While Comte de Witt was telling me all this, I had caught sight of Prince Eugène by himself, and I went up to him. With his usual kindness, he reminded me of my not having been to see him for a long while, although we had frequently met at our friend Comtesse Laura’s. Wherever Prince Eugène was compelled to appear, his calm dignity never forsook him; and in spite of his equivocal situation at Vienna, he made many, many friends. I have already touched upon Emperor Alexander’s sincere affection for him, a friendship redounding to the honour of the deposed prince and the powerful emperor. This friendship and interest of the czar extended to Queen Hortense. Knowing her impulsive disposition, and how much she stood in need now and again of disinterested advice, Alexander had despatched to Paris a diplomatic agent, named Boutiakine, with the mission to take care of her, and to guide her in all things. Eugène had just received some letters from this cherished sister, who appeared to have inherited all the feminine graces of her mother. Hortense fully unbosomed her griefs, which at that moment were very poignant. The family dissensions, the death of her mother, the threat of being deprived of her children, everything seemed to aggravate the loss of her brilliant position. The prince, in mentioning all these, could scarcely restrain his emotion; and from that moment I promised myself to make those confidences a passport to the friendship of the woman to whom the loss of a crown seemed the least of sorrows. My wish was realised later on, not in Paris, as I had hoped, but in the spot which at the time served her as an asylum. It was in 1819, when she was in exile. I had just returned from Poland, where I had spent several years, and was preparing to go back to France. Being at Augsburg, I was informed that she, who no longer bore any other title than that of the Duchesse de Saint-Leu, was living there. In days gone by she had set some of my romances to music. The latter circumstance, together with the good-will shown to me by her brother during the Congress of Vienna, emboldened me to request the honour of being presented to her; her immediate answer virtually enhanced the favour accorded.