George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor
George Hillard, Ed.

[3] I brought a letter to him from Baron Humboldt; but when I arrived he was in Hungary, from whence he returned yesterday. This morning I received a note from him, saying he would be glad to see me at the Chancery between two and three o'clock. I went, and found it an enormous building, or rather pile of buildings, containing not only offices, but dwellings for a large number of the officers in his department, among the rest the offices of Jarcke and Von Hammer.

Over the portal is a Latin inscription, calling it—I know not why—a ‘Praetorium,’ and signifying that it received its present external form and arrangement from Prince Kaunitz, who so long held the place now held by the more powerful Metternich. I passed up by a fine staircase, and going through an antechamber with three or four servants in it, and another where was a doorkeeper with two persons who looked as if they were something a little more, I was shown into a third large room, where four persons were waiting to have the great man accessible, a number which was speedily increased to seven. I sat down to wait with them, and waited, I suppose, twenty minutes. Meanwhile, secretaries came out with papers in their hands, as if they had been carried in for signature; two of the ministers came and went; and everything had the air of a premier's antechamber, those who were present talking together only in whispers, if they talked at all, and even the servants, further out, not speaking above their breath. I knew nobody, and said nothing.

At last the four who were there when I arrived were admitted; they were, as I understood afterwards, a deputation from Milan on affairs of state, but they were soon despatched. My turn came next, and, as soon as I had passed a double door, I found myself in a large and handsome library, across which the Prince was advancing to meet me. He received me very kindly, but with much dignity, and leading me at once through the library, carried me into his cabinet, another very large room, with books in different parts of it, tables covered with papers, pictures on the walls, and much massive furniture, the whole looking very rich and comfortable. He seated me in an easy-chair on one side of a small table, which still had some of the morning's work upon it, and placed himself in a smaller chair on the opposite side, evidently his accustomed seat and his wonted arrangement.

When we were both seated, he fastened his eyes upon me, and hardly took them off for an instant while I remained. He asked me how I had left M. de Humboldt, said that M. de Humboldt spoke of me as an old friend, but that he thought he had the advantage