



Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net









[Illustration: ALFIERI AND THE COUNTESS OF ALBANY

_From the original portrait in the possession of the Marchesa A.
 Alfieri de Sostegno_]



THE COUNTESS
OF ALBANY


BY
VERNON LEE

WITH PORTRAITS




LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY. MCMX

SECOND EDITION

Printed by BALLANTYNE AND CO. LIMITED
Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London




TO THE MEMORY OF MY FRIEND


MADAME JOHN MEYER,


I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME,
SO OFTEN AND SO LATELY TALKED OVER TOGETHER,
IN GRATEFUL AND AFFECTIONATE REGRET.




PREFACE


In preparing this volume on the Countess of Albany (which I consider as
a kind of completion of my previous studies of eighteenth-century
Italy), I have availed myself largely of Baron Alfred von Reumont's
large work _Die Graefin von Albany_ (published in 1862); and of the
monograph, itself partially founded on the foregoing, of M. St. Rene
Taillandier, entitled _La Comtesse d'Albany_, published in Paris in
1862. Baron von Reumont's two volumes, written twenty years ago and when
the generation which had come into personal contact with the Countess of
Albany had not yet entirely died out; and M. St. Rene Taillandier's
volume, which embodied the result of his researches into the archives of
the Musee Fabre at Montpellier; might naturally be expected to have
exhausted all the information obtainable about the subject of their and
my studies. This has proved to be the case very much less than might
have been anticipated. The publication, by Jacopo Bernardi and Carlo
Milanesi, of a number of letters of Alfieri to Sienese friends, has
afforded me an insight into Alfieri's character and his relations with
the Countess of Albany such as was unattainable to Baron von Reumont and
to M. St. Rene Taillandier. The examination, by myself and my friend
Signor Mario Pratesi, of several hundreds of MS. letters of the Countess
of Albany existing in public and private archives at Siena and at
Milan, has added an important amount of what I may call psychological
detail, overlooked by Baron von Reumont and unguessed by M. St. Rene
Taillandier. I have, therefore, I trust, been able to reconstruct the
Countess of Albany's spiritual likeness during the period--that of her
early connection with Alfieri--which my predecessors have been satisfied
to despatch in comparatively few pages, counterbalancing the thinness of
this portion of their biographies by a degree of detail concerning the
Countess's latter years, and the friends with whom she then corresponded,
which, however interesting, cannot be considered as vital to the real
subject of their works.

Besides the volumes of Baron von Reumont and M. St. Rene Taillandier, I
have depended mainly upon Alfieri's autobiography, edited by Professor
Teza, and supplemented by Bernardi's and Milanesi's _Lettere di Vittorio
Alfieri_, published by Le Monnier in 1862. Among English books that I
have put under contribution, I may mention Klose's _Memoirs of Prince
Charles Edward Stuart_ (Colburn, 1845), Ewald's _Life and Times of
Prince Charles Stuart_ (Chapman and Hall, 1875), and Sir Horace Mann's
_Letters to Walpole_, edited by Dr. Doran. A review, variously
attributed to Lockhart and to Dennistoun, in the _Quarterly_ for 1847,
has been all the more useful to me as I have been unable to procure,
writing in Italy, the _Tales of the Century_, of which that paper gives
a masterly account.

For various details I must refer to Charles Dutens' _Memoires d'un
Voyageur qui se repose_ (Paris, 1806); to Silvagni's _La Corte e la
Societa Romana nel secolo XVIII._; to Foscolo's _Correspondence_, Gino
Capponi's _Ricordi_ and those of d'Azeglio; to Giordani's works and
Benassu Montanari's _Life of Ippolito Pindemonti_, besides the books
quoted by Baron Reumont; and for what I may call the general pervading
historical colouring (if indeed I have succeeded in giving any) of the
background against which I have tried to sketch the Countess of Albany,
Charles Edward and Alfieri, I can only refer generally to what is
now a vague mass of detail accumulated by myself during the years of
preparation for my _Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy_.

My debt to the kindness of persons who have put unpublished matter at my
disposal, or helped me to collect various information, is a large one.
In the first category, I wish to express my best thanks to the Director
of the Public Library at Siena; to Cavaliere Guiseppe Porri, a great
collector of autographs, in the same city; to the Countess Baldelli and
Cavaliere Emilio Santarelli of Florence, who possess some most curious
portraits and other relics of the Countess of Albany, Prince Charles
Edward, and Alfieri; and also to my friend Count Pierre Boutourline,
whose grandfather and great-aunt were among Madame d'Albany's friends.
Among those who have kindly given me the benefit of their advice and
assistance, I must mention foremost my friend Signor Mario Pratesi, the
eminent novelist; and next to him the learned Director of the State
Archives of Florence, Cavaliere Gaetano Milanese, and Doctor Guido
Biagi, of the Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuel of Rome, without whose
kindness my work would have been quite impossible.

Florence,
     March 15, 1884.




CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.--THE BRIDE                      1
CHAPTER II.--THE BRIDEGROOM               14
CHAPTER III.--REGINA APOSTOLORUM          25
CHAPTER IV.--THE HEIR                     33
CHAPTER V.--FLORENCE                      46
CHAPTER VI.--ALFIERI                      57
CHAPTER VII.--THE CAVALIERE SERVENTE      72
CHAPTER VIII.--THE ESCAPE                 80
CHAPTER IX.--ROME                         91
CHAPTER X--ANTIGONE                      102
CHAPTER XI.--SEPARATION                  120
CHAPTER XII.--COLMAR                     134
CHAPTER XIII.--RUE DE BOURGOYNE          142
CHAPTER XIV.--BEFORE THE STORM           155
CHAPTER XV.--ENGLAND                     166
CHAPTER XVI.--THE MISOGALLO              176
CHAPTER XVII.--CASA GIANFIGLIAZZI        190
CHAPTER XVIII.--FABRE                    199
CHAPTER XIX.--THE SALON OF THE COUNTESS  207
CHAPTER XX.--SANTA CROCE                 220




ILLUSTRATIONS

ALFIERI AND THE COUNTESS OF ALBANY

 _From the original portrait in the possession of the Marchesa A.
     Alfieri de Sostegno_


CHARLES EDWARD STUART

 _From a pastel, painter unknown, once in the possession of the heir
    of the Countess of Albany's heir Fabre. Now in the possession of
    Mrs. Horace Walpole, of Heckfield Place, Winchfield, Hants_


LOUISE, COUNTESS OF ALBANY

 _From a pastel once in the possession of the heirs of Fabre, now
    in the possession of Mrs. Horace Walpole, of Heckfield Place,
   