Part 9

A most gracious invitation from the Court immediately on our arrival being known; we dined there the next day. The Duke is a worthy nephew of the great Frederick’s; but for the unfortunate invasion of France, he would have been in addition to the best general of his time the most successful.[144] His countenance marks a man of great talent. He is reckoned reserved, but his good breeding prevents it from falling into coldness. The Dss. is a most excellent, prating, good-hearted woman, very like her brother the King, full as talkative and inquisitive, but much less discreet. She rattled away upon all subjects. She put many distressing questions to me about the P. and Pss., especially as to the renewal of the _amour_ with Mrs. Fitzherbert, about which I expressed the most profound ignorance. She could not conceal her dislike of the Queen, whom she called haughty and proud of her station, as she was but the daughter of an inferior Prince of Mecklenburg, an appanage of the family.

After dinner the Dss. desired I would join her to pass the eve. at Mde. Deodati’s, a dull card assembly. The weather was very hot. Poor Drew fell ill, and kept his bed; a fever and spasms. On Thursday we dined again at Court. In the evening went to the French comedy: a very pretty theatre; afterwards to Mr. Des Arte, merely to please Mr. Kinnaird, who is living with him. Mr. Ridley, a good-humoured young man, K.’s fellow-traveller. On Friday received another invitation to dine at Court; I wrote a letter of acknowledgment and apology to the good Duchess. Drew was better, and we set off to Helmstadt. On the right-hand side of the road a building with four painted towers, which belies its warlike appearance, as it is nominally the seat of peace and bliss--a convent; tho’ in fact hatred and discord sojourn chiefly within such walls, and Ariosto was scarcely satiric when he makes the angel seek discord in a monastery. Upon second thoughts I believe he sought indolence, not discord. He might, however, have named both; one is suspended only by the other.

The first night was spent at Helmstadt, the second at Magdeburg. ‘Magdeburg is the frontier town on Prussian territory. It was sacked by the barbarous Tilly at the beginning of the bloody wars under Gustavus Adolphus, and it has since afforded a prison to La Fayette, who lived a year in the citadel, before he was transferred to a more rigorous jailor, the Emperor.’

Zefur, their next halt. ‘We went to the worst inn, where we were abominably cheated and abominably lodged.’ They reached Potsdam at one o’clock the next night.

We went to the Palaces. I saw them about four years ago, but as they are very fine I did not dislike another visit to them. The Great Palace contains rooms as superb as any in Versailles, and may vie with those at Rome and Genoa. Sans Souci, the retreat of Frederick, is a delightful habitation. His apartment is entire: his private library (consisting solely of French books) is untouched. In his bedroom the only picture is a portrait of Gustavus Adolphus; in an adjoining room a bronze bust of Charles XII. of Sweden. I paid my homage to the apartment of Voltaire. He occupied it many years, until he capriciously quarrelled with his Royal patron.

[Sidenote: SANS SOUCI]

Close by the windows of Frederick’s private apartments are the monuments of his dogs--large flat stones with their names simply inscribed upon them. Near is a space he allotted to himself, as he desired to be interred amidst these barking favourites; but his successor wisely disobeyed the injunction, and gave the atheistical Monarch Christian burial. Marsh was furious. I thought the profanation of giving the form of tombstone was the provocation, or the marked contempt of sacred rites in desiring to be buried in the centre of his dogs, but I suspect his anger proceeded from some other cause, his marked preference for those animals above his fellow creatures.

_Wednesday, 6th August._--Road to Berlin excellent; arrived to dinner at ½ past one. When I was there four years ago I only stayed a couple of days, but barely sufficient to see the public buildings. Ld. Carysfort,[145] the English Minister, and family were just arrived. It is a new career for him, and one he enters into to repair the derangement of a small fortune and owes to the interest of his wife, who is Ld. Grenville’s sister. Mr. Garlike, poor Spencer’s friend, had been Chargé d’Affaires. He is a mild, gentlemanlike man; he remains on as Secretary to the Legation. Ld. H. had formerly been a good deal in the Berlin society, particularly at Prince Ferdinand’s,[146] to whom he made himself known, and we went there one evening to supper. The Pss. is very talkative, and seems cross and clever.

I sent my card to Ly. C. as wife to the protector of the English, a respect usual and due to the office; she did not return hers. It seemed an unnecessary rudeness, but I presume she did as I did, viz., what we each thought right to be done. Ld. C. invited the gentlemen to dinner; Ld. H. refused civilly. I was confined to my bed and to the house for a few days with a sharp fever and sore throat, ill enough to take James’s powders and bark. I went to the German play, not a word of which could I comprehend.

By mere accident we were introduced to their Prussian Majesties[147] in the gardens of Charlottenburg. Ld. H. and Duncannon had missed their presentation to the King by coming too late. He was going into Silesia, and another day had not been fixed. I did not dream of being presented to the Queen. However, during our walk we saw her glide like a nymph, with a child in each hand, along the Terrace; soon after Mde. de Voss, her _Gde. Maîtresse_, came and spoke to me and asked our names, which as soon as she heard she offered to introduce us to the Queen. We accordingly had the pleasure of seeing a most lovely woman; her figure is the finest I ever saw, her manner very affable and easy. She told me she was sorry we were going away from Berlin, but invited us back in three weeks to the reviews. The King came up to us; he is a fine, stout, soldier-like looking man. They are extremely attached to each other; it was unlike Royal marriages, but was a union of love. She is a Pss. of Mecklenburg. The children played and kissed Charles, who seemed to abate his usual shyness in their favour.

At the Pss. Ferdinand’s at Bellevue I made acquaintance with Mde. du Néal, whom I liked extremely. We had some thoughts of going to Rheinsberg, the residence of Prince Henry;[148] she fortified us in the idea, and offered letters to her two nieces, who compose part of his Court. Mr. Bruce, Ld. Elgin’s brother, lodged in our hotel; he is going back to India by way of Constantinople, where he means to visit his brother; he dined with us. Ld. H. invited him out of good nature, from hearing he was solitary and unacquainted with the society of Berlin. Baron Schack, a _gens d’armes_ [_sic_], to whom we had been civil in London, was at Berlin; he was too much occupied with love, gambling, and military duties to be of much service to us.

[Sidenote: RHEINSBERG]

Determined to go to Rheinsberg. Set off at 12 o’clock at night on Wednesday, 17th August. Left Charles and Drew: they were to go to Potsdam. We were to join them there. Ld. Duncannon and myself went in the open carriage; Ld. H., Marsh, and Hortense in the chaise; ye coach and three servants left with Drew and Charles.

As soon as we reached Rheinsberg on Thursday eve. we went to the inn, and sent out letters to the ladies and Count Brühl, one of the Chamberlains. They were all at the _spectacle_, but the gentlemen came out and invited us from the Prince to lodge in his _château_ and to join him at the play. The latter was rather inconvenient as we had no clothes with us (the other carriage being behind), besides that we had travelled all night, and were dinnerless. Those difficulties were soon settled, and we got in time to see the _Petite Pièce_.

The Prince is one of the most remarkable men in Germany; he distinguished himself in his brother’s wars as a consummate general, and may boast of having done that which is almost unparalleled, of having put a French army to flight; at Rosbach they fled before him. He is 75 years old, and possesses a strength and vivacity of intellect equal to what he formerly enjoyed. He is a Frenchman in his heart, he abhors everything German; cannot speak it. He has a delightful French comedy; his _troupe_ of comedians is really good, the theatre remarkably pretty. I never passed five days more delightfully than under his hospitable roof.

The ladies we found clever, handsome, accomplished, and witty, and endowed with some qualities so rare and captivating that they inspired a sincere attachment. Mde. de la Rocheaimon is so perfectly pleasing, good-hearted, sensible, and amiable, that I never yet saw the person before whom I wished to have been my sister. I should like to pass many of my future days in her society. Her cousin, Mde. Peneval, is witty and highly accomplished; she is more _spirituelle_ than the other, and the other is merrier. She is the widow of a French officer, who was attached to the service of P. Henry; upon his death she was penniless with three children. The Prince continues her husband’s pension, lodging, etc.; the more kind, as she is, as she says, ‘La première femme qui ait trouvé grâce auprès de lui.’ His weakness does not lie in his love for the female sex.

We supped in a Chinese temple in the garden. It was illuminated, and we had some excellent French horns playing in the wood; it was delicious. The next morning we breakfasted by the lake; I bathed in it. The Prince, and indeed the whole party, did every earthly thing they could imagine would please us; I never experienced such warm-hearted, zealous, unaffected desire of obliging as they manifested towards us. He gave us extra plays, and, in short, did the utmost of his power to convince us how much he was pleased at our visit. Rheinsberg is the place where Frederick II. wrote his _Anti-Machiavel_, and where he lived during the latter end of his father’s life.

[Sidenote: AN UNNECESSARY ALARM]

Drew grew uncomfortable at staying alone at Potsdam, and employed a certain but alarming method of abridging our pleasure; he said Charles was ill. We set off on Tuesday morning, perfectly persuaded we should find the dear boy, if not quite well, yet at the worst only slightly ill, but we would not risk the possibility of his being really ill, so we went. We travelled all night and reached Potsdam at seven o’clock on Wednesday. Found Charles feverish, but not worse than he has been fifty times since his birth.

They left Potsdam two days later, passing through a dreary country to Wittenberg and on to Torgau. From thence to Leipsic and Dresden.

We quitted Dresden on Thursday, the 18th of September; dined early before we set off and got in two hours and a half to Meissen. During the night Elliot[149] sent us an _estafette_ with our English letters, among them one from Mr. Moore to tell us the application for leave for us to pass through France was referred from the Duke of Portland’s office to Ld. Grenville’s; one from Mr. Fawkener saying that there were obstacles, but he hoped they might be removed.[150]

They left next day for Weimar.

We arrived at Weimar between one and two. We passed the Dowager Duchess’s palace, which stands to the left of the road. I had a letter to D. Dss.,[151] but my low spirits about my eyes determined us to go on as fast as we could to Cassel, there to wait the decision whether to go by Cuxhaven home or by Calais. Dined; drove to Moutier’s establishment at Bellevue. Since the Jacobinism has prevailed so universally in the German Universities, young men go to this sort of private Academy. We drove about and walked in the English garden, which was made under the inspection of the famous Goethe, author of _Werther_, and Prime Minister of this Duchy. Mr. Lawrence[152] called in the evening; he is a whimsical young man, who has written several strange things, but not wholly without talent. Ld. H. sent a letter to Wieland to solicit his acquaintance, but he was in the country.

[Sidenote: OBLIGING OFFICIALS]

On arrival at Cassel Holland and Marsh called upon the French Minister, _le citoyen Rivale_, who was remarkably civil, and gave the passport from Bournonville. The passport is made out in the most marked and obliging manner, everything troublesome omitted, no time limited, no descriptions of our persons, and the route left blank for us to fill up to Paris if we choose. The Secretary of Legation, Senurier, was very good-natured to me. I had heard stories of robberies committed by deserters beyond the French frontier but within their line of demarcation, which rather alarmed me, and made me wish to have an escort if possible. He accordingly gave a letter to any commander we might find before Coblentz. Mr. Lorentz, the banker, very useful and civil: he dined with us, managed about money, as it is illegal to draw upon England from French territory.

They started again on the 26th, and reached Weilburg on the 28th. ‘I saw French proclamations posted up in the villages, signed _Augereau_.’ They slept that night at Montabaur.

We got off early on ye 29th. Woods to Coblentz. Met a French general, escorted by cavalry. Wood chiefly copse, country much inferior in beauty to that we quitted. Ehrenbreitstein repairing; the village under the fortress quite ruined, churches and convents unroofed and demolished, but the peasants are active in repairing their habitations. Ld. H. showed his passport and had a pass given for persons and horses to cross the Rhine. Crossed in the _pont-volant_: all of us and our baggage stopped at the Custom House. I went to the inn with Charles. Ld. H. went to the banker; some difficulty in arranging about money for Bruxelles. Mr. Lorentz rather in fault. Ld. H. showed passport in the evening to the _Préfet_, Boucqueau, who was remarkably well-bred and civil. Banker’s name Botsgeissen; married to a Leeds woman. The Electoral Palace in the town is converted into a hospital. The inhabitants pay great contributions; it falls hardest on landholders. The German play driven out by a French _troupe_, who have established a French _spectacle_. The establishment of juries seemingly popular. Heard of a famous robber towards Trêves, who maintained banditti, bribed peasants, and gave passports, and who is particularly inveterate against the Jews. Country cultivated, and provisions, at least bread, very cheap. Very different accounts of the French, but all agreeing in the improvement since Bonaparte, and in wishes for peace. The people are allowed great freedom of speech; they paid more for having given an asylum to the emigrants, which seemed very unjust upon them. All religion tolerated and none interfered with; monks as usual, but I saw none. The inn excellent, quite new; not the same as the one I used to go to....

I laughed heartily at the sight of a monk with a French cockade in his hat. To the left, about a mile from Bonn, there is a fine castle upon an eminence. The modern _châteaux_ of the nobility are deserted, and many totally destroyed from being unroofed and _gutted_. The Elector’s country palace was magnificent; it is now converted into a hospital. Bonn is a clean, well-built town, the Palace immense, now inhabited in parts by officers and magistrates, but chiefly falling to decay. The Tree of Liberty decorated with the tricolour flag. I was surprised instead of finding the old inn, which was very good, to find a new one just built upon a most magnificent scale. The road from Coblentz to Bonn is good; from Bonn to Cologne sandy and deep, country flat, but rich and well cultivated.

A mile or two before Cologne a bend of the river extremely beautiful. Wrote our names at the gates; one of the guard was a drunken Irishman, who with the rest of the vagrant scum of Europe composed the _Polish legion_. Cologne is a large, gloomy town, overrun with monks and beggars. The inn was excellent; it had just been repaired and newly furnished. We were surprised that, considering the interruption there must have been to travelling, accommodations and post horses should have been so good and abundant. We went to the play, which was bad enough, but like all foreign theatres well attended. The _gendarmes_ and hussars very handsome; we agreed that the French officers were better looking than formerly. The reason, I suppose, is that under the _ancien régime_ the officers were chiefly noble; now a man is taken out of the ranks and dubbed General....

[Sidenote: STEPHEN’S DEATH]

_Sunday, Jan. 25, 1801, Staines Inn._--The complaint in my eyes and alarm about my poor child prevented me from enjoying myself during the last two months of my foreign excursion. After passing many watchful nights, and latterly for 8 together, by the side of my dear boy, he was snatched from me, alas, for ever.[153] He died on the day devoted to mirth, his dear father’s birthday. On ye 22nd early, we quitted H. H., and took up our residence at Ld. B.’s in Cavendish Square during their absence at Chatsworth. I was broken-hearted and dispirited for many weeks.

Soon after, Charles caught the measles, and luckily for my peace of mind had them most favourably. His little endearing qualities, and Ld. H.’s affection, the kindness of friends, and the hope of having more children, have to a degree soothed my feelings, but oh! my God, what anguish can equal the pang a mother feels who sees her infant struggling against death. What I have endured worlds should not bribe me to undergo again. Beauclerk, as soon as he heard of our distress, came to town to see us, and with real heartfelt interest entered into our sorrows. Mrs. Smith showed herself affectionate and tender: and the D. of Bedford continued in town, and stayed as much with us as possible; indeed, day after day he devoted to being in our company. We had taken a mere nutshell, a _pied-à-terre_, in Stratton Street; my spirits have been so low that the small and varying society that I got of evenings from those that drop in amuses and cheers me. I write at this moment at Staines, where I am with Charles and Ld. H., partly that the first may be shown to his uncle, and partly that Ld. H. may see _his_ uncle, and endeavour, with Grey, to prevail upon him to resume his parliamentary functions.

_Stratton Street, 30th Jan., 1801._--A rumpus in the Cabinet, supposed about the Catholics. The opening of the Imperial Parliament[154] has been delayed already three times, and the day for which it is fixed at present is not the one it will, according to all expectation, meet upon. Various reasons are assigned for the delay, and the wise-heads are full of strange and curious speculations upon the occasion. Some imagine Ministers are negotiating, not to obtain peace, but to get a reply from Bonaparte declaring his intention of maintaining the demand of the Northern Confederacy with respect to neutral bottoms, by which they will succeed in making the Northern war popular with the country. Others, that great concessions have been made to Russia to withdraw her from the confederacy, even to the sacrifice of Hanover. Others, that the King is more in want of Dr. Willis[155] than of his Lords Temporal and Spiritual assembled in High Parliament.

It is a curious circumstance to reflect upon, that in the course of a very few years France, whom we expected to crush and entered into a league against with half the powers of Europe, should now have so completely turned the tables upon us as to head triumphantly the most formidable combination that was ever undertaken. If the King of Prussia marches to Hamburg (which unquestionably is his object), and the French compel the Portuguese to renounce our alliance, we shall not have a friendly port from the North Pole to Africa.

[Sidenote: SECESSION ABANDONED]

Opposition mean to attend actively this session. Grey has renounced the errors of secession, and tho’ Fox still hangs back, I think a few strong divisions will be irresistible and make him return to the career in which he has outstripped every competitor. Ld. Darnley has attached himself with warmth to Opposition, and intends to bring on a motion upon the State of the Nation. To-day has brought another convert, Ld. Fitzwilliam,[156] who has expressed a wish of moving the amendment, one very hostile to Ministers and, strange to say, full of pacific wishes. His respectability, high name, and integrity of character carries great weight, and will add much to the slender forces of a disjointed, disbanded Opposition. The D. of Bedford pledges himself to nothing, but his inclination leads him to attend and would conquer, but for Ld. Lauderdale’s jokes, who is always telling him he delights in making a long prose to the House of Lords, for which he never indulges himself on any question but on those that would make Cicero or Fox prose, _scarcity_, poor laws, enclosures, etc., etc.

Ld. Wycombe, who obtained passports to go through France in his way to Florence to get witnesses, was at Paris during the explosion of the _infernal car_, and within 220 paces of it at the moment of its blowing up.[157]

_11th Feb., 1801. Stratton Street._--During the Rebellion in Ireland made by the United Irishmen, it used to be the phrase, when a disturbance broke out in a town, to say, ‘They have got the Union among them.’ That cant saying might now be applied to a higher sphere, as since the Union of the Kingdoms the Cabinet has been divided, and at this juncture broken up. Reports and opinions are so different and various that I can collect nothing that gives me a very distinct idea. At present all that can be depended upon is that Pitt, Grenville, Dundas, Windham, Lds. Camden and Spencer, have resigned their places, and are virtually out of office, altho’ the former remains in until he has made the loan and opened the Budget. The occasion of this extraordinary breaking up of the Administration is the King’s peremptory refusal of assenting to the Emancipation of the Catholics, a measure Ministers consider themselves as pledged to, and a promise of which was one of ye instruments of conciliation to all parties to obtain the Union.

[Sidenote: PITT’S RESIGNATION]