Pending those preparations, the fêtes and amusements announced for the month of January suffered no interruption. The fêtes which, on account of the serious turns of the discussions, were to languish, seemed, on the contrary, to be more brilliant than ever. At that period Lord Castlereagh gave a great gala-ball. At Vienna, all the entertainments bore their particular stamp. Generally the private balls given by the illustrious diplomatic personages, though apparently modelled on the same pattern, were dissimilar in their general physiognomy or in their minute details. One might have called Lord Castlereagh’s a ‘vanity ball,’ for if on the one hand it was very sumptuous, on the other it was serious, like pride itself, and cold, like overweening pretension. Yes, one really felt inclined to say that the pride and the pretension which Lady Castlereagh had displayed in attaching to her brow the Garter of her husband had followed her into the gilded and brilliant halls of her residence, redolent with the scent of many flowers. The sumptuousness of the supper failed to thaw the iciness of the affair. As for the host, according to his habit amidst all those animated fêtes where everything was given over to pleasure, he seemed pre-occupied and smitten with care. Even when his lordship danced, he seemed to be bent upon giving his serious thoughts the slip by the accelerated movement of his legs, disporting himself in an Irish jig or a Scotch reel. Did Lord Castlereagh really endeavour to get away from the disappointments of an insidious and miscarried policy? Did he already ponder the last scene of the political drama of his life, when the stoicism of Cato, added to the sombre results of his spleen, made him escape by suicide from tardy and by then useless regrets? History has as yet not given the key to that enigma. CHAPTER XIV Some Original Types at the Congress--M. Aïdé--A Witticism of the Prince de Ligne--Mme. Pratazoff--Mr. Foneron--The Old Jew--His Noblesse and his Moral Code--Mr. Raily--His Dinners and his Companions--The Two Dukes--The End of a Gambler--The Sovereigns’ Incognito--Mr. O’Bearn--Ball at the Apollo--Zibin and the King of Prussia--Charles de Rechberg and the King of Bavaria--The Minuet--The King of Denmark--Story of the Bombardment of Copenhagen--The German Lesson. This unique scene of the Congress seemed a composition of thousands of pictures forming a general view. Each separate actor was a complete novel, and the lives of most of them would have offered material for long poems. As may be easily imagined, extraordinary personalities were not wanting in this motley gathering; their presence did not constitute the least conspicuous singularity.