People were merely talking about a new entertainment, namely, a sleighing party. The snow, which lay thick, and the sharp frost, which seemed to have set in for good during the last few days, favoured that kind of amusement, borrowed from the stern climate of St. Petersburg and Moscow. The Austrian Court made immense preparations, and the magnificence to be displayed was to rival that of the imperial carrousel.
Robert Lord Viscount Castlereagh, Marquess of Londonderry.
Pending those preparations, the fêtes and amusements announced for the month of January suffered no interruption. The fêtes which, on account of the serious turns of the discussions, were to languish, seemed, on the contrary, to be more brilliant than ever. At that period Lord Castlereagh gave a great gala-ball. At Vienna, all the entertainments bore their particular stamp. Generally the private balls given by the illustrious diplomatic personages, though apparently modelled on the same pattern, were dissimilar in their general physiognomy or in their minute details. One might have called Lord Castlereagh’s a ‘vanity ball,’ for if on the one hand it was very sumptuous, on the other it was serious, like pride itself, and cold, like overweening pretension. Yes, one really felt inclined to say that the pride and the pretension which Lady Castlereagh had displayed in attaching to her brow the Garter of her husband had followed her into the gilded and brilliant halls of her residence, redolent with the scent of many flowers. The sumptuousness of the supper failed to thaw the iciness of the affair. As for the host, according to his habit amidst all those animated fêtes where everything was given over to pleasure, he seemed pre-occupied and smitten with care. Even when his lordship danced, he seemed to be bent upon giving his serious thoughts the slip by the accelerated movement of his legs, disporting himself in an Irish jig or a Scotch reel. Did Lord Castlereagh really endeavour to get away from the disappointments of an insidious and miscarried policy? Did he already ponder the last scene of the political drama of his life, when the stoicism of Cato, added to the sombre results of his spleen, made him escape by suicide from tardy and by then useless regrets? History has as yet not given the key to that enigma.
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.
This unique scene of the Congress seemed a composition of thousands of pictures forming a general view. Each separate actor was a complete novel, and the lives of most of them would have offered material for long poems. As may be easily imagined, extraordinary personalities were not wanting in this motley gathering; their presence did not constitute the least conspicuous singularity.
Among the types not easily forgotten by the visitors to Vienna in 1814–15 stood first and foremost M. Aïdé. He was one of those cosmopolitans who make up for the lack of genuine credentials and ascertained pedigree by an overweening amount of assurance. His career was a problem and his fortune an enigma. Born at Smyrna, he came to Vienna years before the Congress and while very young. His Eastern costume and the title of Prince du Liban, which he flourished somewhat ostentatiously about then, attracted some notice. At the time of the Congress he had become more modest; he had discarded both the Mussulman dress and the princely title. He was to be met with everywhere; no drawing-room or reception seemed complete without him. Very amiable and obliging, he apparently belonged to no camp or party, though perfectly at home in every one. It was, nevertheless, noticed that he was a guest at Lord Castlereagh’s more frequently than elsewhere, and it was tacitly admitted that his lordship favoured him for the sake of his private secretary, between whom and M. Aïdé there had formerly existed some commercial relations at Smyrna.