resented himself at the levee of the Archduke
Joseph. He was received with enthusiasm. Covered with years as he was,
no man enjoyed more of the confidence and respect of the soldiery, who
regarded him as one tried and proved by the great wars of the Empire,--a
Colonel of Wagram was both a patriarch and a hero. It was of great
consequence, too, at that precise conjuncture, to rally round the throne
all that were distinguished for fealty and devotion. He was immediately
appointed to the command of a division of the army, and ordered to set
out for Italy.

The complicated nature of the politics of the period, the mixture of
just demand and armed menace, the blending up of fair and reasonable
expectations with impracticable or impossible concessions, had so
disturbed the minds of men that few were able, by their own unaided
judgment, to distinguish on which side lay right and justice; nor was
it easy, from the changeful councils of the monarch, to know whether the
loyalty of to-day might not be pronounced treason to-morrow. Many of
the minor movements of the time--even the great struggle of the
Hungarians--originated in a spontaneous burst of devotion to the
Emperor,--to be afterwards converted by the dark and wily policy of an
unscrupulous leader into open rebellion. No wonder, then, if in such
difficult and embarrassing circumstances, many strayed unconsciously
from the paths of duty,--some misled by specious dreams of nationality,
others from sympathy with what they thought the weaker party; and
others, again, by the force of mere companionship or contact. In this
way few families were to be found where one or more had not joined the
patriotic party, and all the ties of affection were weak in comparison
with the headlong force of popular enthusiasm. The old General von
Auersberg knew nothing of these great changes; no news of them had
reached his retirement; so that when he rejoined the army he was shocked
to see how many had fallen away and deserted from the ancient standard
of the Kaiser. Many a high name and many an ancient title were more than
suspected amongst the Hungarian nobility; while in Italy they who most
largely enjoyed the confidence of the Government were to be found in the
ranks of the insurgents.

It might be supposed that these things would have in some degree
reconciled the old Count to the imputed treason of his nephew, and that
he would have found some consolation at least in the generality of the