Gracious heavens! What ladies,
too! They were all as ugly as the gentlemen, and their head-dresses
were so curious that swallows might have built their nests in them.

As for Baireuth itself, and its petty Court, the picture she gives of it
is exceedingly curious. Her father-in-law, the reigning Margrave, was a
narrow-minded mediocrity, whose conversation 'resembled that of a sermon
read aloud for the purpose of sending the listener to sleep,' and he had
only two topics, Telemachus, and Amelot de la Houssaye's Roman History.
The Ministers, from Baron von Stein, who always said 'yes' to everything,
to Baron von Voit, who always said 'no,' were not by any means an
intellectual set of men. 'Their chief amusement,' says the Margravine,
'was drinking from morning till night,' and horses and cattle were all
they talked about. The palace itself was shabby, decayed and dirty. 'I
was like a lamb among wolves,' cries the poor Margravine; 'I was settled
in a strange country, at a Court which more resembled a peasant's farm,
surrounded by coarse, bad, dangerous, and tiresome people.'

Yet her esprit never deserted her. She is always clever, witty, and
entertaining. Her stories about the endless squabbles over precedence
are extremely amusing. The society of her day cared very little for good
manners, knew, indeed, very little about them, but all questions of
etiquette were of vital importance, and the Margravine herself, though
she saw the shallowness of the whole system, was far too proud not to
assert her rights when circumstances demanded it, as the description she
gives of her visit to the Empress of Germany shows very clearly. When
this meeting was first proposed, the Margravine declined positively to
entertain the idea. 'There was no precedent,' she writes, 'of a King's
daughter and the Empress having met, and I did not know to what rights I
ought to lay claim.' Finally, however, she is induced to consent, but
she lays down three conditions for her reception:

I desired first of all that the Empress's Court should receive me at
the foot of the stairs, secondly, that she should meet me at the door
of her bedroom, and, thirdly, that she should offer me an armchair to
sit on.

* * * * *

They disputed all day over the conditions I had made. The two first
were granted me, but all that could be obtained with respect to the
third was, that the Empress would use quite a small armchair, whilst
she gave me a chair.

Next day I saw this Royal personage. I own that had I been in her
place I would have made all the rules of etiquette and ceremony the
excuse for not being obliged to appear. The Empress was small and
stout, round as a ball, very ugly, and without dignity or manner. Her
mind corresponded to her body. She was terribly bigoted, and spent
her whole day praying. The old and ugly are generally the Almighty's
portion. She received me trembling all over, and was so upset that
she could not say a word.

After some silence I began the conversation in French. She answered
me in her Austrian dialect that she could not speak in that language,
and begged I would speak in German.