THE SAME TO THE SAME.
Paris, 1st June, 1862.
To-day I was received by the Emperor, and delivered my credentials. He received me in a friendly manner, looks well, has become somewhat stronger, but by no means fat and aged, as he is caricatured. The Empress is still one of the handsomest women I know, despite Petersburg; she has even grown handsomer within these five years. The whole affair was official and solemn. I was fetched in an imperial carriage by the Master of the Ceremonies, and shall probably soon have a private audience. I am anxious for work, because I do not know what to do. To-day I dined alone; the young gentlemen were out. The whole evening there was rain, and I was alone at home. To whom could I go? I am more lonely in the midst of great Paris than you are at Reinfeld, and sit here like a rat in an empty house. My only amusement was to send away the cook for cheating me in the accounts. You know how narrowly I look after such things; but —— was a child in this respect. I shall dine for the present at a café. How long this is to last, God knows! In from eight to ten days I shall probably receive a telegraphic summons to Berlin, and then dance and song is over. If my opponents only knew what a benefit they would confer upon me personally by their victory, and how sincerely I wish them success, —— would then, perhaps, from malice, do all he could to bring me to Berlin. You can not detest the Wilhelm Strasse more than I do, and if I am not convinced that it must be, I will not go. To leave the King in a dilemma during illness, I regard as cowardice and infidelity. If it is not to be, God will raise up, for those who seek, some —— who will consent to be a saucepan-lid. If it is to be, then forward! as our coachmen said when they took the reins. Next summer we shall then probably live at Schönhausen. Hurero! I shall get into my canopy bed, as broad as it is long—the only living being in the whole house, for I do not think any body lives in the parterre.
BISMARCK TO HIS SISTER.
Paris, 16th June, 1862.
If all has happened according to the programme, you will to-day have reached Landeck, where I wish you happy and healthy days. On the completion of your twenty-ninth year I hope to present myself with good wishes, although I do not accurately know in how short a time the post goes between here and Landeck. The barometer is always at changeable, as during the past year, and will long continue so, whether I live here or in Berlin. There is rest in the grave—at least I hope so. Since my departure from Berlin I have not heard a word from any body about the Ministerial question. ——’s leave of absence is out, and he does not again enter on his duties; this I knew before. The end of June I wait quietly for; if I do not then know what is to become of me, I will urgently ask for certainty, so as to settle myself here. If I seem likely to remain here till January, I think I shall fetch Johanna in September, although a domestic establishment of four months is very provisional and uncomfortable. In packing and unpacking, a small fortune is broken up in glass and china. Besides my wife and children, the mare is what I chiefly want. I have tried some hired horses, but I would rather never ride again. The house is well situated, but is dark, damp, and cold. The sunny side is spoilt with staircases and non-valeurs; every thing lies to the north, and smells musty and cloacic. There is not a single piece of furniture one can sit upon, nor a single corner in which one can sit; three-quarters of the house is shut up as “state rooms,” covered up, and, without a great change in arrangements, not suitable for daily use. The nurses would live on the third-floor, the children on the second. The principal staircase (first-floor) only leads to a bed-chamber, with a large bed, also an old-fashioned saloon (style of 1818) next to it, many staircases and anterooms. Actual living room is on the ground-floor northward towards the garden, where I warm myself, when the sun shines, for some hours, at most three times a week. You will see it in the margin: 1. Dressing-room, spongy and uninhabitable, damp; 2. Study, dark, stinking; 3. Reception-room; 4. A view from the house to the garden, with bookcases; 5. Dining-room; 6. My bedroom; 7. Office; 8. Garden, where the lines are, Quai D’Orsay and the Seine; 9 and 10. Chancery; 11. Hall; 12. Staircase. Add to this, on the first floor one bedroom, and no more, and all the domestic offices two stories high; narrow, dark, steep stairs, which I can not mount upright, on account of the breadth of my shoulders, and without crinoline. The principal staircase only goes to the first-floor, but there are three ladder-stairs at both ends to the upper rooms. Hatzfeld and Pourtales existed thus their whole time, but died over it in the prime of life; and if I stay in the house, I shall die sooner than I wish. I would not live in it for nothing, on account of the smell.
Please send Johanna the address where you had such good cakes (Baumkuchen) made two years ago, for the birthday. I promised one to the Archduchess Marie. Or rather, send me the address, and I will order the cake by letter from here, and will inclose a letter for ——, which the confectioner can send with the thing by ship from Stettin. I am somewhat afraid if we stay here that Johanna will be but little pleased. In a few days I am to go to Fontainebleau. The Empress is a little stronger, and thus handsomer than ever, and always very delightful and cheerful. Afterwards I shall go to London for a few days. A number of agreeable Russian ladies who were here have mostly disappeared. Who has got my mare, if I want it here?