A fortnight later, after I had received a post card from Bucher informing me that he had started for Friedrichsruh, I wrote to him there (as to the proposed visit, and giving him an account of my future movements). This crossed the following letter, which Bucher sent to me under cover to Frau Hedwig Hämmerling:—
“Friedrichsruh, May 15, 1890.
“I have two reasons for sending you this letter under cover to another person; first, because you have not informed me of your whereabouts, and secondly, because there is some reason to suspect the existence of a Dark Cabinet. Therefore be prudent when you write to me here. I have had a large bundle to sort and register, and in doing so have satisfied myself that you have exhausted the materials. What came into my hands was very unimportant,—congratulations, letters of thanks, telegrams, reports from aides-de-camp and such like. (...) I am expected to remain until H. returns from England, probably towards the end of this month. He (the Chief) is physically well, and is gradually quieting down.”
I immediately acknowledged the receipt of Bucher’s note, and reminded him of the concluding request in my former letter. He replied on the 17th of May, 1890, again under cover to Hedwig Hämmerling: “To enable me to answer your questions I should be obliged to ask him, and up to the present I have had no opportunity of doing so. (...) After your registered letter and the reply thereto, it seems to me not to be in your interest that I should also press the matter. Besides, he talks of presently starting on a lengthy tour to countries[20] which he has not yet visited—certainly a very happy idea. I take it that he will not begin work before his return in the autumn; and then he will doubtless remember his arrangement with you. I will write you as soon as the departure is approximately settled.”
On the 20th of May I had an attack of apoplexy combined with paralysis, from which it took me six months to make an almost complete recovery; that is to say, with the exception that my handwriting had changed and my voice remained hoarse.
On the 10th of July, Frau Hämmerling received a note from Friedrichsruh (from Bucher, inquiring as to my illness). On Frau Hämmerling informing him of the truth he wrote me as follows:—
“Dear Busch,—I need not tell you how heartily I sympathise with you. I now write to put your mind at rest on one point, to tell you that you have missed nothing here, and will not miss anything during the next few weeks. I have had five or six thousand letters, extending from the fifties to the present day, to arrange in chronological order. They were all mixed up anyhow, both as regards dates and matter. They contain little on politics, and of that little again but a small portion refers to foreign affairs. He was not prepared to accept my suggestion that it would be well to put the begging letters, medical counsels, schemes for the improvement of the world at large, thundering hurrahs and fiery ‘salamanders’ into the fire. Therefore, when the preliminary work begins you will have to wander through a desert from which I have only removed tradesmen’s bills, &c. It is as yet impossible to say when that will be. He complains, with that humorous self-mocking air of desperation which you know, that he has now no time to set about anything. His excuse for the present is that of course the whole material must first be chronologically arranged, which will doubtless take a fortnight longer, although I am keeping hard at it. And then he will certainly be obliged to make some change in his way of living and in the apportionment of his time. The projected journeys will hardly come to anything; but even if he remains here he will not begin work before you are recovered—according to what F. H. (Frau Hämmerling) writes me. There is no idea of calling in Poschinger. He knows that the man is incapable of giving shape or form to anything of the kind.
“He himself and Herbert desire me to express their sympathy to you. With good wishes for your improvement,
“Truly yours (in English),
“Bucher.”