The Emperor of Germany’s Court did not display the brilliant aspect which might have been expected from the most important European power.[46] The simple architecture of his palace conveyed no idea of a sovereign’s residence. A detachment of the Viennese garrison mounted guard, and a few _trabans_ posted at the inner doors superintended the management and good order of the interior. Joseph II.’s household was very economically conducted. He had, however, grand Crown officials, such as grand-master, lord high chamberlain, grand-equerry, etc. But they only fulfilled their duties on gala days. In spite of the plainness and simplicity of the Viennese Court, the personages who composed it were of very high standing; there were many reigning princes, brothers of kings or electors, in the service of the Emperor, and a crowd of great nobles, such as the Princes de Ligne, d’Aremberg, de Lichtenstein, Esterhazi, Colorado, Palfy,[47] and others, who by their rank and future were almost equal to their sovereign. When he chose, the Emperor “knew how to impart to this Court, which usually had the appearance of a convent or a barrack, all the pomp and dignity worthy of the palace of Marie-Thérèse. Hélène witnessed for the first time the New Year’s festivities at Vienna. On that day most of the Hungarian magnates[48] came to Court in their elegant costumes, decked out with their handsomest jewels; the Prince Esterhazi, among others, was mounted on a richly caparisoned horse whose saddle-cloth was studded with diamonds. The Prince’s costume was as rich as his horse’s trappings. “I could not look at him,” Hélène says; “he dazzled me.” The Emperor Joseph, so simple in private life, wore a full-dress uniform embroidered with gold, and his coat, his orders, and his hat glittered with eighteen hundred thousand livres[49] worth of diamonds; the buttons, the fastenings, the epaulets, the braid, and the button of his hat were one mass of diamonds. On that day the Court servants and those of the nobility wore a livery of silk embroidered with gold and silver. The Prince de Ligne has left an interesting portrait of Joseph II., with whom he had been on terms of the closest intimacy. A year before the commencement of the Emperor’s reign, Lord Malmesbury asked the Prince de Ligne what he thought of him. “As a man,” replied the Prince, “he possesses great merit and talent; as Prince he will always be tortured by ambitions which he will be unable to satisfy; his reign will be a sort of perpetual and vain longing to sneeze.”