A rumour is widely circulated that the bullet shot fired at the carriage of the Emperor Nicholas at Posen is a little Russian comedy arranged to provide an excuse for further severity in Poland and to justify German severity towards the grand duchy of Posen.[ [110]

Berlin, October 16, 1843.—Yesterday I received at last the ratified agreement with my nephew the Prince of Hohenzollern, concerning the tenure of Sagan, duly signed, initialled and attested. The kindness of Herr von Wolff, to which this result is largely due, makes this final solution of the question doubly valuable in my eyes.

The official date for taking possession is April 1, though I am allowed to supervise the workmen from this moment. We have now to regularise the deed by a family agreement securing the concurrence of the agnate relations; then to abandon the allodial rights to the fief to satisfy the Crown and to reconstitute as one whole that which is now divided into several parts. When this has been done, the king must re-invest me and receive my oath of vassalage.

Here we have with us the agreeable Balzac who has just returned from Russia: he gives as unpleasant accounts of the country as M. de Custine, but he will not write a special book of his travels; he is merely writing some Scenes from Military Life, several of which will deal, I think, with Russia. He is a heavy and vulgar character: I had already seen him in France, but he left me with a disagreeable impression which has now been strengthened.

The day before yesterday we went to dinner, saw the play and had supper at the new palace. The play was Shakspere's Midsummer Night's Dream, translated by Schlegel. The staging was very fine. At supper I sat by the side of the Archduke Albert, who is a natural and well-educated character. He is to marry Princess Hildegarde of Bavaria who is said to be very pretty.

I am to go and dine at Babelsberg with the Princess of Prussia. She is to be so kind as to take me in the evening to Sans Souci, where the King told me to come and hear Madame Viardot Garcia quite privately.

Berlin, October 18, 1843.—The little concert at Sans Souci was very agreeable. Madame Viardot sang very well and was very attractive in spite of her plainness. She has just started for St. Petersburg.

I informed the King that the treaty between my nephew and myself had been concluded. He was extremely gracious upon this occasion and seems to me to have abandoned all his prejudices in favour of the elder branch of my family.[ [111] I was really touched by his kindness. Yesterday I had a long conference with the Prince of Wittgenstein who has to deal with all questions touching the crown fiefs, as chief minister of the King's household.

Sagan, October 28, 1843.—The Duchesse Mathieu de Montmorency writes complaining of obstinate bronchitis; I should be sorry if she were to die, for I should lose in her a Christian friend; she and Mgr. de Quélen taught me what a friendship could be that was always equable and kind, in which self-love played no part, for they are friends not merely for time but for eternity. To-day I have also a letter from M. Royer-Collard. His handwriting is greatly altered: I feel that my happiness is threatened in the person of my best friends, and since M. de Talleyrand's death I have been terribly tried in this respect.

Sagan, which I am examining in detail, is a town of seven thousand people with six churches, five of which are Catholic and all of which are interesting: there are also several charitable foundations in the town founded by the Dukes at different times; some are six hundred years old and were founded by the Dukes of the house of Piast.[ [112] It is touching to see these works still standing when all purely secular monuments so rapidly decay. I have been received here with marks of great attention. For four years everything has been left in a state of utter abandonment and even longer than that, for my sister had moved to Italy and took no interest in her estates.