Chapter 8

{68} The story of an old quarrel between Sir Stratford Canning and the then Grand Duke Nicholas at St. Petersburg in 1825 is disproved by Canning’s own statement. The two met once only in their lives, at a purely formal reception at Paris in 1814.

{82} _La Femme_ was a “Miss” or “Mrs.” Howard. She followed Louis Napoleon to France in 1848, and lived openly with him as his mistress. In the once famous “Letters of an Englishman” we are told how shortly after the December massacre the _élite_ of English visitors in Paris were not ashamed to dine at her house in the President’s company: and in 1860, Mrs. Simpson, in France with her father, Nassau Senior, found her, decorated with the title of Madame de Beauregard, inhabiting La Celle, near Versailles, once the abode of Madame de Pompadour, “with the national flag flying over it, to the great scandal of the neighbourhood.”

{87} Bachaumont’s criticism of Latour. Lady Dilke’s “French Painters,” p. 165.

{96} Here is one of the stanzas:

“L’Autriche—dit-on—et la Russie Se brouillent pour la Turquie. Dès aujourd’hui il n’en est plus question. En invitant une femme charmante, Le Turc—et je l’en complimente— Est devenu pour nous un trait d’union.”

{111} “Blackwood’s Magazine,” December, 1895, p. 802.

{130} I inserted this quotation before reading the “Etchingham Letters.” Sir Richard would wish me to erase it as hackneyed; but it applies to Kinglake’s talk as accurately as to Virgil’s writing, and I refuse to be defrauded of it.

{133} This delightful phrase is Lady Gregory’s. One would wish, like Lord Houghton, though suppressing his presumptuous rider, to have been its author.

{140} Of course Kinglake was not alone in this opinion. It was voiced in a delightful _jeu d’esprit_, now forgotten, which it is worth while to reproduce:

“THE BERLIN CONGRESS.

“The following Latin poem, from the pen of the well-known German poet, Gustave Schwetschke, was distributed by Prince Bismarck’s special request amongst the Plenipotentiaries immediately after the last sitting on Saturday:

“‘GAUDEAMUS CONGRESSIBILE.

“‘Gaudeamus igitur Socii congressus, Post dolores bellicosos, Post labores gloriosos, Nobis fit decessus.

“‘Ubi sunt, qui ante nos Quondam consedere, Viennenses, Parisienses Tot per annos, tot per menses? Frustra decidere.

“‘Mundus heu! vult decipi, Sed non decipiatur, Non plus ultra inter gentes Litigantes et frementes Manus conferatur.

‘Vivat Pax! et comitent Dii nunc congressum, Ceu Deus ex machinâ Ipsa venit Cypria Roborans successum.

“‘Pereat discordia! Vincat semper litem Proxenetae probitas, {141} Fides, spes, et charitas, Gaudeamus item!

“G. S.”

* * * * *

“THE OTHER VERSION.

(From the “Pall Mall Gazette.”)

“A correspondent informs us that the version given in ‘The Standard’ of yesterday of the congratulatory ode (‘Gaudeamus igitur,’ etc.) addressed to the Congress by ‘the well-known German poet Gustave Schwetschke,’ and ‘distributed by Prince Bismarck’s request among the Plenipotentiaries,’ is incorrect. The true version, we are assured, is as follows:

“‘Rideamus igitur, Socii Congressus; Post dolores bellicosos, Post labores bumptiosos, Fit mirandus messus.

“Ubi sunt qui apud nos Causas litigâre, Moldo-Wallachæ frementes, Græculi esurientes? Heu! absquatulâre.

“‘Ubi sunt provinciæ Quas est laus pacâsse? Totæ, totæ, sunt partitæ: Has tulerunt Muscovitæ, Illas Count Andrassy.

“‘Et quid est quod Angliæ Dedit hic Congressus? Jus pro aliis pugnandi, Mortuum vivificandi— Splendidi successus!

“‘Vult Joannes decipi Et bamboosulatur. Io Beacche! Quæ majestas! Ostreæ reportans testas Domum gloriatur!’”

“This version, which from internal evidence will be seen to be the true one, may be roughly Englished thus:

“Let us have our hearty laugh, Greatest of Congresses! After days and weeks pugnacious, After labours ostentatious, See how big the mess is!

“‘Where are those who at our bar Their demands have stated: Robbed Roumanians rampaging, Greeklings with earth-hunger raging? Where? Absquatulated!

“‘Where the lands we’ve pacified, With their rebel masses? All are gone; yes, all up-gobbled: These the Muscovite has nobbled, Those are Count Andrassy’s.

“‘And what does England carry off To add to her possessions? The right to wage another’s strife, The right to raise the dead to life— Glorious concessions!

“‘Well, let John Bull bamboozled be If he’s so fond of sells! Io Beacche! Hark the cheering! See him home in triumph bearing _Both_ {143} the oyster shells!’”

{141} “Der ehrlich Miikler.”

{143} Peace and Honour.