1844
_Vienna, January 4, 1844._--I am packing up, saying goodbye and making
the thousand little arrangements which precede departure. I shall
leave Vienna very well satisfied with my stay and very grateful for
the extreme kindness and courtesy that every one has shown me.
_Sagan, January 24, 1844._--The day before yesterday I went out in a
sledge to a shooting-party; two hundred and eighty head of game were
killed. Yesterday I visited a very fine reformatory which is the chief
house of its kind for this part of Silesia. It is in Sagan itself, in
a house which was formerly a Jesuit convent. It is a well-arranged
establishment conducted upon Christian principles by Baron von
Stanger. He is a widower; in grief at the loss of a wife whom he
adored, he was impelled by his religious feelings to devote himself to
this work of redemption. The clergyman subordinate to him is a
converted Jew, a kind of Abbé of Ratisbon, most zealous and
conscientious and imbued with the missionary spirit. The results so
far obtained are most satisfactory.
My life here is simple, quiet and I trust useful. I have also good
news of all to whom I am sincerely attached, and no more physical
trouble than I can well bear. To feel oneself entirely useless, to
have no serious object in life, or to be paralysed by excessive
physical suffering, are I think, the only conditions under which
complaints to God are justifiable. I do not mention the pain of
surviving those whom one loves whole-heartedly, for that is above all
things a matter of feeling, to use the admirable expression of Madame
de Maintenon. Besides, the continuous exercise of one's whole energies
in relieving others or helping one's kith and kin is a great means of
consolation.
_Berlin, February 23, 1844._--The sect of the Pietists which is the
scourge of Prussia, is doing more harm here than even atheists could
produce. There is no doubt that Prussia, like the rest of Europe, is
agitated by revolutionary feeling and that Silesia is in particular
disturbed by these movements, the consequence of a mixture of
populations. These hostilities and rivalries are fomented by the
Pietists in a most unchristian way.
I have seen Princess Albert of Prussia again. She looks better since
her tour in Italy. I was surprised to see her sprightly and cheerful
air, as her position is the more difficult, since her father's death
has deprived her of her strongest support.
I hear from Vienna that Madame de Flahaut is patronising the young
Hungarians who are causing trouble at the Diet of Pressburg; that she
praises their opposition speeches and encourages them to come to her
house. At Vienna the authorities are surprised, but their feeling will
soon pass that stage. Really, this woman has not a single diplomatic
fibre in the whole of her dry anatomy.
_Berlin, March 19, 1844._--In honour of the Mecklenburg and Nassau
families and of the Hereditary Grand Duke of Russia, we have had some
carnival festivities upon a small scale which have caused me a certain
amount of trouble and weariness and left me rather tired. The Duke of
Nassau is a most dismal looking person and I think an unpleasant
person in every respect; he looks like a regimental surgeon. The young
Duchess has an admirable figure and beautiful arms and complexion, but
she has red hair, with the coarse chubby face of a doll; she is simple
and very kind. The Hereditary Grand Duke of Russia is better in health
but by no means improved in looks. Princess Augustus of Cambridge, who
married the Crown Prince of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, exactly resembles
what her aunt the Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg must have been at her
age. In a few days we shall assume mourning here for the King of
Sweden who is certainly dead.
_Berlin, March 24, 1844._--I was in possession of the information
which you have sent me[113] with regard to the fact that Charles X.
always did justice to M. de Talleyrand in reference to the interview
between them during the night of the 16th and 17th of July, 1789. The
King had said as much to the old Duchesse de Luynes, and I was with my
uncle when she came to repeat the words of Charles X. to him. Since
1830 M. de Vitrolles has become so entirely a stranger to me that I do
not quite see how I could ask him to testify to the nature of this
interview, though he repeats his facts as he had them from the mouth
of Charles X. himself.[114]
[113] Extract from a letter.
[114] The Memoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand contain an account
of the scene to which these memoirs here allude. In the Appendix
to this volume the reader will find the story, the truth of which
is attested by M. de Vitrolles himself, as it is given in the
Appendix to the second volume of the _Memoirs of M. de
Talleyrand_.
_Berlin, March 30, 1844._--I am busy with farewell visits and the
usual preparations and troubles of departure. I shall spend the
greater part of April at Sagan, and shall start for Paris about the
20th, as I wish to be there for my daughter's confinement. I shall
then spend a few days at Rochecotte and return to Germany about the
end of June.
I have been very busy of late and have been obliged to leave several
letters unanswered. Wide separation enables action to be taken which
close neighbourhood would make difficult. The late M. de Talleyrand
used to think a great deal of this system, and with every reason. He
used to reproach me for the want of skill which I displayed in
referring and replying to every statement, in my extreme fondness for
argument and discussion, my inability to pass over difficult points,
and my excessive insight into indiscretions and requirements. I used
to tell him that in his position and at his age silence in certain
respects was taken as a hint or a warning, and therefore permissible,
but that I was too young and by no means sufficiently independent to
adopt such habits. At that time I was right, but as youth is a fault
which can be cured every day, in spite of itself, I have found for
some time that the moment has come when I may treat as non-existent
that which troubles or wearies me.
* * * * *
Here the memoirs are interrupted for three consecutive years. The
Duchesse de Talleyrand started for France in the month of April 1844,
to be with the Marquise de Castellane when she was confined of her
son. The journey did not prove satisfactory, as she encountered
difficulties with her French relations when she wished to secure their
consent to the establishment of the fief of Sagan in favour of her
eldest son. M. de Bacourt also disapproved of her proposal to settle
in Germany, and the correspondence which has provided material for
these chronicles became much less frequent. It was not resumed with
any regularity until the end of 1847, after Rochecotte had been given
to the Marquise de Castellane, and the Marquis de Castellane, the
Duchesse de Talleyrand's son-in-law, had died. In consequence of this
event the Duchesse de Talleyrand returned once more to France.