After dinner the Crown Prince and the Minister retired with the Councillors to the drawing-room, where they took coffee. Later on we were all sent for, and formally presented to the future Emperor by the Chief. We had to wait for about a quarter of an hour while the Chancellor was deep in conversation with the Crown Prince. His august guest stood in the corner near one of the windows. The Chief spoke to him in a low tone, with his eyes mostly cast down, while the Crown Prince listened with a serious and almost sullen look.
After the presentation I returned to the bureau, where I read the diplomatic reports and drafts of the last few days, amongst others the draft of the King’s reply to the Reichstag deputation. This had been prepared by Abeken, and greatly altered by the Chief. Then an instruction from the Minister to the Foreign Office to the effect that if the Provinzial-Correspondenz should again contain a commendation of Gambetta’s energy or anything of that kind, every possible means should be immediately employed to prevent the publication. Also a report from Prince Reuss to the effect that Gortschakoff had replied in a negative sense to a sentimental communication of Gabriac’s, adding that all the Russian Cabinet could do for the French at present was to act as letter-carrier in conveying their wishes to the Prussian Government.
At tea Hatzfeldt told me he had been trying to decipher a Dutch report from Van Zuylen, which had been brought out with Washburne’s mail, and had succeeded, though there were still a few doubtful points. He then showed it to me, and together we contrived to puzzle out some more of it. The despatch seems to be based throughout on good information, and to give a faithful account of the situation.
At 10.30 P.M. summoned to the Chief, who wants the Moniteur to mention Gambetta’s inclination to forgo further resistance and Trochu’s plan respecting Mont Valérien.
Wednesday, December 21st.—At dinner the Chief spoke of his great-grandfather, who, if I rightly understood him, fell at Czaslau. “The old people at our place often described him to my father. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord, and a great toper. Once in a single year he shot 154 red deer, a feat which Prince Frederick Charles will scarcely emulate, although the Duke of Dessau might. I remember being told that when he was stationed at Gollnow, the officers messed together, the Colonel presiding over the kitchen. It was the custom there for five or six dragoons to march in and fire a volley from their carbines at each toast. Altogether they had very curious customs. For instance, instead of a plank bed they had as a punishment a so-called wooden donkey with sharp edges, upon which the men who had been guilty of any breach of discipline were obliged to sit, often for a couple of hours—a very painful punishment. On the birthday of the Colonel or of other officers, the soldiers always carried this donkey to the bridge and threw it into the river. But a new one was invariably provided. The Burgomaster’s wife told my father that it must have been renewed a hundred times. I have a portrait of this great-grandfather in Berlin. I am the very image of him, that is to say, I was when I was young—when I saw myself in the looking-glass.”
The Minister then related that it was owing to a relative of his, Finanzrath Kerl, that he was sent to Göttingen University. He was consigned to Professor Hausmann, and was to study mineralogy. “They were thinking, no doubt, of Leopold von Buch, and fancied it would be fine for me to go through the world like him, hammer in hand, chipping pieces off the rocks. Things, however, turned out differently. It would have been better if I had been sent to Bonn, where I should have met countrymen of my own. At Göttingen I had no one from my own part of the country, and so I met none of my University acquaintances again until I saw a few of them in the Reichstag.”
Abeken said that after a brisk fire from the forts this morning there had been a sortie of the Paris garrison, which was principally directed against the positions occupied by the Guards. It was, however, scarcely more than an artillery engagement, as the attack was known beforehand and preparations had been made to meet it. Hatzfeldt said he should like to know how they were able to discover that a sortie was going to take place. It was suggested that in the open country movements of transport and guns could not escape detection, as large masses of troops could not be concentrated on the point of attack in one night. “That was quite true,” observed the Chief, with a laugh; “but often a hundred louis d’ors also form an important part of this military prescience.”
After dinner I read drafts and despatches, from which I ascertained, amongst other things, that as early as the 1st of September, Prussia had intimated in St. Petersburg that she would put no difficulties in the way of such action in the matter of the Black Sea as has now been taken.
Later on I arranged that Löwinsohn should deal with the Gambetta-Trochu question in the Indépendance Belge. Also informed him that Delbrück would be here again on the 28th inst.
Thursday, December 22nd.—This time there were no strangers at dinner. The Chief was in excellent spirits, but the conversation was of no special importance.