The fêtes of M. de Metternich during the Congress bore a peculiar stamp, altogether in harmony with his personality, if one may express it in that way. To the most thoroughly experienced lavishness, to an extreme minuteness of detail, there was added a grandeur absolutely without embarrassment. It was towards the end of January that this fête took place. The _locale_ chosen was M. de Metternich’s country estate, a short distance from Vienna. Though the cold was excessive, the number of guests was immense, and, as usual, comprised all the illustrious personages of Europe and the handsomest women of the moment. The prince and princess discharged their social duties with a certain coquettish grace--a grace which tends to disappear now that people believe they have done everything by throwing open their drawing-rooms. Truly, watching this illustrious host, and the pains he took to please his guests, one could but remember how, at the beginning of his career in Paris, he had shone by the brilliancy of his manners. And, though his position had become immeasurably greater since then, it had made no difference to a courtesy which must always be a powerful auxiliary in the hands of such a man. A magnificent ball-room had been constructed for that fête in the garden itself, and had been decorated with all the pomp and lavishness that had really become a matter of course. The stands were tenanted by women dazzling in youth and elegance, who vied with the masses of colour supplied by the uniforms, decorations, and embroideries occupying the middle of the floor. Next morning an alarming rumour spread that this elegant ball-room had been partially ruined during the night by a fire. Vienna is quite as prolific in superstitious people as other places, and the untoward event served as a text for several prophecies. They recalled the accidents that had marked the marriage of Louis XVI.; they recalled the fire at the mansion of the Prince de Schwartzenberg at Paris at the moment of the union of Napoleon with the daughter of the Cæsars--a sad analogy with the fates occasioned by his fall in the capital of his father-in-law, and not far distant from the place of exile of his wife and his son. The high position of M. de Metternich in the debates of Europe; the presidency which his colleagues had spontaneously and simultaneously conferred upon him--all this was calculated to give still greater consistency to all those lugubrious conjectures.