ANECDOTAL RECOLLECTIONS
OF THE
CONGRESS OF VIENNA
Francis I, Emperor of Austria.
ANECDOTAL RECOLLECTIONS
OF THE
CONGRESS OF VIENNA
BY THE
COMTE A. DE LA GARDE-CHAMBONAS
WITH
INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY THE
COMTE FLEURY
Translated
BY THE AUTHOR OF
‘AN ENGLISHMAN IN PARIS’
WITH PORTRAITS
LONDON
CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED
1902
Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, (late) Printers to Her Majesty
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE COMTE AUGUSTE DE LA GARDE-CHAMBONAS | [xiii] |
| INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER | |
| Introduction—A Glance at the Congress—Arrival of the Sovereigns—The First Night in Vienna, | [1] |
| CHAPTER I | |
| The Prince de Ligne—His Wit and his Urbanity—Robinson Crusoe—The Masked Ball and Rout—Sovereigns in Dominos—The Emperor of Russia and Prince Eugène—Kings and Princes—Zibin—General Tettenborn—A Glance at his Military Career—Grand Military Fête in Honour of Peace—The Footing of Intimacy of the Sovereigns at the Congress—The Imperial Palace—Death of Queen Maria Carolina of Naples—Emperor Alexander—Anecdotes—Sovereign Gifts—Politics and Diplomacy—The Grand Rout—The Waltz, | [11] |
| CHAPTER II | |
| The Drawing-Rooms of the Comtesse de Fuchs—The Prince Philip of Hesse-Homburg—George Sinclair—The Announcement of a Military Tournament—The Comtesse Edmond de Périgord General Comte de Witt—Letters of Recommendation—The Princesse Pauline—The Poet-Functionary and Fouché, | [41] |
| CHAPTER III | |
| Reception at M. de Talleyrand’s—His Attitude at the Congress—The Duc de Dalberg—The Duc de Richelieu—Mme. Edmond de Périgord—M. Pozzo di Borgo—Parallel between the Prince de Ligne and M. de Talleyrand—A Monster Concert, | [55] |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| The Prince de Ligne’s Study—A Swimming Exploit—Travelling by Post—A Reminiscence of Madame de Staël—Schönbrunn—The Son of Napoleon—His Portrait—Mme. de Montesquiou—Anecdotes—Isabey—The Manœuvring-Ground—The People’s Fête at Augarten, | [70] |
| CHAPTER V | |
| The Prater—The Carriages—The Crowd and the Sovereigns—The Sovereigns’ Incognito—Alexander Ypsilanti—The Vienna Drawing-Rooms—Princesse Bagration—The Narischkine Family—A Lottery, | [87] |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| The Castle of Laxemburg—Heron-Hawking—The Empress of Austria—A Royal Hunt—Fête at the Ritterburg—A Recollection of Christina of Sweden—Constance and Theodore, or the Blind Husband—Poland—Scheme for her Independence—The Comte Arthur Potocki—The Prince de Ligne and Isabey—The Prince de Ligne’s House on the Kalemberg—Confidential Chats and Recollections—The Empress Catherine II.—Queen Marie-Antoinette—Mme. de Staël—Casanova, | [105] |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| A Court Function—The Empress of Austria—The Troubadours—Amateur Theatricals—The Empress of Russia—The Prince Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg—Tableaux-Vivants—Queen Hortense’s Songs—The Moustaches of the Comte de Wurbna—Songs in Action—The Orphan of the Prisons—Diplomacy and Dancing—A Ball and a Supper at Court, | [137] |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| Prince Eugène de Beauharnais—Recollections of the Prince de Ligne—The Theatre of the ‘Ermitage’ and of Trianon—The Baron Ompteda—Some Portraits—The Imperial Carrousel—The Four-and-Twenty Paladins—Reminiscences of Mediæval Tournaments—The Prowess of the Champion—Fête and Supper at the Imperial Palace—The Table of the Sovereigns, | [152] |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| Recollections of the Military Tournament of Stockholm in 1800—The Comte de Fersen—King Gustavus IV.—The Challenge of the Unknown Knight—The Games on the Bridge at Pisa, | [174] |
| CHAPTER X | |
| The Prince de Ligne’s Song of the Congress—Life on the Graben—The Chronicle of the Congress—Echoes of the Congress—A Companion Story to the Death of Vatel—Brie, the King of Cheese—Fête at Arnstein the Banker’s—The Prince Royal of Würtemberg—Russian Dances—The Poet Carpani and the Prince de Ligne, | [193] |
| CHAPTER XI | |
| The Last Love-Tryst of the Prince de Ligne—A Glance at the Past—Z—— or the Consequences of Gaming—Gambling in Poland and in Russia—The Biter Bit—Masked Ball—The Prince de Ligne and a Domino—More Living Pictures—The Pasha of Surêne—Two Masked Ladies—A Recollection of the Prince de Talleyrand, | [218] |
| CHAPTER XII | |
| Illness of the Prince de Ligne—The Comte de Witt—Ambassador Golowkin—Doctor Malfati—The Prince gets worse—Last Sallies of the Moribund—General Grief—Portrait of the Prince de Ligne—His Funeral, | [244] |
| CHAPTER XIII | |
| The Fire at the Razumowski Palace—The Prince’s Great Wealth—The Vicissitudes of Court Favour in Russia—Prince Koslowski—A Reminiscence of the Duc d’Orléans—A Re-mark of Talleyrand—Fête at the Comtesse Zichy’s—Emperor Alexander and his Ardent Wishes for Peace—New Year’s Day, 1815—Grand Ball and Rout—Sir Sidney Smith’s Dinner-Party at the Augarten—His Chequered Life, his Missions and his Projects at the Congress—The King of Bavaria without Money—Departure and Anger of the King of Würtemberg—The Queen of Westphalia—The Announcement of a Sleighing-Party—A Ball at Lord Castlereagh’s, | [256] |
| CHAPTER XIV | |
| Some Original Types at the Congress—M. Aïdé—A Witticism of the Prince de Ligne—Mme. Pratazoff—Mr. Foneron—The Old Jew—His Noblesse and his Moral Code—Mr. Raily—His Dinners and his Companions—The Two Dukes—The End of a Gambler—The Sovereigns’ Incognito—Mr. O’Bearn—Ball at the Apollo—Zibin and the King of Prussia—Charles de Rechberg and the King of Bavaria—The Minuet—The King of Denmark—Story of the Bombardment of Copenhagen—The German Lesson, | [282] |
| CHAPTER XV | |
| Religious Ceremony for the Anniversary of the Death of Louis XVI.—Reception at Talleyrand’s—Discussion on the Subject of Saxony and Poland—The Order of the Day of the Grand-Duke Constantine—A Factum of Pozzo di Borgo—A Sleighing-Party—Entertainment and Fête at Schönbrunn—Prince Eugène—Recollections of Queen Hortense—The Empress Marie-Louise at the Valley of St. Helena—Second Sleighing-Party—A Funeral, | [309] |
| CHAPTER XVI | |
| Reception at Madame de Fuchs’s—Prince Philippe d’Hesse-Hombourg—The Journalists and Newsmongers of Vienna—The French Village in Germany—Prince Eugène—Recollection of the Consulate—Tribulations of M. Denville—Mme. Récamier—The Return of the Émigré—Childhood’s Friend, or the Magic of a Name—Ball at Lord Stewart’s—Alexander proclaimed King of Poland—The Prince Czartoryski—Confidence of the Poles—Count Arthur Potocki—The Revolutions of Poland—Slavery—Vandar—Ivan, or the Polish Serf, | [328] |
| CHAPTER XVII | |
| The Emperor Alexander, the King of Prussia, and the Naval Officer—Surprise to the Empress of Russia—More Fêtes—A Ball at M. de Stackelberg’s—Paul Kisseleff—Brozin—Fête offered by M. de Metternich—The Ball-Room catches Fire—Fêtes and Banquet at the Court—Ompteda—Chronicle of the Congress—The Tell-tale Perfume—Recollection of Empress Josephine and Madame Tallien—A Romantic Court Story, | [346] |
| CHAPTER XVIII | |
| The Comte de Rechberg’s Work on the Governments of the Russian Empire—The King of Bavaria—Polish Poem of Sophiowka—Madame Potocka, or the Handsome Fanariote—Her Infancy—Particulars of Her Life—A Glance at the Park of Sophiowka—Subscription of the Sovereigns—Actual State of Sophiowka, | [364] |
| CHAPTER XIX | |
| A Luncheon at M. de Talleyrand’s on his Birthday—M. de Talleyrand and the MS.—The Princesse-Maréchale Lubomirska—New Arrivals—Chaos of Claims—The Indemnities of the King of Denmark—Rumours of the Congress—Arrival of Wellington at Vienna—The Carnival—Fête of the Emperor of Austria—A Masked Rout—The Diadem, or Vanity Punished—A Million—Gambling and Slavery: a Russian Anecdote, | [375] |
| CHAPTER XX | |
| Isabey’s Study—His Drawing of the Plenipotentiaries at the Congress of Vienna—The Imperial Sepulchre at the Capuchins—Recollections of the Tombs of Cracow—Preacher Werner—St. Stephen’s Cathedral—Children’s Ball at Princesse Marie Esterhazy’s—The Empress Elizabeth of Russia—The Picture-Gallery of the Duc de Saxe-Teschen—Emperor Alexander and Prince Eugène—The Pictures of the Belvedere—The King of Bavaria—Anecdotes, | [394] |
| CHAPTER XXI | |
| Ypsilanti—Promenade on the Prater—First Rumour of the Escape of Napoleon—Projects for the Deliverance of Greece—Comte Capo d’Istria—The Hétairites—Meeting with Ypsilanti in 1820—His Projects and Reverses, | [406] |
| CONCLUSION | |
| Napoleon has left Elba—Aspect of Vienna—Theatricals at the Court—Mme. Edmond de Périgord and the Rehearsal—Napoleon’s Landing at Cannes—The Interrupted Dance—Able Conduct of M. de Talleyrand—Declaration of the 13th March—Fauche Borel—The Congress is Dissolved, | [410] |
| Index, | [421] |
PORTRAITS
| FRANCIS I., EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA, | [Frontispiece]. |
| at page | |
| COUNT NESSELRODE, | [36] |
| MARIE-LOUISE, ARCHDUCHESS OF AUSTRIA, | [76] |
| ALEXANDER I., | [142] |
| MARIE, DOWAGER-EMPRESS OF RUSSIA, | [211] |
| ROBERT, VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH, MARQUESS OF LONDONDERRY, | [281] |
| PRINCE DE METTERNICH, | [353] |
| M. MAURICE DE TALLEYRAND, | [376] |
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE COMTE AUGUSTE DE LA GARDE-CHAMBONAS
Auguste-Louis-Charles de La Garde,[1] a man of letters and a poet of some repute in his time, was born in Paris in 1783. The following is a copy of his certificate of baptism:—
| The Old Parish of Saint-Eustache, Anno 1783. (Registry of Paris.) | On Wednesday, the fifth day of March of the year seventeen hundred and eighty-three, there was baptized Auguste-Louis-Charles, born on the previous day but one, the son of Messire le Comte Scipion-Auguste de La Garde, chevalier, captain of Dragoons, and of Dame Catherine-Françoise Voudu, his wife, domiciled in the Rue de Richelieu. Godfather—Messire Jean de la Croix, captain of Dragoons; Godmother—Dame Elisabeth Vingtrinien, wife of M. Etienne-Antoine Barryals, Bourgeois of Paris.[2] |
The child’s mother died in giving it birth. The father only survived the beloved young wife for a little while, and feeling his end to be near, confided the orphan to the head of his family, the Marquis de Chambonas (Scipion-Charles-Victor Auguste de La Garde), camp-marshal (equivalent to the present grade of general of brigade), and subsequently a minister of Louis XVI.[3]
M. de Chambonas took charge of the infant, looking upon it as a second son, and treating it with the most constant affection. Consequently in all his works, and in his Unpublished Notes, Auguste de La Garde always refers by the name of ‘father’ to the relative who had replaced his dead parents.[4]
During his early childhood, he was often entrusted to his godmother, Mme. de Villers.[5] She was the friend of Mme. Bernard, the wife of the Lyons banker, whose daughter was to attain such great celebrity under the name of Mme. Récamier. Brought up together, as it were, these two children conceived for each other a sincere affection, which neither time nor distance ever cooled. When, on his return from foreign parts, Auguste de La Garde came to Paris in 1801, he at once took up his abode at Mme. Récamier’s, who, moreover, gave him the support so necessary to the youthful wanderer who possessed no resources of his own. Hence, it will cause no surprise to meet in the Recollections of the Congress of Vienna with pages breathing a profound sense of gratitude to Mme. Récamier.
Young La Garde began his studies under the guidance of the Abbé B——, after which he was sent to the College of Sens. (His ‘father’ had been governor of the town in 1789, and its mayor in 1791.) M. de Chambonas, after having commanded the 17th division of the army of Paris for a very short time, was called to the ministry of Foreign Affairs, the 17th June 1792, to replace Dumouriez, who had resigned. His stay there was also very short. Having been denounced publicly in the Legislative Assembly for having withheld information with regard to the movements of the Prussian troops, and becoming more and more suspect every day, he quickly abandoned the post.
On the 10th August he was among those who endeavoured to defend the Tuileries, and was even left for dead on the spot. It was only towards the end of 1792 that M. de Chambonas made up his mind to quit Paris. He did not cross the frontier, but managed to reach Sens; where, in safe hiding, he succeeded in spending unmolested the years of the Reign of Terror. He had taken with him his son, who subsequently married Mlle. de la Vernade, at Sens (and who was the grandfather of the present Marquis de Chambonas), and also his adopted son.
How did the erewhile minister of Louis XVI. succeed in passing unmolested through the Terror? It seems almost incredible. This was one of the exceptions the particulars of which have been traced by memoirs that have recently come to light.[6]
During the Directory, in fact, M. de Chambonas floated absolutely to the top, and at one time there was talk of sending him to Spain as ambassador. The plan fell through, and after the coup d’état on the 18th Fructidor (4th September 1797), M. de Chambonas, considering himself no longer safe, hurriedly left Paris to avoid arrest.
Behold our wanderers at Hamburg, and afterwards in Sweden and Denmark. Auguste de La Garde in his somewhat florid style will tell us many amusing anecdotes; on the other hand, the bombardment of Copenhagen by the English fleet in 1801 affected him sadly.
A few months later, the lad of eighteen is sent to France by M. de Chambonas in order to obtain the removal of the sender’s name from the list of émigrés—he had been considered as such while he was in hiding at Sens—and to claim the estates the nation had confiscated. Auguste de La Garde is hospitably received by Mme. Récamier, who, while bestirring herself in behalf of the ‘father,’ takes the son in hand with regard to his education. Through her influence, La Harpe assists him with his counsels, and the best professors direct his further studies. As for the property the restitution of which is claimed by his ‘father,’ by that time established in England, all idea of it had to be abandoned; and young La Garde himself, his mind precociously ripened by his exile, was compelled to look to his own independent future.[7]
His personal charm, his natural gifts, and, in short, the useful connections he rapidly made for himself, soon procured him employment and a start in life. At the outset, he obtained through the goodwill of Prince Eugène missions to Italy, to Marmont in Dalmatia, to the Court of King Joseph at Naples, and finally to Rome, where he was cordially received by Lucien Bonaparte and his family. The pages, whether in his Recollections of the Congress of Vienna or in his Unpublished Notes, referring to his primary benefactors, go far to exonerate him from the charge of ingratitude, for he lavishes upon those benefactors all the ornaments of his rhetoric; at any rate, nearly all, for the greater part of the acknowledgment of his indebtedness goes mainly to Field-Marshal Prince de Ligne, who was his protector, his beneficent and ... very useful relative, a member of the Chambonas family, having, as we already stated, married a Princesse de Ligne.
La Garde first met with the Prince de Ligne in the Eternal City. He soon became a familiar visitor to the octogenarian prince, who, like the generous Mæcenas that he was, gave him a pressing invitation to come and settle near him in Vienna. The young fellow was too sensible to make light of an offer insuring material welfare and a regular existence after years of uncertainty. He, therefore, settled in Vienna near to his benefactor, yielding for the matter of that to the spell exercised over every one by that very superior specimen of manhood, and requiting his kindness with an affectionate veneration increasing as time went on. The whole of the first part of the Recollections attests a boundless gratitude; and if on the one hand that work constitutes the brightest ornament of our author’s literary crown, it constitutes on the other the most complete panegyric of the prince who had become ‘his idol.’
From Vienna, the Comte de La Garde passed into Russia, where he met with a cordial welcome from the elegant society of St. Petersburg. In 1810 he published there a volume of poems, which obtained a most signal success. Subsequently invited to Poland by the Comte Félix Potocki, and treated with the most generous hospitality, he was enabled to devote himself to numerous literary works; and as a mark of gratitude to his hosts, he translated into French Trembecki’s poem dedicated to the cherished wife of Comte Félix, the celebrated Sophie Potocka.
The Recollections of the Congress of Vienna contains frequent references to the ‘superb Sophie,’ who was born in the Fanariote quarter in Constantinople, and whose singular career was solely owing to her beauty. She married in the first place the Comte de Witt (of the family of the Dutch Great State-Councillor, whose descendants had entered the service of Russia). The Comte de Witt enticed her away from a secretary of the French Embassy in Constantinople; Comte Félix Potocki, in his turn, eloped with her while she was Comtesse de Witt, and married her, thanks to an amicable arrangement nullifying the first marriage. Comtesse Sophie, celebrated throughout Europe—her loveliness had even compelled admiration from the Court circle at Versailles—lived on a regal footing on her estate of Tulczim, and dispensed her hospitality to the French émigrés in a manner calculated to dazzle many of them. The Mémoires of General Comte de Rochechouart and the present Recollections are specially interesting on the subject. The success of the poem, ‘Sophiowka,’ was such as to gain for its adapter the honorary membership respectively of the Academies of Warsaw, Cracow, Munich, London, and Naples.
The Comte de La Garde was to receive another flattering testimonial in Poland, many years later, on the occasion of the appearance of his poem on the ‘Funérailles de Kosciusko’ (Treuttel & Wurtz: Paris, 1830). Its several editions by no means exhausted its success; the senate of the republic of Cracow conferred upon him the Polish citizenship, while the kings of Bavaria, Prussia, and Saxony complimented him by autograph letters.
La Garde was the author of a great number of songs; and the most renowned composers of the period competed for the honour of setting them to music. Many of these romances were dedicated to Queen Hortense, whose acquaintance he made at Augsburg in 1819. This led to his collaboration in ‘Loi d’Exil,’ and ‘Partant pour la Syrie’—the latter of which became the national hymn during the Second Empire. In 1853, there appeared L’Album artistique de la Reine Hortense, a much prized collection of the then unpublished songs of the Comte de La Garde, with their music by the queen, and charming reproductions of tiny paintings, which were also her work.[8]
This was the last time the name of the Comte de La Garde appeared in print. A short time afterwards his wandering life came to an end in Paris, which during the latter years of his life he inhabited alternately with Angers. He had adopted as his motto: ‘My life is a battle’; he could have added, ‘and a never-ending journey’; for his constitutional restlessness prevented him from settling permanently, no matter where. He never married. The few documents he left behind, including some momentoes, represented the whole of his property, and went to his cousin, M. de La Garde, Marquis de Chambonas.
In addition to the afore-mentioned works and the present one, Recollections of the Congress of Vienna, which originally appeared in Paris in 1820 (?), M. de la Garde was the author of the following: Une traduction de Dmitry Donskoy (Moscow, 1811); Coup d’œil sur le Royaume de Pologne (Varsovie, 1818); Coup d’œil sur Alexander-Bad (Bavière, 1819); Laure Bourg: roman dédié au Roi de Bavière (Munich, 1820); Les Monuments grecs de la Sicile (Munich, 1820); Traduction des Mélodies de Thomas Moore (Londres, 1826); Voyage dans quelques parties de l’Europe (Londres, 1828); Brighton, Voyage en Angleterre, (1830); Tableau de Bruxelles (prose et vers), dédié à la Reine; Projet pour la formation d’une Colonie belge à la Nouvelle Zélande, etc.
In all those works, and notably in the most important, namely: Brighton, and Souvenirs du Congrès de Vienne, M. de La Garde shows himself to be endowed with the faculty of observation and with tact. Unfortunately his matchless kindliness prevents his criticisms from departing from the laudatory gamut.
We must not look in these Recollections for important revelations concerning the diplomatic conferences which engaged the attention of the whole of Europe in 1815; we shall only meet with delightful anecdotes and portraits of grandes dames and illustrious personages. There will be many silhouettes of figures that have been forgotten since, but which, while they belonged to this world, were worthy of notice. To appreciate them we should bring to the perusal of this volume the quality which presided at its composition: namely, the kindliness of an observant man of the world.
Since their appearance in 1820, these Recollections had been absolutely forgotten. It seemed to us and to M. le Marquis de Chambonas La Garde, to whom we owe the principal facts of this notice, that the chapters were worthy of being resuscitated. Though we have omitted from these Recollections some dissertations more or less obsolete, which would be of no interest to-day, we have throughout respected the style and the ideas of the author; only adding to his narrative the necessary notes on the principal personages of the action.
FLEURY.