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with so much pleasure by the parents and elder brother, that the children were delighted, and kissed us all round very heartily.
While this was going on a bell rang in another part of the house, and we were led through a passage-way purposely kept dark, where two folding-doors were thrown open and we were all at once in a large and handsome saloon, which was brilliantly lighted up, and where were the presents which the parents had provided for the children. . . .
December 26.—I was presented to the King to-day. . . . by the English Minister, and all the forms usual on such occasions anywhere were fully observed. . . . . After passing through two or three antechambers we came to one quite full of Saxon nobles and officers in every possible variety of uniform and costume, who were to be received after the diplomatic audience should be over.
We crowded our way through them with some difficulty, and entered a room where were gradually collected about forty or fifty persons. . . . The Prussian Minister, Baron Jordan, went in first, having an especial private audience, to present the King with the Order of the Black Eagle, as a compliment on his birthday, from the King of Prussia.
After he came out the rest of us were admitted.
It was a good room into which we came, with a canopy for the throne, but no throne was there. . . . Those who came in formed a circle opposite the throne, and under the canopy stood the King; a small, ordinary-looking man, much broken with years, in a generals uniform with boots and spurs, a large diamond ornament on his breast, and the Order of the Black Eagle, which he had just received, rather awkwardly hung round his person.
He bowed to us kindly, and then spoke to the minister who happened to be on his right hand. . .. . Mr. Forbes came next, and having spoken to the King presented me. The King asked me how long I meant to remain in Dresden, said he hoped I should find it agreeable, etc., and then passed on round the rest of the circle.1
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1 Mr. Ticknor gives the following account of the Saxon royal family at this period: ‘The royal family now consists of King Anthony, who is eighty years old to-morrow, his brother Maximilian, who is seventy-six years old, and his niece Augusta, daughter of the late King, who is fifty-three. The King has been twice married, but both his wives are dead, leaving no children, and Augusta was never married, so that the family of Maximilian is to succeed to the throne. . . . . In 1830 there was a revolution here in imitation of the Three Days at Paris, a Constitution was obtained with representative forms, and, Maximilian having first renounced his personal right to the crown, his eldest son — a popular favorite and very respectable man—was, with the sincere concurrence of his father and of the reigning sovereign, made Co-Regent.’ Early in this movement it was proposed by the revolutionists that the old King should be deposed and Prince Frederic put in his place; but on hearing of the suggestion, the Prince went instantly, in the evening, to the crowded marketplace, and by the light of a few torches took a solemn oath, that if that threat should be executed he would leave Saxony and never return. The people, knowing his sincerity, gave up the plan and made him Regent. ‘This Prince, however,—Frederic,—though twice married, has no children, so that it is probable his younger brother John will eventually come to the throne. Frederic is thirty-eight years old, a wise and valuable man; John is thirty-four, a man of quiet, studious habits and a good deal of learning.’
Boston, J. R. Osgood and company, 1876.
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