vi ' Preface. 



Indulgent readers, I am sure, will forgive me if now and then a melnn- 

 choly or bitter tone vibrates through the following pages ; but I am less 

 sure of being forgiven by another class of readers, who, on the contrary, 

 will be indignant and accuse me of want of feeling, or of levity, because I 

 am not ahvays melancholy. 



As I am afraid that amongst them might be persons whose opinion is of 

 very great value to me, I sliall say a few words in self-defence. 



Those who have never experienced great losses or troubles, and know 

 grief as it were theoretically, who are living quiet and happy under the 

 protection of a kind and beloved husband, surrounded by a crowd of 

 healthy children, often imagine that they could not survive the loss of one 

 of their beloved, or at least never smile or feel happy again. That is an ' 

 error. The Almighty, who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, has 

 ordered time and reason to blunt the edge of grief ; the desire or attempt 

 to perpetuate it is unreasonable and sinful and not worthy of a sound- 

 minded person. I consider it to be a duty towards myself and the world, 

 in which I may have to live still many years, to try my best to conquer this 

 morbid inclination, and if I succeed partially iu doing so it would be hard 

 and unjust to accuse me of levity, for that I am not devoid of feeling may 

 be proved by the fact that my hair has become grey since then, — and I have 

 scarcely passed my thirtieth year. 



In writing the following pages it is not my intention to write my biography. 

 I shall only relate what 1 have seen and observed since 1862, the year in 

 which I was married to Prince Felix zu Salm-Salm. This time of ten 

 years is one of the most memorable in history, including the great Ameri- 

 can civil war, the catastrophe in Mexico, and the fall of the Napoleonic 

 empire. Duri^lg the American war I was almost always with my husband ; 

 I followed him also to Mexico, and was not only a mere spectator in the 

 great and sad tragedy enacted there. During the last French war I was 

 with the army from the commencement to the end, and afterwards I visited 

 Rome and Spain. Everywhere my position enabled m.e to become 

 acquainted with the leading persons, and to be an eyewitness of the most 

 important events. It may therefore be supposed that I have something to 

 tell. Supported by a very good memory and a carefully and regularly 

 kept diary, I shall try my best to make my account as interesting as possi- 

 ble, and if my book may be insignificant as a literary production, I hope 

 it will not tire the patience of the reader. 



' Agnes zu Salm-Salm. 



Bonn on-the-Rhine. 



