Prince Zilah | Page 7

family of the magnate
submitted to Germany, become the master, any more than it had bent
the knee in former times to the conquering Turk.
From his ancestors Prince Andras inherited, therefore, superb liberality,
with a fortune greatly diminished by all sorts of losses and misfortunes
--half of it confiscated by Austria in 1849, and enormous sums
expended for the national cause, Hungarian emigrants and proscribed
compatriots. Zilah nevertheless remained very rich, and was an
imposing figure in Paris, where, some years before, after long
journeyings, he had taken up his abode.
The little fete given for his friends on board the Parisian steamer was a
trifling matter to the descendant of the magnificent Magyars; but still
there was a certain charm about the affair, and it was a pleasure for the
Prince to see upon the garden-like deck the amusing, frivolous, elegant
society, which was the one he mingled with, but which he towered

above from the height of his great intelligence, his conscience, and his
convictions. It was a mixed and bizarre society, of different
nationalities; an assemblage of exotic personages, such as are met with
only in Paris in certain peculiar places where aristocracy touches
Bohemianism, and nobles mingle with quasi-adventurers; a
kaleidoscopic society, grafting its vices upon Parisian follies, coming to
inhale the aroma and absorb the poison of Paris, adding thereto strange
intoxications, and forming, in the immense agglomeration of the old
French city, a sort of peculiar syndicate, an odd colony, which belongs
to Paris, but which, however, has nothing of Paris about it except its
eccentricities, which drive post-haste through life, fill the little journals
with its great follies, is found and found again wherever Paris
overflows--at Dieppe, Trouville, Vichy, Cauteret, upon the sands of
Etretat, under the orange-trees of Nice, or about the gaming tables of
Monaco, according to the hour, season, and fashion.
This was the sort of assemblage which, powdered, perfumed,
exquisitely dressed, invaded, with gay laughter and nervous desire to be
amused, the boat chartered by the Prince. Above, pencil in hand, the
little dark man with the keen eyes, black, pointed beard and waxed
moustache, continued to take down, as the cortege defiled before him,
the list of the invited guests: and upon the leaves fell, briskly traced,
names printed a hundred times a day in Parisian chronicles among the
reports of the races of first representations at the theatres; names with
Slav, Latin, or Saxon terminations; Italian names, Spanish, Hungarian,
American names; each of which represented fortune, glory, power,
sometimes scandal--one of those imported scandals which break out in
Paris as the trichinae of foreign goods are hatched there.
The reporter wrote on, wrote ever, tearing off and handing to the page
attached to 'L'Actualite' the last leaves of his list, whereon figured
Yankee generals of the War of the Rebellion, Italian princesses,
American girls flirting with everything that wore trousers; ladies who,
rivals of Prince Zilah in wealth, owned whole counties somewhere in
England; great Cuban lords, compromised in the latest insurrections
and condemned to death in Spain; Peruvian statesmen, publicists, and
military chiefs at once, masters of the tongue, the pen, and the revolver;

a crowd of originals, even a Japanese, an elegant young man, dressed in
the latest fashion, with a heavy sombrero which rested upon his straight,
inky-black hair, and which every minute or two he took off and placed
under his left arm, to salute the people of his acquaintance with low
bows in the most approved French manner.
All these odd people, astonishing a little and interesting greatly the
groups of Parisians gathered above on the sidewalks, crossed the
gangway leading to the boat, and, spreading about on the deck, gazed at
the banks and the houses, or listened to the czardas which the
Hungarian musicians were playing with a sort of savage frenzy beneath
the French tricolor united to the three colors of their own country.
The Tzigani thus saluted the embarkation of the guests; and the clear,
bright sunshine enveloped the whole boat with a golden aureole,
joyously illuminating the scene of feverish gayety and childish
laughter.
CHAPTER II
THE BARONESS'S MATCHMAKING
The Prince Zilah met his guests with easy grace, on the deck in front of
the foot-bridge. He had a pleasant word for each one as they came on
board, happy and smiling at the idea of a breakfast on the deck of a
steamer, a novel amusement which made these insatiable
pleasure-seekers forget the fashionable restaurants and the conventional
receptions of every day.
"What a charming thought this was of yours, Prince, so unexpected, so
Parisian, ah, entirely Parisian!"
In almost the same words did each newcomer address the Prince, who
smiled, and repeated a phrase from Jacquemin's chronicles: "Foreigners
are more Parisian than the Parisians themselves."
A