Teplitz, July 15, 1840.—I am starting for Carlsbad, where I shall see my two sisters this evening, from whom I have been separated for sixteen years. This unduly long absence has changed my habits, and I have lost touch with their interests; so I begin the day with some emotion.
Carlsbad, July 16, 1840.—Fifteen hours' travelling to-day, during which I did not stop for a moment. I had to cover twenty-six leagues, continually going uphill or down. After Teplitz the country is pretty as far as Dux, the castle of Count Wallenstein, where Casanova wrote his memoirs; after that the country becomes extremely dull. It was ten o'clock when I arrived. My sisters were sitting opposite one another playing patience. Jeanne, the Duchess of Acerenza, welcomed me very naturally; Pauline, the Princess of Hohenzollern, with some embarrassment, which immediately communicated itself to me. We only talked of indifferent matters, and they gave me tea. I then went to a house opposite, where my sister Jeanne has hired a room for me.
Carlsbad, July 17, 1840.—The Duc de Noailles writes from Paris telling me that he dined with M. Thiers at the house of the Sardinian Ambassador,[ [106] and had a long talk with him. He found M. Thiers profoundly interested in Africa, willing to spend vast sums there, to wage a great war and keep up an army of eighty thousand men, and to build the continuous lines which have been so largely discussed, to surround the whole plain of the Mitija.[ [107] He attempts to prove that these efforts will produce marvellous results in two or three years: the real possession of Africa, a large colonising movement, and a splendid port on the Mediterranean. The Duc de Noailles also tells me that Madame de Lieven is at London, and is greatly pleased with her reception.
Another correspondent says: "The King does not seem to come to terms with his Ministry, although he is said to be on the best footing with the several members of it. Having lost a game, the King has now to win one, and is waiting his opportunity patiently. M. Guizot still seems to be the fashion in England.[ [108] He bets at the racecourse, and has won two hundred louis. Surely M. Guizot on the turf is one of the strangest anomalies of our age!"
Yesterday my sisters took me to see the various springs and the shops, which are very pretty. I then dined with them at three o'clock, my brother-in-law, Count Schulenburg, being present.[ [109] Then we went for a drive along the valley, which greatly resembles the valley of Wildbad. There I found some old acquaintances—the Prince and Princess Reuss-Schleiz, the Count and Countess Solms, son of the old Ompteda by her first marriage, the Countess Karolyi, called Nandine, the old Löwenhielm, with his wife, whose first married name was Frau von Düben, Liebermann, and an old Princess Lichenstein. I returned home at ten o'clock, rather wearied with this succession of faces.
Carlsbad, July 18, 1840.—Yesterday I went to pay a call to the Countess of Björnstjerna, who lives in the same house as myself. She is starting for Hamburg this morning, where she will hear whether she is to meet her husband at Stockholm or London. Her eldest son is marrying the only daughter of her sister, Countess Ugglas, who died some years ago. It has been pleasant to meet some one to remind me of London, the best time of my life, even in the form of this little Björnstjerna. I have also been to see an old man of eighty years who always used to live with my aunt, the Countess of Recke, and whom I had missed at Dresden, where I hoped to find him. He usually lives there in a house the use of which was bequeathed to him by my aunt, and which reverts to myself after the death of this poor old man. We both grew sad over the memories of my good aunt.
After dinner I went for a drive with my sisters along a pretty road cut out of the mountain-side, and visited a china factory, where there were some pretty things. Pottery has been a comparatively widespread industry in Bohemia for some time, but remains much behind the Saxon manufacture.
Carlsbad, July 19, 1840.—Yesterday I spent very much as the former day, and as I shall probably spend every day of my stay here. I always wake up early, write till nine o'clock, get up and dress. At ten o'clock I go to my sisters, and stay talking to them till midday. I then pay some necessary calls, and return home to read. I go back to my sisters at three o'clock for dinner, then take them for a drive in a carriage that I have hired. At six o'clock they sit in front of their door to see the people go past. I stay with them for a time, and then return to my room, and finally go back to them at eight o'clock for tea.
My sister Hohenzollern has brought all the curious letters that had belonged to my mother, and which my sister the Duchesse de Sagan had seized. She proposed to keep a third of them, and we therefore divided them. My share contains the letters of the late King of Poland,[ [110] of the Emperor Alexander, of the brothers and sisters of Frederick the Great, Goethe, the Emperor Napoleon to the Empress Joséphine, the great Condé, Louis XIV., and in particular a letter from Fénelon to his grand-nephew whom he called Fanfan.[ [111] This letter is enclosed in a paper on which the Bishop of Alais, M. de Bausset, has written a signed note testifying to the authenticity of this letter, so that there are two autographs in one.
Carlsbad, July 20, 1840.—I went to mass yesterday in an enormous crowd, for this country is essentially Catholic. The little chapels, the great crucifixes, the ex-votos, scattered about the mountains, are all visited on Sundays by the people, who leave small candles and flowers there. I went to visit two of these little shrines, which increase the beauty of the landscape, apart from their religious meaning.