set free by the fall of Metz. In the meantime Thiers refused this very acceptable offer, and maintained that the provisioning of Paris was an indispensable condition for an understanding, while he was not empowered to give any prospect of a military equivalent for the same, such as the evacuation of one of the Paris forts. 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.”