Memoirs of the Duchesse De Dino (Afterwards Duchesse de Talleyrand et de Sagan), 1841-1850

This marriage in fact took place at Berlin on May 18, 1850.

229

The Bund was the alliance of all the German Sovereigns against a foreign enemy. It lasted until the war of 1866.

230

Administrative Council of the Federal State.

231

The Duke of Connaught born at Windsor on May 1, 1850.

232

On May 22, 1850, Sefeloge, a retired artillery sergeant, shot at the King as he was starting for Potsdam to spend the summer there. The King was tripped up by one of his spurs, and as he stumbled the bullet missed his head and merely grazed his right arm between the wrist and the elbow.

233

The Czar had then gone there.

234

The Sänger-Vereine are two choral societies founded centuries ago in Germany.

235

This monument was erected in memory of Eugène Beauharnais, who was made Duke of Leuchtenberg by King Ludwig of Bavaria, his father-in-law.

236

The name of the Royal Family of Bavaria.

237

The Duc de Bordeaux passed through Berlin, where his arrival caused much stir, on his way to Wiesbaden, where the question of the coalition between the two branches of the House of Bourbon was to be discussed. The King of Prussia, who was then at Potsdam, received him with great distinction. The Prince arrived on August 6 and stayed in the New Palace. He was accompanied by the Duc de Levis, the Marquis de La Ferté, M. Berryer, and by several other distinguished Frenchmen. During his stay Polyeucte was performed, and acted by Mlle. Rachel, who was at Berlin.

238

The Austrian General Haynau had become famous for his severe repressive measures in Italy during the bombardment of Peschiera and by his reprisals upon the inhabitants of Bergamo and Ferrara, by the sack of Brescia and the massacre of the insurgents. Afterwards, during the Hungarian war, he showed the same severity in the executions carried out at Pesth and Arad in October 1849; he was even said to have had women flogged. The General was staying at Berlin at that time.

239

Frederick VII., King of Denmark, married on August 7 a milliner named Lola Bosmussen, called the Danish Lola, who was made a Countess for the purpose. A rumour then spread from Hamburg that the King had abdicated in favour of his natural heir, the Duke of Oldenburg, in order to simplify the question of succession, but this news was without foundation.

240

Count Beust became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Dresden Cabinet in 1849, a post he had already held in 1841, and at the same time became responsible for the Ministry of Public Worship. He took an active part in the alliance of the Three Kings and attempted, with the concurrence of Austria, to bring about an alliance of the four Sovereigns.

241

King Louis Philippe died on August 26.

242

Popular feeling had been greatly aroused against General Haynau, on account of the repressive methods which he had used in the Italian and Hungarian wars in 1848 and 1849. In September 1850 he made a journey to London, and as he was visiting the brewery of Barclay and Perkins the workmen hooted him, mobbed him, tore out his moustaches, and threatened to throw him into their barrels.

243

Queen Louise died at Ostend on October 11, and was buried on the 16th at the Church of Laeken.

244

The struggle between Austria and Prussia had reached a critical point and provided the Emperor Nicholas with the opportunity of arbitrating between these two Powers, under pretext of preventing war. He went to Warsaw and there summoned conferences between the young Emperor of Austria and Prince Schwarzenberg, the President of the Austrian Council and the Count of Brandenburg representing Prussia. All eyes were turned in this direction, and assurances were given that every question which then disturbed Germany, the problems of Hesse, Schleswig, and of Austrian or Prussian supremacy, would be decided. The exasperation which the Count of Brandenburg experienced in consequence of the concessions then made by Prussia, was believed to be the cause of his death which occurred at the beginning of November.

245

The Prussian and Austro-Bavarian troops had in fact come into conflict on the road of Fulda, near the village of Brounzell, and five Austrian soldiers had been wounded in this outpost struggle.

246

Extract from a letter.

247

The conferences were held at Dresden in the greatest secrecy and were prolonged throughout the winter. They ended in a second Olmütz in May 1851.

248

This interview took place at Olmütz, not far from Oldenberg.

249

Herr von Manteuffel, who undertook temporarily the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs on the death of Count Brandenburg, secured a point of agreement between Austria and Prussia at Olmütz by consenting to the re-establishment of the Germanic Diet, by offering to support the abolition of the constitutional rights of the electorate of Hesse, and by handing over Schleswig-Holstein to Denmark. This policy of peace at any price, caused profound despondency in Prussia.

250

Herr von Gerlach was one of the editors of the New Gazette of Prussia, and the avowed chief of the so-called Kreuz party, often known as Gerlach's party.

251

An allusion to pages 123 and 124 of vol. i. of the Memoirs of Prince Talleyrand in which he referred to his interviews with the Comte d'Artois, without giving details of them.

252

June 1789, after the famous session of the 17th, when the Third Estate had proclaimed itself to be the National Assembly; M. de Talleyrand was at that time one of the clerical Deputies.