Among the presents which I received from the Imperial family was a miniature of the young archduchess, whose life I saved, and which I at once despatched by a safe messenger to Marshal Marmont, engaging him to have a copy of it made and the original returned to me. I concluded that circumstances must have rendered this impossible, for I never beheld the portrait again, although I heard of it among the articles bequeathed to the Duc de Reichstadt at St. Helena. Maria Louisa was, at that time, very handsome; the upper-lip and mouth were, it is true, faulty, and the Austrian-heaviness marred the expression of these features; but her brow and eyes were singularly fine, and her hair of a luxuriant richness rarely to be seen.
Count Palakzi, my young Hungarian friend, who had scarcely ever quitted my bedside during my illness, used to jest with me on my admiration of the young archduchess, and jokingly compassionate me on the altered age we lived in, in contrast to those good old times when a bold feat or a heroic action was sure to win the hand of a fair princess. I half suspect that he believed me actually in love with her, and deemed that this was the best way to treat such an absurd and outrageous ambition. To amuse myself with his earnestness, for such had it become, on the subject, I affected not to be indifferent to his allusions, and assumed all the delicate reserve of devoted admiration. Many an hour have I lightened by watching the fidgety uneasiness the young count felt at my folly; for now, instead of jesting, as before, he tried to reason me out of this insane ambition, and convince me that such pretensions were utter madness.
I was slowly convalescing, about five weeks after the amputation of my leg, when Polakzi entered my room one morning with an open letter in his hand. His cheek was flushed, and his air and manner greatly excited.
‘Would you believe it, Tiernay,’ said he, ‘Stadion writes me word from Vienna, that Napoleon has asked for the hand of the young archduchess in marriage, and that the emperor has consented.’
‘And am I not considered in this negotiation?’ asked I, scarcely suppressing a laugh.
‘This is no time nor theme for jest,’ said he passionately; ‘nor is it easy to keep one’s temper at such a moment. A Hapsburgher princess married to a low Corsican adventurer! to the——’
‘Come, Polakzi,’ cried I, ‘these are not the words for me to listen to; and having heard them, I may be tempted to say, that the honour comes all off the other side, and that he who holds all Europe at his feet ennobles the dynasty from which he selects his empress.’
‘I deny it—fairly and fully deny it!’ cried the passionate youth. ‘And every noble of this land would rather see the provinces of the empire torn from us, than a princess of the Imperial House degraded to such an alliance!’
‘Is the throne of France, then, so low?’ said I calmly.
‘Not when the rightful sovereign is seated on it,’ said he. ‘But are we, the subjects of a legitimate monarchy, to accept as equals the lucky accidents of your revolution? By what claim is a soldier of fortune the peer of king or kaiser? I, for one, will never more serve a cause so degraded; and the day on which such humiliation is our lot shall be the last of my soldiering’; and so saying, he rushed passionately from the room, and disappeared.