years[1]. Despite of this Hügel maintained for Metternich [an old friend of his family], whom he had to thank for furthering on several occasions his projects of public usefulness, a truly heroic fidelity. For when the Prince suddenly fell from his height, was deserted by all—even by those whom he had raised and promoted, and was hated and persecuted by the people—it was Charles von Hügel who, at the risk of his own life, took the Prince and Princess in his carriage through the streets of the disturbed capital, and procured for him temporary security. It was he who discovered for the Prince what at the time seemed to all concerned an assured resting-place at Prince Liechtenstein’s Castle of Felsberg. Hügel conveyed them thither,—as may be supposed not without danger,—and when the representatives of the commune required the Prince—old, sick, and broken-down—to leave within twenty—four hours, Hügel devotedly helped to cover the further flight to England; and from the time of their arrival there until he returned to Vienna, the Chancellor had his assistance. In the papers left by the Prince there is one written by his wife, Princess Mélanie, in which she describes the anxious days of the flight, and dwells on the loyalty and devotion with which Charles von Hügel stood by them both[2].
Yet another strong trait in Hügel’s character must be noted, his glowing, self-sacrificing love of his country. The disorders of the State, after the events of 1848, caused him quickly to mature the resolve to renounce all the horticultural and scientific tastes which had taken root so deeply in his heart, and, after a pause of twenty-five years, once again to place all his powers at the service of the State. "This fulfilment of a duty," he writes in his book on the Pacific
- ↑ Reumont.
- ↑ Metternich, l. c.: Vols. vii, viii; and Friedrich v. Hügel, National Review, 1883.
