_Tuesday, September 27th._--Bölsing, on the Chief’s instructions, shows me the answer to Favre’s letter, which the Minister has rewritten in a shorter and more positive form. It says, 1. It is not usual in war to announce the commencement of an attack; 2. A besieged fortress does not appear to be a suitable residence for diplomatists; open letters containing nothing objectionable will be allowed to pass. It is hoped that the _corps diplomatique_ will agree with this view of the matter. They can go to Tours, whither it would appear the French Government also intends to remove. The answer is written in German, a course already begun by Bernstorff, but which was carried out more consistently by Bismarck. “Formerly,” said Bölsing, “most of the Secretaries in the Foreign Office belonged to the French colony, of which Roland and Delacroix still remain. Almost all the Councillors also wrote in that language. Even the register of the despatches was kept in French, and the Ambassadors usually reported in that language.” Now the speech of the “vile Gaul,” as Count Bohlen calls the French, is only used in exceptional cases, that is, in communicating with Governments and Ambassadors to whom we cannot write or reply in their mother tongue. The registers have for years past been kept in German. The Chief has been at work since 8 o’clock in the morning--unusually early for him. He has again been unable to sleep. Prince Radziwill and Knobelsdorff, of the general staff, joined us at dinner. In speaking of that part of Favre’s report in which he says that he wept, the Minister thinks he can only have pretended to do so. “It is true,” he said, “that he looked as if he had done so, and I tried to some extent to console him. On my observing him more closely, however, I felt quite certain that he had not succeeded in squeezing out a single tear. It was all merely a piece of acting on his part. He thought to work upon me in the same manner as a Parisian lawyer tries to move a jury. I am perfectly convinced that he was painted at Ferrières--particularly at the second interview. That morning he looked much greyer and quite green under the eyes--I am prepared to bet that it was paint--grey and green, to give himself an appearance of deep suffering. It is, of course, possible that he was deeply affected; but then he can be no politician or he would know that pity has nothing to do with politics.” After a while the Minister added: “When I hinted something about Strassburg and Metz, he assumed a look as if he thought I was jesting. I could have given him, the answer which the great fur dealer of Unter den Linden in Berlin once gave me. I went there to choose a fur coat, and on his naming a very high price for one to which I had taken a fancy, I said, ‘Surely you are joking.’ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘I never make jokes in business.’”