On coming in to dinner, the Chief mentioned that the Minister of War is seriously ill. He feels very weak, and will scarcely be able to rise from his bed for a fortnight. The Count afterwards made some jokes about the water supplied to us for washing. “The inhabitants of the local reservoir,” he said, “seem to have their seasons. First came the scolopendria, which are particularly distasteful to me, ‘moving their thousand limbs together’ (Schiller’s Diver). Then followed the wood lice, which I cannot bear to touch, although they are perfectly harmless. I’d sooner grasp a snake. Now the leeches have arrived. I found quite a small specimen to-day, doubled up into a button. I tried to induce him to deploy, but he declined—remained a button. I then poured some well water over him, and he stretched out straight, long and thin like a needle, and made off with himself.” The conversation then turned on a variety of simple but nevertheless estimable delicacies, such as fresh and salt herrings, new potatoes, spring butter, &c. The Minister observed to Delbrück, who also approved of those good things: “The sturgeon is a fish which is also to be found here, but it is not appreciated as it ought to be. In Russia they recognise its good qualities. It is often caught in the Elbe in the Magdeburg district, but is only eaten by fishermen and poor people.” He then explained its good points, and thus came to speak of caviare, and treated of the several varieties with the knowledge of a connoisseur.
“The fresh caviare which we now get in Berlin is very good,” he said, “since it can be brought by rail from St. Petersburg in forty hours. I have had it several times, and one of my principal complaints against that fat Borck is that he intercepted forty pounds of this caviare which I once sent to the King. I suspected something of the kind, as the King made no mention of it, and did not send me any present in return. Later on Perponcher or some one told me that on dropping in to Borck’s room he saw there a barrel of caviare with a spoon standing in it. That made me wild with him (Das hat mir sehr verdrossen).”
The Chief remarked at dinner: “To-day, again, I noticed when it snowed how many points of resemblance there are between the Gauls and the Slavs. The same broad streets, with the houses standing close together, the same low roofs, as in Russia. The only thing wanting here is the green onion-shaped steeple. But, on the other hand, the versts and kilometres, the arsheens and metres are the same. And then the tendency to centralisation, the uniformity of views of the whole population and the communistic trait in the popular character.”
He then spoke of the wonderful “topsy turvy” world we live in nowadays. “When one thinks that perhaps the Pope will shortly be residing in a small town of Protestant Germany, that the Reichstag may meet in Versailles, and the Corps Législatif in Cassel, that Garibaldi has become a French general in spite of Mentana, and that Papal Zouaves are fighting side by side with him!” He followed up this train of ideas for some little time.
The Minister then remarked suddenly: “Metternich has also written to me to-day. He wants me to allow Hoyos to enter Paris, in order that he may bring away the Austrians. I replied that since the 25th of October they have had permission to come out, but that we could allow no more people to enter, not even diplomats. We also receive none in Versailles, but I would make an exception in his favour. He will then perhaps again raise the Austrians’ claims respecting the property of the old Bund in the German fortresses.”
On the subject of doctors, and the way in which nature sometimes comes to its own assistance, the Chief related that he was once with a shooting party for two days at the Duke of ——. “I was thoroughly out of sorts. Even the two days’ shooting and fresh air did me no good. On the third day I visited the Cuirassiers at Brandenburg, who had received a new cup. I was to be the first one to drink out of it, thus dedicating it, and then it was to go the round of the table. It held nearly a bottle. I made my speech, however, drank and set it down empty, to the great surprise of the officers, who had but a poor opinion of mere quill-drivers. That was the result of my Göttingen training. And strangely, or perhaps naturally enough, it set me all right again. On another occasion, when I was shooting at Letzlingen in the time of Frederick William IV. the guests were asked to drink from an old puzzle goblet. It was a stag’s horn, which contained about three-quarters of a bottle of wine, and was so made that one could not bring it close to the lips, yet one was not allowed to spill a drop. I took it and drank it off at a draught, although it was very cold champagne, and not a single drop fell on my white waistcoat. Everybody was immensely surprised; but I said, ‘Give me another.’ The King, however, who evidently did not appreciate my success, called out ‘No, no more.’ Such tricks were formerly an indispensable part of the diplomat’s trade. They drank the weaker vessels under the table, wormed all they wanted to know out of them, made them agree to things which were contrary to their instructions, or for which, at least, they had no authority. Then they were compelled to put their signatures at once, and afterwards when they got sober they could not imagine how they had done it.”
Bismarck-Bohlen, who seemed to be particularly communicative to-day, told the following anecdote about the Chief. At Commercy a woman came to him to complain that her husband, who had tried to strike a hussar with a spade, had been arrested. “The Minister listened to her very amiably, and when she had done he replied in the kindliest manner possible, ‘Well, my good woman, you can be quite sure that your husband’ (drawing a line round his neck with his finger) ‘will be presently hanged.’”
Saturday, November 12th.—While we were at lunch the Chief was out. He shortly afterwards passed through the dining-room into the saloon, accompanied by a bearded officer in a Prussian uniform, the Grand Duke of Baden.
In about ten minutes the Chief returned to table. He was very angry and indignant, and said: “This is really too bad! No peace from these Grand Dukes even at one’s meals. They will eventually force their way into one’s bedroom. That must be put a stop to. It is not so in Berlin. There the people who want something from me announce their visits in writing, and I fix a suitable time for them to call. Why should it not be the same here?”
After a while the Chief said to one of the attendants who was waiting upon us, “Remember in future in such cases to say that I am not at home. Whoever brings any visitor to me unannounced will be put under arrest and sent off to Berlin;” and after eating a few mouthfuls more, he went on: “As if it were anything of importance! But merely curiosity and a desire to kill time. He shall see, however, I will shortly pay him a surprise visit on some official matter, so that he cannot send me away....”