The fortune of the Zilahs was then on a par with the almost fabulous,
incalculable wealth of the Esterhazys and Batthyanyis. Prince Paul
Esterhazy alone possessed three hundred and fifty square leagues of
territory in Hungary. The Zichys, the Karolyis and the Szchenyis,
poorer, had but two hundred at this time, when only six hundred families
were proprietors of six thousand acres of Hungarian soil, the nobles of
Great Britain possessing not more than five thousand in England. The
Prince of Lichtenstein entertained for a week the Emperor of Austria, his
staff and his army. Old Ferency Zilah would have done as much if he had
not always cherished a profound, glowing, militant hatred of Austria:
never had the family of the magnate submitted to Germany, become the
master, any more than it had bent the knee in former times to the
conquering Turk.

From his ancestors Prince Andras inherited, therefore, superb liberality,
with a fortune greatly diminished by all sorts of losses and misfortunes
--half of it confiscated by Austria in 1849, and enormous sums expended
for the national cause, Hungarian emigrants and proscribed compatriots.
Zilah nevertheless remained very rich, and was an imposing figure in
Paris, where, some years before, after long journeyings, he had taken up
his abode.

The little fete given for his friends on board the Parisian steamer was a
trifling matter to the descendant of the magnificent Magyars; but still
there was a certain charm about the affair, and it was a pleasure for the
Prince to see upon the garden-like deck the amusing, frivolous, elegant
society, which was the one he mingled with, but which he towered above
from the height of his great intelligence, his conscience, and his
convictions. It was a mixed and bizarre society, of different