The painter asked M. Dietrichstein, his tutor, when the prince's portrait was finished, "With what order ought I to decorate His Highness, Monsieur le Comte?"
"With the Order of Saint-Stephen, which His Majesty the Emperor of Austria sent him in his infancy."
"But, Monsieur le Comte," said the child, "I have many others besides that!"
"Yes, monseigneur; but you do not wear them any longer."
"Why?"
"Because they have been abolished."
Poor child! it was not the orders that had been abolished; but his fortune which had fallen.
At that age, the Duc de Reichstadt was perfectly beautiful, with great blue eyes and rose-leaf complexion, and long, fair, curly hair falling on to his shoulders. All his movements were full of grace and prettiness; he spoke French with the accent peculiar to Parisians. He had to learn German, and it was a great business and a daily and hourly struggle and difficulty.
"If I speak German," he said, "I shall not be French any more."
However, the Duc de Reichstadt was obliged to resign himself to learn M. de Metternich's tongue, and it was the one he constantly spoke when he had learned it with the princes of the Imperial family.