The Journal of Countess Françoise Krasinska, Great Grandmother of Victor EmmanuelTańska-Hoffmanowa, Klementyna
History
The Journal of Countess Françoise Krasinska, Great Grandmother of Victor Emmanuel
Tańska-Hoffmanowa, Klementyna
Diary fiction; Franciszka Krasińska, Countess, consort of Charles, Duke of Courland, 1743-1796 -- Fiction
The ceremony took place yesterday and I have seen Basia, who
looks beautiful, although she has grown a little thin and pale.
She is always as good as an angel, and as happy as a queen.
The duke begged that the little girl be named after me, but
Basia was firm in her first purpose; and she was right, for this
honor was due to our gracious Mother. Thus the little girl was
christened "Angela;" she is a dear little thing, and she cried
during the whole ceremony, which is a good sign that she will
live to be aged. It was the first time in my life that I stood
as godmother; I did not know how to hold the baby, so the duke
had to help me. It seemed so queer to stand with him before the
altar surrounded by so many people, and to write down my name
next to his in the large book. Perhaps it was to this event that
Matenko's predictions referred.
Everybody is congratulating me on the great honor which befell
me. The duke is still more attentive than before, and a little
more familiar; he calls me "my beautiful partner," and the
little girl is always "our little Angela." He presented handsome
gifts to Madame Starostine and to me, and threw handfuls of gold
among the attendants and the poor in the church.
I for my part could not do so much, but the little embroidered
christening robe, my gift to Angela, has cost me more than a few
hours' work.
But I forget to speak about an important affair. The topic of
conversation in Warsaw has for some time been a hunting party
which the Prince Jerome Radzivill, the Hetman of the Lithuania
army, is preparing for the pleasure of the king and the duke.
He is spending thousands in order to make a grand display, and
has had the game brought from the forests of Lithuania, over 500
miles away. The fête will be to-morrow; the weather is fine and
the sleighing excellent. The duke wished to drive his "partner,"
and it shall be so. The four Warsaw belles--for I am counted now
as the fourth--will go in one sleigh, and the duke will be our
driver. All four will have costumes alike, but of different
colors,--long velvet coats, tight at the waist, trimmed with
sable, and small caps with fur to match. The Countess Potocka
has selected blue, the Princess Sapieha dark green, Mademoiselle
Wessel marroon, and I shall wear dark crimson.
It is a pity Basia will not see all this, but she is so happy
with her little Angela that she does not care for anything else.
_Friday_, January 17.
I have never in my life seen anything so magnificent as this
hunting party. We started at nine o'clock in the morning. One
could not possibly count all the horses and sleighs which were
assembled before the king's castle, but ours was the handsomest
of all, and we followed first after the king. The duke, in a
hunting costume of green velvet, looked superb!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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