The lady whose revelations in her Memoires about various royal and
princely personages furnished the contributors of "Society" papers with
a large amount of "copy" at the time of its publication, writes as
follows concerning Liszt's intimacy with Prince Lichnowsky in 1844:
"I had heard a great deal in Ratibor of mad Prince Felix Lichnowsky, who
lived at his neighbouring country seat, and who furnished an abundant
daily supply for the scandal-mongers of the town. Six years before that
time the prince had quitted the Prussian service, owing to his debts and
other irregularities, and had gone to Spain to evade his unhappy
creditors, and to offer his ward to the Pretender, Don Carlos. Three
years afterward he had returned from Spain with the rank of Carlist
brigadier-general, and now he lived in his hermitage, near Ratibor, by
no means a pious hermit. And then, one evening, shortly before the
commencement of the 'Letzter Waffengang,' when I was already dressed in
my costume, the prince stood before me behind the scanty wings of the
Ratibor stage, to renew his acquaintance with me. He had aged, his
checkered life not having passed over him without leaving traces; but he
was still the same elegant, arrogant libertine he was at Prague, of whom
a journalist wrote: 'Prince Felix Lichnowsky, like Prince Pueckler,
belongs to those dandies, roues, lions who attract the attention of the
multitude at any cost by their contempt of men, their triviality,
impudence, liaisons, horses, and duels; a kind of modern Alcibiades,
every dog cutting the tail of another dog.' Within the first five
minutes I learned from the prince's lips: 'My friend Liszt has lately
been living with me at my hermitage for several weeks, and we have led a
very agreeable life together.' Yes, indeed, in Ratibor, the people
related the wildest stories of this pasha life! The following forenoon
the prince invited us to a dejeuner a la fourchette at his 'hermitage,'
as he liked to call it. We inspected the park, which contained many fine
trees; I tried the glorious 'grand' which Liszt had consecrated. But I
was not to rise from the table without having had a new skirmish with my
prince from Prague--preux chevalier. The conversation turned about
Director Nachtigall, and suddenly Lichnowsky said roughly:
"'Just fancy, this Nachtigall had the impudence to call here and invite
my friend Liszt to play upon his miserable Ratibor stage. A Liszt, and
my guest, to play in Ratibor, and with a Nachtigall--unheard of! You may
imagine that I gave this Nachtigall a becoming answer.'
"The bit stuck in my mouth, and, trembling with indignation, I said
sharply:
"'My prince, am I not your guest, too? And do not I play in Ratibor, and
with a Nachtigall? If your friend Liszt had done nothing worse here than
play the piano in Ratibor he would not have degraded himself in any
way.'
"'Ah! the town gossip of Ratibor has your ear, too, I see!' Lichnowsky
said, with a scornful smile. 'But of course we are not going to
quarrel.'"
Caroline Bauer also relates in her Memoires the following anecdote about
Liszt and the haughty Princess Metternich:
"Liszt had been introduced to the princess and paid her a visit in
Vienna. He was received and ushered into the drawing-room, in which the
princess was holding a lively conversation with another lady. A
condescending nod of the head was responded to the bow of the
world-renowned artist; a gracious movement of the head invited him to be
seated. In vain the proud and spoiled man waited to be introduced to the
visitor, and to have an opportunity of joining in the conversation. The
princess quietly continued to converse with the lady as if Franz Liszt
were not in existence at all, at least not in her salon. At last she
asked him in a cool and off-hand manner:
"'Did you do a good stroke of business at the concert you gave in
Italy?'
"'Princess,' he replied coldly, 'I am a musician, and not a man of
business.'
"The artist bowed stiffly and instantly left.
"Soon after this Prince Metternich proved himself to be as perfect a
gentleman as he was a diplomatist. At Liszt's first concert in Vienna he
went to him and, entering the artist's room, cordially pressed his hands
before everybody, and, with a gracious smile, said softly:
"'I trust you will pardon my wife for a slip of the tongue the other
day; you know what women are!'"