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knights of the order of the Toison d'or in | curls, his constant want of money, his their robes. They say 'tis a very fine sight, little, greedy habits, and his big, imbut as everybody is admitted I don't think perious temper; but in her journal, as, I shall go. . . . I dined to-day with Ma- indeed, in the Swinburne papers, there dame Seilern. One of the dames de la Clé are not many directly political allusions to be found. In those days there was no press to popularize news, and such allusions as passed from mouth to mouth at the court were cautiously vague. Thus, Lady Mary :—

dined there they take place of everybody. I have your letter of the 4th, and one of Lady Greenwich of the 8th. By the next post I imagine we shall have some news of the meeting of the Parliament, and probably of the war with Spain, for everybody here thinks it almost certain. . . . Everything one hears and sees raises one's admiration for the Emperor and Empress. The Emperor Joseph, though so young a man, has gone through many severe tryals, and in all of them has acted like an angel. The late Emperor died in his arms, he never left his first wife in her illness, but was constantly by her Bedside. Last year when he lost his little Daughter, he attended her in the same manner. When the Empress had the small-pox he remained in her room night and day, but I must stop short: if I was to tell you all I think of the Empress I

should never finish.

January 9.—There is something important going on at this Court, but what I can't tell you: for nothing transpires here.

From the dates, this was probably the Polish question, since the partition was effected in the following year, and the agreement between the courts of Vienna and Berlin had been practically

settled at an interview between the Emperor Joseph and Frederic the Great, at Neustadt, in September, 1770. Perhaps Maria Theresa could not quite forget how in 1683, John Sobieski, by his defeat of the Turks, delivered not It is certain that no contemporary only the city of Vienna from its bememoirs (and there is no lack of them) siegers, but freed Hungary from the give so finished a miniature portrait of Ottomans. It is said that to the very Maria Theresa as this. We say minia- close of her life her conscience was ture, because Lady Mary was not strong uneasy as to the partition, and it is cerenough to brosser, as the French say, a tain that her kind heart was not quite really great portrait. She was too ego- indifferent to the feelings of the noble tistical, and she lacked both the sense Poles who surrounded her. When the of humor and the imagination which whole court was assembled to go into are requisite to enable us to understand the royal chapel, and assist at the Te our neighbor's character. But she is Deum to be sung for the partition, the truthful. Mr. Swinburne's account of empress went up to Madame de Salthe empress, written nine years later, mour (née Lubienski) and told her after the partition of Poland, and when that she was excused from being presthe empress had grown graver and ent at the service. It may well be, more unwieldy, is absolutely on the then, that in the months that preceded same lines as Lady Mary's, and as such this event Maria Theresa, whom Lady testifies to her veracity. MacCailane Mary describes as "always making a Mohr's daughter, though enthusiastic chain of red silk, which she told me is in her likes and dislikes, naturally used for some kind of embroidery," looked at things more as an outsider than did Mr. Swinburne, who had a nephew in the Austrian service, and whose wife, being a Catholic, could become a recipient of the much-valued ribbon of the croix étoilée. Perhaps because her judgment was and remained immature, Lady Mary has penned nothing so good as Swinburne's sketch of Count Kaunitz, with his wig and his

found as she knotted ample food for grave meditation, whether her thoughts wandered from her skein of red silk to the position of the dauphiness in French society, or to that act which secured disquiet to the spoilers of Poland, and for the dismembered country prepared a century of plots and persecutions, of secret and of open rebellions against the most cruel of national wrongs. 4292

We must return to the winter of 1771:

February 1.It has rained all night, frost and snow, and all hopes of the Course de Traineaux has vanished. I shall go to Madame de Harrach's this evening, and hear from her an account of the Ball. Great people always get rid of their disorders sooner than small ones: the Empress came into the Ballroom at the usual hour, looking extremely well and in very good humor, but returned to her apartment to give an audience to the French Minister. What his business was I cannot tell, but he looked rather in a bustle. The Empress came back in an hour, and the Emperor came in from the play, in appearance not in such good humor as the Empress. He went first to talk to the Princess Clary, who is one of his greatest favorites, and then went up to the Empress, with discontent in his countenance. If you are a politician, you may gather something from all

this.

This is a little like the important conversation reported by "Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs," and truly Lady Mary seems more at home in a long account of the course de traineaux: the ladies all in velvet and fur, the gentlemen with diamonds in their hats, while from the windows of Prince Colloredo's palace she saw twentyeight sledges, with running footmen to match. It was followed by the usual card party in the evening. Swinburne says of Princess Clary that she lived by playing at cards," and Lady Mary, though she seems to have had no great losses herself, found her evenings pretty well occupied.

They say she is clever, and speaks her mind very freely to the Emperor. . . . The Emperor lives in great friendship with all his family, but his two favorite sisters were the Archduchess, who was contracted to the King of Naples, and who dyed of the small-pox a few days before she was to have set out, and the Dauphiness. They tell me there never was so amiable a character as young Princess, and that if she is not spoiled at the Court of France, she will one day be a blessing to that country.

that

Alas! for the prediction.

February 16, 1771. - During Lent there are French sermons preached at the Chapel in the Palace. I believe I shall go there with Princess Kinsky.

William III. having decided to leave to the court almoner the duty hitherto performed by English sovereigns of publicly feeding, clothing, and washing the feet of twelve poor men on Maunday Thursday, the ceremony, as Lady Mary Coke witnessed it at Vienna, was in every way new to her, though, by means of Sir David Wilkie's beautiful picture of the empress when on her knees before the poor, it has become familiar to later generations of English people.

I

I was dressed this morning at half an hour after nine o'clock to see the ceremony of the Emperor and Empress serving the poor and afterwards washing their feet. I went with the Princess Solkovsky, and she did not call till half an hour after ten. feared we should have been too late, and the ceremony was begun, but very little of it was over. 'Twas performed in the great room where the Empress sees Company, I dine to-day with the Princess Esterhazy. where there are too (sic) tables, one for I had no less than four invitations for to- twelve old men, served by the Emperor and day. The Princess told me she had been the Archdukes; the other for twelve old tasting for several days together different Women, served by the Empresses and the sorts of Tokay for Lady Spencer, who had | Archduchesses, all dressed in the great given her a commission to send some to England; but 'tis difficult to get it good, and all extremely dear. She told me they had asked 80 ducats for a small cask (more than 128. a bottle) — for a small cask that contains only sixty bottles. . . . I dined to-day with Madame Harrach. Her brother, who was one of the company, was a week at Holkham two months after I married.

Tell Lord Strafford that the Archduchess, who was just born when he was here, I have had the honor of seeing twice.

dress, with the addition of a black veil. I never saw the Empress look so graceful. She charmed me more to-day than ever. All the Ladys of the Court attended in black veils also. The Empress stood opposite to the three first old women, placed all the dishes upon the table, and took them off, but with a grace that is not to be described her manner of holding the napkin was so genteel, I could have looked at her forever, and if you had heard her talk to those three old women you would have

been delighted. When I came up to the | till she has performed it all. When she table she said, "One of my oldest acquaint- has finished she gets up, and is presented ances is not here. She was taken ill this by one of the Ladys of the Court with a morning in church. She had come here ribbon to which hangs a purse, which she from the time of my Grandfather, the Em- puts over the head of each old woman. peror Leopold." She afterwards did me The Emperor does the same by the men; the honor to tell me that she was not now they then all came to the Empress, who able to perform the rest of the function. rose up and retired. She had been, at She said her breath would not permit her, eight o'clock, in great form at one of the but added, “* My Daughter will do it." She Churches, to receive the Sacrament. then said, "but you should see the Emperor perform the ceremony." The Princess Solkovsky answered that we should not be able to get through the crowd. "Yes," said the Empress, "they will make room for you." Accordingly we went to the other side, where the Emperor was serving the twelve old men; but I remarked he did not talk to them as the Empress did to the old

tell her- I think she said that you have been with me, but I did not perfectly hear the last words, nor could I answer them, as I never intend to be presented at the Court of France. Her Majesty showed me a very fine commode the Dauphiness had sent her, and then said: "I will now carry you to a pair of stairs which will lead you to the apartment below," adding with great graciousness, "You'll stay to play" (there were cards that evening at Court). She then said: "If you go to Italy, or are accustomed to go to the Spa, the journey from there is inconsiderable." I told Her Majesty with great sincerity I would have taken a much longer journey to have the honor of seeing her upon which, to my great surprise, she took me in her arms and kissed me. We then parted.

condescension to go with me into all the rooms, to show me every thing in them, to tell me all the pictures, and when we came into the room that had been described to me She said: "These are the pictures of all my family that are dead"-mentioned all their names, and, when she came to the Emperor's (Francis of Lorraine), She said, "Madame d'Harrach will tell you that nothing can be liker than this picture." In the same room where the Empress had made me remark the picture of the late Emperor there were pictures of her Mother and Father, . . . and in one picture three Children of the Empress, none of them seeming to be older than two or three years; and over one of the doors the Empress showed me the picture of the Lady (the Comtesse de Fuchs) who had brought her up, and whose head she held for almost Thursday, April 11, 1771.—I was up and three days together when she was dying. dressed before six o'clock, and waited till From that room she carried me into an- seven for the horses. The weather was other, where she said she did all her busi- fine, and the roads could not have been ness; and here personne entre impunimen: better. I lay at a place called Kemelbach: these were her words, and I thought it bet-one post further than where the Dauphiness ter not to translate them. From thence lay last year when the Empress and the Her Majesty brought me into a room which whole Court went with her the first day's She told me was the work of her Mother. journey. It was composed of drawings cut outsmall figures, etc. - placed by her according to her fancy, with japan over it. This was part of her employment during the years that she was confined to her chair. The next room was the Empresses bedchamber, hung with grey damask, and a grey

damask bed. The room is very large, and
on one side a door opens to a small Chapel,
which the Empress showed me. In a cor-
ner of the room on the side of the bed is
an urn of porcelain, one of the finest things
af the kind I ever saw. On the pedestal of
the urn sits a figure weeping, and round the
urn hangs a chain which is fastened to
the orders of the late Emperor, and the
crown and arms, etc. The Empress desired
me to look at it, and this was the only time
she sat down, placing herself on one side
of the urn. When she thought I had suffi-
ciently examined it, She rose up, and told
me she would show me the pictures of the
King and Queen of Naples. . . . The next
room was gayer than any in the apartment:
it was ornamented with carving and gild-
ing, glaces, tables, etc., and all the Impe-
rial Family's pictures that are now living.
The Empress told me it was the room where
they dined. When she showed me the pic-
ture of the Dauphiness She did me the honor
to say,
"As you are going to Paris, you'll

It is evident that Lady Mary's thoughts were already turning to the court of Marie Antoinette, to the beautiful young dauphiness, who was the We are, pride of Paris and of Vienna. therefore, prepared to read as follows:

On Tuesday I arrived at Paris. Thursday. - While I was dressing I was surprised by a visit from Madame de Geoffrin. . . . She is a lady that has been much talked of, and I was glad to have an opportunity of seeing her: I found her alone. Our conversation turned naturally upon Vienna: the Empress, the Princess Kinsky. I found her perfectly au fait of all the characters, yet, I believe, she stayed there but a short time. . . . From Madame de Geoffrin I went to my friend Madame de Rochechouart, who, I am sure, was glad to see me. She thinks I ought to go to the Dauphiness, and said if she had not been obliged to go to the country, she would have gone with me to Versailles. She is persuaded, she said, that the Dauphiness would be very glad to see me, and there is nothing easier than going to see her in private. She admires her of all things. 'Tis certain the Empress meant me to see her; but I shall wait a few days, as I expect the Imperial Ambassador will come to me, and perhaps