Sebastiani is coming here as Ambassador--that is, unless he changes his mind and pleads ill-health. The French Government notified to us his appointment without asking our consent, and when the Duke stated it to the Cabinet, objections were made; he accordingly wrote the same day to Bacourt, stating that the Cabinet thought the appointment objectionable, and that there would be difficulties in transacting business with him. The French Government expressed surprise, and rather insist upon their appointment, and as ours does not think it worth while to have a dispute about it, he is to come; but we think they have behaved very ill, for the Duke never proposed the Paris Embassy to Lord Cowley till he had communicated with France, and ascertained that the nomination would be agreeable to the King. It was expected that St. Aulaire or Latour-Maubourg would have come here. It is of Madame de St. Aulaire that Talleyrand said, 'Elle cherche l'esprit que son mari trouve.' (This anecdote I suspect not to be true, or not true of Madame de St. Aulaire, who is a very intelligent, agreeable woman, more lively and with more _finesse d'esprit_ than her husband.) St. Aulaire is Ambassador at Vienna, and, however clever, he either wants presence of mind or is touchy, as the following anecdote shows. Madame de Metternich is a fine handsome woman, ill brought up, impertinent, _insouciante_, and _assez bourrue_--_au reste_, quick and amusing. She went to a ball at St. Aulaire's with a fine coronet of diamonds on, and when he came to receive her he said, 'Mon dieu, madame, quelle belle couronne vous avez sur la tête!' 'Au moins,' said she, 'ce n'est par une couronne que j'ai volée.' Instead of turning it into a joke, he made a serious affair of it, and went the next day to Metternich with a formal complaint; but Metternich said, 'Mais mon cher, que voulez-vous? Vous voyez que j'ai épousé une femme sans éducation; je ne puis pas l'empêcher de dire de pareilles sottises, mais vous sentez bien que ce serait fort inconvénant pour moi de m'en mêler. Allons! il n'y faut plus penser,' and so turned it off, and turned him out, by insisting on making a joke of the affair, as St. Aulaire had better have done at first. January 7th, 1835 {p.187}