With nearly all the sovereigns it was sufficient to present oneself to be received, without asking for a special interview. In a few days my subscription list was full. The Emperor and Empress of Russia were the first to put their names down for several copies. The Kings of Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria, and, in short, every illustrious personage in Vienna, followed suit. I had Polish type cast. The printing was confided to the presses of the celebrated Strauss. Krudner did the engravings. Nothing was spared to invest the publication with all the beauty to which it could lend itself. The first copies had just been ‘pulled’ when the news reached us of the landing of Napoleon at Cannes. From that moment people troubled very little about literature and poetry, but there were a great many diplomatic conferences, declarations, and preparations for war. Nearly all the subscribers left Vienna without taking their copies. I myself left the city a little while afterwards to go to Paris; and of the whole of my attempt there only remained the recollection of the gracious reception of the sovereigns, and one of the most curious collections of autographs in the hands of any author. Men in Vienna--Russians and Poles--without distinction subscribed for the publication of the songs of Trembecki. People little dreamt that, fifty years later, that beautiful garden would be taken away from the family of its founder, confiscated in consequence of the last revolution of Poland. Sophieowka has been added to the domains of the Emperor of Russia. They have even taken away its name, which it owed to love. To-day it is called Czaritzine-Gad (the garden of the Czarina). There is, however, something more powerful than arms, than conquests, than the decrees of kings. It is the empire of memory and of poesy. The beautiful verses of Trembecki will endure, and in ages to come people will always pronounce the name, and the only name of Sophieowka. CHAPTER XIX A Luncheon at M. de Talleyrand’s on his Birthday--M. de Talleyrand and the MS.--The Princesse-Maréchale Lubomirska --The New Arrivals--Chaos of Claims--The Indemnities of the King of Denmark--Rumours of the Congress--Arrival of Wellington at Vienna--The Carnival--Fête of the Emperor of Austria--A Masked Rout--The Diadem, or Vanity Punished--A Million--Gambling and Slavery: a Russian Anecdote.