The entertainment offered by the Court on that particular evening was of an entirely novel kind as far as the majority of the spectators were concerned. It consisted of the representation of pictures and of songs put into action by living personages. The Prince de Ligne and I went early to the Imperial Palace. Though the performance had not commenced, the rooms were full. Thanks to the Comte Arthur Potocki, we were enabled to get to the seats he had reserved for us between the Princesse Marie Esterhazy and the Prince Leopold de Saxe-Cobourg. It was the first time I met this young man in society; he was known to the Prince de Ligne, who soon made us acquainted with each other. At that time, he seemed to me as timid as he was handsome. Never did noble birth and blood show themselves more conspicuously than in the distinguished air and easy bearing of this scion of an illustrious house. At that period he was doubtlessly far from foreseeing the fortunate position destiny had in store for him, by uniting him at first to a great princess, by placing him afterwards on the throne of regenerated Belgium, and finally by giving him as consort an accomplished princess from the blood royal of France. To-day the future happiness of two families, of perhaps two peoples, is centred in him.[60]
After having exchanged a few courteous words, Prince Leopold left us to prepare for his part in one of the tableaux; we remained with the Princesse Esterhazy.
The illustrious and princely House of Esterhazy has so often been described as to render the task of adding anything fresh to those descriptions a difficult one. Everybody knows that its noble origin is virtually lost in the mist of ages, and that its power equals that of kings. Its magnificence, its wealth, and the splendour of its establishment are such as to convey but a faint idea to those who have not seen them, and those who have are tempted to consider them as so many parts of a fairy dream induced by the reading of some fabulous story. Its territorial possessions comprise more than a hundred villages and burghs, something like forty townships and over thirty castles and fortresses.[61] The country seats which constitute, as it were, the capitals of those veritable states comprise an enormous number of apartments, picture-galleries and theatres. The Hungarian hussar’s dress, entirely embroidered with pearls, which is transmitted in the family from father to son, is estimated at four millions of florins, and costs twelve thousand florins to repair each time it is worn. On those vast domains the Esterhazys exercise the power of life and death; they have troops and guards in their own pay. Moreover, an imperial decree, dating from 1687, conferred upon them the right to mint their own money and to grant patents of nobility. Many sovereigns would be tempted to exchange their crowns for the lot of such subjects.