It is only moral riches which disappear
altogether, or are at least lost for centuries.
CHAPTER 7.
Residence at Vienna.
I arrived at Vienna on the 6th of June, very fortunately just two
hours before the departure of a courier whom Count Stackelberg, the
Russian ambassador, was dispatching to Wilna, where the emperor
Alexander then was. M. de Stackelberg, who behaved to me with that
noble delicacy which is so prominent a trait in his character, wrote
by this courier for my passport, and assured me that within three
weeks I might reckon on having an answer. It then became a question
where I was to pass these three weeks; my Austrian friends, who had
given me the most amiable reception, assured me that I might remain
at Vienna without the least fear. The court was then at Dresden, at
the great meeting of all the German princes, who came to present
their homage to the emperor of France. Napoleon had stopped at
Dresden under the pretext of still negociating there to avoid the
war with Russia, in other words, to obtain by his policy the same
result as he could by his arms. He would not at first admit the king
of Prussia to his banquet at Dresden; he knew too well what
repugnance the heart of that unfortunate monarch must have to what
he conceives himself obliged to do. It is said that M. de Metternich
obtained this humiliating favor for him.
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