n half an hour
re-entered Vienna, my heart wild with excitement, and burning with
zealous ardour to do something for the service of the Emperor.

The next morning I removed to General Marmont's quarters, and for the
first time put on the golden aigrette of _chef de etat-major_, not a
little to the astonishment of all who saw the 'boy colonel,' as, half
in sarcasm, half in praise, they styled me. From an early hour of the
morning till the time of a late dinner, I was incessantly occupied. The
staff duties were excessively severe, and the number of letters to be
read and replied to almost beyond belief. The war had again assumed
something of importance in the Tyrol. Hofer and Spechbacher were at the
head of considerable forces, which in the fastnesses of their native
mountains were more than a match for any regular soldiery. The news
from Spain was gloomy: England was already threatening her long-planned
attack on the Scheldt. Whatever real importance might attach to these
movements, the Austrian cabinet made them the pretext for demanding more
favourable conditions; and Metternich was emboldened to go so far as to
ask for the restoration of the Empire in all its former integrity.

These negotiations between the two cabinets at the time assumed the most
singular form which probably was ever adopted in such intercourse--all
the disagreeable intelligences and disastrous tidings being communicated
from one side to the other with the mock politeness of friendly
relations. As, for instance, the Austrian cabinet would forward an
extract from one of Hofer's descriptions of a victory; to which the
French would reply by a bulletin of Eugene Beauharnais, or, as Napoleon
on one occasion did, by a copy of a letter from the Emperor Alexander,
filled with expressions of friendship, and professing the most perfect
confidence in his 'brother of France.' So far was this petty and most
contemptible warfare carried, that every little gossip and every passing
story was pressed into the service, and if not directly addressed to the
cabinet, at least conveyed to its knowledge by some indirect channel.

It is probable I should have forgotten this curious feature of the time,
if not impressed on my memory by personal circumstances too important
to be easily obliterated from memory. An Austrian officer arrived one
morning from Komorn, with an account of the defeat of Lefebvre's force
before Schenatz, and of a great victory gained by Hofer and Sp