[20] An estate of the Prince de Ligne in France, and about which he had a lawsuit; the name of the estate is pronounced like cœurs (hearts), hence the Prince’s pun.
[21] The false Magic, a comic opera by Grétry.
[22] A pun on the word glace, which in French means either ice or a looking-glass.
[23] Monsieur and the Comte d’Artois.
VI
The two Princes journey to Berlin—Portrait of Frederick the Great—Journey to Saint Petersburg—Portrait of the Empress Catherine—Return journey through Poland—The Bishop’s residence at Werky—The Diet at Warsaw—The Indigénat—The return to Bel Œil.
The Prince had not spoken lightly when he said to his son that they would go to Poland for the indigénat.[24] In the midst of all the pleasures and amusements of Versailles he suddenly departed. “Family interests,” he says, “obliged me to undertake a long journey. My son Charles has married a pretty little Pole, but her family has given us paper in lieu of hard cash. Their claims were on the Russian Court; it was necessary to go and present them. In June 1780 I started for Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Berlin, Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, Cracow,—where I had much to do,—Mogylani,[25] Léopol, and Brunn,—where I was in love. I must not forget to add that I started from Paris and the Rue de Bourbon, from the house of the Duchesse de Polignac, who had just been confined,[26] and where I had dined with the Queen. I promised to return at the same hour in six months’ time, and ordered my livery coach and courier in consequence.”
The sum of money the Prince de Ligne claimed in the name of his daughter-in-law was considerable. It amounted to four hundred thousand roubles, which were well worth the trouble of recovering. However, we incline to the belief that these family affairs were merely a cloak for political designs; the journey was probably intended to carry on the preliminaries of a negotiation begun by Joseph II. and the Empress Catherine in their interview at Mohileff. The Prince started from Vienna, whither he had gone to receive his final instructions. His companions on the journey were his son Charles, and his friend the Chevalier de l’Isle.
“I made de l’Isle a colonel,” he says, “by simply saying when in Austria, Prussia, Poland, and Russia that he was one, and buying him a pair of epaulets. I was also obliged to knight him,” he adds, “in order to distinguish him in foreign parts from the Abbé of the same name.”[27]
The Princes started on their journey a year after the war of the Bavarian succession had ended. “This war entailed on the King of Prussia a large expenditure of men, horses, and money; it procured him an appearance of honesty and disinterestedness, and some political amenities, but it brought him no military honour, and caused him to entertain very bitter feelings towards us. Without any apparent reason the King forbade Austrian officers to enter his dominions without a special permit signed by him. The Austrian Court retaliated by making the same rule with regard to Prussian officers. This gave rise to mutual discomfort without reason or profit. Being of a confiding nature, I thought I could do without a permit, but the desire to have a letter from the great Frederick, rather than the fear of being badly received, induced me to write to him.”