Note 25 — THE FALL OF AUSTRIA.
Reading edition
The following is the epigram of Matthias Corvinus:—
"Bella gerant alii; tu felix nube! Nam quæ Mars aliis dat tibi regna Venus."
Which Mr. Sterling thus renders:—
"Fight those who will; let well-starred Austria wed, And conquer kingdoms in the marriage-bed."
Some other hand has given the following translation, or rather amplification, of the epigram:—
"Glad Austria wins by Hymen's silken chain What other states in doubtful battles gain, And while fierce Mars enriches meaner lands, Receives possessions from fair Venus' hands."
There would seem to be an end of these fortunate marriages, no member of the Austrian imperial family being now in condition to wed to much profit. The Emperor Francis Joseph, who is yet a young man, took to wife a Bavarian lady, said to be of extraordinary beauty, in 1854; and he has a daughter, who was born in 1856, the same year with the French Prince Imperial, whom she might marry, but that the two are children. Besides, marriages between French princes and Austrian princesses have turned out so badly on two memorable occasions, within less than a century, that even the statesmen of Vienna and Paris might well be excused if they were to think a third alliance quite impossible. The heir apparent to the Austrian throne is but eight years old. The Emperor's next brother, Ferdinand Maximilian,—well known in this country as Emperor of the Mexicans,—made a good marriage, his wife being a daughter of the late Leopold I., King of the Belgians. She has labored with zeal to found an imperial dynasty in Mexico, but the task is beyond human strength. The imperial system fell in Mexico on the same day that Richmond fell into the hands of General Grant. The fortunes of the Austrian prince and those of Mr. Davis were bound up together, and together they fell.