Suddenly there was a blast of trumpets; the sovereigns made their entrance conducting the empresses, queens, and archduchesses. After having made the round of the hall amidst general acclamations, they proceeded to the riding-school and took their seats on the platform. In the first row there were the Empresses of Austria and Russia, the Queen of Bavaria and the Grande-Duchesse d’Oldenbourg, the well-beloved sister of Alexander, whose likeness to Alexander was so striking. Then came the Archduchess Beatrice, Grand-Duchess of Saxe-Weimar.
The seats on the right and left were occupied by the galaxy of women who at that moment disputed the palm of beauty and elegance with each other: the Princesse de la Tour et Taxis, the Comtesse de Bernsdorff, the Princesse de Hesse-Philippstal, in all the splendour of her imposing and statuesque loveliness; her two daughters, bidding fair to rival their mother; the Comtesse d’Apponyi, tall and lithe, with most expressive eyes; the Princesses Sapieha and Lichtenstein, whose beauty was of a more regular and gentler cast; the Comtesse Cohari, the Princesses Paul Esterhazy and Bagration; the daughters of Admiral Sidney Smith;[28] the Comtesse Zamoyska, _née_ Czartoryska, tall, fair, with a skin of dazzling whiteness, who in herself virtually represented every kind of Polish female beauty. There were many more whose names and portraits will often recur in these _Recollections_.
Meanwhile, to the sound of inspiriting dance strains, there entered a group of masked children in fancy dress, who performed a Venetian pantomime, followed by an extensive ballet. The expressive attitudes, the varied evolutions and steps of those youthful performers seemed to afford great enjoyment to the illustrious spectators.
After the departure of the sovereigns the bands struck up a series of waltz tunes, and immediately an electric current seemed to run through the immense gathering. Germany is the country that gave birth to the waltz; it is there, and above all in Vienna, that, thanks to the musical ear of the inhabitants, that dance has acquired all the charm inherent in it. It is there that one ought to watch the apparently whirl-like course, though in reality regulated by the beat of the music, in which the man sustains and carries away his companion, while she yields to the spell with a vague expression of happiness tending to enhance her beauty. It is difficult to conceive elsewhere the fascination of the waltz. As soon as its strains rise upon the air, the features relax, the eyes become animated, and a thrill of delight runs through the company. The graceful gyrations of the dancers, at first somewhat confused, gradually assume accurately timed movements, while the spectators whom age condemns to immobility beat time and rhythm, mentally joining in the pleasure which is bodily denied to them.