During the day, however, this stillness was less idyllic than many newspaper correspondents described it at the time. I am not thinking of the fifes and drums of the troops that marched through the town and which reached our ears almost daily, nor of the noise which resulted from two sorties made by the Parisians in our direction, nor even of the hottest day of the bombardment, as we had become accustomed to all that, much as the miller does to the roar and rattle of his wheels. I refer principally to the numerous visitors of all kinds, many of them unwelcome, who were received by the Chancellor during those eventful months. Our quarters was often like a pigeon house from the constant flow of strangers and acquaintances in and out. At first non-official eavesdroppers and messengers came from Paris, followed later by official negotiators in the persons of Favre and Thiers, accompanied by a larger or smaller retinue. There were princely visitors from the Hôtel des Reservoirs. The Crown Prince came several times, and the King once. The Church was also represented amongst the callers by high dignitaries, archbishops, and other prelates. Deputations from the Reichstag, individual party leaders, higher officials, and bankers arrived from Berlin, while Ministers came from Bavaria and other South German States for the purpose of concluding treaties. American generals, members of the foreign diplomatic body in Paris, including a “coloured gentleman,” and envoys of the Imperialist party wished to speak to the busy statesman in his small room upstairs, and, as a matter of course, English newspaper correspondents eagerly tried to force their way into his presence. Then there were Government couriers with their despatch bags, Chancery attendants with telegrams, orderlies with messages from the general staff, and besides all these a superfluity of work which was as difficult as it was important. In short, what with deliberating on old schemes and forming new ones, seeking how to overcome difficulties, vexation and trouble, the disappointment of well-grounded expectations, now and then a lack of support and readiness to meet his views, the foolish opinions of the Berlin press and their dissatisfaction notwithstanding our undreamt of success, together with the agitation of the Ultramontanes, it was often hard to understand how the Chancellor, with all these calls upon his activity and patience, and with all this disturbance and friction, was, on the whole, able to preserve his health and maintain that freshness which he showed so frequently late in the evening in conversations both serious and humorous. During his stay at Versailles he was only once or twice unwell for three or four days.