" cried I, "these are not words for me to listen to; and
having heard them, I may be tempted to say, that the honor comes all of
the other side; and that he who holds all Europe at his feet ennobles the
dynasty from which he selects his empress."

"I deny it--fairly and fully deny it!" cried the passionate youth. "And
every noble of this land would rather see the provinces of the empire torn
from us, than a Princess of the Imperial House degraded to such an
alliance!"

"Is the throne of France, then, so low?" said I, calmly.

"Not when the rightful sovereign is seated on it," said he. "But are we,
the subjects of a legitimate monarchy, to accept as equals the lucky
accidents of your Revolution? By what claim is a soldier of fortune the
peer of King or Kaiser? I, for one, will never more serve a cause so
degraded; and the day on which such humiliation is our lot shall be the
last of my soldiering;" and so saying, he rushed passionately from the
room, and disappeared.

I mention this little incident here, not as in any way connecting itself
with my own fortunes, but as illustrating what I afterward discovered to
be the universal feeling entertained toward this alliance. Low as Austria
then was--beaten in every battle--her vast treasury confiscated--her capital
in the hands of an enemy--her very existence as an empire threatened; the
thought of this insult--for such they deemed it--to the Imperial House,
seemed to make the burden unendurable; and many who would have sacrificed
territory and power for a peace, would have scorned to accept it at such a
price as this.

I suppose the secret history of the transaction will never be disclosed;
but living as I did, at the time, under the same roof with the royal
family, I inclined to think that their counsels were of a divided nature;
that while the Emperor and the younger Archdukes gave a favorable ear to
the project, the Empress and the Archduke Charles as steadily opposed it.
The gossip of the day spoke of dreadful scenes between the members of the
Imperial House, and some have since asserted that the breaches of
affection that were then made never were reconciled in after life.

With these events of state or private history I have no concern. My
position and my nationality, of course, excluded me from confidential
intercourse with those capable of giving correct information; nor can I
record any thing beyond the mere current rumors of the time. This much,
however, I cou