Ma Sœur,—Je t’écris pour t’annoncer that I shall be with you at Angermünde at the latest by the 3d March, if you do not write to me before that you will not have me. I think then, after I have enjoyed a sight of you for three or four days, to carry off your husband to attend a meeting of the Society for the Improvement of the Working Classes, on the 7th March, at Potsdam. My journey, previously intended, has been delayed by all sorts of Dyke suits, and Game cases, so that I shall leave here by the 28th at earliest. I am to be invested here with the important office of Dyke Captain, and I have also considerable chance of being elected to the Saxon (not the Dresden) Diet. The acceptance of the first office would be decisive as to the settlement of my residence—that is, here! There is no salary, but the administration of the position is of importance to Schönhausen and the other estates, inasmuch as it very much depends upon this whether we may occasionally get under water again or no. On the other hand, my friend ——, who is determined to send me to East Prussia, pushes me hard to accept the office there of H. M. Commissioner for Improvements. Bernhard urges me, contrary to my expectation, to go to Prussia. I should like to know what he thinks himself about it. He declares that by taste and education I am made for Government service, and must enter it, sooner or later. Greet Oscar, Detlev, Miss ——, and the other children heartily, from your devoted brother,
Bismarck.
Schönhausen, 25th February, 1846.
VIII.
Dear Arnimen,—I have within the few last days been obliged to write so many letters, that I have only left by me one sheet, stained with coffee, which I will not, however, deprive you of. My existence here has not been the most agreeable. To make inventories is tedious, particularly when the rascally valuer has left one three times in the lurch for nothing, and one has to wait in vain for several days. Besides this, I have lost a considerable amount of corn by hail, on the 17th, and finally I am suffering from a very annoying cough, although I have drunk no wine since Angermünde, and have taken every precaution against catching cold, can not complain of want of appetite, and sleep like a badger. At the same time every one laughs at me for my healthy looks, when I declare I am suffering from the chest. To-morrow, at noon, I will visit Redekin, the next day go to Magdeburg, and then, after a day or two’s sojourn, throw myself immediately into your arms. I can not tell you of any further news here, except that the grass was fourteen days in advance, in comparison with Angermünde, and the crops, take them altogether, very middling. The results of the inundation are very annoyingly visible, I am sorry to say, in the garden. Besides the many trees I took during the winter from the plantation as useless, it now appears that all the other acacias and the ashes are dried up, so that little remains; seventeen of the limes at the lower end of the great avenue are either dead or appear dying visibly. I shall have those showing a leaf anywhere topped, and see whether this operation will save them. In fruit trees, and especially plums, there has been a considerable loss. In the fields, and more particularly in the meadows, there are many places in which the grass has not grown, because the upper vegetative soil has been washed away. The Bellins and the rest of the Schönhausers send their respects; the former suffer much from to-day’s heat. Sultan not less. Thermometer 21° (68° Fahr.) in the shade. Many greetings to Oscar. Your consumptive brother,
Bismarck.
Schönhausen, 22d July, 1846.
In the course of this year Bismarck obtained his first decoration, for many years the only one which graced his breast, but which he wears to this day beside the stars of the highest Orders of Christendom. In the summer of 1842, he was on duty as Cavalry Officer with the Stargard Landwehr Squadron of Uhlans, in exercise at Lippehne, in the Neumark, and one afternoon was standing with other officers on the bridge over the lake, when his groom Hildebrand, the son of the forester on his estate, rode one of the horses to water and for a bath in the lake, close by the bridge. Suddenly the horse lost footing, and as the terrified horseman clung tight to the bridle, it fell, and Hildebrand disappeared in the water. A terrible cry of horror resounded; Bismarck threw off his sword in an instant, tore off his uniform, and dashed headlong into the lake to save his servant. By great good fortune he seized him, but the man clung to him so fast in his death agony, that he had to dive before he could loose himself from him. The crowd stood in horror on the shore; master and servant were both given up for lost—bubbles rose to the surface, but the powerful swimmer had succeeded in releasing himself from the deadly embrace of the drowning man; he rose to the surface, raising his servant with him. He also brought him safely to land, of course in an inanimate condition; but Hildebrand soon recovered, and the following day was well. This little town, some of the inhabitants of which had witnessed the brave rescue, was in great commotion; they expressed their feelings by the Superintendent meeting the noble rescuer in full official dress, and wishing him happiness for the mercy of the Almighty. Hence he obtained the simple medallion “for rescue from danger,” the well-known Prussian Safety Medal, which may be seen beside so many exalted stars on the breast of the Minister-President. Bismarck is proud of this mark of honor, and when on one occasion a noble diplomatist, perhaps not without a tinge of satire, asked him the meaning of this modest decoration, then his only one, he at once replied: “I am in the habit sometimes of saving a man’s life!” The diplomatist abased his eyes before the stern look which accompanied the lightly spoken words of Bismarck.
In the spring of 1843, Lieutenant von Bismarck sought and obtained permission from the Landwehr Battalion of Stargard to enter the 4th Uhlans (now the 1st Pomeranian Regiment, Uhlans, No. 4), then in garrison at Treptow and Greiffenberg, and do some months’ duty. Bismarck certainly aimed, when he entered this regiment, to serve as an officer in the active army, and to become acquainted with the regular routine of duty, although he did not say so, and allowed the officers of Uhlans to believe that he had only been induced by their agreeable society to join them. It is true he lived with them as a comrade, and often entertained them, almost every Saturday, as his guests at Kniephof; but they had frequently been his guests before, and afterwards they became so constantly. The Regimental Commandant, at that time, of the 4th Uhlans, was Lieutenant-Colonel von Plehwe, who fell in a duel as General, a person well known in many circles, and of a very distinguished character. Plehwe was one of the few important men, without an idea of what there was “in” the wild Landwehr Lieutenant, who joined his regiment in so strange a manner, for he did not know how to deal with Bismarck in any way. Half-way between Treptow, where the staff of the regiment was quartered, and Greiffenberg, where Bismarck lay, was a rendezvous known as “The Golden Dog” (Zum Goldenen Mops); to this place the severe Regimental Commandant was accustomed to summon the officers of Greiffenberg when he wanted to treat them to—compliments, or rather the very opposite to compliments. Oh! how often did Lieutenant von Bismarck ride to “The Golden Dog” upon his Caleb!