‘In assuming the title of King of Poland, I desire to satisfy the wish of the nation. The Kingdom of Poland will be united to the empire by the bonds of its own constitution. If the supreme interest of a general peace has made it impossible for all the Poles to be united under one sceptre, I have made it a point to soften the rigours of that separation, and to secure for them everywhere a peaceful enjoyment of their nationality.’ Faithful to his system, Alexander shouted very loudly from the house-tops the word ‘nationality’ at the very moment when was accomplished and consecrated the division which was to make havoc of the word itself. Among the Polish notabilities in Vienna who had defended the cause with most intelligence and courage, one must mention in the first rank the Prince Adam Czartoryski. The passionate defender of the independence of his country, he for one moment fostered the illusion of having found the regenerator in Alexander. When the emperor, during his voyage from Russia to Vienna, stopped at Pulawi, the residence of this ancient family, the princess-dowager, her two sons, Adam and Constantine; her two daughters, the Princesse de Würtemberg and the Comtesse Zamoyska, had prepared the most brilliant reception. In their eyes it was Alexander whose hand was to raise their country from its ruin. Alexander, on his side, professed a great esteem for the character of Prince Adam. Even at the Congress the rumour ran for a moment that he was going to appoint him his Minister of Foreign Affairs, instead of M. de Nesselrode, and that he reserved the vice-royalty of Poland for him later on. It was never known how far those rumours could be substantiated. Was it a tribute to the loyalty and talent of Prince Adam? Was it a means of leading people astray? Afterwards Europe learned how that prince became the martyr of the cause to which he had devoted the whole of his life. What, in the future, was to be the upshot of that decision of the Congress? Placed under the sceptre of the Russian autocrat, would Poland once more find her level among the rank of nations, or, like the streams which lose both their name and their substance, was Poland to be swallowed up in the immense boundaries? Such were the questions discussed one day in the most lively manner at Princesse Sapieha’s. Around her were the Comte Arthur Potocki, the Comte Komar, the Prince Radziwill, the Prince Paul Sapieha, the Princesse Lubomirska, the Comtesse Lanskarouska, and several other ladies. Illusion is nowhere so thoroughly permitted as when it becomes a question of country; in that gathering, all hearts were generally open to the hopes of a political restoration, all minds believed in the realisation of Alexander’s promises. CHAPTER XVII