From thence I proposed to
pass by Greece, Sicily, Cadiz, and Lisbon, and however hazardous was
this voyage, it offered a fine perspective to the imagination. I
addressed the office for foreign affairs, directed by a subaltern
during the absence of M. de Metternich, for a passport which would
enable me to leave Austria by Hungary, or by Gallicia, according as
I might go to Petersberg or to Constantinople. I was told that I
must make my election; that they could not give me a passport to go
by two different frontiers, and that even to go to Presburg, which
is the first city of Hungary, only six leagues from Vienna, it was
necessary to have an authority from the committee of the States.
Certainly I could not help thinking that Europe, which was formerly
so open to all travellers, is become, under the influence of the
emperor Napoleon, like a great net, in which you get entangled at
every step. How many restraints and shackles there are upon the
slightest movements! And can it be conceived that the unhappy
governments which France oppresses, console themselves for it by
making the miserable remains of power which has been left them, fall
heavy in a thousand ways upon their subjects!
CHAPTER 8.
Departure from Vienna.
Obliged to make my election, I decided at last for Gallicia, which
would conduct me to the country I preferred, namely, to Russia.
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