my mind. " Once I thought of joining the Army of the Allies, but the reports that reached me of the doings of the Comte d'Artois and the other Princes in Coblenz disgusted me; be sides, I could not make up my mind to side with strangers and fight against my own country. I was at the end of my re- i sources. — It was then I first heard of the Expedition Bona parte — the inscrutable man who had already begun to revive the honour of France — was planning for Egypt and deter mined to join it, hoping to die there fighting for my country. Laying aside my family name, I entered myself simply as Hec tor, and joined the 4th Regiment at Toulon as a common chasseur. " Of course, the idea of serving as a private was not alto gether pleasant to me, a former officer of the Garde du Corps, but I was indifferent to the hardships or discomforts of this life — my hopes were all centred on another world ! " Need I say, my Annaliebe, that I had to interrupt my lover somewhat at this point? Presently he continued : " I was in the thick of the fight ing from the beginning; was made officer at the Pyramids and Captain at Jaffa. After the battle of Abukir Bonaparte him self nominated me Colonel for my — as he was pleased to say — splendid bravery. Ah, it is easy enough to be daring when one has nothing to bind one to this world. But, as generally happens in such cases, not a bullet ever touched me — I seemed to bear a charmed life. " At this, my first personal encounter with the great Gen- HECTOR AND BONAPARTE. 287 eral, he asked me with a searching glance, ' Your name is Hec tor?' 'Yes.' 'Only Hector?' 'Yes,' I replied. Then I suddenly bent forward and whispered — curious to see what he would say, for I was quite indifferent to the possible results of my revelation — ' But it used to be Hector de Trellissac and I was one of the Chouans ! ' "Without a moment's hesitation he held out his hand. ' Mon brave,' he answered, ' that is no detriment to you in my eyes,' and with a nod he passed on along the front. " Do you know, Cecile, from that day I began to take an interest in life again and to share the enthusiastic worship of the Army for this marvellous young General whose military! genius led it triumphant over the apparently insuperable, till' his own firm reliance on his star had come to be the unswerv ing belief of the whole Army. " The day before yesterday when the First Consul called his old officers of the Egyptian Army round him — how we had missed him in the last few years! — to distribute the decora tions, I was amongst them. As he conferred the new Order of the Legion of Honour upon me, he took me gently by the ear and whispered : ' Mon brave, you have relations in the Fau bourg St. Germain— you would do well to go and see them this evening. You will find a dear friend there who will be de lighted to see you, saluez-la de ma part.' He gave me a friendly nod and with a ' Bonne chance, mon colonel! ' passed on. " For the first moment I was puzzled, then, like a flash, came the thought, the certainty, that you and you alone could be the dear friend he alluded to. I did not pause to wonder how he came by his knowledge — we had always credited him with supernatural powers of divination — the moment I was free I hastened to my cousin's house and there, sure enough, 288 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. I found you, my darling, found my long-lost, ever-regretted happiness ! " Thus Hector's story ended — but, oh, Annaliebe, what words shall describe the joy that the good God has at last poured out upon me with so generous a hand! Not only has my dear love been restored to me — he has remained as true to me as I to him. Oh, the bliss to know that I am still his all in all! And how handsome is my Hector, and, in spite of the fierce heat of Egypt, so strong and well ! I positively love that eye- shade too — does it not remind me every moment of what he has sacrificed for me? And then he had the audacity to ask me if I did not think the blind beggar too poor a match ! I had to tell him all about you, my dearest, best of friends ! He could not hear enough and bids me tell you he means soon to thank you personally for having taken such devoted care of what the flatterer is pleased to call his Heart's Delight. While we were still sitting together in the garden, we were joined by our good Edmee, who is quite beside herself with joy at our happiness. Hector then suddenly enquired how the Consul came to tell him of my presence here, seeing that he was unacquainted with me? " What, Colonel ! " cried Edmee, throwing up her hands, " she has not told you ? Why, your fiancee is one of the most influential women in France just now." You may imagine my Hector's astonishment when he heard the story; but he quite believes in Bonaparte's sincerity in the matter, having seen many proofs in Egypt of the man's deep-rooted fatalism. As to the future, my Annaliebe, all we have decided upon as yet is that we shall be married as soon as possible, probably CECILE'S MARRIAGE. 289 a few weeks hence. But to think that I must forego the hap piness of having you with me then, dearest, though I con gratulate you with all my heart on the reason, disappoints me more than words can say. — We shall have to come and see you soon instead, that you may convince yourselves of my un speakable happiness. Besides, I want Hector to know all the dear people who were so heavenly kind to me, a forlorn stranger. Whether we shall settle at Mont Courtot is also an open question just yet, but one thing I sincerely hope, and that is that Hector will consent to leave the army. He has done enough for France surely. I feel I can never let him out of my sight again as long as we both live. But our correspondence, my Annaliebe, shall in no wise suffer by my new happiness. Our friendship is for all time, nothing can ever alter that. And now, sweetest friend, farewell; you will let the others know of the great blessing that has been vouchsafed to me. Give them all my dear love, and you, my darling, rejoice with your happy, happy Cecile. The interesting family event to which Cecile alluded in her letter occurred on the 1 ith of July, 1802, when a boy was born to the von Alvenslebens, who received the name of Werner. On the same day Colonel Hector de Trellissac and Mademoi selle Cecile de Courtot were married in Paris. Their wedding present from Annaliebe and her husband, as described in my great-grandmother's diary, was a large silver tray engraved with the Alvensleben-Loe crest and underneath it the dear old Manor House at Kalbe with the inscription " Cecile's Home." 290 LETTERS FROM THE BARONESS. The wedding took place very quietly in the Duchess Edmee's palace, the Consul Bonaparte being represented by Monsieur de Remusat. These details are given in a letter from the Vicomtesse de Trellissac dated from Mont Courtot the 12th Messidor. At the close she says : . . . We are in the seventh heaven here, my Annaliebe. To see the old familiar faces about me, to live in the dear home of my childhood, the one love of my life beside me — what more could heart desire? Write me very soon how you are get ting on. Adieu, my Annaliebe, and once more our fondest congratulations to you and your Werner on the arrival of the dear little boy; also our renewed thanks for the lovely present. Yes, you are right, my darling, the dear familiar house was " Cecile's home," her only one, for long, long years ! And we two know that each has her home in the other's heart. My Hector sends remembrances to you all; he is so grate ful for your endless kindness to me and looks forward as eagerly as I do to meeting you. My love to all the dear friends, but especially to your Werner and sweet Phillinchen. Oh Annaliebe, how unutterably happy is Your Cecile! This letter is the last of the collection. My great-grand mother makes frequent mention in her diary of news from her friend — for instance, on the 17th February 1803 that the Vicomtesse gave her tidings of an expected happy event — but the originals are missing. Whether lost or destroyed by some accident who shall say after the lapse of nearly a hundred years? ' : ' CECILE'S DEATH. 29 1 On the 10th of June 1803 occurs the following sad notice in Annaliebe's diary: Yesterday we received the terrible news from Vicomte de Trellissac that Cecile had given birth on the 26th Floreal to a daughter, but, two days afterwards, had passed quietly away. God help the poor husband to whom so short a span of happiness was granted — and me who am thus bereaved of my dearest friend ! Ah, my presentiment was right — I felt I should never see her again. My grief is too deep for words. Anna Gottliebe. Thus ends the record of the devoted friendship that existed between this charming French lady and my great-grand mother. Whether descendants of Cecile de Courtot still exist in France — whether the- daughter alluded to in the diary sur vived, or the family of " Courtot de Cissey," to which the well- known War Minister belonged, are descendants of the Baroness, I was not able to discover during my researches in France. What remains of most lives after a hundred years? — A handful of dust, a few lines of writing on faded crumbling paper and maybe a story or two handed down from father to son — nothing more. But if these traditions last further than into the second gen eration, it is because the heroes or heroines of them were really exceptional natures. And that, I think, was the case with the two whose story I have laid before the reader in the foregoing pages INDEX. Abacourt, Due d', 79 Abbeville, Abbess of, 280 Absak, Eugenie d', 79 Aigle, M. de 1', 222, 249 Aix, Archbishop of, 277 Ajaccio, 170 Almenara, Hervas d', 243 Alvensleben, von, family of, I Alvensleben, Anna Gottliebe von, early married life, 7, 8; personal appearance, 8; her garden, 12; pre pares to receive Baroness Cecile de Courtot, 15-17; goes to Magdeburg, 19; impressions of the Baroness, 20, 21; daughter born to, 28-30; birth day, 103, 104; goes to Helgoland, 121; to Berlin, 128; presented at Court, 130; gift of guitar, 188, 189; son born to, 289 ; learns of death of Baroness, 291 Alvensleben, Busso von, 29 Alvensleben, Sophie Elizabeth Philip pine Cecile von, 28, 29, 102, 133, 136, 138. 155. 157, 188- Alvensleben, Werner III. von, I, 2 Alvensleben, Werner IV. von, 1-5, 90, 95, 102, 132 Alvensleben-Erxleben, Philipp von, 90-93, 97-i°2> 194 Alvonslowe, 1 Amblas, Marquise d', 77, 78 Andelard, Abbe d', 93 Artois, Comte d', 286 Aschaffenburg News, 10 Assas, Marquise d', 204 Aubignac, Tancred d', 14, 86, 87, 285 Augnier, Adele, 224 Augnier, Eglee, 224 Azyr, Vique d', 76 Bacciochi, Prince, 198 Balsamo, Giuseppe. See Cagliostro, Count Barras, Paul Jean Francois Nicolas, 94, 118, 119, 122-125, 134, 139) 146, 165, 170 Barre, Mile, de la, 50 Barry, Comtesse du, 78 Barthelemy, Francois, Marquis de, 122 Basse witz, Agnes, 99 Bassewitz, Countess, 99 Bassewitz, Luise, 99 Bazancourt, Duchesse de, 78, 79 Beauharnais, Alexandre, Vicomte de, 225 Beauharnais, Eugene de, 226, 232, 234, 243 Beauharnais, Mme. de. See Jose phine Beaumarchais, 277 Benezeth, ConseiUer d'etat, 273, 274 Berliner Neueste Nachrichten, 10 Bernadotte, General, 169, 232, 244 Berthier, General, 176, 223, 234 Bertin, Mile., the Queen's modiste, 56 Bischofswerder, 34 Bismarcks, The, 8 Bismarck, Karl von, 35 Bismarck-Schonhausen, Frau von, 9, 35> 63 Bocholtz, Countess, 153 Bohemer and Bassange, the Court jewellers, 108, III Bonaparte, Carlo, father of Napoleon, his wife and children, 166 Bonaparte, Caroline, 222. And see Murat Bonaparte, Elise, sister of Napoleon, 198 293 294 INDEX. Bonaparte, Joseph, 166 Bonaparte, Lsetitia, mother of Napo leon, 232 Bonaparte, Louis, 222, 236, 237 Bonaparte, Lucian, 139, 167, 242, 243, 268 Bonaparte, Napoleon. See Napoleon I. Bonaparte, Pauline, 244. And see Leclere Borghese, Princess, 244. And see Pauline Bonaparte Borstels, The, 8 Boucher, Francois, the painter, 76 Boucher, the poet, 76 Bourbon, Marie Louise de, 45 Bourbon-Penthievre, Stanislaus, Prince de, 45 Brancas, Edmee, Duchesse de, 88, 94, 103, 117, 118, 120, 122, 127, 133, 141, 146, 147, 173, 177-180, 182- 184, 186, 187, 190, 191, 193, 199, 200, 202, 205, 213, 214, 218, 221, 224, 226, 227, 229, 236, 239-241, 246, 248, 249, 254, 266, 273, 276, 282, 284, 288 Branchi, the real-estate agent, 240 Branchue, Mme. de, 78 Branconi, Maria Antonia von Pessima, 150 Brandenburg, Count and Countess, 97 Brandenburg, Ludwig, Margrave of, I Breteuil, M. de, 115, 116 Breze, Due de, 50 Briest, Herr von, (Uncle Briest,) 8, 9, 16, 17, 28, 62, 95, 104, 121, 152, 157. 245> 246, 272 Brissac, Due de, 79 Broglio, Maurice, Prince de, 93 Brumaire, The 1,8th, 139 Brunswick, Duke of, 4, 150 Cagliostro, Count, 107, 108, in, 112, 115, 116, 150 Cambaceres, the Consul, 140 Campan, Mme. de, 223, 231, 232, 274 Campis, Mme. de, 214 Caprara, Cardinal, 237 Casaux, Mme. de, 227 Champanetz, Marquise de, 218 Chappuis, Mile, de, 93 Chappuis de la Combay, M. de, 93 Chateauneuf, Mme. de, 78 Chenier, Andre Marie de, the poet, 76 Christine, Queen of Spain, 234 Clary, Desiree, 167, 169, 170 Clermont, Bishop of, 94, 169 Condorcet, imprisoned in the Temple, 76 Constant, Napoleon s valet, 140, 170, 243, 265 Contat, the actress, 56 Coulaincourt, Marquis de, 209, 21 1, 213, 214, 223 Courtot, Camille de, 88, 136, 209 Courtot, Cecile, Baroness de, at Roer monde, 13, 14; received by Frau von Alvensleben, 19; appearance, 20, 21; illness, 22-25; state of mind, 26, 27; nurses Frau von Alvensleben, 28, 30; insists on pay ing board, 30; wishes to sell jewels, 31; refuses Col. von Rauchhaupt, 38-42; home and parents, 43; lady- in-waiting to the Princess de Lam balle, 44-47; in Paris, "dame de la reine," 50 ; protects the Queen from mob at Versailles, 59; journey to Paris, 59; betrothed to Hector de Trellissac, 61 ; to London, 64; death of father and mother, 68, 69; re turns to France, 69; takes refuge in the Temple, 70; transferred to La Force, 7 1 ; to the Temple, 71; sees the head of Princess Lamballe borne past window, 72 ; illness, 75 ; imprisonment, description of life in the Temple, 76-79; taken from prison, 79 ; the journey in the cart, 81; before the tribunal, condemned, 82; in the death-cart, 83; rescued by Hector de Trellissac, 84-86; escapes to Roermonde, 86, 87; life with the Alvenslebens, 90; sale of her jewels, 90, 92, 95; sympathy from Queen of Prussia, 101; her fire-screen, 104; account of affair of the Queen's necklace, 105-117; goes to Helgoland, 121; to Berlin, 128; on Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, 135 ; studies Latin, 136- 138; seeks to regain estates, 136; leaves Kalbe, 147, 148; at marriage of Princess of Hesse, 150-155; in Strasburg, 158-162; in Zabern, 163, 164; in Metz, 165-168; in Chalons, 169; in Paris, 172; on prices and life in Paris, 173, 174; at the INDEX. 29S theatre, 175, 176; removes to the Palais Brancas, 177; drives about Paris, 180-183; to her mother's grave, 183, 184; visits the Temple and La Force, 186, 187 ; at re ception of Marquise de Montesson, 190-192; impressions of Mme. de Stael and of Marquis Luchesini, 193-195 ; at the parade, impressions of Bonaparte, 199-201 ; at Long- champs, 201; anecdotes of Talley rand, 203-205; interview with Talleyrand, 205-211 ; her costume, 213, 214; on the carnival, 217; on Germans in Paris, 218; on French literature, 218; on Garnerin's balloon, 219; her day with Jose phine at Malmaison, 221-243; on life in Paris, 246-250; audience with Napoleon, 252-262; recognises in Napoleon the schoolboy who had saved her life and whom she had crowned with laurel, 256-259; her property restored by Napoleon, 260 ; journey to the Vendee, 270-273 ; sec ond audience with Napoleon, 273- 276 ; at Notre Dame, on re-establish ment of Church, 276-278; meets again Hector de Trellissac, 281-283 ", her marriage with him, 289 ; her death two days after birth of a daughter, 291 Cumberland, Duke of, 103, 267 Dadigne, Sieur de, 141 Dampmartin, Colonel de, 93 Dancing, 247 Dember, domain of, 1 Denis, Baroness, 93 Denon, Director ofthe Mint, 215, 216 Despreaux, milliner to Josephine, 179 Despreaux and Leroi, their Magazin de Modes, 213 Diamond Necklace, Affair of the, 57, 105-117 Diderot, Denis, 44, 167 Dino, Duke of, 212 Donhoff, Countess Sophie, 96, 97 Duchesnois, Mile., the actress, 268 Ducos, the Consul, 139 Dugazon, Mme., 175 Duguesclin, the "mystificateur," 280 Dumouriez, General, 4, II Duplan, the hairdresser, 214 Duroc, General, 236, 240, 243 Ephraim, Court jeweller, 92 Estaing, Mile, d', 50 Eugenie, 234 Fashions, 126, 151, 152, 197, 198, 202, 214, 247, 249, 250, 269 Floquet, Commandant, 70 Florian, the poet, 76 Floym, Count, 95 Fontanges, Marquise de, 75 Fontenay, Mme. de, 246 Fouche, Minister of Police, 232, 268 Frascati's, 249 Fructidor, The 18th, 122 Frederick the Great, 95, 96 Frederick William II., 2, 92, 93, 95, 96, 121 Frederick William III., 87, 97, 128- 132, 135 Garnerin, his balloon, 219 Genevais, Chateau, 46 Gerard, his portrait of Josephine, 227 Germon, Mme., Josephine's dress maker, 213 Gervais, Mme., nurse of Cecile de Courtot, 19, 68, 69. And see Ma deleine Girardin, his conversation with Na poleon, 145 Gleim, the poet, 8, 29 Grant, Mme., 134, 192, 205. And see Mme. Talleyrand Guiche, Due de, 145 Guiche, Mme. de, 215 Hamelin, Mme., 178, 224, 231, 232, 241 Harnish, the jeweller, 95 Haugwitz, his influence on Prussia, 198 Hauteville, Laura d', 79 Hesse, Princess of, her marriage, 147, 150-155 Hippolite, servant of Princess de Lam balle, 69 Hoche, General, 165, 285 Holland, Lord, 267 Hortense (Eugenie Hortense de Beau harnais), 178, 195, 222, 223, 231, 235-237. 238, 240, 243 Humboldt, Wilhelm von, 131 296 INDEX. Ingenheim, Count, 103 "Iphigenia in Tauris," 247 Isabey, the painter, 231, 232 Isenschnibbe, domain of, 1 Josephine (Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie), 123, 142, 145, 147, 165, 166, 170, 179, 192, 193, 195, 209, 210, 213-215, 221-243, 246| 263-265, 273 Jourdan, General, 32, 33 Junot, Mme., 224 Kalbe, family seat of the Alvenslebens, i> 2, 5, 6 Kalitschef, Prince, 173 Kemble, the actor, 267 Klotze, domain of, 1 Kockeritz, Adjutant-General von, 128, 129, 131, 132, 154, 194 Kroecher, Frau von (Aunt Kroecher), 8, 28, 62, 104, 151, 156, 157, 202, 245, 246 Kroechers, von, The, 1, 8 Kurland and Sagan, Princess of, 212 Lafayette, 55, 60 Lafitte, M. de, 79 La Force, prison of, 71, 186, 187 Lamarque, Comte de, 60 Lamballe, Marie Therese Louise de Savoie-Carignan, Princesse de, 13, 44-47. 49. 55. 57, 59, 63. 64, 68- 73, 101, 104, 106, 109, 130, 132, 155, 275 Lambesc, Prince, 64 Lamotte- Valois, the adventuress, 107, 108, wo, in, 114, 116 Langenn, Herr von, 101 Lannes, Mme., 201 La Saque, Mme., 13, 14 Laurier, Baron Leon, 124 Lauriston, Mile, de, 224 Laval, Mile, de, 50, 109 Lavallade, Desiree de, 79 Lebrun, the Consul, 140 Leclerc, General, 175, 176, 240, 244 Leclerc, Pauline, 240. And see Pau line Bonaparte Lenormand, the fortune-teller, 265 Leonard, the Queen's hairdresser, 56 Leroy, milliner to Josephine, 179 Liancourt, Due de, 280 Liancourt, Duchesse de, 70 Liancourt, Mile, de, 50 Lichtenau, Countess, 92, 97, 98, 126 Loe, Anna Gottliebe von, 3, 4, 5. And see Alvensleben Loe, Johann Moritz von, 3, 5 Lombard, his influence on Prussia, 198 Londonderry, Bishop of, 126 Longchamps, 201 Louis XIV., 54 Louis XV., 54 Louis XVI., 54, 55, 63, 72, 75, 107, in, 114-116, 135 Louis XVII., 51, 183 Louis XVIIL, 141, 142, 210, 251 Louis Joseph, Dauphin, 51, 57 Louis Philippe, 45, note Louvre, The, 267 Lucai, Eglfee de, 224, 225 Luchesini, Marquis, 194, 195, 198, 212 Luderitz family, 8 Luderitz, Friedrich von, 29 Ludwig, Prince, 100, 103 Luise, Queen (wife of Frederick Wil liam III.), 130-132, 135, 151, 231. And see Mecklenburg- Strelitz Luys, Mme. de, 124 Madeleine, nurse of Cecile de Courtot, 183, 184. And see Gervais Magnier, ofthe Mint, 215 Maillard, the Revolutionist, 58, 82 Mainz, 159 Malmaison, 221, 222, 234, 241 Malsburg, Baroness von der, 154 Mara, Mme., the singer, 93, 94, 267 Marat, Jean Paul, 125 Marengo, 140 Maria Theresa, 107 Marie Antoinette, Josephe Jeanne, 48-60, 63-72, 75, 76, 106-117, 135, 274 Marie Louise, of Austria, 265 Marie Therese, Princess, 51 Mark, Count von der, 93 Mark, Countess von der, 102, 103 Marly-le-Roi, 204 Massenbach, General von, 34 Masson, Herr, 101 Matuscka, Count, 101 Mecklenburg - Strelitz, Friederike, Princess of, 100, 103 Mecklenburg- Strelitz, Luise of, 87, 97, 98. And see Luise, Queen Mehul, fitienne Henri, 266 INDEX. 297 Meiningen, Duke of, 152 Mercier, Abbe de, 78 Miakowski, Herr von, 102 Mirabeau, 60, 133 Mollendorf, General von, 32, 33 Moltke, Fraulein von, 98 Montarsier, Mme., 165 Montasin, Demoiselle, 56 Mont Courtot, 264, 270-273, 289, 290 Montespan, Mme. de, 45 Montesquieu, Comtesse, 280 Montesson, Marquise de, 94, 124, 126, 141, 146, 190-193, 195, 258 Montgolfier, his offer to supply ma chinery for VersaiUes, 204 Moreau, General, 140 Mortemar, Clothilde de, 73, 75, 80 Miiller, Deacon, 10 Murat, Caroline, 231, 237-239. And see Caroline Bonaparte Murat, General, 139, 222, 238-240, 244 Murray, Eliza, 223 Napoleon I. (Napoleon Bonaparte), 119, 120; on the 18th Fructidor, 122; returns from Italy, 123; anec dotes of school and early military life, 124, 125 ; his order of the day to the Army of Italy, 125, 126; in Egypt, 134; return, 138; in Paris, First Consul, 139; his decrees, his victories, 140; attitude toward the Bourbons, 141, 142; his advances toward the old nobility, 143; re establishes the Church, 144; on music in the Tuileries chapel, 145 ; his acquaintance with Josephine, 165, 166; his parents, family, and home in Corsica, 166; story of his refusal by Desiree Clary, 167, 170; portrait by Greuze, 177, 178; his promise to the employes at St. Quentin, 179; his remark to Mme. Talleyrand, 192; his manner, 192, 193; at the opera, 195; attempt on his life, 195, 196; his words to the singers, 196; and to Josephine, 196; at St. Cloud, 197; at the parade, 199-201 ; dislike of Talleyrand, 205; Talleyrand's remarks on, 210; por trait by David, 215, 217; anecdote of, at the Mint, 215-217; attempt to poison, 223; Josephine's anxiety for, 228; anecdote of, in the Italian wars, 231; remarks on the Ven. deans, 232, 233; affected by sound of bells, 241, 242; intimacy with Talma, 248; his audiences, 253; description of, 254; interview with Cecile de Courtot, 254-262; recog nizes in her the girl whose life he had saved and who had crowned him with laurel at school in Brienne, 256-259; his fatalism, 259, 260, 265, 288; his confidences, 261; his mysticism made use of by Jose phine, 263 ; second audience to Ce cile de Courtot, 273-276; at Notre Dame, on re-establishment of Church, 277, 278; holds review at Tuileries, 279; conversations with Hector de Trellissac, 287 Napoleon III., 234, 243 Navaillac, Marquise de, 93-95, 101, 118, 129 Nertz, Pastor, 10, 16, 188, 245 Neufville, Comte de, 141 Nikolai, Doctor, 121 Noailles, Adelaide de, 50, 53, 59, 109 Noailles, Mme. de, 50, 279, 280 Noailles, Victor de, 280, 283 Notre Dame, 276-278 Oliva, the courtesan, no, 112 Orleans, Louis, Due d', 88 Origans, Louis Philippe Joseph, Due d', (Philippe figalite,) 45, 57. 59, 70, 112 Orleans, Pierre Philippe d', 46, note Overdiek, estate of, 3, 5 Paul, the Czarewitch, 101 Penthievre, Due de, 46, note Penthievre, Jean Marie de Bourbon, Due de, 45, 73 Permon, Charles, 256 Permon, Laure, 256 "Phedre,"268 Philippe Egalite, 206. And see Or leans Pichegru, Charles, 122 Pitt, William, 64 Place de Greve, 181 Place de la Concorde, 180 Place de la Revolution, 181 Place des Victoires, 180 Place Royale, 180 298 INDEX. Place Vendome, 181 Poix, Prince de, 192, 205, 222, 238 239, 246, 254, 268, 280 Pozzo di Borgo, 166, 170 Pralins, Anne de, 43 Rauchhaupt, Albrecht Vollrath von, 12, 15, 18, 32-42, 87, 96 Recamier, Mme., 144, note, 170, 267 Remusat, M. de, 253, 276 Remusat, Mme. de, 224, 265 Retrazet, estate of, 264 Reventlow, Countess, 99 Rietz, Frau von, 93, 97 Robespierre, Maximilien, 118, 182, 184, 185, 206 Roches Baritaud, Claude de Beau harnais, Comte des, 225 Roermonde, 13 Rohan, Cardinal, 106-108, 110-116, 164 Rohan Guemenee, Chateau of, 163, 164 Roucher, M. de, 79 Rousseau, 44, 55, 167, 267 Roustan, Bonaparte's Mameluke, 200 Sabatier, Mme. de, 280 Sachsen-Teschen, Marie-Christine of, 112-117 Sacu val, the actress, 56 St. Cloud, 273 Saint-Paterne, Chevalier, 93 Saint- Ygnon, Chevalier, 93 Saldern, Mme. von, 101 Salm-Kyrburg, Prince of, 225 Saque, Mme. la, 87 Savary, Mme., 214, 224 Saxe, Chevalier de, 126 Saxe, Margchal de, 159 Schilden, Fritz von, 98 Schlippenbach, Albert, 101 Schlippenbach, Countess, 101 Schlotheim, Mme., 150, 152, 153, 155 Schreiber, his " guillotine ambulante, " 159, 160 Schulenburg, Countess, 99-101 Segur, Vicomte de, 143 Sieyes, the Consul, 139, 144 Solms-Braunfels, Prince, 103 Spiegel, Frau von, 150 Stael-Holstein, Baron de, 194 Stael, Mme. de, 87, 134, 193, 194 Stainville, Marquis de, 52 Stolberg-Stolberg, Count, 101, 102 Strasburg, 158-162 Strelitz, Princess of, 100 Talhuet, Adele de, 224,^225, 232, 233 Talhi®:, Mme. de, 232, 233 Tallinn, Mme., 165, 224, 250 Talleyrand, Edmond de, 212 Talleyrand, Mme., 210, 211. And see Mme. Grant Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles Maurice de, 133, 134, 179, 192, 197, 203- 212, 253, 262, 275 Talma, Francois . Joseph, the trage dian, 217, 247, 248, 250, 251 Temple, The, 70, 71, 76-79, 183, 186, 187 Theatre Feydeau, 175 Theatre Francais, 268 Theatre Royal, 247 Therese, Princess, 280 Thierry, M., 102 Thierry, the hatter, 202 Tollendal, Lady, 280 Torget, the advocate, 115, 116 Toulouse, Comte de, 45 Tourzel, Mme. de, 51 Trellissac, Chateau, 272, 273 Trellissac, Hector, Vicomte de, 14, 43, 44, 61, 64, 84-86, 187, 208, 275, 279, 281-291 Trenk, Baron, 225 Tuileries, 252, 253 Valencay, Duke of, 212 Valette, Mme. de, 226 Varennes, Marquis de, 78 Vendee, 270-274 Viereck, Fraulein von, 98 Vinci, the actress, 267 Visconti, Mme., 268 Volnay, M. de, 211 Voltaire, 44, 267 Voss, Frau von, 98-100, 129-231 Vultejus, Herr, 136, 167, 230, 250 Willoun, Doctor, 267 Wollner, the singer, 97 Zabern, 163, 164* , ' :