305 

 EUROPE AND HER DESPOTS. No. I. 



Ich liebe dich mein Vaterland. 



As the season was already so far advanced when I left Berlin, I 

 resolved to push on to Vienna without halting. The last rays of the 

 sun were tinging the lofty spire of the ancient miinster, as we approached 

 Prague ; this city is classic ground to the soldier, and though fatigued 

 by a hard day's travelling, I walked round her formidable line of 

 fortifications. At the evening " Table d'Hote" of the hotel at which I 

 alighted, I met the son of the unfortunate Gustavus, the ex king of 

 Sweden. My attention was forcibly attracted to this personage, by a 

 recollection of the following anecdote which I heard a few months before 

 at the Hague. The prince had led his wandering steps to the court of 

 Holland, where his handsome person made a deep impression on the 

 heart of the princess Marianne, the daughter of the king. Suddenly, 

 the prince was gazetted a major-general in the Dutch service, and the 

 constant attendant of the princess both in public and in private ; he was by 

 the whole court regarded as her husband elect in fact, it is well known, 

 that his Dutch majesty was no ways averse to the alliance. The court 

 of Stockholm, who watched with extreme anxiety all the movements 

 of the ex-royal family, and who are constantly apprehensive, that should 

 they form a matrimonial connexioh with any of the reigning families of 

 Europe, they would, from the same principle that induced Napoleon in 

 1813, to reject the services of the ex-king Gustavus, conceive themselves 

 bound in honour to make some movement in his favour, directed its 

 ambassador at the Hague, to protest diplomatically against the title 

 assumed by the prince, alleging, that there was no other prince of 

 Sweden, than his highness, prince Oscar, who had been formally 

 recognized as such by every court in Europe. But the sot disant prince, 

 de Suede, " etait bel homrne, et la princesse amoureuse on ny pent plus" 

 the protest of Vambassadeur, was, therefore, scarcely listened to. In 

 this conjuncture, Bernadotte, like a skilful tactician, changed his plan of 

 attack, and unmasked a formidable battery that he held in reserve ; he 

 communicated to the princess Marianne, that her intended was not only 

 married, but the father of two blooming boys ! the despair of the 

 princess, the indignation of the king may be easily conceived. Still, for 

 the honour of the house of Nassau, it was deemed prudent to hush up 

 the affair. Monsieur le prince de Suede, was, in consequence, secretly 

 advised to send in his resignation to spare the king the pain of dis- 

 missing him, and as the advice was accompanied by a handsome sum of 

 money, the prince took the hint and quitted Holland " a la sourdine." 

 When I met him at Prague, he was living on the fruit of his adventure 

 in a style which the previous state of his exchequer would not have 

 enabled him to do. 



The approach to the Austrian capital from Moravia is truly magni- 

 ficent. On the right, the superb Schoenbrun is discovered. On the 

 left, the mighty Danube displays its broad and impetuous bosom ; while 

 before the traveller, surrounded by its ramparts and its immense faux- 

 bourg, lies the imperial city itself, from the midst of which, rises the 

 venerable and Moorish spire of St. Stephen's, rearing on high the proud 



