‘Translations?’
‘Of tragedies,’ answered Giustina.
‘The tragedies of Racine, I suppose?’
‘I beg your majesty’s pardon, I have translated from the English.’
The eye-witnesses of this meeting say that when the Emperor received this answer he turned on his heel and left the high-born lady standing there.
The final state of Giustina’s mind was somewhat contradictory, for her frankly democratic dreams had faded away, yet there remained an unlimited indulgence for the most contradictory opinions which were sometimes expressed in her presence, together with the greatest indignation against those who judged Venice by modern standards, whether they were Venetians or foreigners. She seemed to make it her duty to prevent anything from disturbing the ghost of the defunct Republic.
When Chateaubriand made his first visit to Venice
1806.
he had the bad taste to write an article in the Mercure de France, from which I translate a few extracts:—