In the morning Keudell said to me we might remain in Versailles for about three weeks. Metz would soon be obliged to capitulate, as they now had only horseflesh to eat and no salt. They were still confident in Paris, although there was great mortality amongst their cattle, which were fed on compressed food. Burnside, who had been in the city, confirmed this news. The Minister was less sanguine. The question of uniforms for the secretaries was again brought up, and in this connection the Chief remarked that the war might yet continue for a considerable time, perhaps till Christmas, possibly till Easter, and probably a portion of the troops would remain in France for years to come. Paris should have been immediately stormed on the 19th of September, or left entirely on one side. He then told his valet to send to Berlin for his fur coats. In the further course of conversation the Minister said: “I heard something really characteristic to-day. The host of Princes who have followed us and who are lodging at the Hôtel des Reservoirs are living at the expense of the town! They let the municipality feed them, though they have merely come out of curiosity, and are nothing more than distinguished loafers. It is particularly shabby of the Duke of Coburg, who is a rich man, with an annual revenue of a million thalers. Such a piece of meanness ought to be noticed in the press. It is shameful for a Prince to allow himself to be fed by a town already so impoverished.” The Chief again returned to this subject a little later, “The royal household is a very comprehensive conception, and so it is impossible to object to these gentlemen being fed. The King pays for the Crown Prince, and the Crown Prince for the other princely personages. But it is mean of the latter to help to suck the town dry, and the newspapers should not overlook it.” I afterwards asked the Minister, who was alone with me in the drawing-room, where he remained behind after taking a cup of coffee, whether I should send the press particulars of the not very gentlemanly conduct of the Princes. “Certainly, why not?” he replied; “and you can also give the name of the Coburger--not in our own papers, however.” The bolt was accordingly despatched to Metzler, of the Foreign Office in Berlin, who was to pass it on to the _Kölnische Zeitung_. “An Englishman at the headquarters at Meaux” wrote to the _Daily Telegraph_ that the Chief on the conclusion of his interview with Malet said: “What gives myself and the King most anxiety is the influence of a French Republic in Germany. We are very well aware how American Republicanism has reacted upon Germany, and if the French oppose us with a republican propaganda it will do us more harm than their armies.” The Minister wrote on the margin of this statement: “An absurd lie.”