Memoirs of the Countess Potocka |
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able admiration affection Alexander already answered appeared arms army arrived asked ball battle of Eylau beauty become believe brought called carriage CHAPTER charming conversation Count Countess court door dress duke emperor empress engraving entered everything eyes face father father-in-law followed fortune French gave give given grand hand head heart honour hope hour husband imagination interest Italy kind king knew ladies least leave less letter listened live look Madame manner Marshal mind morning mother Napoleon never night offered once palace Paris passed person played Poland politeness Poniatowski poor present Prince princess promised Queen received remained Russian seemed seen sent silence soon sort speak surprise taken talk taste things thought tion told took town turn wanted Warsaw whole wished young
Popular passages
Page 222 - I hope to realize the regeneration of the brave and worthy nation to which you belong. I have solemnly promised to do so, and at all times its welfare has occupied my thoughts. Political affairs alone have hindered the execution of my plans. Those obstacles no longer exist. Two years of terrible and glorious fighting have levelled them. A little while yet and the Poles shall recover their country, their name, and I shall have the happiness of convincing them that, forgetting the past, one whom they...
Page 74 - So many portraits exist of this astonishing man, his history has been so much written about, all the stories told by the children of his old soldiers will live so long, that the generations to come will know him almost as well as ourselves. But what will be difficult to grasp is how deep and unexpected the impression was which those felt who saw him for the first time. As for me, I experienced a sort of stupor, a mute surprise, like that which seizes one at the aspect of any prodigy. It seemed to...
Page xxii - Potocka's career, referring to journeys, Court balls, and Napoleon I., between 1812 and 1820. The authoress died, at the age of ninety-one, in Paris, where her brilliant salon held no insignificant place in the gilded pleasures of the Second Empire. There is little of interest to scientific readers in the memoirs ; but one or two incidents referring to astrologers are amusing. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents.
Page 159 - no doubt you got home very late yesterday; we had hoped to see you, and your place remained empty!" Encouraged by this gracious reception, I tried to express the regret I had experienced in opening the letter which apprised me of everything I had lost by my absence. As he listened to me with a smile, I added that it would have been better if I had not come to Paris. He let me talk, was amused at my disappointment, and ended in consoling me by saying, with charming good-humour, that I ought to know...
Page 40 - As soon as the table waa cleared his valet put a mirror, a basin and brushes before him, and then and there the prince began his morning toilet over again, just as if he had been alone in his dressing room, while every one was waiting for him to finish to get up from the table. I could not suppress my astonishment and...
Page 230 - ... Long live the King of Poland! A singular invention, to be sure ! From anybody else this mode of announcing an event of such great moment would justly have been thought a kind of epigram, for there was certainly comedy in all this affair. But it was not to be supposed that the imperial commisssary was perpetrating a bad joke. So the thing was done in that way, and as there were a number of people in the parterre who were suborned, and still more who were dupes, the shouts and the applause became...
Page 82 - No doubt a number of people had accumulated at the door the moment that Napoleon made his appearance, for he walked very quickly, as was his habit. The poor envoys lost their heads, and tumbled all over each other.
Page 193 - He had a quick and apt mind. With a touch more of the legitimate sovereign and a touch less of puerile vanity he might have passed for a distinguished prince ; but, being a spoilt child of Fortune, he used and abused her bounty. ... It was stated that every morning he took a bath of rum, and every evening a bath of milk. His servants, they said, put up the liquor in bottles, and sold it at a rebate. He...
Page 233 - In such a manner, then, were we apprised of an event of such apparently large importance, but which scarcely affected our precarious position, although we were promised a constitution founded on national representation. A representative government, like that which he had seen operating in England, was for the moment Alexander's hobby. He played at constitution-making as little girls play at being lady. Those near and devoted to him claimed that his intentions and projects tended to perform more than...
Page 90 - After listening for half an hour he became impatient. "That is not sentiment; it is a hash of phrases — a head front-side back. Don't you see she thinks she loves this Englishman because he shows himself cold and indifferent? Go to bed — it's time wasted. Whenever an author personifies herself in a book it is a failure. Good-night." The next day he gave "Corinne" to the Duke of Bassano, who sent it to me, thinking we had not yet received the book at Warsaw. I have religiously kept this historical...
Bibliographic information
| Title | Memoirs of the Countess Potocka Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO): Women: Transnational Networks |
| Author | Anna Potocka (hrabina) |
| Editor | Casimir Stryienski |
| Translated by | Lionel Strachey |
| Publisher | Doubleday & McClure Company, 1900 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | Nov 13, 2006 |
| Length | 253 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |