After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819

by William Edward Frye

The pipe which has this sedative effect on political effervescence, has a still stronger similar effect, it is said, on the passion of love; hence the German husbands are proverbially sluggish. But the ladies, none of whom smoke, preserve their romanticity during their whole lives, and would, if they had their choice, give their hands to foreigners, who are more attentive to them than their own countrymen.

The young ladies here are, 'tis said, extremely romantic in their ideas of love and capable of the strongest attachment. They think that any thing should be pardoned to sincere passion. It has been related to me that some time ago a young man, who was devotedly attached to a girl, on the father refusing his consent to the marriage, stabbed the girl and then himself. An immense number of young ladies attended their funeral, to throw flowers over the grave of the two lovers. Assuredly the young man was only a noviciate in smoking.

Everybody must, I think, admire the Saxon women. They are in general handsome and have fine shapes; they are warm hearted and affectionate; and they are almost universally well educated. Indeed the whole Saxon people are so amiable that foreigners find themselves so happy here that they are unwilling to quit the country. Very many form matrimonial attachments. In short, this people fully merit the epithet a celebrated English traveller (Sherlock)[127] has bestowed on them when he called them a herrliches Volk.

DRESDEN, Jan. 8d, 1819.

I have made an excursion to Meissen which lies on the same bank of the river with the old town of Dresden at a distance of twelve miles. As there is no road on the left bank of the river to Meissen, you must cross the river twice to arrive at it, viz., once at Neustadt and once at Meissen, the road being on the right bank. I put up at the Hirsch (Stag), a very comfortable inn. I went to Meissen with a view of seeing the Russian contingent pass the Elbe on their return from France, which has been evacuated in consequence of the arrangement at Aix-la-Chapelle. They appeared a fine body of men, clothed à la française and seemed in high spirits. They seem to have imbibed liberal ideas during their residence in France, for some of the officers who dined at the inn at Meissen spoke very freely on passing events.

The return of the Saxon contingent is expected in Dresden in a day or two, and there will no doubt be a great deal of rejoicing among the military and their relations to meet their old comrades and friends; and potent libations of Doppel Bier will no doubt be made. Meissen is said to be famous for the beauty of its women and the few that I saw in the streets did not contradict this reputation.

DRESDEN, Jany. 5th, 1819.

We have had several balls here. Waltzing is the only sort of dance in fashion at Dresden, excepting now and then a Polonaise.

I have witnessed an interesting spectacle in the Grosser Garten. The pond or basin is completely frozen over, and a Russian Prince, Gallitzin, who is here, has fitted up a sort of Montagnes Russes as they are called. Blocks of ice are placed on an inclined plane to the top of which you mount by means of a staircase; and then, seating yourself in a sort of sledge, you slide down the inclined plane with immense velocity. The Prince often persuades a lady to sit on this sleigh on his lap and descend together; and this no doubt serves to break the ice of many an amorous intrigue. This construction of the Prince Gallitzin has contributed to fill the Grosser Garten with the beau monde, every day from twelve to two o'clock; so that you see we are in no want of amusements at Dresden.

The King frequently attends the theatre; he is a tall, fine looking man, and is usually dressed in the uniform of his Foot-Guards, which is scarlet faced with yellow. The poor King has taken much to heart the injustice with which he has been treated by the coalition, and no doubt will not easily forget the ill-bred and insolent letter of Castlereagh to the Congress, wherein he said that the King of Saxony deserved to lose his dominions for adhering to Napoleon. But how the King of Saxony could act otherwise I am at a loss to find: so little could he possibly deserve this treatment for adhering to Napoleon, that had his advice been taken in the year 1805, the French would never have been able to extend their conquests so far, nor to dictate laws to Germany. But Lord Castlereagh seems to have either never known or wilfully forgotten the anterior political conduct of Saxony. Had he been more versed in German affairs, or had studied with more accuracy the events passing before his eyes, it would have been a check upon his arrogance; but here was a genuine disciple of the Pitt school (that school of ignorance and insolence), who sets himself up as the moral regenerator of nations and as a distributor of provinces, while he is grossly ignorant of the political system of the country on whose destinies he pretends to decide so peremptorily. Had Castlereagh paid attention to what was going forward in Germany in 1805, he would have seen too that of all powers Prussia was the very last who with any shadow of justice could pretend to an indemnification at the expense of Saxony. In the year 1805, the King, then Elector of Saxony, strongly advised the Prussian Cabinet to forget its ancient rivalry and jealousy of Austria and to coalesce with the latter power, in resisting the encroachments of Napoleon, in order to prevent the latter from attempting the overthrow of the whole fabric of the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire, with the intricacy and fragility of which no prince in Germany was better acquainted than the Elector of Saxony. Prussia however was still reluctant to engage in the contest and gave no support whatever to Austria. Napoleon defeats the Austrians at Austerlitz and dictates peace. Six months after the Prussian Cabinet, excited by a patriotic but rash and ill-calculating party, has recourse to arms, not from any generous policy, but because she sees herself outwitted by Napoleon, who refuses to cede to her Hanover in perpetuity. Prussia begins the war and calls on Saxony, who always moved in her orbit, to join her. To the Elector of Saxony this war (in 1806) appeared then ill-timed and too late; but with that good faith, nevertheless, which invariably characterized him, he remained faithful to his engagement and furnished his quota of troops to Prussia. The Saxon troops fought nobly at the battle of Jena. This battle annihilates all the power of Prussia, and lays Saxony entirely at the mercy of the Conqueror; but Napoleon not only treats Saxony with moderation, but with rare generosity; he does not take from her a single village, but aggrandizes her and gives to her the Duchy of Warsaw and to her Sovereign the title of King. Saxony becomes in consequence a member of the confederation of the Rhine and is bound to support the Protector in all his wars offensive and defensive. The Russian war in 1812 begins: every German state, Austria and Prussia in the number, furnishes its contingent of troops. The campaign is unsuccessful, the climate of Russia having annihilated the French Army, and Napoleon returns to Paris. Saxony is now exposed to invasion and harassed by the incursions of the Cossacks. The King of Saxony is perplexed in what manner to act, so as to ensure to his subjects that protection which was ever uppermost in his thoughts; feeling however with his usual sagacity that every thing would ultimately depend on the dispositions of Austria, he repairs himself to Prague, in order to have an interview with one of the Austrian ministers, and to sound that Cabinet. Austria however still vacillates and declines stating what her intentions are. Napoleon returns from Paris, defeats the Prussians and Russians at Bautzen and re-occupies all Saxony. He then writes to the King of Saxony to desire him to return immediately to his dominions and to fulfil his engagements. What was the King to do? Austria still refusing to declare herself, was he to sacrifice his crown and dominions uselessly to the vengeance of Napoleon, to please the Emperor of Russia and King of Prussia, who for aught he knew might patch up a peace the next day? and this was the more probable from their having been beaten at Bautzen, which circumstance also might with equal probability induce Austria to coalesce with, instead of against France. All the other members of the Confederation of the Rhine remained staunch to Napoleon and poured their contingents into Saxony; was he to be the only unfaithful ally and towards a Monarch who had always treated him with the strongest marks of attachment and regard? and when neither Russia nor Prussia were likely to give him the least assistance? He therefore returned to Dresden; and Napoleon took up his grand position the whole length of the Elbe, from the mountains of Bohemia to Hamburgh, thus covering the whole of Saxony with his army. Austria however at last comes forward to join the coalition. Fortune changes; the Saxon troops, tired of beholding their country the perpetual theatre of war and trusting to the generosity of the Allies, go over to them in the middle of a battle, and decide, thereby, the fate of the day at Leipzig. The King of Saxony is made a prisoner, and then he is punished for what he could not help. Why was he to be punished more than any other member of the Confederation of the Rhine? One would think that the seasonable defection of his troops at Leipzig should have induced the Allies to treat him with moderation. The other States of the Confederation did not abandon Napoleon until after he was completely beaten at Leipzig; and Austria refused to accede to the coalition until a carte blanche was given her to help herself in Italy.