CHAPTER XXI

Baroness James Édouard de Rothschild—At Carlsbad—Transferred to the 3rd Battalion

At Portsmouth, I was met by my father and Ernest Berkeley, a son of Lord Berkeley, who some time afterwards obtained a commission in my regiment, and with them I travelled to Paris and stayed for a few days with my parents in the Champs-Elysées. I then started for Carlsbad, where I had been recommended to take the waters for my complaint. On leaving Paris, I found myself in the same carriage with an elderly English lady, a Mrs. Michell, and her daughter, whose acquaintance I made. They were on their way to Marienbad, as the mother was abnormally stout and anxious to reduce her weight, life, she told me, being a torment to her. At Nüremberg, a rather nice-looking woman entered our carriage, with a very smart footman in attendance, who carried an immense bouquet of flowers, which he deposited beside his mistress. This lady, it transpired, was the Baroness James Édouard de Rothschild, who had been spending the night at Nüremberg, and was also _en route_ for Marienbad. The Baroness entered into conversation with us, and was very pleasant. She spoke English almost perfectly, having spent nearly half her life in England, though she was now living with her family in Paris. She had, she told us, been ordered to take the waters at Marienbad, as she was inclined to be very stout, and had sent on fourteen servants from Paris to get everything ready for her.

I got out at Carlsbad and drove to the Hôtel Goldenes Schild, which was in those days the principal hôtel. Next morning I consulted Dr. Ritter von Hochberg, the doctor of the German Emperor, who was a very nice old man, and who told me to drink two full glasses of the Schloss Brunn waters and then walk for half an hour in the country every morning before breakfast. I followed his instructions and, after drinking the waters, walked out to the Posthof, where I breakfasted in the open air at a very good restaurant, being served by a pretty young Austrian girl, who was very tastefully dressed, with her hair arranged in quite the latest fashion. The walk back to my hôtel, along the banks of a river, which flowed through a delightfully picturesque valley, I enjoyed immensely.

While dining one evening at the Hôtel König von Hannover, I made the acquaintance of a Mrs. Andrews, an elderly American lady, who was very rich and lived in an apartment in the English quarter of Carlsbad. She asked me to come and see her at her rooms, which were very comfortable, and where she gave me a cup of English tea. Mrs. Andrews was very fond of taking drives into the country, and often invited me to accompany her. One day she introduced me to Freiherr von Klenck, the son of Baron von Klenck, who had been a great favourite of the late King of Hanover and always with him. Klenck, who was in a Hanoverian cavalry regiment, was a man of about thirty, with a fair moustache. He detested Prussians, and once, when I asked him if he would care to meet an officer in a Prussian Line regiment whose acquaintance I had made, he replied:—

“It is all very well for you to know him, as you are not a German. But I could not be seen with him. First of all, he is a Prussian, and then he is in a Line regiment, so that I could not go about with him, since I am in a cavalry regiment, as you know.”

I usually met Mrs. Andrews and Klenck at the Hôtel König von Hannover, where we would engage a small table and dine together, going after to Sans-Souci or the Posthof to hear the military concert, which was very fine indeed. The band which played there was that of the 35th Regiment König von Hannover, an Austrian military band, which had won the first prize at Brussels in the competition for military bands of all nations. It was composed of fifty men, and played the most difficult music of Wagner in the most brilliant manner, besides playing lighter music in a way which quite delighted me. In fact, it put all the military bands, English, French and German, that I had ever heard completely in the shade. A principal feature was that there were two men who played the cymbals, and that the big drum was an insignificant item, the side-drum being far more used. Sometimes, the band would play at Pupp’s Café of an afternoon, while the people were taking their coffee at little tables. On these occasions, a fee of fifty kreuzers was charged for admission, and there was always great difficulty in securing seats.

The Kurkapelle, or string band, which played on most days of the week, under the direction of the famous bandmaster, Auguste Labitzky, was one of the finest string bands in Europe. Every Friday afternoon Labitzky organized a classical concert at Posthof, for which an admission fee of fifty kreuzers was charged. One day was consecrated to Wagner, another to Mozart, a third to Beethoven, and on a fourth a programme of mixed classical music was performed.

The places where afternoon coffee was taken were all in the country, people sitting at little tables under the trees. At Pupp’s Café the waitresses had their Christian names, Mizzi, Fanni, Resi, and so forth, pinned on to their dresses. These girls were for the most part very pretty and pleasant-mannered. One gentleman, after having finished his cure at Carlsbad, received about twenty bouquets of beautiful flowers, which were all placed on his breakfast-table at Pupp’s by the girls serving there. People said that it must have cost him at least a hundred florins in _douceurs_ to the waitresses.

When I asked my doctor how much I was in his debt, he told me that he left the matter entirely to me. So I put forty florins in an envelope, which the doctor declined even to open in my presence, saying that he felt sure that I had remunerated his services sufficiently.

After a cure of three weeks, I left Carlsbad for Franzensbad, for the after-cure, which my doctor had advised my taking. Here I secured very comfortable rooms in a villa with a beautiful garden behind it, agreeing to pay a fixed price per week for board and lodging. Shortly afterwards, the proprietress informed me that, had she but known that I was an Englishman, she would have asked me very much more than she had. She appeared very much annoyed, and, I am afraid, never forgave me for not having acquainted her with my nationality at our first interview.

I thought Franzensbad a very charming place, with its pretty villas with gardens attached to them; but the walks could not compare with those around Carlsbad. I was so tired after taking the waters at Carlsbad that I rested the whole time I was at Franzensbad, merely taking iron baths, which I found perfectly delightful. It was like bathing in champagne, as the water sparkled and gave one a tickling kind of sensation. The visitors at Franzensbad were chiefly ladies, but I made the acquaintance of a young Bavarian officer, Freiherr von Rüdt, who was very musical and played the violin beautifully, and used to meet him nearly every day at the concert in the Kurpark. The Kurkapelle used to play at one or other of the hôtels during supper, and I often went to these concerts. The bandmaster, Tomaschek, was a very good conductor and a great favourite with the ladies, who often sent him presents.

During my stay at Franzensbad I paid a visit to Marienbad, where I renewed my acquaintance with Mrs. Michell and her daughter. I thought Marienbad even more beautiful than Carlsbad, surrounded as it was by woods and hills. The walks around it were really exquisite, and nothing could be more pleasant than to take a walk in the woods on a summer’s day and have coffee and listen to the band at one of the cafés.

On my return to Franzensbad I took a few more baths, and then left for Paris, where I received a letter from the War Office, informing me that I had been transferred to the 3rd Battalion of my regiment, which was stationed at Chatham.