The upper stratum of German society was divided into several factions or circles, and each had its particular shade and physiognomy. At the Princesses Marie Esterhazy’s, de Colloredo’s, de Lichtenstein’s, and at the Comtesse de Zichy’s, great courtesy and grace were added to the minutest and numberless details of an ever-watchful hospitality. At Mme. de Fuchs’s, the whole was on a less ceremonious footing; while, on the contrary, the acme of ceremoniousness was attained at the Princesse de Fürstenberg’s. Distinguished both for her learning and for her energy, the princess’s habitual guests were princes many of whom had become subjects. The handsome Duchesse de Sagan’s receptions were eagerly attended. She was a most intellectual woman, and could have exercised great influence on all serious affairs, inasmuch as her judgment was considered in the light of an authority, but she rarely made use of her advantages. The diplomatic celebrities forgathered at M. de Humboldt’s or at M. de Metternich’s, the latter of whom, undoubtedly, ought to have been named first. In fact, though his residence was the central point of affairs, he still found it possible to welcome strangers with the most indefatigable politeness. The Russian drawing-room _par excellence_ was that of the Princesse Bagration, the wife of the field-marshal of that name. She, as it were, enacted, though informally, the part of principal hostess to her countrymen who happened to be in Vienna. She was one of the most brilliant stars in that number of constellations the Congress had attracted. She seemed to have been singled out by the charm and the distinction of her manners to transfer thither the polished form and the aristocratic ease which at that time made the drawing-rooms of St. Petersburg the foremost of Europe. In that respect no minister-plenipotentiary would have used his opportunities to better purpose. The Princesse Bagration, who since then has been much admired in Paris, was at that period in the zenith of her beauty. A young face, white like alabaster and slightly tinted with pink, small features, a sweet, though very feeling expression, to which her short-sightedness gave an air of timidity and uncertainty; of average height though exquisitely proportioned, and the whole of her personality pervaded by a kind of Oriental languor joined to an Andalusian grace--such was, without exaggeration, the charming hostess entrusted that evening with the amusement of those illustrious personages often as much bored as the ‘unamusable’ lover of Mme. de Maintenon.