Note 431 — Chapter VII

The following article appeared in The Times of May 28, 1834: “The recall of Prince Lieven, or rather of Madame la Princesse, is an event. We cannot say of Her Serene Highness that the petit nez retroussé has occasioned much mischief, whatever her organs of speech or her implements of writing may have done. . . . There never figured on the courtly stage a female intriguer more restless, more arrogant, more (politically and therefore we mean it not offensively) odious and insufferable than this supercilious ambassadress. She fancied herself a ‘power,’ she was, however, more frequently a dupe,” etc., etc.