WEIZCHEN
In former days nurses and waiting-women in the princely families were
themselves gentlewomen. It was rightly deemed all-essential for
children, only to come in contact with people of good breeding, that
they might never incur the danger of acquiring bad manners. It was thus
that the sister of General Weiz, a young and accomplished woman, became
my mother’s nurse soon after my grandmother’s death, and stayed on in
charge of the younger children for many years after my grandfather’s
second marriage. Later on, when these also were growing up, Fräulein
Weiz accompanied my mother to Neuwied, where she remained as housekeeper
for many years, and where we all grew much attached to her.
Weizchen, as she was always affectionately called in both families, was
young and very pretty when she entered the ducal household, blest
moreover with a very fine voice, which my grandmother had had carefully
cultivated, but which its possessor had never felt the slightest wish to
display on the stage or in the concert-room, contenting herself with the
pleasure her talent was able to bestow in a smaller circle. She soon
made herself beloved in her post in Biebric, but just at first my mother
was simply inconsolable at the parting with her dear old _bonne_, Mlle.
Clausel, by whom she had been petted and made much of since her birth,
and from whom she had just been separated. Weizchen’s beautiful voice
had therefore for the moment no charm for the little girl, although it
excited such general admiration, as would also at the present day the
singer’s magnificent red hair, that set off the dazzling whiteness of
her skin, but which was then looked upon with such disfavour, that she
was quite glad to hide it under a light sprinkling of powder, according
to prevailing etiquette, whenever she appeared in low dress, with the
children, in the drawing-room.
As far back as my recollections go, Weizchen was always an inmate of my
paternal home, having very soon followed my mother there after the
latter’s marriage. From the very first my mother was accompanied by
Louise von Preen, as lady-in-waiting, and very amusing tales were told
afterwards of the home-sickness of the two young things--barely eighteen
years of age either of them--in their new surroundings. When my mother
in a moment of loneliness rushed to Louise’s room for comfort, she found
the poor girl seated among her boxes, which she had not yet had the
heart to have unpacked, crying her eyes out. They sobbed together,
sighing as they gazed at the distant hills, beyond which lay their old
home. And yet that home was not in reality so very far away, and at the
present day could easily be reached in a couple of hours, though to
their romantic feelings they seemed to be pining for it in distant
exile! Very soon, however, the young bride was cheered by a visit from
her brothers, and after that gay days began for Neuwied, the castle
often resounding with the happy voices and ringing laughter of the merry
young people assembled within its walls.
But it was from Weizchen that we loved to hear anecdotes of my mother’s
childhood. When she was only three years old her life was saddened by
the loss of the little brother, just a year older than herself, who had
been her constant companion. During his illness it was the poor little
boy’s one delight to make his sister dance to the accompaniment of a toy
harmonica he played, propped up among the pillows in his bed, and
Weizchen said it was the prettiest sight to see the little girl, whose
movements had already all the lightness and natural grace which
afterwards earned for her the sobriquet of the Rhineland Fairy at the
court of Berlin, dancing away indefatigably for the pleasure of the poor
sick child, whose eyes wore a most pathetic expression as they watched
her. Sad and lonely the little girl was, when the brother had gone. The
lives of little princes were indeed lonely enough at the best of times
in those days, for once out of the nursery they saw but little of one
another, not even having their meals in common, but each child brought
up quite apart from the rest with a special tutor or governess, with
whom the repasts were taken, _tête-à-tête_, and to whose tender mercies
the pupil was somewhat ruthlessly abandoned. In my own early childhood
we still experienced the inconveniences of this system of education, but
the transition to more rational and humane treatment of the young was
already taking place, and children even of the highest rank now-a-days
lead happy natural lives, associating with others of their age and
constantly seeing their parents, of whom they no longer stand in dread.
Quite early we came to table with our parents, but that was very
uncommon, and in an older generation still would have been thought
impossible. Of course in very many cases the instruction children
received suffered from the lack of supervision, and some of these young
people grew up deplorably ignorant, notwithstanding very fair natural
abilities. My highly gifted uncle Maurice, for instance--artist,
musician, and adept at surgery--capable it seemed of learning anything
to which he turned his attention, was yet never able to pen the shortest
note without making some mistake in spelling. But he painted and
composed, as a mere dilettante it is true, but with very decided talent,
and with the same grace and brilliancy that he brought into everything
else, whether losing his money to his male friends at cards, or creating
havoc among female hearts at the Viennese Court, whither he had been
sent at the age of seventeen, and where he soon showed himself
proficient in the various accomplishments supposed to be befitting a
young man of his rank, very handsome and well-endowed endowed with
worldly goods. He was my mother’s idol, and made the little sister his
confidant--even of his love affairs--at a very early age! Very early
indeed he had begun practising his seductive arts on the other sex, if
it be true that at the age of ten, seeing one of his mother’s young
maids-of-honour in tears, he sidled up to her in his most caressing,
most coaxing way, looking up in her face with all the melting
tenderness of which his big blue eyes were capable, and murmuring
persuasively:--“Do not cry, Louise; you know I shall always be your
friend!”
But it was a little later, when the gay handsome youth had really begun
to turn female heads, that his confidences to the younger sister must
often have assumed a very amusing character. Fräulein Lavater once found
her little pupil dissolved in tears, and it was only after reiterated
promises of secrecy on the part of the governess, that the child at last
sobbed out:--“Maurice is in love--in love! And she whom he loves can
never be his, for she is a married woman!” That Fräulein Lavater had
some difficulty in restraining her laughter, may be easily imagined; but
she succeeded, and had moreover the good sense and good feeling to
respect her promise and keep the story of this comic episode to herself,
until a time when its being made known could no longer be prejudicial to
anyone. She was rewarded for her discretion by being also made the
recipient of some of the young man’s confidences--glimpses of the
innumerable adventures of which he was the hero in the gay Austrian
capital.
The idolising affection my mother bestowed on her elder brother, was
felt for her in turn by her younger brothers and sisters. She was never
tired of playing with them and of telling them the wonderful stories
which she made up for their amusement. The announcement of their
step-sister’s engagement and approaching marriage was received with
characteristic comments by these little ones. The nine-year-old Helene
wept bitterly, affirming that it was utterly impossible for her to live
without Marie; Nicholas, a year younger, but always practical and
reasonable, consoled himself with the thought of the beautiful gardens
and fine collection of stuffed animals of which his sister would become
possessor by her marriage to a Prince of Wied; and little Sophie,
frankly indignant, exclaimed:--“It is too bad! I will tell mamma at
once, and see if she will allow such a thing!”
Those were bright and happy days that dawned on Neuwied, soon after my
parents’ marriage, when my mother, herself in the heyday of youth, led
the revels, supported by her young brothers, the gayest of the gay.
Dances, shooting-parties, amateur theatricals, followed one another in
rapid succession, and the woods echoed with song and laughter of the
happy light-footed young people who scampered through them from morn
till night. All this has been told in a family chronicle, written and
illustrated by my father himself, and carefully preserved in our
archives. But the story does not go beyond the year 1847; there it
suddenly breaks off. The festival was over; the lights had all burnt
out; the fun and frolic had come to an end, and a great cloud of sadness
seemed to descend on us and envelop everything. My mother’s lameness;
Uncle Maurice’s death; the dangerous illness of my brother Wilhelm; all
these misfortunes, occurring almost simultaneously, plunged our whole
household in gloom, and the gaiety and merry-making of those early days
was never to return.
Then began, with our journey to Heidelberg attended with so much
discomfort and disappointment, the long series of those pilgrimages to
consult the most renowned oracles of medical science, which entirely
occupied our lives during several years. The celebrated Dr. Chelius,
whose advice we now sought, certainly did restore my brother to health
by the treatment he prescribed, but to my mother he could do no good at
all. With the illogical prejudice of childhood, I took a great dislike
to the famous doctor on that account, looking upon him as a most cruelly
disposed individual, who was putting my mother to great pain for his own
pleasure, but an anecdote I heard of him in later years invested him
with a certain interest in my eyes and made me regret my hasty judgment.
It appears that when, after a very hard struggle in his youth, Dr.
Chelius had at last become celebrated, he one day received a message
from King Maximilian of Bavaria, to the effect that he was the latter’s
son, and that the King wished to know if he could do anything for him.
With proper spirit Chelius replied, that having done without a father
for all these years, he thought that he could get on without one very
well in future!
We spent the year ’48 in Heidelberg, coming in for all the excitement of
the Revolution, with which we children were vastly pleased; it amused us
to see bands of men wearing red caps, and armed with scythes, go past
shouting and singing, and above all we were delighted with the exploits
of the “Free Companions,”--volunteers who apparently found our garden
the most convenient place for their rifle-practice. We felt no alarm,
even when someone, who was just then standing close beside me, kindly
helping me to arrange my doll’s wig, was struck on the forehead,
fortunately, as it happened, by a spent bullet, which glanced off
without inflicting any real injury.
But we were warned at last that we had better leave without further
delay, and the return journey was not accomplished without peril. The
name of the demagogue, Hecker, was scrawled everywhere in the dust that
covered our travelling-carriage, on the box of which my father,
disguised as a servant, sat beside the coachman. In Mannheim the
carriage was surrounded by a noisy group of men in red caps, who tore
open the door, and contemptuously exclaiming:--“Nothing but women!”
banged it again. When we reached Biebrich, we found the castle empty.
Everyone had left in haste, and we had to go to an hotel to spend the
night. This was a cold and comfortless reception indeed--no one
expecting us, or even seeming to know or care who we were--in the place
where a welcome as warm as it was ceremonious usually awaited
us--servants lining the steps, sentries presenting arms, and the Duke,
surrounded by his courtiers, advancing to meet his sister and her
family. The contrast was so complete and chilling, I might well feel
shocked and hurt and dazed, as if the solid ground had suddenly given
way under my feet, to find myself so small, so unimportant, so utterly
unrecognised--and just in my dear Biebrich, the paradise of my
childhood, where, as in Wiesbaden, I had spent my happiest days, made
much of and enjoying the nearest approach to being petted and spoilt
that I had ever known. This sensation of bewilderment, as of one walking
in a topsy-turvy world, was carried to its height by the familiar
address of the chamber-maid in the inn, whom I watched preparing our
beds. Altogether I received a lesson on the insignificance of worldly
honours and distinction, and perhaps even on the instability of all
mundane things, more to the point in teaching me humility than any of my
mother’s homilies on the subject.
A great change came over our household after the year ’48, whose events
had swept away half our revenues, our style of living was much
simplified, the little court disbanded, even some of the servants--among
them my mother’s first waiting-maid--dismissed, and everything
reorganised on a much smaller, more modest scale. And to what purpose
had been henceforth pomp and lavish expenditure, in a house in which
sorrow and sickness had taken up their abode! The diminished retinue,
the cessation of open-handed hospitality, those were as naught beside
the weightier cares that combined to crush the gay spirits of the
revellers, and in the first place, of the young châtelaine herself. The
death of her beloved brother Maurice was a blow from which my mother
never recovered, and the shock much accelerated the morbid symptoms that
had just begun to declare themselves. Never shall I forget the
heartrending expression on her face, as bathed in tears, she made her
appearance in the nursery to tell us children, that the bright,
handsome, gallant Uncle Maurice was dead! So small was I at the time,
that I could not help finding a little consolation in the black and
black and white striped dresses made for me on this occasion--it was a
change from the perpetual white! But the gloom of mourning did not pass
away; my mother’s health had begun to fail. I remember her listless
gait, how she seemed each day to find greater difficulty in going about,
holding on to every piece of furniture for support, and then how, all at
once, she could no longer walk at all. It seemed doubly hard that this
should be her fate, who had been the gayest of the gay, blithe as a lark
and lightfooted as a gazelle, out-tiring all her partners in the dance,
and out-stripping every one of her young companions in their mad races
through the woods, bounding up and down the hills as if she scarcely
touched the ground!
Throughout those mirthful days, in their maddest pranks and most
reckless fun, it was always to Weizchen that the young folk turned for
help to carry out their most extravagant devices. They knew they might
count on her to aid and abet them in every harmless plot, indeed her own
inventive genius sometimes furnished invaluable hints, as in the
memorable birthday reception prepared by my mother for Uncle Maurice, in
retaliation for a practical joke he had played on her a short time
before. Remembering his sister’s fondness for the Nassau bonbons, a
sweetmeat her father’s cooks excelled in preparing, the young man had
sent her a magnificent box of these, which she handed round with delight
to her guests one evening, only discovering by the wry faces or
half-smothered ejaculations of disgust of those who partook of the
confectionery, that the interior of these well-sugared delicacies by no
means corresponded with their tempting outside! It was to punish him for
this sorry trick--a little too much resembling, it must be owned, the
“merrie jestes” with which Louis XI is credited--that my mother planned
the following revenge. During the gala dinner being given in my uncle’s
honour, a servant suddenly made the announcement that the three Graces
begged for a moment’s audience, to present their congratulations to the
Prince. Amused and smiling the young man left his seat and advanced to
the door, where he was met by a trio, resembling the Three Furies, or
the witches in “Macbeth”--anything rather than the vision of feminine
loveliness to have been expected. Three of the most gaunt and
ill-favoured washerwomen of the district had been selected by the
malicious Weizchen, crowned with roses, and clad in snow-white
draperies, through which their bony necks and red arms looked only the
more frightful, and primed with champagne in order that they might enact
their part with the greater zest, they surrounded their victim, whose
short-sight prevented him from seeing them distinctly until at quite
close quarters. Poor Maurice, whose susceptibility to female charms was
only equalled by his aversion for every form of ugliness, promptly
turned and fled; but the ladies, nothing daunted, pursued and again
drew him into their midst, executing a wild bacchanalian dance while
they tried to imprison and bind fast the fugitive with the long green
garlands they carried. At last, breaking away from his tormentors, and
jumping over chairs and tables which he upset in his flight, the young
man sank, breathless and exhausted, behind a sofa in one corner of the
room, whilst at a sign from my mother, the Mænads vanished. The hero of
the adventure only came forth from his hiding-place, when a few minutes
later Weizchen entered the room, to ask my mother demurely if she were
content with the way her orders had been executed. Then, springing to
his feet, he seized Weizchen round the waist, and kissed her so
heartily, that all present who were not in the secret believed that this
also was a part of the masquerade.
I should never have finished if I were to try to tell of all the amusing
scenes that then took place, of some of which I retain a faint
recollection, while others are only known to me by hearsay. One of the
beautifully illuminated pages of my father’s “Chronicle of Monrepos,”
depicts the mock solemnities of the reception awaiting my mother and
himself on one of their visits to the castle of Braunfels. The customary
bevy of white-robed maidens, deputed to hand my mother a bouquet with an
address of welcome, was on this occasion represented by all the elderly
gentlemen present in the castle--the Prince’s old bachelor uncles and
their friends--who attired themselves in the traditional white muslin
frocks and wreaths of roses, and with well-simulated bashfulness
recited verses in honour of the visitor.
The amateur theatricals too, what delight they gave, and how many
diverting incidents sprang from these performances! One of them must
find a place here. An aunt of mine, whose height would very well enable
her to pass for a man, had agreed to enact a male character in some
comedy, and for this she was to wear a suit of my father’s clothes,
stipulating, however, that neither he nor any other of the opposite sex
were to know of this,--the impersonation was to remain a profound secret
to the audience. But unfortunately on the evening in question, as my
father sat quietly smoking with a few friends, his valet appeared, and
without the slightest circumlocution, bluntly requested “the loan of the
brocaded breeches, for Her Serene Highness, Princess Solms!”
Inextinguishable laughter broke forth from all present, and I really
doubt whether my aunt’s success in the part itself, which she now threw
up, would have been as great, or have provoked such hilarity.
In nearly all such episodes Weizchen was mixed up. It was to her that
one turned, in every emergency, and not merely in our own household, but
on both sides of the family, she came to be looked upon as a sort of
institution, something belonging to us all, and firmly rooted in the
past, but no less indispensable to the present. The Duchess of
Oldenburg, my mother’s eldest sister, never came back to the Rhineland
without at once sending for Weizchen, in order to revive old memories,
and live bygone scenes over again with her, who was herself a piece of
family history, the repository of so many a family secret.
It is on the lighter side of her nature that I have chiefly dwelt, on
the easier duties of those happier days. But in the hour of trial,
Weizchen proved herself no less true and devoted, standing firmly at her
post, as unwearied in her nursing, in her care and attendance on my
mother, as she had formerly been in contributing to every scheme of
amusement. All her best qualities were shown during those years of
sorrow, and it was perhaps the large share of the burden which she took
upon her own shoulders, by which she was herself prematurely aged and
saddened. She lived with us till I was about fourteen, and then retired
with a pension to rooms assigned her in grandmamma’s pretty house. Her
memory is bound up with some of the happiest recollections of my
childhood, and still at times I fancy I hear her voice ring out in one
or other of the dear old melodies--the plaintive ballad of “Emma and
Eginhard,” or Mozart’s graceful “Lullaby,” which she sang so often to us
in the bygone days, in the old home by the Rhine.