On his rising from table to go to his study, I followed him outside in order to tell him privately that I had found some passages in my diary which might be of interest to him, mentioning in particular Fleming’s despatch on Mohl’s report. He said he would like to see them in the afternoon, and would send for me for the purpose. “I must now answer Augusta, who has once more administered to me one of her gracious Model Letter-Writer epistles.” Later on, when I brought him the diary with the passages of interest marked, he praised Mohl’s description of the relations of parties in Bavaria as apt and accurate. On my saying that it would doubtless have been in the hands of the Grand Duke of Baden three months before the differences at Versailles, and that he would certainly have communicated its contents to the Crown Prince, he answered in a tone of contempt: “Ah, that is mere talk on his part. He never took anything seriously, or studied it thoroughly. Do you really think that they were seriously concerned, to read despatches, and to think over and note the contents of reports? They just met in order to smoke and exchange ill-natured gossip.” He then related once more: “It was before the conference at Donchery when he spoke of using force against the Bavarians, and of eventually shooting down the two army corps if necessary. I said to him that would be an act of unheard-of treachery, which a Prince might decide upon, but which no gentleman could perform. That would be a course similar to Gero’s, in his treatment of the thirty Wendish Princes, a perfidy which had such fatal consequences for the whole Ostmark.” On this occasion he also repeated his plan of campaign with regard to the publication in the Rundschau: “First assert it to be a forgery, and express indignation at such a calumny upon the noble dead. Then, when they prove it to be genuine, refute the errors and foolish ideas which it contains, but cautiously, and bearing in mind that he was Emperor and father to the present Emperor.” He then exclaimed suddenly: “Well, he is gone! Made off with himself, with the Public Prosecutor at his heels. Geffcken, I mean, who published it, and who for the matter of that is no Democrat, but a Particularist.” I mentioned to him that, during the latter half of the fifties, Geffcken, under the nom de plume of “Victor,” had, as a friend of Freytag’s and a petty diplomat of the sniffing and spying order, supplied the Grenzboten with Opposition gossip inspired by the Crown Prince and the Coburg clique; that he was afterwards a diligent promoter of the Augustenburger’s cause, but that in 1877, as pointed out in the “Friction” articles, his place-hunting propensities had been recognised at Karlsruhe. I then asked whether he had read Hofrath Schneider’s posthumous work on the Emperor William, and added, “he did not appear to be well disposed towards you.” “Certainly not,” he rejoined; “and he had good reason for it. He hated me because I had spoilt a fine business for him. A cousin of mine, a Bismarck-Bohlen, wanted to marry one of his daughters, his senior by eleven years, who had driven him crazy by her coquetry. I pulled him away from her by his coat-tails. She might have captured a big estate with him.” I further expressed the opinion that the death of the Emperor Frederick had saved us from an evil future, and in particular from English influence on the foreign policy of Prussia and of the Empire, and from an estrangement with Russia. “Yes,” he rejoined; “he was in favour of the Orleans, used his influence for a daughter of Nemours, was on the side of Poland, of Denmark, and against the war of 1866,—always in favour of what fell in with the views of the English.”
Before lunch on the 29th I begged Rottenburg to ask the Chief whether our business was now at an end, and I might consider myself at liberty to return home. I received no answer, however, although I reminded Rottenburg of the matter. I spent the day in my room, in a bad temper, having nothing to do and feeling bored, and could not go for a walk, as it rained up to dusk. After dinner reference was again made to the Crown Prince’s incapacity, of which the Chief treated us to an exquisite example. He related: “We had at that time a secret treaty with the St. Petersburg people which now no longer exists. Under it we were to remain neutral in case of war breaking out between England and Russia. On my mentioning the treaty to the Crown Prince he remarked: ‘Of course England has been informed and has agreed to it.’” Great laughter, in which the ladies also joined. The deceased sovereign evidently stood badly in need of a wax candle to light up his head—more so, indeed, than even a certain uncle in Thuringia. (...)
On Sunday, the 30th of September, Rottenburg came up to my room about noon, and said: “I have asked the Chief as to your going home, and he wishes you to stay at least for a few days longer, so that it may look like a visit, and not as if you had been specially summoned here for a purpose. How do you spell Commercy?” I replied: “With two ‘m’s’ and a ‘y.’” “He will probably question you about their stay there.” I looked it up, and found that we had arrived at that place at 2 P.M. on the 23rd of August, 1870, and left it at noon on the 24th; that the Chief had had a conference with the King there, and that Waldersee and Alvensleben dined with us. Mentioned that to the Chief at lunch, when by the way, as on the previous day, he returned my greeting with a “Guten Morgen, Büschlein”; and when, among the other good things provided, a basin of peasoup with bacon was served up to me by the Princess’s orders. This is a favourite dish of mine, as I happened to let out on Friday in the course of conversation on various delicacies. The Prince spoke of the Crown Prince’s inadequate acquaintance with modern history, as shown by his reference in his diary to the Emperor and Empire as new ideas emanating from himself and his party. “That was the aspiration of many a German long before he was born. The Burschenschaft sang and drank to it immediately after the War of Liberation, and when I went to Göttingen those were the ideals I carried with me, and if those students had not fought so shy of duelling and beer drinking I might have joined them and got myself involved with them in the subsequent inquiry.” He then related as further evidence of his political views at that time his bet with Coffin, whom he, by the way, knew to be still alive. “As far back as 1848 the idea of an Emperor was well to the front, but it was unworkable, principally because people were thinking of other things at the same time. The beginning of the Empire already existed in the North German Confederation, only Bavaria did not want to come in yet, as was indeed the case in 1870 also, when I had a great deal of trouble to secure her adhesion. On the other hand, I had a hard fight with our Most Gracious Master, who for a long time would not hear of being Emperor. ‘But does your Majesty wish to remain a neuter for ever?’ I said to him one day. ‘What do you mean by that?’ he said. ‘Why, that hitherto you have been the Presidency (das Sie bis jetzt das Präsidium sind.’)” If I rightly understood the Chief at lunch the reason of his question as to Commercy was that it was there he recommended the King to confer the Iron Cross upon the South Germans. “Moltke,” he said, “was entirely against it, asking whether he himself had any Bavarian Order.”
At dinner in the evening the guests included General Lesczinsky, who was in uniform, as was also the Chief. In conversation on a variety of subjects both at the table and afterwards, L. showed himself to be a well-informed man of sound views. He was engaged in the campaigns in Baden, Schleswig-Holstein, Bohemia and France, and has in addition travelled a great deal. He is now stationed in Hamburg, whither he returns to-day. Brauer leaves for home to-night, starting for Berlin at 11 o’clock.
Monday, October 1st.—At 9 A.M. Rottenburg came to my room, and asked me once more the date of our stay at Commercy. I told him. It actually turns out that the point in question is, that it was here the Chief first spoke to the King about giving the Iron Cross to non-Prussians and to the Bavarians in particular. In the evening, Rottenburg and I took a long walk past the Aumühl into Holstein, and arranged to make similar excursions in other directions, principally through the Sachsenwald, where there are a number of good roads, and which is now beginning to take on autumn tints. Rottenburg is a frank and amiable man, with whom one is soon on good terms. He is intelligent and well informed, particularly in social questions. He has an extensive knowledge of public men, and would appear in addition to be an excellent worker. He comes from Danzig, and spent five years in London for the purpose of study.
After dinner something in the conversation led me to inform the Prince of Andrae’s letter to me, and of my meeting with him. He observed that Andrae was a vain intriguer, and that the story about Stirum was not true. Moreover, not only Holtz, but the majority of the others who signed the “Declaration” wrote to him, Bismarck, separate letters of excuse. The Princess remarked that Andrae was one of the worst of the “Deklaranten.” I ascertained at the same time that her mother was a Gichtelite, and that Below-Hohendorf was their Grand Lama—an epithet which the lady did not use, however. The Chief then read a little of the book, Bismarck unter drei Kaisern, but after looking through it for a while he soon laid it aside. In reply to my question whether there was anything in it, he said: “Oh, no; a mere hack’s work! Put together with scissors and paste from the newspapers and such sources, without much knowledge of the subject or real coherence.”
During our walk I had mentioned to Rottenburg my longing for some work to do, and had sought refuge from my boredom in three volumes of Hallberger’s Ueber Land und Meer, which I found in my room. He promised to send me Schmidt’s work on the French Revolution, but did not do so. In my despair I plucked up courage and applied to the Chief himself, asking him if he could not give me something to do, if it were only ciphering, deciphering or copying, perhaps some matter of no importance,—“for my part it may be making out lists or adding up accounts.” He smiled, and, after reflecting for a moment, said: “Perhaps I can find some more interesting occupation for you to-morrow. I will see.”
On Tuesday, October 2nd, took a walk through the wood to Dassendorf and back, which occupied from 11 to 1 o’clock. The weather was very fine. At lunch I ascertained from Rottenburg that the Prince wished to give me a number of letters to look through. When the Chief got up from table he whispered something to Rottenburg at the door, whereupon the latter came back to me and said the Prince was now going upstairs to look out the papers. In about a quarter of an hour I was summoned to his study, where he had several large packets of documents lying before him. He began: “I once promised you that you should arrange my papers. Here are some of them—letters and other things from the Frankfurt and St. Petersburg period. Here for instance is the Gerlach correspondence, and there are letters from Frederick William IV. to me.” He read over one of the latter to me, and then said: “I think you will find other matters of interest among them. I myself can no longer remember exactly all they contain. Take these upstairs with you, and settle how you are going to arrange them. I think the chronological order will be the best.” Was I not delighted? Such confidence! and such a prospect of fresh information! the fulfilment of a hope that had almost died. Pleased beyond measure I hurried off with my burden and immediately set to work on them, first glancing through the various papers at hazard. The sifting of this treasure was to commence next morning, and to be continued on the following days with as little interruption as possible.
On the 3rd of October we were joined at dinner by the Head Forester, Lange, one of the Prince’s managers and an expert who was engaged in laying down meadows. On the 4th the technical controller of one of the Customs division at Hamburg dined with us. Schweninger arrived on the 5th. He behaved very nicely, and was, indeed, almost tender in his manner on my expressing my admiration of the unquestionable service he had rendered in restoring the Chancellor’s health. He wished to visit a patient of his in Mecklenburg, a lady of the nobility, but on the 6th he was still at Friedrichsruh, where he was treated by all the members of the family as a friend of the house. On the 8th we again had the Head Forester at dinner, as well as a prosperous timber merchant and coal-mine owner from Westphalia. In two hours Minister von Bötticher was expected to arrive from Berlin. At table the Prince related that formerly, and even since he became Minister, he was sometimes obliged to dance with Princesses at Court entertainments until the old gentleman (King William) expressed his displeasure. He excused himself by saying: “What is one to do, your Majesty, when Princesses command?” The Princesses were accordingly informed of the prohibition. Keudell was also passionately fond of dancing formerly, and Radowitz too, but the King also broke the latter of this habit.
Addendum.—Yesterday the Chancellor once more returned to the subject of King William’s anxiety in 1866 to utilise his victories in a different way to what he (Bismarck) advised. “His mind was set on Northern Bohemia, half of Saxony, half of Hanover, Ansbach and Bayreuth, &c., and it was difficult to get the idea out of his head.” At lunch to-day I told the Chief (in English on account of the servants) that I expected to finish my work in two or three days, and to return the papers to him in linen envelopes, arranged according to the years. He replied (also in English): “Then you have lost no time, seeing what a quantity of them there were. But I have also a number of others for you. The work is not yet over, as there is a lot more there, more recent and perhaps more interesting for you. Have you found anything of importance among the first batch?” I said I had. He called attention to the contrast between Gerlach and Manteuffel, the Minister, which was evident from their letters. He also mentioned Niebuhr, of whom he remarked: “It is with him as with many pious people of his sort: he has no tact, regards himself as the envoy of an anointed King, and as his representative considers himself to be also anointed.”