Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna

by Adam Zamoyski

Nesselrode rode into Paris escorted by a single cossack, and also made straight for the rue Saint-Florentin. Talleyrand was at his toilette. This was a remarkable daily performance, often enacted before a series of callers who, in the words of one who witnessed it, could at first ‘see only an enormous assemblage of flannel, felt, fustian, percale, a mass of white’ being attended by two valets in white aprons under the direction of a third in silk stockings and powdered wig. From the upper reaches of this ragged mass, out of a coil of cravats, jutted a firm chin, a permanently curled lip and a small upturned nose. The valets would begin by removing the woollen stockings and strips of flannel from his legs, which were plunged into a small basin of mineral water. This was the only part of Talleyrand that was ever exposed. ‘The remaining parts of his person were covered by drawers, waistcoats, dressing gowns, with various pieces of cloth hanging off every bit of him, and his head wrapped in a kind of tiara of percale, held in place by a pale coloured ribbon,’ continues the diarist. ‘The two valets would then begin to comb, curl, pomade, powder, while he dabbed at his face with swabs which he dipped into a silver dish held before him for the purpose. Amongst the more remarkable elements in his toilette was one, curious enough to overcome the disgust one might have experienced witnessing it, which involved the consumption of one or two large glasses of tepid water which he sucke...