of all my reminiscences of vienna, and those i saw there, the most interesting are those connected with my introduction to prince metternich.
the present generation is perhaps hardly aware—or not habitually so—of the largeness of the space metternich occupied in the political world half a century ago. it is not too much to say that europe in those days thought as much about metternich as it does in these days about bismarck. of course the nature of the two men, as of the circumstances with which they were called on to deal, is far as the poles asunder. but on the european stage—not, of course, on the english—no actor of that day could compete with prince metternich in the importance of the position assigned to him by the world in general, as no actor of this day can with prince bismarck.
it is hardly enough to say, as is said above, that the nature of the two men was as far as the poles asunder, it was singularly contrasted. to both of them the salus patri? has ever been the suprema lex; and both of them, with increasingly accepted{329} wisdom; have sought that supreme end in the strengthening of the principle of authority. the history of human affairs has not yet sufficiently unfolded itself for it to be possible to say in this year of grace, 1887, whether they have done so with very different measures of success. but it is very curious to mark the similarity thus far existing between the two great ministers, chancellors, and statesmen, combined with such very marked (though perhaps in fact more or less superficial) differences between the two men.
prince bismarck has not been thought, even by those who have most thoroughly admired and applauded his fortiter in re, to have very successfully combined with it the suaviter in modo. the habit of clothing the iron hand with a velvet glove has not been considered to be among his characteristics. and these qualities were very pre-eminently those of the other all-powerful minister.
and the outward and bodily presentment of the two men was as contrasted and as expressive of this difference as that of two high-born gentlemen could well be. i saw recently in berlin a portrait by lembach of the great north german chancellor. it is one of those portraits which eminently accomplishes that which it is the highest excellence of every great portrait to achieve, in that it gives those who look at it with some faculty of insight not only that outward semblance of the man, which all can recognise, but something more, which it is the artist’s business to reveal to those who have not{330} the gift of reading it for themselves. that portrait, in common with most of those by the great masters in the art of portraiture, reveals to you, with an instantly recognised truthfulness, the interior and intrinsic nature of the man, with a luminousness which your own gaze on the living person would not achieve for you. i have also before me a portrait of prince metternich, made at the time of which i am writing by m. hervieu in crayons for my mother. and without of course claiming either for the artist or for the style of work such power as belongs to the portrait of which i have been speaking, i may say that it does very faithfully and expressively give you the presentment of a man in whom strength of will, tenacity of purpose, and high intellectual power are combined with suave gentleness of manner and an air of high-bred courtesy.
that is the man whose lineaments i look on in the sketch, and that is the man with whom i had many opportunities of being in company, and had on several occasions the high honour of conversing. whether it might be possible for a man devoid of all advantage of feature to produce on those brought into contact with him the same remarkable impression of dignity, the consciousness of high station, and perfection of courtly bearing combined with a pellucid simplicity of manner, i cannot say. but it is true that all this was rendered more possible in the case of metternich by great personal handsomeness. he was, of course, when i saw him, what may be called an old man—a white-headed old{331} man—but i doubt if at any time of his life he could have been a better-looking man.
my mother notes in her book on vienna and the austrians, that as we were returning from a dinner at the house of the english ambassador, sir frederic lamb, where we had just met metternich for the first time, i observed that he was just such a man as my fancy painted sir william temple to have been, and that she thought the illustration a good one. and i don’t think that any subsequent knowledge or reflection would lead me to cancel it.
he was a man of middle height, slenderly made rather than thin, though carrying no superfluous flesh; upright, though without the somewhat rigid uprightness which usually characterises military training to the last, however far distant the training time may have been; and singularly graceful in movement and gesture. he must have been a man of sound body and even robust constitution, but he did not look so at the time of which i am speaking. not that he had the appearance or the manner of a man out of health; but his extreme refinement and delicacy of feature seemed scarcely consistent with bodily strength. i remember a man—the old dr. nott spoken of in the first chapter of this book—who must have been about the same age with metternich when i first saw him, who equalled him in clear-cut delicacy and refinement of feature, who was certainly a high-bred gentleman, not altogether ignorant of the ways{332} and manners of courts, and who was emphatically a man of intellectual pursuits and habits. but there all equality and similarity between the two men ends. good, refined, elegant dr. nott produced no such impression on those near him as the austrian statesman did. there must have been therefore a something in the latter beyond all those advantages of person and feature with which he was so eminently endowed. and this “something” i take to have been produced partly by native intellectual power, and partly by the long possession of quite uncontested authority.
upon that first occasion i had no opportunity of hearing any word from metternich save one gracious phrase on being presented to him. he took my mother in to dinner. i was seated at a far distant part of the huge round table, where i could see, but not hear. and it was the fashion in vienna for people to leave the house at which they had been dining almost immediately after taking their cup of coffee. but before the party separated it had been arranged that we were to dine at the minister’s house on the following monday.
but all this time i have said no word of the princess metternich, who also dined with sir frederic lamb on that, to me, memorable day. in one word, she was one of the most beautiful women i ever looked on. she was rather small, but most delicately and perfectly formed in person, and the extreme beauty of her face was but a part, and not the most peerless part, of the charm of it.{333} to say that it sparkled with expression, and an expression which changed with each changing topic of conversation, is by no means enough. every feature of her face was instinct with meaning and intelligence. the first impression her face gave me was that of a laughter-loving and mutine disposition. but my mother, who saw much of her—more, of course, than it was possible for her to see of the chancellor (especially while the princess was sitting for her portrait by m. hervieu for her, during which sitting my mother, by her express stipulation, was always with her), and who learned to love her dearly, testified that there was much more behind; that her unbounded affection and veneration for her husband was not incompatible with the formation of thoughtful opinions of her own upon the questions which were then exercising the minds of politicians, as well as all the higher topics of human interest.
i dined at metternich’s table on the day mentioned above as well as on sundry other occasions; on some of which i was fortunate enough to make one of the little circle enjoying his conversation. of course the dinner parties at the prince’s house were affairs of much magnificence and splendour. but i had, on more than one occasion, the higher privilege of dining with him en famille.
on both and all occasions, whether it was a grand banquet of thirty persons or more, or a quite unceremonious dinner en famille, the prince’s practice was the same, and was peculiar.{334}
he did not in any wise partake of the spread before him. he had always dined previously at one o’clock. but he had a loaf of brown bread and a plate of butter put before him; and, while his guests were dining, he occupied himself with spreading and cutting a succession of daintily thin slices of bread and butter for his own repast.
victor emmanuel used similarly to dine in the middle of the day, and at his state banquets used to take no more active part than was involved in honouring them with his presence. but metternich, i think, would not have said what my friend g. p. marsh, the united states minister, once told me victor emmanuel said to him on one occasion. mr. marsh, as dean of the diplomatic body (it was before any of the great powers sent ambassadors to the court of the quirinal), was seated next to his majesty at table. innumerable dishes were being carried round in long succession, when the king, turning to his neighbour with a groan, said, “will this never come to an end?” i have no doubt marsh cordially echoed his majesty’s sentiments on the subject.
the words of men who have occupied positions in any degree similar to that of prince metternich are apt to be picked up, remembered, and recorded, when in truth the only value of the utterances in question is to show that such men do occasionally think and speak like other mortals! and my notebooks are not without similar evidences of gobemoucherie on my own part. but there is one subject on{335} which i have heard metternich speak words which really are worth recording. that subject was the emperor napoleon buonaparte.
of course on such a topic the austrian statesman might have said much that he was not at liberty to say; and there was also much that he might have said which could not have found place in one halfhour’s conversation. the particular point upon which i heard him speak was the celebrated interview, at which the emperor lost his temper because he could not induce austria to declare war.
metternich described the way in which the emperor, with the manners of the guard-room rather than those of the council-chamber, suddenly and violently tossed his cocked hat into the corner of the room, “evidently expecting that i should pick it up and present it to him,” said the old statesman; “but i judged it better to ignore the action and the intention altogether, and his majesty after a minute or two rose and picked it up himself.”
he went on to express his conviction that all this display of passion on the emperor’s part was altogether affected, fictitious, and calculated; and said that similar manifestations of intemperate violence were by no means infrequently used by the emperor with a view to produce calculated effects, and were often more or less successful.
it would be a great mistake to suppose that the most cynical observer could have detected the slightest shade of bitterness in the words or the manner of prince metternich. on that field of{336} battle at all events the honours did not fall to the share of napoleon. and his aged adversary spoke of the encounter with the amused pleasantry and easy smile of a veteran who recounts passages at arms in which his part has been that best worth telling.
but with a graver manner he went on to say, that the most unpleasant part of the circumstance connected with dealing with napoleon arose from the fact that he was not a gentleman in any sense of the word, or anything like one. of course the prince, with his unblemished sixteen quarterings, was not talking of anything connected with napoleon’s birth. and i doubt whether he may have been aware that napoleon buonaparte was technically gentle by virtue of his descent from an ancient tuscan territorial noble race. metternich, in expressing the opinion quoted, was not thinking of anything of the kind. he was speaking of the moral nature of the man. in these days, after all that has since that time been published on the subject, the expression of metternich seems almost like the enunciation of an accepted and recognised truism. nevertheless, even now the judgment on such a point, of one who had enjoyed (no, certainly not enjoyed, but we will say undergone) so much personal intercourse with the great conqueror, is worth recording.
my mother has given an account of the same conversation, which i have here recorded, in the second volume of her book on vienna and the{337} austrians. her account tallies with mine in all essentials (i did not read it—in this half-century—till after i had written the above sentences); but she relates one or two circumstances which i have omitted; and she apparently did not hear what the prince said afterwards about napoleon as a gentleman—or perhaps it was said upon another occasion, which i cannot assert may not have been the case.
one point of my mother’s narrative should not be omitted. metternich, observing that it was impossible for any human being to have heard what passed between him and napoleon, but that everybody had read all about it, said that savary relates truly the incident of the hat, which must have been told him by napoleon himself. this is very curious.
another amusing anecdote recounted by metternich one evening, when my mother and myself, together with only a very small circle of habitués were present, i remember well, and intended to give my own reminiscences of it in this place. but i find the story so well told by my mother, and it is so well worth repeating, that i will reproduce her telling of it.
“during the hundred days of napoleon’s extraordinary but abortive restoration, he found himself compelled by circumstances, bon gré mal gré to appoint fouché minister of police. about ten days after this arch-traitor was so placed, prince metternich was informed that a stranger desired{338} to see him. he was admitted, and the prince recognised him as an individual whom he had known as an employé at paris. but he now appeared under a borrowed name, bringing only a fragment of fouché’s handwriting, as testimony that he was sent by him. his mission he said was of the most secret nature, and in fact, only extended to informing the prince that fouché was desirous of offering to his consideration propositions of the most important nature. the messenger declared himself wholly ignorant of their purport, being authorised only to invite the prince to a secret conference through the medium of some trusty envoy, who should be despatched to paris for the purpose. the prince’s reply was, ‘you must permit me to think of this.’ the agent retired, and the austrian minister repaired to the emperor, and recounted what had passed. ‘and what do you think of doing?’ said the emperor.
“‘i think,’ replied the prince, ‘that we should send a confidential agent, not to paris, but to some other place that may be fixed upon, who shall have no other instructions but to listen to all that the frenchman, who will meet him there, shall impart, and bring us faithfully an account of it.’
“the emperor signified his approbation; ‘and then,’ continued the prince, ‘as we were good and faithful allies, and would do nothing unknown to those with whom we were pledged to act in common, i hastened to inform the allied sovereigns, who were still at vienna, of the arrival of the{339} messenger, and the manner in which i proposed to act.’ the mysterious messenger was accordingly dismissed with an answer purporting that an austrian, calling himself werner, should be at a certain hotel in the town of basle, in switzerland, on such a day, with instructions to hear and convey to prince metternich whatever the individual sent to meet him should deliver. this meeting took place at the spot and hour fixed. the diplomatic agents saluted each other with fitting courtesy, and seated themselves vis-à-vis, each assuming the attitude of a listener.
“‘may i ask you, sir,’ said the envoy from paris at length, ‘what is the object of our meeting?’
“‘my object, sir,’ replied the austrian, ‘is to listen to whatever you may be disposed to say.’
“‘and mine,’ rejoined the frenchman, ‘is solely to hear what you may have to communicate.’
“neither the one nor the other had anything further to add to this interesting interchange of information, and after remaining together long enough for each to be satisfied that the other had nothing to tell, they separated with perfect civility, both returning precisely as wise as they came.
“some time after the imperial restoration had given way to the royal one in france, the mystery was explained. fouché, cette revolution incarnée, as the prince called him, no sooner saw his old master and benefactor restored to power, than he imagined the means of betraying him, and accordingly despatched the messenger, who presented himself to prince{340} metternich. fouché was minister of police, and probably all the world would have agreed with him in thinking that if any man in france could safely send off a secret messenger it was himself. but all the world would have been mistaken, and so was fouché. the argus eyes of napoleon discovered the proceeding. the first messenger was seized and examined on his return. the minister of police was informed of the discovery, and coolly assured by his imperial master that he would probably be hanged. the second messenger was then despatched by napoleon himself with exactly the same instructions as the envoy who met him from vienna, to the effect that he was to listen to all that might be said to him, and when questioned himself, confess, what was the exact truth, that all he knew of the mission on which he came was that he was expected to remember and repeat all that he should hear.”
on the 30th of november in that year i witnessed the by far most gorgeous pageant i ever saw—for i was not in westminster abbey on the 21st of june, 1887—the installation of eleven knights of the golden fleece. as a pageant, nothing, i think, could exceed the gorgeous and historic magnificence of this ceremony; but no “kings of the isles brought gifts,” nor was the imperial body-guard composed of sovereign princes or their representatives. in significance, that show and all others such, even the meeting of the field of the cloth of gold itself, is eclipsed by the ever-memorable day which{341} england has just seen. but it was not only a very grand but a very interesting sight, the whole details of which may be found by those interested in such matters very accurately described in the volume by my mother which i have so often quoted.
on the very next day i saw another sight which i think it probable no subsequent sight-seer in vienna during all the half-century that has elapsed since that day has seen, or any will see in the future. it was a sight more monstrously contrasted with the scene i had yesterday witnessed than it could well enter into the human mind to conceive. it was a visit to the vast, long-disused catacombs under the cathedral church of st. stephen. it was then about sixty years, as i was told—now more than a hundred—since these vaults were used as a place of sepulture. here, as in many other well-known instances, the special peculiarities of soil and atmosphere prevent all the usual processes of decay, and the tens of thousands of corpses which have been deposited there—very many uncoffined and unshrouded during the visitation of the plague in 1713—have become to all intents and purposes mummies. they retain not only the form of human beings, but in many cases the features retain the ghastly expression which was their last when the breath of life left them. the countless forms, which never apparently from the day they were deposited there had been subjected to any sort of arrangement whatever, lay in monstrous confused heaps, mingled with shattered remains of coffins. the skin in{342} every case had become of the consistency of very thick and tough leather, not quite so thick as that used for the sole of a stout shoe, but a good deal thicker than what is generally used for the upper leather even of the stoutest. there was not the slightest disagreeable odour in any part of the vaults. in the course of a long life i have seen very many strange sights, but never any one to match that in weird strangeness and impressive horror. if any sight on earth merits the degraded epithet “awful,” it must be that of those fearsome catacombs.
what i have written here conveys but a very imperfect notion of all that we saw and felt during our progress through that terrible succession of vaults. but i abstain from chronicling the sights of this charnel-house for the same reason that i refrained from any attempt at describing the cloth of gold and the velvets and the silks and satins of the previous day. the detailed description of them may all be found in my mother’s book, in the fortieth chapter of which the reader so inclined may sup full of horrors to his heart’s content. i will content myself with testifying to the perfect accuracy and absence of exaggeration in the account there given.
my mother expresses disapproval of the authorities who permit such an exhibition, and she is very vague as to the means by which we obtained admission to it. nor does my memory furnish any clear information upon this point, but i have{343} a strong impression that it was all an affair of bribery, managed “under the rose” (what a phrase for such an exploit!) by backstairs influence in some way. i do not think that the first comer, with however large a fee in his hand, could have caused the door of that chamber of horrors to be opened to him. there are, it is true, sundry words and incidents in my mother’s account which seem to indicate that the showman guide, who attended us, was in the habit of similarly attending others; but i am persuaded that my mother was in error in supposing, if she did suppose, that to be the case. unquestionably the man was at home in the gruesome place, and well acquainted with all the parts of it, but i have reason to be persuaded that his familiarity with it arose simply from the habit of pillaging the remains of the coffins for firewood!
not long after this memorable expedition to the catacombs i received a communication from birmingham which rendered it necessary for me to leave vienna and turn my face homewards.
