Departure from Vienna.
Obliged to make my election, I decided at last for Gallicia, which
would conduct me to the country I preferred, namely, to Russia. I
flattered myself, that once at a distance from Vienna, all these
vexations, excited no doubt by the French government, would cease;
and that at all events, I might, if it was necessary, quit Gallicia,
and regain Bucharest by Transylvania. The geography of Europe, such
as Napoleon has constituted it, is but too well learned by
misfortune; the turnings which I was obliged to take to avoid his
power were already near two thousand leagues; and now at my
departure even from Vienna I was constrained to borrow the Asiatic
territory to escape from it. I departed, therefore, without having
received my Russian passport, hoping thereby to quiet the uneasiness
which the subaltern police of Vienna appeared to feel about the
presence of a female who was in disgrace with the emperor Napoleon.
I requested one of my friends to rejoin me, by travelling night and
day, as soon as the answer from Russia arrived, and I proceeded on
my road. I did very wrong in taking this step, for at Vienna I was
protected by my friends and by public opinion; I could there easily
address myself to the emperor or to his prime minister: but once
confined to a provincial town, I had only to do with the stupid
wickedness of a subaltern, who wished to make a merit with the
French government, of his conduct towards me; this was the method he
took.
I stopped for some days at Brunn, the capital of Moravia, where an
English colonel, a Mr. Mills, was detained in exile; he was a man of
the most perfect goodness and obliging manners, and according to the
English expression, altogether inoffensive. He was made dreadfully
miserable, without the least pretence or utility. But the Austrian
ministry is apparently persuaded that it will derive an air of
strength from turning persecutor; its counsellors are not mistaken;
and as was said by a man of wit, their manner of governing in
matters of police, resembles the sentinels placed upon the half
destroyed citadel of Brunn,--they keep a strict guard round the
ruins. Scarcely had I arrived at Brunn when all sorts of
difficulties were started about my passports, and those of my
companions. I asked permission to send my son to Vienna, to give the
necessary explanations upon these points. I was told that neither
myself nor my son would be allowed to go one league backwards. I
know not if the emperor, or M. de Metternich were informed of all
these absurd acts, but I encountered at Brunn, in the agents of
government, a dread of compromising themselves which appeared to me
quite worthy of the present French regime; and it must even be
admitted that when the French are afraid, they are more excusable,
for under the emperor Napoleon they run the risk of exile,
imprisonment, or death.
The governor of Moravia, a man in other respects very estimable,
informed me that I was ordered to go through Gallicia as quickly as
possible, and that I was forbid stopping more than twenty-four hours
at Lanzut, where I had the intention of going. Lanzut is the estate
of the princess Lubomirska, the sister of prince Adam Czartorinski,
marshal of the Polish Confederation, which the Austrian troops were
going to support. The princess Lubomirska was herself generally
respected from her personal character, and the liberal use which she
made of her splendid fortune; besides, her attachment to the house
of Austria was conspicuous, and although a Pole by birth, she had
never participated in the spirit of opposition which has always been
exhibited in Poland to the Austrian government. Her nephew and
niece, Prince Henry and the princess Theresa, with whom I had the
honor to be intimate, are both of them endowed with the most
brilliant and amiable qualities; they might no doubt be supposed to
entertain a strong attachment to their Polish country, but it was
then rather difficult to make a crime of this opinion, when the
prince of Schwarzenberg was sent at the head of thirty thousand men
to fight for the restoration of Poland. To what miserable shifts are
those princes reduced, who are constantly told that they must yield
to circumstances? it is proposing to them to govern with every wind.
The successes of Bonaparte excite the envy of the greater part of
the governors of Germany; they persuade themselves that they were
beat because they were too honest, whereas it was because they had
not been honest enough. If the Germans had imitated the Spaniards,
if they had said:--whatever be the consequences, we will not bear a
foreign yoke: they would still be a nation, and their princes would
not be dangling, I do not say in the anti-chambers of the emperor
Napoleon, but in those of all the persons on whom a ray of his favor
is fallen. The emperor of Austria and his intelligent companion
certainly preserve as much dignity as they can in their situation;
but this situation is so artificial in itself, that it is impossible
to give lustre to it. None of the actions of the Austrian government
in favor of French interests can be attributed to any thing but
fear; and this new muse inspires very sorrowful strains.
I tried to represent to the governor of Moravia, that if I was thus
hurried with so much politeness towards the frontier, I knew not
what would become of me, having no Russian passport, and that I
should be obliged, from inability to go either forward or backward,
to pass my life at Brody, a frontier town between Russia and
Austria, inhabited by Jews, who have settled there to carry on the
trade of carrying from the one empire to the other. "What you say
is very true," replied the governor, "but here is my order." For
some time past governments have found the art of inculcating that a
civil agent is subject to the same discipline as a military officer;
with the latter reflection is altogether forbidden, or at least
rarely finds a place; but one would have some difficulty in making
men responsible in the eye of the law, such as are all the
magistrates of England, comprehend, that they are not allowed to
have an opinion upon the order that is given them. And what is the
consequence of this servile obedience? If it had only the head of
the state for its object, it might still be considered proper in an
absolute monarchy; but during the absence of that head, or his
representative, a subaltern may abuse at his pleasure those measures
of police, the infernal inventions of arbitrary governments, and of
which real greatness will never make use.
I departed for Gallicia, and this time, I confess, I was completely
depressed; the phantom of tyranny followed me every where; I saw
those Germans, whom I had known so upright, depraved by the fatal
marriage, which seemed to have even altered the blood of the
subjects, as it had done that of their sovereign. I thought that
Europe existed only beyond the seas, or the Pyrenees, and I
despaired of reaching an asylum to my inclination. The spectacle of
Gallicia was not of a kind to revive any hopes of the destiny of the
human race. The Austrians have not acquired the art of making
themselves beloved by the foreign nations which are subject to them.
During the period they were in possession of Venice, the first thing
they did was to put down the Carnival, which had become in a manner
an institution, so long a time had elapsed since the Venetian
carnival was talked of. The rudest people of the monarchy were
selected to govern that gay city; no wonder therefore that the
nations of the south should almost prefer being pillaged by the
French to being governed by the Austrians.
The Poles love their country as an unfortunate friend: the country
is dull and monotonous, the people ignorant and lazy; they have
always wished for liberty; they have never known how to acquire it.
But the Poles think that they can and may govern Poland, and the
feeling is very natural. The education however of the people is so
much neglected, and all kind of industry is so foreign to them, that
the Jews have possessed themselves of the entire trade, and make the
peasants sell them for a quantity of brandy the whole harvest of the
approaching year. The distance between the nobility and the
peasantry is so immense, the contrast between the luxury of the one,
and the frightful misery of the other is so shocking, that it is
probable the Austrians have given them better laws than those which
previously existed. But a proud people, and the Poles are so even in
their misery, does not wish to be humbled, even when they are
benefited, and in that point the Austrians have never failed. They
have divided Gallicia into circles, each of which is commanded by a
German functionary; sometimes a person of distinction accepts this
employment, but it is much more frequently a kind of brute, taken
from the subaltern ranks, and who in virtue of his office commands
in the most despotic manner the greatest noblemen of Poland. The
police, which in the present times has replaced the secret tribunal,
authorizes the most oppressive measures. Now let us only imagine
what the police can be, namely, the most subtle and arbitrary power
in the government, entrusted to the rude hands of the captain of a
circle. At every post-house in Gallicia there are to be seen three
descriptions of persons who gather round travellers' carriages: the
Jew traders, the Polish beggars, and the German spies. The country
appears exclusively inhabited by these three classes of men. The
beggars, with their long beards and ancient Sarmatian costume,
excite deep commiseration; it is very true that if they would work
they need not be in that state; but I know not whether it is pride
or laziness which makes them disdain the culture of the enslaved
earth.
You meet upon the high roads processions of men and women carrying
the standard of the cross, and singing Psalms; a profound expression
of melancholy reigns upon their countenance: I have seen them, when
not money, but food of a better sort than they had been accustomed
to was given them, turn up their eyes to heaven with astonishment,
as if they considered themselves unfit to enjoy its bounty. The
custom of the common people in Poland is to embrace the knees of the
nobility when they meet them; you cannot stir a step in a village
without having the women, children, and old men saluting you in this
manner. In the midst of this spectacle of wretchedness you might see
some men in shabby attire, who were spies upon misery: for that was
the only object which could offer itself to their eyes. The captains
of the circles refused passports to the Polish noblemen, for fear
they should see one another, or lest they should go to Warsaw. They
obliged these noblemen to appear before them every eight days, in
order to certify their presence. The Austrians thus proclaimed in
all manner of ways that they knew they were detested in Poland, and
they separated their troops into two equal divisions: the first
entrusted with supporting externally the interests of Poland, and
the second employed in the interior to prevent the Poles from aiding
the same cause. I do not believe that any country was ever more
wretchedly governed than Gallicia was at that time, at least under
political considerations; and it was apparently to conceal this
spectacle from general observation that so many difficulties were
made in allowing a stranger to reside in, or even to pass through
the country.
I return to the manner in which the Austrian police behaved to me to
hasten my journey. In this road it is necessary to have your
passport examined by each captain of a circle; and every third post
you found one of the chief towns of the circle. They had put up
placards in the police offices of all these towns that a strict eye
must be kept on me as I passed through. If it was not for the
singular impertinence of treating a female in this manner, and that
a female who had been persecuted for doing justice to Germany, one
could not help laughing at the excess of stupidity which could
publish in capital letters measures of police, the whole strength of
which consists in their secrecy. It reminded me of M. de Sartines,
who had formerly proposed to give spies a livery. It is not that the
director of all these absurdities is, as some say, devoid of
understanding: but he has such a strong desire to please the French
government, that he even seeks to do himself honor by his
meannesses, as publickly as possible. This proclaimed inspection was
executed with as much ingenuity as it was conceived: a corporal, or
a clerk, or perhaps both together, came to look at my carriage,
smoking their pipes, and when they had gone the round of it, they
went their way without even deigning to tell me if there was any
thing the matter with it; if they had done that, they would have
been at least good for something. I made very slow progress to wait
for the Russian passport, now my only means of safety in the
circumstances in which I was placed. One morning I turned out of my
road to go and see a ruined castle, which belonged to the princess
Lubomirska. To get to it, I had to go over roads, of which, without
having travelled in Poland, it is impossible to form an idea. In the
middle of a sort of desert which I was crossing alone with my son, a
person on horseback saluted me in French; I wished to answer him,
but he was already at a distance. I cannot express the effect which
the sound of that dear language produced upon me, at a moment so
cruel. Ah! if the French were but once free, how one would love
them! they would then be the first themselves to despise their
allies. I descended into the court yard of this castle, which was
entirely in ruins. The keeper, with his wife and children, came to
meet me, and embraced my knees. I caused them to be informed by a
bad interpreter, that I knew the princess Lubomirska; that name was
sufficient to inspire them with confidence; they had no doubt of the
truth of what I said, although I travelled with a very shabby
equipage. They introduced me into a sort of hall, which resembled a
prison, and at the moment of my entrance, one of the women came into
it to burn perfumes. They had neither white bread nor meat, but an
exquisite Hungarian wine, and every where the wrecks of magnificence
stood by the side of the greatest misery. This contrast is of
frequent recurrence in Poland: there are no beds, even in houses
fitted up with the most finished elegance. Every thing appears
sketched in this country, and nothing terminated in it; but what one
can never sufficiently praise is the goodness of the people, and the
generosity of the great: both are easily excited by all that is good
and beautiful, and the agents whom Austria sends there seem like
wooden men in the midst of this flexible nation.
At last my Russian passport arrived, and I shall be grateful for it
to the end of my life, so great was the pleasure it gave me. My
friends at Vienna had succeeded at the same time in dissipating the
malignant influence of those who thought to please France by
tormenting me. This time I flattered myself with being entirely
sheltered from any farther trouble; but I forgot that the circular
order to the captains of the circles to keep me under inspection,
was not yet revoked, and that it was only direct from the ministry
that I had the promise of having these ridiculous torments put an
end to. I thought, however, that I might venture to follow my first
plan, and stop at Lanzut, that castle of the princess Lubomirska, so
famous in Poland for the union of the most perfect taste and
magnificence. I anticipated extreme pleasure from again seeing
prince Henry Lubomirska, whose society, as well as that of his
amiable lady, had made me pass at Geneva many agreeable moments. I
proposed to myself to remain there two days, and to continue my
journey with great speed, as news came from all quarters that war
was declared between France and Russia. I don't quite see what there
was in this plan of mine so dreadful to the tranquillity of Austria;
it was a most singular idea to be jealous of my connection with the
Poles, because they served under Bonaparte. No doubt, and I repeat
it, the Poles cannot be confounded with the other nations who are
tributary to France: it is frightful to be obliged to hope for
liberty only from a despot, and to expect the independence of one's
own nation only from the slavery of the rest of Europe. But finally,
in this Polish cause, the Austrian ministry was more to be suspected
than I was, for it furnished troops to support it, while I only
consecrated my poor forces to proclaim the justice of the cause of
Europe, then defended by Russia. Besides, the Austrian ministry, in
common with all the governments in alliance with Bonaparte, has no
longer any knowledge of what constitutes opinion, conscience, or
affection: the one single idea which they retain, the inconsistency
of their own conduct and the art with which Napoleon's diplomacy has
entangled them, is that of mere brute force; and to please that they
do every thing.