[Illustration: MADAME CHARLES MOULTON]

IN THE COURTS OF MEMORY 1858-1875 FROM CONTEMPORARY LETTERS

BY L. DE HEGERMANN-LINDENCRONE

ILLUSTRATIONS MADAME CHARLES MOULTON THE FAY HOUSE, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS EMPEROR NAPOLEON III EMPRESS EUGENIE DANIEL FRANCOIS ESPRIT AUBER FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM THE DUKE DE MORNY JENNY LIND THE MAIN FACADE--CHATEAU DE COMPIEGNE SALLE DES FETES--CHATEAU DE COMPIEGNE CHATEAU DE PIERREFONDS THE MUSIC HALL--CHATEAU DE COMPIEGNE FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM JENNY LIND FACSIMILE OF LISZT LETTER MERIMEE'S SIGNATURE AND ANSWERS TO MADAME MOULTON'S QUESTIONS LA SALLE DES PREUX--CHATEAU DE PIERREFONDS.... PRINCE METTERNICH'S SIGNATURE AND ANSWERS TO MADAME MOULTON'S QUESTIONS NAPOLEON'S SIGNATURE AND ANSWERS TO MADAME MOULTON'S QUESTIONS EMPRESS EUGENIE'S SIGNATURE AND ANSWERS TO MADAME MOULTON'S QUESTIONS ELIHU WASHBURN RUE DE RIVOLI, WHERE THE HOTEL CONTINENTAL NOW STANDS RAOUL RIGAULT FACSIMILE OF PASSPORT ISSUED TO MADAME MOULTON DURING THE COMMUNE FACSIMILE OF THE GOVERNMENT PERMIT TO KEEP COWS PLACE VENDOME AFTER THE FALL OF THE COLUMN FACSIMILE OF TICKET TO PLACE VENDOME FACSIMILE OF ENVELOPE ADDRESSED BY THE EMPRESS EUGENIE TO PRINCE METTERNICH GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

PREFACE

These letters, written by me in my younger days to a dear and indulgent mother and aunt, were returned to me after their death. In writing them I allowed myself to go into the smallest details, even the most insignificant ones, as I was sure that they would be welcome and appreciated by those to whom they were addressed. They were certainly not intended to be made public.

If I have decided, after much hesitation, to publish these letters, it is because many of my friends, having read them, have urged me to do so, thinking that they might be of interest, inasmuch as they refer to some important events of the past, and especially to people of the musical world whose names and renown are not yet forgotten.

LILLIE DE HEGERMANN-LINDENCRONE. BERLIN, _July, 1912._

NOTE

Madame de Hegermann-Lindencrone, the writer of these letters, which give so vivid a picture of the brilliant court of the last Napoleon, is the wife of the present Danish Minister to Germany. She was formerly Miss Lillie Greenough, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she lived with her grandfather, Judge Fay, in the fine old Fay mansion, now the property of Radcliffe College.

As a child Miss Greenough developed the remarkable voice which later was to make her well known, and when only fifteen years of age her mother took her to London to study under Garcia. Two years later Miss Greenough became the wife of Charles Moulton, the son of a well-known American banker, who had been a resident in Paris since the days of Louis Philippe. As Madame Charles Moulton, the charming American became an appreciated guest at the court of Napoleon III. The Paris papers of the days of the Second Empire are filled with the praises of her personal attractions and exquisite singing.

After nine years of gaiety in the gayest city in the world came the war of 1870 and the Commune. Upon the fall of the Empire, Mrs. Moulton returned to America, where Mr. Moulton died, and a few years afterward she married M. de Hegermann-Lindencrone, at that time Danish Minister to the United States, and later successively his country's representative at Stockholm, Rome, and Paris.

Few persons of her day have known so many of those whom the world has counted great. Among her friends have been not only the ruling monarchs of several countries, and the most distinguished men and women of their courts, but almost all the really important figures in the world of music of the past half-century, among them Wagner, Liszt, Auber, Gounod, and Rossini. And of many of these great men the letters give us glimpses of the most fascinatingly intimate sort.