Residence at Vienna.
I arrived at Vienna on the 6th of June, very fortunately just two
hours before the departure of a courier whom Count Stackelberg, the
Russian ambassador, was dispatching to Wilna, where the emperor
Alexander then was. M. de Stackelberg, who behaved to me with that
noble delicacy which is so prominent a trait in his character, wrote
by this courier for my passport, and assured me that within three
weeks I might reckon on having an answer. It then became a question
where I was to pass these three weeks; my Austrian friends, who had
given me the most amiable reception, assured me that I might remain
at Vienna without the least fear. The court was then at Dresden, at
the great meeting of all the German princes, who came to present
their homage to the emperor of France. Napoleon had stopped at
Dresden under the pretext of still negociating there to avoid the
war with Russia, in other words, to obtain by his policy the same
result as he could by his arms. He would not at first admit the king
of Prussia to his banquet at Dresden; he knew too well what
repugnance the heart of that unfortunate monarch must have to what
he conceives himself obliged to do. It is said that M. de Metternich
obtained this humiliating favor for him. M. de Hardenberg, who
accompanied him, made the remark to the emperor Napoleon, that
Prussia had paid one third more than the promised contributions. The
emperor turning his back to him, replied: "An apothecary's bill,"--
for he has a secret pleasure in making use of vulgar expressions,
the more to humble those who are the objects of it. He assumed a
sufficient degree of coquetry in his way of living with the emperor
and empress of Austria as it was of importance to him that the
Austrian government should take an active part in his war with
Russia. In a conversation with M. de Metternich, I have been assured
that he said, "You see very well that I can never have the least
interest in diminishing the power of Austria, as it now exists; for,
first of all, it suits me that my father-in-law should be a prince
of great consideration: besides, I have more confidence in the old
than in the new dynasties. Has not General Bernadotte already taken
the side of making peace with England?" And in fact, the Prince
Royal of Sweden, as will be seen in the sequel, had courageously
declared himself for the interests of the country which he governed.
The emperor of France having left Dresden to review his armies, the
empress went to spend some time at Prague with her own family.
Napoleon himself, at his departure, regulated the etiquette that was
to subsist between the father and the daughter, and one may
conjecture that it was not very easy, as he loves etiquette almost
as much from suspicion as from vanity, in other words, as a means of
isolating individuals among themselves, under the pretence of
marking the distinction of their ranks.
The first ten days, which I passed at Vienna, passed unclouded, and
I was delighted at thus finding myself again in a pleasing society,
whose manner of thinking corresponded with my own; for the public
opinion was unfavorable to the alliance with Napoleon, and the
government had concluded it without being supported by the national
assent. In fact, how could a war, the ostensible object of which was
the re-establishment of Poland, be undertaken by the power which had
contributed to the partition, and which still retained in its hands
with greater obstinacy than ever the third of that same Poland?
Thirty thousand men were sent by the Austrian government to restore
the confederation of Poland at Warsaw, and nearly as many spies were
attached to the movements of the Poles in Gallicia, who wished to
have deputies at this confederation. The Austrian government was
therefore obliged to speak against the Poles, at the very time that
it was acting in their cause, and to say to her subjects of
Gallicia: "I forbid you to be of the opinion which I support." What
metaphysics! they would be found very intricate, if fear did not
explain every thing.
The Poles are the only nation, of those which Bonaparte drags after
him, that create any interest. I believe they know as well as we do,
that they are only the pretence for the war, and that the emperor
does not care a fig for their independence. He has not even been
able to refrain from expressing several times to the emperor
Alexander his disdain for Poland, solely because she wishes to be
free: but it suits his purposes to put her in the van against
Russia, and the Poles avail themselves of that circumstance to
restore their national independence. I know not if they will
succeed, for it is with difficulty that despotism ever gives
liberty, and what they will regain in their own cause, if
successful, they will lose in the cause of Europe. They will be
Poles, but Poles as much enslaved as the three nations upon whom
they will no longer depend. Be that as it may, the Poles are the
only Europeans who can serve under the banners of Napoleon without
blushing. The princes of the Rhenish Confederation think to find
their interest in it by the loss of their honor; but Austria by a
combination truly remarkable, at once sacrifices in it both her
honor and her interest. The emperor Napoleon wished the archduke
Charles to take the command of these thirty thousand men; but the
archduke fortunately saved himself from this insult; and when I saw
him walking alone in a brown coat, in the alleys of the Prater, I
recovered all my old respect for him.
The same subaltern diplomatist who had so unworthily advised the
abandonment of the Tyrolese, was entrusted, during the absence of
Prince Metternich from Vienna, with the police of foreigners, and he
acquitted himself as you shall see. The first few days he allowed me
to remain undisturbed; I had formerly passed a winter at Vienna, and
been very well received by the emperor and empress, and by the whole
court: it was, therefore, rather awkward to tell me that this time I
would not be received, because I was in disgrace with the emperor
Napoleon; particularly as this disgrace was partly occasioned by the
praises which I had bestowed in my book on the morality and literary
genius of the Germans. But what was much more awkward was to run the
risk of giving the least umbrage to a power, to which it must be
confessed, they might very well sacrifice me, after all they had
already done for it. I suppose, therefore, that after I had been
some days at Vienna, the chief of the police received some more
exact information of the nature of my situation with Bonaparte, and
in consequence thought it necessary to watch me; and this was his
method of inspection. He placed spies at my gate in the street, who
followed me on foot, when my carriage drove slowly, and got into
cabriolets in order not to lose sight of me, when I took an airing
into the country. This method of exercising the police appeared to
me to unite both the French machiavelism, and German clumsiness. The
Austrians have persuaded themselves that they have been beat,
because they had not so much wit as the French, and that the wit of
the French consists in their police system; in consequence they have
set about making a methodical espionage, organizing that ostensibly
which should it all events be concealed; and although destined by
nature to be very honest people, they have made it a kind of duty to
imitate a state which unites the extremes of jacobinism and
despotism.
I could not help, however, being uneasy at this espionnage, when
the least common sense was sufficient to see that flight was now my
only object. They tried to alarm me about the arrival of my Russian
passport; they pretended that I might have to wait several months
for it and that then the war would prevent me from passing. It was
easy for me to judge that I could not remain at Vienna after the
French ambassador returned to it; what would then become of me? I
intreated M. de Stackelberg to give me some means of passing by
Odessa, to repair to Constantinople. But Odessa being Russian, a
passport from Petersburg was equally necessary to go there; there
therefore remained no road open but the direct one to Turkey through
Hungary; and this road passing on the borders of Servia was subject
to a thousand dangers. I might still reach the port of Salonica by
going across the interior of Greece; the archduke Francis had taken
this road to get into Sardinia; but the archduke Francis is a good
horseman, and of that I was scarcely capable: still less could I
think of exposing so young a person as my daughter to such a
journey. I was obliged, therefore, although the idea was most
painful to me, to determine on parting with her, and sending her by
the way of Denmark and Sweden in the charge of persons in whom I
could confide. I concluded at all hazards an agreement with an
Armenian to take me to Constantinople. From thence I proposed to
pass by Greece, Sicily, Cadiz, and Lisbon, and however hazardous was
this voyage, it offered a fine perspective to the imagination. I
addressed the office for foreign affairs, directed by a subaltern
during the absence of M. de Metternich, for a passport which would
enable me to leave Austria by Hungary, or by Gallicia, according as
I might go to Petersberg or to Constantinople. I was told that I
must make my election; that they could not give me a passport to go
by two different frontiers, and that even to go to Presburg, which
is the first city of Hungary, only six leagues from Vienna, it was
necessary to have an authority from the committee of the States.
Certainly I could not help thinking that Europe, which was formerly
so open to all travellers, is become, under the influence of the
emperor Napoleon, like a great net, in which you get entangled at
every step. How many restraints and shackles there are upon the
slightest movements! And can it be conceived that the unhappy
governments which France oppresses, console themselves for it by
making the miserable remains of power which has been left them, fall
heavy in a thousand ways upon their subjects!