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
There are many people coming here to pay their respects to the
prince, who is the Woivode of this province, but they are not
very interesting. The one person whom I like to see is the
Prince Martin Lubomirski, the first cousin of the Woivode, but
much younger, and whom I have already met in Warsaw. He owns
the earldom of Janow, which is not far from here, and he has
invited us very eagerly to pay him a visit; I hope we shall go.
The princess always finds something to censure in him, but I
like him very much; he talks most agreeably, and is a great
friend of the Duke of Courland.
JANOW, _Friday_, May 1.
We have been here two days, and the Prince Martin announced from
the very first that he would not let us go away soon. I do not
think there can be found anywhere a host more generous, gay, and
hospitable than the Prince Martin. The princess says that he
sows his money broadcast as though he expected it to grow. He
has now a new scheme on foot: they are cutting a road through a
beautiful forest near the castle,--from my window I can see the
magnificent trees fall under the axes of at least a hundred
workmen,--and at the end of the road they are building a small
palace, but in such haste that it seems to grow under one's
eyes. There is a wager between the Prince Martin and the Prince
Woivode that the building will be ready in four weeks, and I am
sure the younger prince will be the winner. The whole forest is
to be enclosed with a hedge and serve as a preserve. Men have
been sent to distant places to bring deer and bears, besides the
game which is found around here. There is some mystery about all
that hasty work; I wonder what it is!
This place is beautiful indeed. The old and majestic castle
stands upon a hill above the Vistula, and commands a most
admirable view over picturesque villages, forests, and the
winding river. The halls and rooms are innumerable, the
furniture rich and elegant, and the gallery of portraits is said
to be the finest in the country. But my room seems to me the
most charming of all; it is in a high tower, and it makes me
feel like the heroine of a novel. From each of the three windows
is a different view, each beautiful, but I sit most near the
window looking towards the little palace, the progress of the
work going on there interests me so very much. On the walls of
my room is Olympus painted in fresco. "Venus lui manquait, mais
il la possède maintenant," said Prince Martin, gallantly, when
he brought me in.
_Sunday_, March 3.
I rose before the sun, and I must have looked like a ghost when
I glided through the large halls, on my way to the gallery of
portraits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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