House of Rothschild will so far influence the noble heart of the emperor that he will without delay carry out at least this wish of the Court of Naples." The Austrian government was to arrange the method of payment with the House of Rothschild. This appeal, however, met with little success; Austria finally paid only 338,564 gulden, which Rothschild took over on account of his claim against Naples, and at the end of 1829 this settlement was accepted for the sake of peace.

Although, as in Carl's case, Metternich was sometimes not entirely in agreement with the attitude of the brothers Rothschild, he always came back to them again, in both public and personal matters. There was no other financier who controlled such large sums of money and such important international connections. Moreover, it had been the chancellor's experience that the strictest secrecy was observed and maintained by the Rothschilds in all transactions of a delicate nature. In that respect they were in marked contrast to most other bankers; and this was of special importance to a man in such a public position as Metternich.

Transactions constantly arose in which the financial interests of the imperial house, to which Metternich naturally always wished to prove his devotion, had to be made to harmonize with those of the state in such a way as to avoid any public criticism. The Rothschilds were particularly skilful in handling such cases, and they thereby made themselves indispensable to Austria's leading statesmen, in spite of any disagreements.

A striking example of this was furnished when Metternich had recourse to the services of the Rothschilds in connection with the financial affairs of Marie Louise, wife of Napoleon I and daughter of Emperor Francis. Although she was far superior to her husband in birth, this lady was in general character and in intellectual gifts no fit consort for the Corsican genius. She remained with him as long as fortune favored him; but when his

collapse came she left him, with her son, and returned to her father without shedding a tear for her husband.

Notwithstanding Napoleon's entreaties, she never once expressed the wish to visit him at Elba, to say nothing of St. Helena, although it is true that if she had so wished, her father and, still more, Metternich would have opposed her. The chancellor wished Napoleon's memory to be completely obliterated, and he was particularly skilful in the case of Marie Louise in exploiting her weaknesses to that end. She was callous and pleasure-loving, and used to visit fashionable spas; she lived only for her own amusement and did not even trouble to answer Napoleon's letters.

In 1814, while the ex-empress was staying at Aix-lesBains, Metternich allotted to her as courtier a man who not only played the part of courtier, but also had an important political rôle in Metternich's service. Adam Albert, Count von Neipperg, was a handsome man of thirty-nine; he had lost his eye through a sword-thrust in the war and wore a black eye-patch. He was a smart and elegant officer, and had the reputation of possessing unusual courage and exceptional intellectual and diplomatic gifts. It was his duty to obliterate all thoughts of Napoleon and the empire in Marie Louise's mind, and to keep her from all contact with any member of Napoleon's family or his supporters. He was to be only too successful.

The Congress of Vienna had decided that the dukedoms of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla should belong to Marie Louise "en toute souveraineté et propriété." As long as she ruled in accordance with the principles of an absolute monarchy, without constitution or representative bodies, she thereby acquired a kind of private property in these territories, by the act of the congress, this being quite in accordance with the contemporary attitude of regarding a state as a patrimony. It had, however, been laid down by the Treaty of Paris of 1817 that

these possessions should not be hereditary, but should pass to another prince on Marie Louise's death. Yet no provision had been made as to how the transfer should be effected, nor as to how the duchess's private property should be determined.

Marie Louise had entered Parma in 1816, Count Neipperg sitting with her in her carriage. He had in the meantime not merely obtained complete control over the duchess's actions, as Metternich had wanted-he had also won her heart. The man in gold-braided uniform, sitting next her in her carriage, as Marie Louise entered Parma, was already her lover, and Napoleon, the great emperor and general, her husband and the father of her child, had been completely forgotten.

The affair was no secret at Parma, and it proved useless to try to hush it up; it soon became publicly known that on May 1, 1817, a daughter had been born to Marie Louise and her courtier in the palace of the ruler of Parma. This child received the name Albertine at her christening. Two years later on August 8, 1819,18 Marie Louise gave birth to a son, who received the names William Albert, Count of Montenuovo-this being the Italian equivalent to the name Neipperg (Neuberg).

Both children were therefore illegitimate, for Marie Louise's husband, from whom she never obtained a divorce, did not die until May 5, 1821, in his distant island prison at St. Helena, while the marriage between Neipperg and Marie Louise, who had been living constantly together for some years, was celebrated in secret in September, 1821.

As the Duke of Reichstadt was still alive, Neipperg feared that on the death of their parents, his children might be left unprovided for. He therefore begged Marie Louise, while there was still time, to extract from her small dominions some money that could be declared to be her private property so the children could be given portions out of it. Marie Louise too realized that some