‘I’m going to Schönbrunn to-day,’ he said, ‘and I should like you to accompany me. I am performing _ad honores_ the office of introducer to the little duke who was born a king. I only want to finish this chapter on the events of the moment, and then I am at your disposal. ‘I’m throwing my thoughts on to paper anyhow lest they should escape my memory,’ he added. ‘The grand picture we constantly have before us has the faculty of inspiring me; I fancy that amidst all these delirious joys a thought may now and again strike me which in days to come will either give pleasure or be productive of some good. Though yielding to this whirl of phantasms, I have not ceased to observe. Though an actor in the piece which is being played, I consider the whole of what is passing around me a simple kick in an ant-hill.’ Saying which he resumed writing. All of a sudden, being apparently in want of a reference of some kind, he looked up. ‘Be kind enough to give me that manuscript volume on the third shelf.’ I got up, but uncertain which volume to take, I hesitated for a moment. Thereupon he jumped out of bed and hauled himself up by the cornice of the bookcase, got hold of the book, and was back again between the sheets in less time than it takes to tell; I looking on in sheer surprise at the agility of a man of his years. ‘The fact is,’ he said, ‘I have been most nimble all my life, and my nimbleness has been exceedingly useful. During that kind of fairy journey when I accompanied the great Catherine to the Taurida, the imperial yacht was doubling the promontory of Parthenizza, where, according to tradition, the Temple of Iphigenia formerly stood. We were discussing the greater or lesser probability of that tradition, when Catherine, stretching forth her arms towards the coast, said: “Prince de Ligne, I’ll bestow upon you that contested territory.” No sooner had the words dropped from her lips than I was in the water, in full uniform, my hat on my head, and in a few moments I stood on _terra firma_. “Majesty,” I cried, drawing my sword, “I am taking possession.” Since then that Taurida rock is named after me, and I keep the land.