16 OCTOBER 1852, Page 14

BOOKS.

MEMOIRS OF THE BARONESS D'OBERRIRCH.* TICE reader of these Memoirs is carried into a world almost ante- diluvian as regards customs, habits, and ideas. The Baroness D'Oberkirch was born in 1754, in Alsace ; a country in which the family of her father, Baron Weidner, had been seated from a time beyond the memory of man or records. Alsace was then politi- cally a part of France; its manners, its language, and all the circumstances which constitute outward life, were provincial Ger- man with a dash of Swiss. But it was not the Germany of our days. Manners, costumes, and security on the roads, might have changed since the middle ages, but in political respects and pre- judices Germany was still the land of sixteen quarters and all the follies therewith connected. The country was divided into numberless principalities, some not bigger than a Scotch estate, with rights more or less of sovereignty attached to each, and what was more characteristic, courts with nobles in a small way, and etiquette en grand. Such sticklers for their dignity were these petty princes, that they claimed all the privileges of kings ; and because the Grand Monarque would not grant them, they never went to the French court if they could possibly avoid it. The feeling on this subject comes out in these Memoirs on the occasion of Marie Antoinette's passing through Strasbourg for Paris as the bride of the Dauphin. The sovereigns of liontbeliard, to whose court the future Baroness D'Oberkirch was attached, declined to pay their respects on this nuptial occasion. "The Dauphiiiess, now Queen of France, passed through Strasburg, where I went with my father to pay her our respects. Oh! if I lived a hundred years I could not forget that day, its festivities, those exclamations of joy uttered by a people delighted by the presence of their sovereign. Madame Wurmser accompanied us. The delicate health of the Princess of Menthe- Bard prevented their Highnesses taking the journey ; and besides, the eti- quette of the French court is so severe and unbending towards foreign princes, that these naturally stay away except when absolutely obliged to appear. Their rank is not recognized ; they can only see the ring and Queen in their cabinets ; and even when their Majesties invite them to dine, they cannot have the honour of touching their hands: wherefore all those who have visited Versailles have assumed a fictitious name, not wishing, with their proper titles, to be mingled indiscriminately with the crowd of courtiers, as would certainly be the case. Besides, in appearing incognito, they retain their right to private receptions, where their rank is not disputed. There was no exception made even in favour of the relations of the Queen (of course I do not include the Emperor, he is entirely out of the question) : however that may be, the court of Montbeliard, wishing to avoid these inconveniences, sent their apologies."

The little satellites of the little planets were by no means be- hindhand in notions_ of their own dignity. The genealogical prejudices which exposed the Germans to ridicule—"proud of pedigree and poor in purse "—were fully shared by the Baroness D'Oberkirch. At the outset of her labours in composing her Memoirs, the Alsatian Baroness breathes but one prayer : "I ask, I say, hi my son-in-law, only high birth; there is a remedy for every defect but the want of that."

In France matters did not look quite so ridiculous, but were really not much more rational. The etiquette, as we have just seen, was as severe and unbending ; from the greater dignity and number of persons concerned, the ceremonies were more onerous; the genealogical inquiries were as strict as those of anTileterman court could be; and as regards inward feeling the old no of France were as prejudiced as the German. But a more enlightened public opinion, the favouritism and weakness of kings, with the neces- sities of public business, had given rise to a system of exceptions which greatly modified the whole. In refinement, esprit, and that freedom of mind which generally follows an intercourse with many persons, the French noblesse excelled the German, as well as in all the arts which embellish fashionable life, from the cook to the up- holsterer. Neither were their vices so gross, for the drunkenness and boorishness of the older Germans were notorious to Europe ; but the old French regime was corrupt to its very core, and its silly frivolity almost surpassing belief. It was a strange, perhaps an unexampled state of society, which must have perished by spon- taneous combustion had it not been destroyed from without. Into both these states of society the Baroness D'Oberkirch was a good deal thrown. The origin and honours of the Barons Weid- ner may be read in the pages of their daughter. Their family and local situation allied them with several little German princes on the one hand, and their allegiance connected them with France on the other. The circumstance which has given its chief interest to these Memoirs was the writer's intimacy with the Princess Do- rothea, daughter of "H. R. H. Madame la Duchesse de Wurtem- berg, Princess de Kontbeliard." The whole family are painted by the Baroness in a style befitting a courtier. They certainly seem to have been amiable people, and dealt with the future Baron- ess D'Oberkirch rather as a daughter than a subject. The friend- ship of the Princess Dorothea almost assumed the character of our Queen Anne's towards Mrs. Masham. When the Princess married the ill-starred Paul, then Grand Duke of Russia, her feel- ings towards the intimate of her girlhood remained unaltered. The friendship was continued by correspondence ; and when the Grand Duke and Duchess paid a visit to France in 1782, the Baroness D'Oberkirch was invited to accompany them. The an- nounced friend of the future Empress of Russia was an object of attention to the Queen and Royal Family of France, and of course to all the courtiers. She thus had an opportunity of seeing Paris,

• Memoirs of the Baroness D'Oberkireb, Countess de Montbrison. Written by Herself, and edited by her Grandson the Count de Montbrison. In three volumes- Published by Colburn and Co.

its sovereigns, princes, nobility, and people, to the very best ad- vantage in 1782. The connexions she then formed, and the pres- tige of her Imperial interest, gave her similar facilities of obser- vation in 1784 and 1786, when she again visited the capital. The Memoirs close in 1789, soon after the capture of the Bastile ; closing, as it were, with the first obvious blow struck at the old regime, of which the author was so zealous a member. It must not be conceived that the Baroness enters into the phi- losophy of the :era in which she lived, or makes the most of liar opportunities. Her reminiscences are personal, social, or of the mode, with a few passing remarks on politics, which, though fine and feminine, seem to exhibit a prophetic instinct. The things that occupy the period of her girlhood are her studies and little adventures at the house of her father and the court of the Prince of Montbeliard. On her marriage the scene is enlarged, but not changed—" A little louder, but as empty quite." Officers, barons, counts, with a travelling German prince or two, on a visit to the court of Wurtemberg, and the genealogy of self and friends, form the staple of her matter. In Paris, the visits of the Archduke Paul and his wife to various public places, with the wit of the Im- perial heir-apparent—not always very telling—and the virtues of Both husband and wife, form a conspicuous feature in the journal : anecdote, scandal, fetes, theatres, fashions, with occasional glimpses of graver business, fill up the rest. The pages are frequently studded with historical names, or names which accident or vice has embalmed in history; there are often some good repartees or witticisms, and sketches of men and women about whom we feel an interest. These things carry the reader along, especially as the style is clear and flowing. The great feature, as the great at- traction of the book, however, is the continual picture which it present; of the old regime. This is a spirit which .pervades the work ; infusing a sort of character into the most tedious pedigree of some Alsatian baron, or the most frivolous point of etiquette or fashion. It inspired the mind of the Baroness, and overflows through her pen. The age of the Baroness D'Oberkirch might have been called the age of quacks, but that they flourish in all ages. The Baroness herself was a believer in the notorious liesmer, though she de- nounced the equally notorious Cagliostro as an impostor. One of the believers in this latter worthy was the Cardinal de Behan, so celebrated in the affair of the diamond necklace. He was equally remarkable in his time as the representative of two classes, now extinct—the great Prince Bishop of Germany, and the great Seig- neur of France. This is our writer's picture of the Cardinal and his extravagance.

"Immediately upon our arrival we went to pay our respects to his Emi- nence the Cardinal de Bohan, Prince-Bishop of Strasburg. He had just re- turned from a tour that he had made on the other aide of the Rhine, where he had been to visit his episcopal domains. This is the second or third Car- dinal of the name of Bohan who has been Bishop of Strasburg ; so that he looks upon the church-lands as belonging to him, in some sort, by right of inheritance. He has erected at Saverne one of the most charming abodes in the world. The Cardinal is a very handsome man, in whose devotion there is nothing ascetic, and who has no objection to the society of ladies. Though endowed with high intelligence, and possessing amiable manners, an extreme credulity led him into weaknesses which he has expiated in deep sorrow, and which have cost our poor Queen many a bitter tear in the vexatious history of the necklace.

"His Eminence received us in his episcopal palace, which was indeed fit for a sovereign prince. The style of living in his house was extravagant in the highest degree, and would almost exceed belief. I shall only mention one thing, which will give an idea of the rest. He kept fourteen mattres d'hôtel and twenty-five valets de chambre. Only think ! It was three o'clock in the afternoon when we arrived ; it was the vigil of All Saints ; the Cardinal was coming out of his chapel, dressed in a soutane of scarlet moire, and a roohet of English lace of inestimable value. When on occasions of great ceremony he officiated at Versailles, he wore an albe of lace en point a raiguille of such beauty that the assistants were almost afraid to touch it. His arms and his device were worked en medallion above all the large flowers. This albe was estimated at a hundred thousand livres. On the day of which I speak he wore the rochet of English lace, one of his least beautiful, as his secretary, the Abbe Geergel, told us. He carried in his hand an illuminated missal, a family heirloom, of which the magnificence would have attracted attention, even if its antiquity had not excited respect. Printed books were beneath the dignity of the Cardinal de Bohan. "He tame to meet us with a politeness and grace that I have rarely seen in any one. He inquired after the Princess de Montbeliard and the Grand Duchess of Russia, as if that were the sole subject of his thoughts."

The following is a portrait of the arch impostor at the first In- terview; with a subsequent scene at a dinner in which the strange credulity of De Bohan is exhibited.

"A very interesting conversation commenced; in which I took a real pleasure, the Cardinal being both well-informed and well-bred ; when we were suddenly interrupted by a gentleman usher, who, opening the folding- doors, announced, His Eminence the Count de Cagliostro.'

"I turned my head quickly ; I had heard this adventurer spoken of since my arrival in Strasburg, but I had not yet met him. I was stunned at seeing him enter in this manner into the mansion of the Bishop, to hear him an- nounced with this pomp ; and still more was I astonished at the manner in which he was received. He had been in Alsace since the month of September, and had caused great commotion, pretending to cure all sorts of maladies. As he not only refused to take money, but even bestowed a great deal on the poor, large crowds followed him, notwithstanding the failure of his so-called universal panacea. He only cured hypochondriac4 or those whose imagina- tion was sufficiently strong to aid the remedy. The police kept a strict eye over hum; they watched him, but he affected to defy them. Some said that he was an Arab- however, his accent was more that of an Italian or Pied- montese, and I have since learned that he was in reality from Naples. At the period of which I speak, in order to dazzle the vulgar mind, he slept in a fauteuil, and ate nothing but cheese. "He was not, strictly speaking, handsome, but never have I seen a more remarkable countenance. His glance was so penetrating that one would be almost tempted to call it supernatural. I could not describe the expression of his eyes,—it was, so to say., a mixture of flame and ice. He attracted and repulsed, and whilst he terrified, inspire-dim-Insurmountable curiosity. Two portraits have been painted of him, both very good likenesses, and yet each widely different from the other. He wore attached to his watch-chain and upon his fingers, diamonds which, if they were what they appeared, would be worth a king's ransom. He pretended that they were his own manufacture.

." As soon as Cagliostro perceived me, he made a very respectful salute- which I returned without any affectation of haughtiness or condescension. I did not know why the Cardinal attached so much importance to persuading me rather than another, but during the entire time of dinner—there were fifteent persons present!--he seemed to think only of me. There was an insinuating grace in the manner in which he endeavoured to bring me over to his opinion. He placed me on his right hand, spoke almost exclusively with me, and endeavoured by every possible means to imbue me with his convictions. I resisted, gently but firmly. He became impatient, and was about to make some confidential communications when we rose from table. If I had not myself seen it, I never could have believed that a Prince of the Catholic Church, a Bohan, a man in other respects intelligent and estimable, could allow himself to be so influenced by an imposter of this species as absolutely to renounce the exercise of his free will. " ' indeed, Baroness, you are too sceptical. Since what he has said to yourself, and what I have related, have not persuaded you, I must aelmow- ledge all • but remember that I am about to confide to you a great secret.' "I became very much embarrassed. I set little value on his secret; and his well-known imprudence made me fear that I should have the honour of sharing his confidence with persons unworthy of his notice. He divined my, feeling.

Do not say no,' interrupted he, and listen to me. Yon see this ? ' "He showed me a large diamond that he wore on his little finger, and on which the Bohan arms were engraved. This ring was worth at least twenty thousand francs.

" 6 It is a beautiful gem, monseigneur ; I have been admiring it' " ' Well, it is' he who made it—made it out of nothing. I was present during the whole operation—my eyes fixed on the crucible. Is not that science, Baroness? People cannot say that he is wheedling or deceiving me. The jeweller and the engraver have estimated this ring at twenty- five thousand Hares. You will admit that he would be a strange kind of cheat who would make such presents.' I acknowledge that I was stunned ; M. de Bohan perceived it, and continued, believing himself now sure of victory.

"'This is not all—he can make gold ; and has made in my presence five or six thousand livres in this palace. I shall have more ; I shall have a great deal; he will make me the richest prince in Europe! Taffle are not dreams, madam ; they are positive facts. All his prophecies brat have been realized ! all the miraculous cures that he has effected ! I repeat that he is a most extraordinary—a-moat sublime man, whose knowledge is only equalled by his goodness. What alms he gives ! What good he does ! That exceeds all power of imagination,' "'What, monseigneur, has not your Eminence given him anything for that ; no promise in writing that may compromise you ? Pardon my cariosity, but as you have been so kind as to confide to me this secret, I—' " ' You are right, madam ; and I can assure you that he has never asked nor received anything from me.'

" Ah ! monseigneur,' cried I, this man must hope to induce you to make extraordinary sacrifices, when he purchases your confidence at so high a price. In your place, I would be on my guard ; homey lead you farther than you think.'

"The Cardinal smiled incredulously ; but I am sure that in after days, when the affair of the necklace occurred, when Cagliostro and Madame Be la Mothe had plunged him into an abyss of ruin, I am sure that then he re- membered :my words."

The account of the writer's presentation at Versailles furnishes an example of the rigid etiquette which in theory bound that court, and in practice too when some special circumstances did not interfere. This " presentation " took place on the second visit of the Baroness to Paris ; her character of friend to the Archduchess having superseded these formalities.

"12th Jane.—The day of my presentation was a very important one for sue: the ceremony is very fatiguing, though flattering ; one is on view from morning until night, and does not get the least repose. This was only the eve; but I had to pay some preliminary visits, and feel the first agitations of this honourable distinction. I dined this day at Versailles, and after din- ner I visited all the Ministers and all the Honnenrs.' This is the distinc- tive name of the Ladies of Honour, and of the Mistress of the Robes of her Majesty, and of the King's sisters. I have already told how, in the year 1782, whilst I was in Paris with the Countess du Nord, the Queen had the goodness to dispense with the ceremony of my presentation ; but it was ne- cessary that I should now think of preparing for this indispensable formality.. My testimonials having been made out and examined by the genealogist, I was informed that the King and Royal Family had appointed half-past five in the evening of Sunday 13th June as the important moment. I had got a magnificent court-dress, an immense hoop, as was the court etiquette, and a has de rofe,' which means a train not fastened to the petticoat. My dress was made at Baulard's, as Mademoiselle Bertin would keep it too long It was of gold brocade embossed with flowers in their natural colours. They were not less than 'twenty-three yards of material, and the dress was tre- mendously heavy; which, however, did not prevent its being very handsome, and very much admired.

"13th /ans.—Immediately after dinner I had my hair dressed, very high, according to fashion, and ornamented with diamonds and a plume of feathers. I wore my earrings en girandole. "At half-past four I went with the Baroness Maekan for the Duchess de la Valliare, who had the goodness to undertake the charge of my presents.. tion. We set out for the chateau; where I was first presented to the Kin& This was a very awful moment—so many persons looking on, and oae as much afraid of being awkward, of forgetting the lessons one has received for walking backwards, kicking back the train so that one may not become en- tangled in it and fall, which would be considered excessively awkward and overwhelm the unfortunate delinquent with shame. "I made three reverences—one at the door, one in the centre, and a third immediately before the Monarch. 'When I was preaented to the Queen, I took off my glove, and made an inclination as if to kiss the hem of her robe ; but her Majesty put back her dress with her fan, and said, I am very glad to see you, idadame D'Oberkirch; but this presentation is only a formality ; we have been acquainted with each other a long time.'

"I bowed respectfully. " ' Have you heard lately from your illustrious friend ?' "'Her Imperial Highness often does me the honour of writing to me? " 'Has she forgotten us ?'

"'The memory of the Grand Duchess is as good as your Majesty's ; it would be impossible for you to forget each other.' "The Queen smiled, and then spoke to me of Alsace, Strasburg, and the Rhine, which she thought a magnificent river. " 'I prefer it to the Danube,' said she ; but the Seine has made me for- get them both.' "After a few more words the Queen bowed; and we retired backwards, with the three curtsies of adieu. We had been presented with tabourets ; biat.I did not sit, as I had not the right : the Duchess de b: Valliere sat, but had the politeness to rise immediately.

"I was then presented to all the Royal Family, with the same ceremony. The Ring did not speak to me, but smiled graciously. His Majesty seldom speaks to the persons presented to him, and is said to be very timid in the society of ladies. He did not kiss me ; for that is a ceremony that he is only obliged to perform for duchesses and cousin* of the Xing.

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"After my presentation I went to the yen de la Reine. Here all the ladies that have been presented sit on taboureta, without distinction of rank or title, whilst the gentlemen stand. The ladies that wish to play seat them- wives round the large card-table, when the Queen takes her place at it. After the game, the Queen walked round the room, addressing a few words to each person.

"'I hope that we will often see you again, Madame D'Oberkirch: said the.Queen, and that you will not be too anxious to return to Alsace:

"After making. my curtsey I left the room, and went to visit the Princess de Lamballes, sunntendante of the Queen's household, and then I again visited the Honours,' as was the etiquette."

The splendour of the Princes of the Blood, the folly of the old Duke of Orleans, the wickedness and ill conduct of the then Duke Of Chartres, afterwards Egalite, and very many _traits of Parisian Manners and frivolity; solicit attention: There are also many anecdotes, some well known, and some not so striking as the re- order seems to think, but most of them throwing a strong light upon the ideas and feelings of the age. In this point of view— that is, as a thorough picture of the frivolous life and opinions of the old regime—the volumes are well worth attention.