The Congress of Vienna 63
besetting sins. In their first interview he said to Metternich,
who was acting as the master of ceremonies, that he “was
both able and knew how to sit.” Metternich took the hint,
and decided to ask the representatives of Spain and France
to meet at his house on the evening of September 30, along
with the four. Talleyrand managed to get a good seat near
the head of the table, and Castlereagh, the very pompous
English representative, turned to him and said: “The object
of to-day’s conference is to make you acquainted with what
the four courts have done since we have been here.” Then
to Metternich : “You have the protocol of the allies.” “Allies
against whom?” said Talleyrand quietly. “Napoleon is on
the island of Elba. If there are still allied powers, then I
am an intruder here.” “We used the word only for brevity.”
“Brevity, my lord, is valuable, but accuracy is still better.”
In a later conference of the self-appointed committee, Tal-
leyrand was admitted to a full share in the deliberations.
At this time he was posing as the champion of all the little
powers, and especially of Saxony, in the name of the prin-
ciple of legitimacy. Prussia was fully determined that Sax-
ony should be hers as one of the spoils of war. Talleyrand
made the seemingly innocent proposal that when the con-
gress should meet it should be carried on according to the
public law. Since all the powers had agreed that the idea
of legitimacy was a part of that law, one can easily see the
drift of this proposal. The Prussian, Hardenberg, who
was very deaf, just managed to catch the expression. He
leaped to his feet, pounding the table with his fist, and
shouted: “No, sir; public law is a useless phrase. Why say
that we shall act according to public law? . . . What has
public law to do here?” “This,” answered the former grand
chamberlain of Napoleon: “that it sends you here,” for
without public law Prussia would have perished at Jena. So