Women of the Second Empire; Chronicles of the Court of Napoleon III (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V PLEASURE'S AMBASSADRESS PAULINE DE METTERNICH SANDOR Two sides of one portrait--The young Countess Pauline Sandor--Her marriage with Prince Richard Metternich--Arrival in Paris--Receptions at the Austrian Embassy--Princesse de Metternich, in spite of Wagner, leads the fashion at Court and in town--Anecdotes--A great lady's passion for the theatre--At Compiegne--Fragments of original letters--Madame de Metternich's friends and enemies--Flight of epigrams--A hotter attack--Excitement in the camp of the princesses--An exciting duel--Madame de Metternich's true r6le at the Court of Napoleon--The last act of a brilliant comedy--On a new stage--Princesse de Metternich's pre-eminence in Viennese society. WHOLLY Viennese at heart and fervently patriotic as she showed herself, it was not without good reason that the name of "the Parisian Princess" was bestowed on the former ambassadress, the quick-witted woman who, during the ten or twelve years during which she was constantly in evidence, succeeded by her keen vivacity in amusing, interesting, and charming her friends in France, while she irritated the jealous, shocked the timid, astounded some, annoyed others, and filled the entire Press with the echo of her name and the brilliance of her entertainments. Nor in the long interval that has elapsed since those days, has she ever ceased to play a leading part, to revolve between these two capitals--the successive stages on which her original destiny has been played out. Not many years ago--the autograph letter lies before us--she dashed off, in her large characteristic writing, the following lines, addressed to one of our great men, as famous in society as in literature: --"You know how fleeting is the royalty of fashion, and I assure you...