locked to Eaglehurst from The Island, and made day
after day a garden party on its lawns. When the count, on the death of
his father, succeeded to the family honors, he gave up his lease of
Eaglehurst, and the now Prince and Princess took up their abode at the
castle of Koermend in Hungary. The Prince subsequently discovered that
Vienna was more to his taste. The Princess, however, preferred Koermend,
which nothing would induce her to abandon, and there she invited a
number of her English friends to visit her. I was one of the number. Her
invitation was often renewed, but for this reason or that I had never
been able to accept it. I had, indeed, put the matter quite out of my
mind when, during my visit at Cannes, I heard from her once again. "I
saw, in some paper," she said, "that you were going to be at Cannes for
the winter. Come on to me afterward and I will show you a Hungarian
spring."

If any country had ever roused in my imagination more interest than
Cyprus, that country was Hungary. Of all European countries I gathered
that it was the least progressive; that all sorts of impossible things
might happen in its enchanted forests; that the rulers were still noble;
that the peasants were still contented (a fact which they signalized by
kissing their lords' hands), and that nothing was very different from
what it had been before the first French Revolution. Here was temptation
too strong to resist. I was asked to be a guest at Koermend from April
till the end of May. I wrote to say I would come, and when the time
arrived I went.

I was happy in having with me an admirable Austrian servant who had been
in the country before, and knew more or less of its ways. I found his
resources inexhaustible, except on one occasion. I stayed on the way at
Vicenza, for the purpose of seeing some of its Palladian palaces, and I
asked him, when I reached the hotel, to find some guide or waiter who
spoke either French or English. He could find no one who knew a syllable
of one tongue or the other. Next morning, however, he had secured an
Italian native who spoke and understood German. Here was all I wanted. I
spoke English to my servant, he spoke German to the Italian, the Italian
spoke to the people of whom I wanted to make inquiries. This
arrangement, I found, was productive of great advantages. Having made
notes of the palaces I wished to see, I told my Italian in each case to
inquire whether an English gentleman, much interested i