354 CHAT ABOUT THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 



text to a most curious and interesting conversation, in 

 which every one bore a part, and were well qualified to 

 do so, as they knew all the chief actors, and, above all, 

 the principal actresses at the Congress of Vienna (1814), 

 where Madame de Krudencr was the pythoness, and the 

 Duchesses de Biron and de Bragazia were the secret 

 oracles of Metternich, who won his spurs in their 

 boudoirs. 



" Lady Castlereagh (with whom, by-the-bye, some two 

 or three years ago, I lived for three days every week — 

 for she used to come to Lord Abercorn's whilst I was 

 there every Saturday, and stopped till Monday), who 

 was ' so innocent, dear chuck,' of the knowledge of all 

 politics, that even that Mephistopheles of diplomacy, 

 Talleyrand, gave her up in despair, though he tried his 

 hand to turn her to account whilst she was at the Con- 

 gress. 



" ' Oh,' said Denon, ' Madame Krudener engrossed all 

 influences. I remember her at the Congress, and later 

 at Paris, when her salons were crowded with devotees 

 and crowned heads. She was the greatest actress I ever 

 saw — too melo-dramatic for a Clairon or a Mars, but 

 quite good enough for an audience of kings and empe- 

 rors ; for royalty has loved the drama from Cassar to 

 Bonaparte.' 



" ' How was she dressed ?' I asked — always a woman's 

 first idea. 



" ' Well, in a flowing robe of white cashmere, or some 

 soft fabric, but draped artisliquement, the folds gathered 

 round her waist by a silver girdle, des tresses dorees flow- 

 ing in profusion over a neck of alabaster. She had the 

 air of having been flung on a crimson velvet sofa piled 



