Reception at Madame de Fuchs’s--Prince Philippe d’Hesse-Hombourg --The Journalists and Newsmongers of Vienna--The French Village in Germany--Prince Eugène--Recollection of the Consulate--Tribulations of M. Denville--Mme. Récamier-- The Return of the _Émigré_--Childhood’s Friend, or the Magic of a Name--Ball at Lord Stewart’s--Alexander proclaimed King of Poland--The Prince Czartoryski--Confidence of the Poles --Count Arthur Potocki--The Revolutions of Poland--Slavery --Vandar--Ivan, or the Polish Serf. At one of the _soirées_ at the Comtesse de Fuchs’s, the whole of the coterie had gathered round her--for she also had her coterie. In default of diplomatic treaties, her grace and friendship constituted its bond. The conversation had turned on some news which, it was said, had leaked out from the high deliberations of the Congress. They were asking Prince Philippe d’Hesse-Hombourg if the fate of his family’s Landgravate had been fixed, either by the decisions on the Graben or by those of the more serious Congress. ‘Nothing as yet has transpired,’ he answered, ‘but it is generally expected that the Principality will receive a slight increase.’ Thereupon he gave us some particulars as to the origin of his house, one of the most illustrious in Germany, both in virtue of its age and of its alliances; though he himself had probably no idea of being one day called upon to play the part of its ruler. ‘The Principality of Hesse-Hombourg,’ he said, ‘presents one of the most curious freaks of modern times. It is a small colony of French Huguenots, which settled there at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Landgraf Frederick cordially welcomed those unhappy victims of their king’s intolerance. He gave them land to till, and sold his silver to come to their aid. They founded a village to which they gave the name Friedrichsdorf. The most curious thing is that for more than a hundred years they have preserved, without the slightest alteration, the language, the manners, the costume, in fact everything connected with their country and their century. It is a kind of republic, governed by their minister. Isolated in their valley in the centre of Germany, these men, though practically at the door of their country, appear to have had no part or parcel in the great events that have just been accomplished. They have simply ignored the French Revolution, or if not that, have heard little or nothing of it. Though French at heart by habits, traditions, and origin, they no longer think of the country which in days gone by expelled their fathers.’ ‘In my travels,’ I said, ‘I likewise found a similar colony, but one that pushed further on than the other. It carried its household gods as far as Macarief in Russia, It, also, preserved the language and customs of its time, without even omitting the voluminous wig which everybody knows.’