The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1883-05-25

ss,l hayeap ken Of ID Co,lnt asa ~
mnnd de Nlleyrand, nee Princess de
Sagan, as the great lad of Prince TallyeE
rand's household The French Embassy
had need Of her redeeming qualiti to
render the prince soirees tolerable to-
the high-class members Of Viennese so.s,
ciety. Talleyrand had been accompanied,
toVienna by Nine. de Talleyrand, whose
eccentricities were hardly compatible
with perfect soundness of mind. The
adventures of this lady before she be-
came Nine. de Talleyrand have been the
subject of much discussion, and we do
not regard the well-kuown story of her
having confounded the celebrated
French traveller Demon with Robinson
Crusoe as anything more than laugh
able bunder on her part, resulting
from her having hastily skinned the
wrong book OF travels preparatory to
her reception of M. Dinon at the
princes table, But, however stout
champion Nine. de Talley1and may have
had in M. Amedee Pichot, who con-
tends that the story of
Robinson Crussoe is the only evidence
Of the sottise or beties of Nine. de-
Talleyrand, she had some very odd
moments while he did the: honors of tho
Princes salons during the congress. We
shall content. ourselves with citing two
anecdotes on the faith Of a most trust
worthy eyewitness. The Princess had
two young nieces in her suite who had
not yet entered their teens. Her prac-
tice was on the evenings of her RECEPTIONS,
when sufficient company had assem-
bled, to direct pair of folding doors to
be thrown open, through which the
two young ladies made their entree into
the salon with their arms encircling each
other and proceeded to execute a series
of pirouettos round the room ending at
Nine. de Talleyrand. This was compar-
atively an innocent oddly on her part,
although it bored her guests. Her sec
ond oddity was more mischievous and
caused great offense. She would fire.
quently during her evening RECEPTIONS
ring the bell and order her groom of the
chambers to say that she was not
at home, and after the lapse of a
quarter Of an hour or twenty min
utes she would ring the bell again
and give counter order. The con-
sequence was that husbands who called
for their wives had to go home without
them, and wives who came in search of
their husbands could find no admittance;
and all that Talleyrand could say, when q
diplomatist of the highest rank remon-
strated with him, was ''Mais mon cher,
que voulez:youz que ie fssse, ma femme
est 81 bete." We take the truth of the
matter to be that Nine. de Talleyrand was
at times little crazy. She was a native
of the East Indies, and Bonaparte, who
was annoyed with her Robinson Crusoe
story, which went the round of the
Partisan Salons. pronounced her to be
"une sotte ct dune grossiere ignorance, !"
and shortly after forbid her appearance
at his Court because she had received a
douceur from the merchants of Genoa.
Had she not been & little crazy she
would never have venture on the hold
step by which she made the acquaintance
Of Talleyrand, at that time Minister Of
Foreign Affairs under the Directorate,
and subsequently nearly compromised
him as her husband with Bonaparte by
accepting 1000, 000f, from the Genoese,
who hoped thereby to obtain some COM
mercial advantages through her influ-
ence.-Temple Bar.