Vienna, the 30th.
Here I am again at the “Roman Emperor.” While you were looking from the Castle of Coblenz on the Rhine in attendance on our King and Lord, I was looking from the Castle of Ofen upon the Danube, and had an after-dinner conversation with the young Emperor upon the Prussian military system; and, oddly enough, on the same afternoon on which you visited Ehrenbreitstein and Stolzenfels, I took a drive through the Citadel above the palace, and into the forest district of Ofen. The view from the first is admirable. It reminds one of Prague, only there is more background and distance, therefore rather resembles Ehrenbreitstein, and the Danube is grander than the Moldau. I reached here last night, per the Pesth train, about half-past six.
Bismarck, as usual, was invited to the royal hunting-party in the autumn, as we perceive by the following letter to his wife:—
Blankenburg, 1st Nov., 1852.
A very unusual early rising, caused by the circumstance that my room is a passage for some Court servants still asleep, gives me time for these lines. Our Queen is also here, and is just being awakened by soft music of horns. I have not had such good sport in Letzlingen this time as three years ago; it was on Friday. Only three stags, voilà tout; one of them I hope will reach you. Eat the wild boar devoutly, and pickle some of it. His Majesty shot it with his own gracious hand. Otherwise, things went off very well; and, as I found N. N. there, I need not go to Berlin, and hope to reach you by the evening after to-morrow, of which please inform ——, as well as that his appointment for Berlin at our Court may be regarded as certain.
B.
The band is still playing very well from the Freischütz,—“Ob auch die Wolke sie verhülle” (If the cloud still doth surround her); very apt in this doubtful weather.
In the following year he received many visits from the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, for whom he was engaged at the time, at the instance of the King’s Government, in obtaining a pecuniary settlement of the Duke’s claims with Denmark. Bismarck was able, with great difficulty, to extract from very unwilling Denmark a handsome compensation. At this the Duke was so rejoiced, that he devoted himself and followers, with the entire gratitude of the House of Augustenburg, to the policy of Bismarck, as is well known.
In the summer of 1853 Bismarck first visited Ostend and Holland, then Westphalia and Nordeney. He then had a mission to Hanover, of which he rendered an account at Potsdam. In the autumn he spent a considerable time with his family in Switzerland, at Villeneuve, on the Lake of Geneva, and thence visited Upper Italy, especially Aosta and Genoa. In October he was summoned to Potsdam by His Majesty the King; was present at the hunting-parties of Letzlingen, and then returned for the winter to Frankfurt; some time, however, he spent in Berlin.