Juke Ferdinand and his noble consort found themselves both deprived of their states by the vicissitudes of war, and the young empress, brought up "in these cruel times," united in her person the double interest of greatness and misfortune. It was a union concluded by inclination, and into which no political convenience had entered, although one more honorable could not have been contracted. It caused at once a feeling of sympathy and respect, for the family affections which brought us near to this marriage, and for the illustrious rank which set us at a distance from it. A young prince, the Archbishop of Waizen, bestowed the nuptial benediction on his sister and sovereign; the mother of the empress, whose virtues and knowledge conspire to exercise the most powerful empire over her children, became in a moment the subject of her daughter, and walked in the procession behind her with a mixture of deference and of dignity, which recalled at the same time the rights of the crown and those of nature. The brothers of the emperor and empress, all employed in the army or in the administration, all in different ranks, all equally devoted to the public good, accompanied them respectively to the altar, and the church was filled with the grandees of the State, with the wives, the daughters, and the mothers, of the most ancient of the Teutonic nobility. Nothing new was produced for the fête; it was sufficient for its pomp to display what each possessed. Even the women's ornaments were hereditary, and the diamonds that had descended in every family consecrated the remembrances of the past to the decoration of youth; ancient times were present to all, and a magnificence was enjoyed, which the ages had prepared, but which cost the people no new sacrifices.

The amusements which succeeded to the marriage consecration had in them almost as much of dignity as the ceremony itself. It is not thus that private individuals ought to give entertainments, but it is perhaps right to find in all the actions of kings the severe impression of their august destiny. Not

Suppressed by the censors.

far from this church, around which the discharge of cannons and the beating of drums announced the renewal of the union between the houses of Este and Habsburg, we see the asylum, which has for these two centuries inclosed the tombs of the emperors of Austria and their family. There, in the vault of the Capuchins, it was that Maria Theresa, for thirty years, heard mass in the very sight of the burial-place which she had prepared for herself by the side of her husband.' This illustrious princess had suffered so much in the days of her early youth, that the pious sentiment of the instability of life never quitted her, even in the midst of her greatness. We have many examples of a serious and constant devotion among the sovereigns of the earth; as they obey death only, his irresisti ble power strikes them the more forcibly. The difficulties of life intervene between ourselves and the tomb; but every thing lies level before the eyes of kings, even to the last, and that very level renders the end more visible.

The feast induces us naturally to reflect upon the tomb ; poetry has, in all times, delighted herself in drawing these two images by the side of each other; and fate itself is a terrible poet which has too often discovered the art of uniting them.

THE rich and the noble seldom inhabit the suburbs of Vienna; and, notwithstanding that the city possesses in ɔther respects all the advantages of a great capital, the good company

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"Every Friday, for thirteen years after the death of her husband, Maria Theresa descended into this vault to pray and weep by the side of his remains." At the present time, the most interesting sarcophagus in this "last home" of kings, is that of young Napoleon, Duke of Reichstadt.-Ed. 2 "Vienna differs from most other European capitals in this respect, that the old part of the town, and not the new, is the most fashionable. Within

is there brought together as closely as in a small town. These easy communications, in the midst of all the enjoyments of fortune and luxury, render their habitual life very convenient, and the frame of society, if we may so express it, that is, its habits, usages, and manners, are extremely agreeable. Among foreigners we hear of the severe etiquette and aristocratical pride. of the great Austrian nobility; this accusation is unfounded; there is simplicity, politeness, and, above all, honesty, in the good company of Vienna; and the same spirit of justice and regularity, which governs all important affairs, is to be met with also in the smallest circumstances. People are as punctual to their dinner and supper engagements, as they would be in the discharge of more essential, promises; and those false. airs, which make elegance consist in a contempt of the forms of politeness, have never been introduced among them. Nevertheless, one of the principal disadvantages of the society or Vienna is, that the nobles and men of letters do not mix together. The pride of the nobles is not the cause of this; but as they do not reckon many distinguished writers at Vienna, and people read but little, everybody lives in his own particular coterie, because there is nothing but coteries in a country where general ideas and public interests have so small need of being developed. From this separation of classes it results that men of letters are deficient in grace, and that men of the world are rarely abundant in information.

The exactitude of politeness, which in some respects is a virtue, since it frequently demands sacrifices, has introduced into Vienna the most fatiguing of all possible forms. All the good company transports itself en masse, from one drawingroom to another, three or four times every week. A certain time is lost in the duties of the toilet, which are necessary in these great assemblies; more is lost in the streets, and on the

the bastions lie the palaces of the emperor and some of the principal nobility; the stately dwellings of the Harrachs, Starembergs, Trautmannsdorfs, etc.; the public offices, the finest churches, and most of the museums and public collections, together with the colleges, the exchange, and the most splendid shops.”—Ed.

staircases, waiting till the carriages draw up in order; still more in sitting three hours at table; and, it is impossible, in these crowded assemblies, to hear any thing that is spoken beyond the circle of customary phrases. This daily exhibition of so many individuals to each other, is a happy invention of mediocrity to annul the faculties of the mind. If it were established that thought is to be considered as a malady, against which a regular course of medicine is necessary, nothing could be imagined better adapted for the purpose than a sort of distraction at once noisy and insipid; such as permits the following up of no ideas, and converts language into a mere chattering, which may be taught men as well as birds.

I have seen a piece performed at Vienna, in which Harlequin enters, clothed in a long gown and a magnificent wig; and all at once he juggles himself away, leaving his wig and gown standing to figure in his place, and goes to display his real person elsewhere. One might propose this game of legerdemain to those who frequent large asser blies. People attend them, not for the sake of meeting any object that they are desirous of pleasing; severity of manners and tranquillity of soul concentre in Austria all the affections in the bosom of the family.' They do not resort to them for the purposes of ambition; for every thing passes with so much regularity in this country, that intrigue has little hold there; and besides, it is not in the midst of society that it can find room to exercise itself. These visits and these circles are invented for the sake of giving all people the same thing to do, at the same hour; and thus they prefer the ennui, of which they partake with their equals, to the amusement which they would be forced to create for themselves at home.

Great assemblies and great dinners take place in other cities besides Vienna; but as at such meetings we generally see all the distinguished individuals of the countries where we assemble, we there find more opportunities of escaping from those

1 Vienna now has the reputation of being one of the most dissolute cap tals in Europe.-Ed.

forms of conversation, which upon such occasions succeed to the first salutations, and prolong them in words. Society does not in Austria, as in France, contribute to the development or the animation of the understanding; it leaves in the head nothing but noise and emptiness; whence it follows, besides, that the more intelligent members of the community generally estrange themselves from it; it is frequented by women alone, and even that share of understanding which they possess is astonishing, considering the nature of the life they lead. Foreigners justly appreciate the agreeableness of their conversation; but none are so rarely to be met with in the drawingrooms of the capital of Germany, as the men of Germany itself.

In the society of Vienna, a stranger must be pleased with the proper assurance, the elegance, and nobleness of manner, which reign throughout under the influence of the women; yet there is wanting to it something to say, something to do, an end, an interest. One feels a wish that to-day may be different from yesterday, yet without such variety as would interrupt the chain of affections and habits. In retirement, monotony tranquillizes the soul; in the great world, it only fatigues the mind.

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE DESIRE AMONG FOREIGNERS OF IMITATING THE

FRENCH SPIRIT.

THE destruction of the feudal spirit, and of the old château life, which was the consequence of it, has introduced a great deal of leisure among the nobility; this leisure has rendered the amusement of society necessary to their existence; and, as the French are reputed masters in the art of conversation, they have made themselves throughout Europe the sovereigns of opinion, or rather of fashion, by which opinion is so easily counterfeited. Since the reign of Louis XIV, all the good sc