Memoirs of the Duchesse de Dino (Afterwards Duchesse de Talleyrand et de Sagan), 1836-1840
length Palmerston, worried and impatient, is said to have settled the
business. There is a strong feeling in favour of war; Guizot, however,
still believes in peace, but he writes that as a matter of fact a mere
spark, a blow given to a sailor, would be enough to fire the most
terrible war in the world."
_Umkirch, August 26, 1840._--Yesterday when I was half-way from Baden
on the road here a formidable storm burst, and we were obliged to take
shelter in a barn; hailstones fell as big as nuts. Notwithstanding the
delay I arrived at six o'clock in the evening. The Grand Duchess had
kindly sent her horses to meet me at Friburg. When I arrived Herr von
Schreckenstein told me I should find her in bed, where she had been
with a chill since the evening before.
The new lady-in-waiting, Frau von Sturmfeder, a widow who seems to be
about fifty years old, with pleasant manners, took me to the Duchess.
I found her very feverish, but no less talkative than usual; very
exasperated by her invalid state, and nearly as much by the arrival of
Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, who was paying her an unexpected visit.
After half an hour Princess Marie took me to dinner. The large
assembly room and the dining-room are in a separate building, a
hundred yards away from the castle; nothing could be more
inconvenient; after rain and without goloshes it would be impossible
to get there.
I already knew Umkirch. I did not care for it in past times, nor does
it please me any better now. The main residence is small and the rooms
are low; mine, however, which is on the first floor, has a fine view
of the mountains.
At dinner all the guests were assembled--that is to say, Princess
Marie; Duke Bernard, with his _aide-de-camp_, old Madame de Walsh, who
is here on a visit, though her days of official service are over; her
son and daughter-in-law, the Baroness von Sturmfeder; Herr von
Schreckenstein; Fräulein Bilz, a little hunchbacked music-mistress;
and M. Mathieu, the French painter, who is giving lessons to Princess
Marie. After dinner I went back to the invalid, and stayed with her
until tea-time. She seems delighted to see me. She continues very
anxious to see her daughter married, and has just had an offer from
Prince Hohenlohe; he, however, was thought to be not sufficiently
distinguished, and his request has been refused; the old Count of
Darmstadt would also be ready to marry her, but he is thought to be
too old and too ugly. There is an idea that Prince Frederick of
Prussia, the Prince of Düsseldorf, exhausted and wearied by the
extravagance of his wife, will procure a divorce, and will then turn
his thoughts to Princess Marie, who would be quite ready to take him.
Such is the desire at this moment. They would like me to send a good
account of the Princess to Berlin.
Very little interest is shown in Louis Bonaparte, whom they would like
to see confined in a fortress.
Madame de Walsh, who is a friend of the Abbé Bautain, told me that he
had just been summoned to Paris by M. Cousin and by the new
Archbishop; there is apparently a proposal to form a faculty for
advanced theological study, with M. Bautain at the head of it. He is
certainly an intelligent and talented man, but not entirely reconciled
to Rome. Hot-headed and ambitious, his relations with his bishop have
long been strained; he has not that readiness to submit upon points of
doctrine which is inherent in Catholicism and the foundation of its
permanency. His appointment will therefore arouse some mistrust among
the clergy, and not without reason. I shall hear the truth of the
whole matter at Paris from the Abbé Dupanloup.
The Duke of Saxe-Weimar, though heavy in appearance, is not without
common sense and learning. To my great astonishment I found him a
strong supporter of the house of Orléans; he asserted his strong
affection for the Duchesse d'Orléans, his niece, and entrusted me with
a letter for her. He is very anti-Russian and anti-English, and went
so far as to say that if war should break out the King of the Low
Countries ought to make common cause with France. He is at this moment
on the unattached list, and is provisionally established at Mannheim,
whence he is very anxious to make a journey to Paris.
The Grand Duchess and Princess Marie knew all about the presents and
the trousseau given by Russia to Princess Marie of Hesse. The Emperor
gave her two rows of pearls with a sapphire clasp, supposed to be
worth two hundred thousand francs; the Empress gave her a bracelet to
match; and her _fiancé_, the Grand Duke, gave her his portrait framed
in diamonds and a parasol adorned with emeralds and pearls, together
with maps of the Russian Empire and views of St. Petersburg nicely
bound, and, lastly, the present left by the will of the late Empress
Marie to her grandson's future wife, which is a Sévigné in three
pieces, each as large as a breastplate.
_Lunéville, August 27, 1840._--I left Umkirch this morning, and spent
fourteen hours in traversing a long road which is made longer by the
pass over the mountains. I crossed the Vosges by the Col du Bonhomme.
Many factories and workshops give some life and animation to the
country, which is sometimes bright and lively. Vegetation is poor and
the outlines of the hills too monotonous.
_Vitry-sur-Marne, August 28, 1840._--I left Lunéville at seven o'clock
this morning, stopped at Nancy for two and a half hours, and arrived
here at ten in the evening, which may be called good going.
_Ay, August 30, 1840._--On my road here yesterday I stopped at
Châlons, where I met M. de La Boulaye, who was there for the session
of the General Council. I was very glad to see him; he is a pleasant
man in mind as well as character, and I think even more of the one
than of the other every day of my life. He gave me the Paris news
which he had heard from M. Roy, who had come straight from that
Babylon to preside over the Council-General of Marne. The night before
he left Paris he had seen the King, who talked upon the questions of
the day, and said: "Thiers is urging me to war, to which I reply:
'Very well, but the Chambers must be convoked.' He then answers: 'We
shall get nothing from this Chamber; it should be dissolved.' 'Oh, no,
my dear Minister; on that point I prefer to take the Chamber as I
find it and make the best of things.'"
M. Roy also said that the news of the ratification of the London
Treaty reached Paris on the 22nd, and was not published till the 24th.
During that time the terrible excitement on the Stock Exchange ruined
more than one broker, forced M. Barbet de Jouy to flee, enriched M.
Dosne, the father-in-law of M. Thiers, with seventeen hundred francs
and M. Fould with several millions. The latter has taken M. de
Rothschild's place in the confidence of the Ministry. The public
outcry was such that the Guardian of the Seals, M. Vivien, was obliged
to give orders for the information to be published. This information
will produce no effect, as is natural, but it shows that the scandal
has gone very far. It seems that in consequence the chief personage in
the Ministry has lost much ground in public opinion; he is thought to
have guided the diplomacy of the country very casually, and to have
concealed interesting news from the public in a most unusual way. The
whole of the manufacturing and speculating world is said to tremble at
the thought of war, and to exert a very strong influence upon the
public.
I reached here at about three o'clock in the afternoon in African
heat. I am glad to be back again in a warm climate, with its flowers,
its fruits, its beautiful nights, and its blue sky.
I have a letter from the Princesse de Lieven written from London on
August 22. She says: "General anxiety concerning the situation is
becoming apparent here. All goes well, or rather there is no anxiety
upon questions of foreign policy, however serious the complications
may be. French newspapers, and even the French military preparations,
are regarded with scorn, but at last the people are beginning to rub
their eyes; they are astonished to find that what is known as French
humbug may mean something, and that this something may be neither more
nor less than a general war, waged, as far as France is concerned,
with dreadful weapons--weapons which were wisely laid aside for ten
years, and which France will perhaps be forced to raise once more; in
short, uneasiness is spreading, and I cannot help seeing in the fact
the opening of the way to an understanding, in spite of the obstacles
which the sense of self-esteem may meet with on the road. This is my
point of view. My politics are concerned with my set of rooms,[121]
which I like and wish to keep. The Duke of Wellington loudly asserts
that he is Turkish, and more Turkish than anybody, but that Turkey
will not have peace with France, and that peace must be preserved
before all things. Leopold is greatly interested; he proposes to
return to Belgium. M. Guizot has been at Eu and Windsor; his present
life suits him, and he looks very well."
[121] The Princesse de Lieven had hired in the house recently
bought by M. de Rothschild in the Rue Saint-Florentin the
first-floor rooms, which the Prince de Talleyrand had occupied
for many years when he was in possession of this residence. The
Princesse thought that there she could recover the political
atmosphere which suited her taste. She stayed there until her
death in 1857.
My niece, the Countess of Hohenthal, who has been to Dresden to see
her uncle Maltzan when he went there from Königswarth, sends me some
news concerning the stay of the Empress of Russia in Saxony: "The
Empress of Russia has shown such coldness to the Saxon Court that the
King and Queen of Prussia, who have delighted everybody, have been
reduced to despair. She would not stay at Pillnitz, where many
preparations for her comfort had been made; she refused to use the
Court carriages, and went about the shops and streets like a
boarding-school girl, without the least sense of decorum. She refused
to dine at Court, and only looked in for a moment at a concert given
in her honour. The King of Prussia was ready to give the portfolio of
Foreign Affairs to my uncle Maltzan, but he preferred to retain his
post at Vienna. It is said that his refusal is due to the fact that he
is wildly in love with Princess Metternich."
_Paris, August 31, 1840._--Once again I am in this great Paris,
doubtless populous, and yet so empty for me. This morning at ten
o'clock I reached my little house,[122] which seems to me like a
pleasant little inn, only I am astonished by its small size, which
suits my habits and my tastes so little that I could certainly have
chosen nothing better in order to realise my intention of visiting
Paris only when absolutely obliged.
[122] The Duchesse de Talleyrand had bought a little house with a
court and garden at Paris in the Rue de Lille, No. 73, in the
year 1840. This house, which in size was a mere temporary abode,
was bought in 1862 by the Comtesse de Bagneux.
_Paris, September 3, 1840._--Yesterday I had a long visit from M.
Molé, who blames M. Guizot, and relates his infinite blunders with
great complacency; he blames M. Thiers, and draws a vivid picture of
his bumptiousness, his casual ways, and so on. Nor does the King
escape his criticism as regards the present crisis, which entirely
occupies all minds here. He says that the greatest swashbucklers are
dying with fear of war; that really people are ashamed and vexed
because they have been led astray and induced to regard as impossible
what, however, has happened, while they are angry at finding
themselves isolated when lasting alliances have been dangled before
their eyes. But amid the general panic certain points are so well