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    812 MADAME SWETCHINE.

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    Tim Biography Of A Hussian Lady Of High ...

    was regarded by his subjects with tlie strongest personal enthusiasm . He showed great tenderness of heart towards the wounded , and went

    himself among the dying on the field of battle , succouring alike the _Russians and the French . More than once he was known to wee _£ _}

    at hearing cries of pain and farewell words uttered in every European tongue . To the hospitals also he gave personal attention , undeterred

    by the fear of infection ; for they were decimated by epidemic maladiesand the Duke of Oldenbourghis brother-in-law , caught the

    typhus , fever and died of it . One , day when lie was telling the Countess de Choiseul of a poor Spanish prisoner whom he had

    visited , she asked him if it was true that the incognito which he always endeavored to preserve had been discovered . " Yes , " replied

    he with simplicity , _"I was recognised in a room full of officers ; but usuallI am taken for the aid-de-camp of General Saint Priest . "

    Such an y example makes the heart of a nation burn . All Hussia wished to share with its Emperor in assisting the inmmierable victims

    of the war . Tlie destruction of Moscow by fire was the occasion of a national subscription ; a society of ladies gathered together for

    the soliciting and distributing- of alms was organised at St . Petersburghunder the patronage of the Empress Elizabeth . The women

    of the , highest rank contended for posts in this society , urged by the spontaneous movement which animated the rich and the poor , lords

    and peasants , merchants and soldiers . Madaine Swetchine was elected president , being at that time thirty years old .

    In 1813 Alexander carried his operations into Germany , and the Empresswho followed his march at a distance , was accompanied

    , by Mademoiselle Stourdza , a young lady of Greek extraction , and the intimate friend of Madame Swetchine . The letters written from

    the German capitals by Mademoiselle Stourdza have been destroyed ; but those which she received were piously preserved , and form a

    curious and interesting picture of the friendship between the two ladies . The Count de Falloux , who writes this biography , observes ,

    " One is seized with respectful astonishment in following step by with step the the intimacy most famous of these and two romantic women ; events young , but brilliant only , extracting mixed up

    , from thence grave lessons in politics and morality , and only indulingarnidst all the temptations of ambition , in dreams of

    passionate g friendshi , p , philanthropy , and solitude . " Here is an extract from one of these letters , in which Madame Swetchine mentions an

    English friend : " Apropos of Lord Walpole , I find you have * judged him very severely . If you had looked at him from a nearer point

    of view , you would have seen that he has another spirit within him besides that of contradiction , and on many subjects his conversation

    is interesting and rich . I often see him ; he inundates me with English booksand I should £ aid it difficult to say up to what point

    the books which , he has lent me influence my opinion of him . People at St . Petersburgh are all of one mind in devouring time

    without pleasure and without profit ; it is veritable robbery , and

    812 Madame Swetchine.

    812 MADAME SWETCHINE .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1860, page 312, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071860/page/24/