_Friday, November 25th._--In the morning I cut out for the King an article from the _Neue Freie Presse_, in which Granville’s note is described as timid and colourless; and arrange for the republication by all our papers in France of the telegram of July last, in which Napoleon stated that the whole French people approved of the declaration of war which he had just despatched. Whilst I was walking with Wollmann in the afternoon, he told me an anecdote of the Chief which is very neat--although I must add that my informant is not quite trustworthy. Wollmann said: “On the night of the 14th to the 15th of June, 1866, Manteuffel telegraphed that he had crossed the Elbe, and asked how he was to treat the Hanoverians. Thereupon the Minister wrote the answer: ‘Treat them as countrymen, if necessary to death.’ He asked me: ‘Do you understand that?’ ‘Yes, Excellency,’ I replied. ‘All right then,’ he added, ‘but, you see, it is for a general.’” _Saturday, November 26th._--Wrote several articles, including one on Trochu’s extraordinary production in the _Figaro_ of the 22nd instant, praising those whom he considered specially deserving of commendation in the defence of the city. The Chief read over to me some of the passages he had marked, saying: “These heroic deeds of the defenders of Paris are mostly of such an ordinary kind that Prussian generals would not think them worth mentioning; while others are mere swagger and obvious impossibilities. Trochu’s braves have made more prisoners when they are all reckoned up than the whole French army during the entire investment of Paris. Then here is this Captain Montbrisson, who is commended for having marched at the head of his column to the attack, and had himself lifted over a wall in order to reconnoitre,--that was merely his duty. Then here this theatrical vanity, where Private Gletty made prisoners of three Prussians, _par la fermeté de son attitude_. The firmness of his attitude! And our Pomeranians ate humble pie before him! That may do for a Boulevard theatre, or a circus,--but in reality! Then this Hoff, who on several occasions slaughtered in single combat no less than twenty-seven Prussians! He must be a Jew, this triple nine-pounder! Probably a cousin of Malz-Hoff of the Old or New Wilhelmstrasse--at any rate a Miles Gloriosus. And finally this Terreaux, who captured a _fanion_, together with the _porte-fanion_. That is a company flag for marking the line--which we do not use at all. And the Commander-in-Chief of an army officially reports such stuff! Really this list of commendations is just like the battle pictures in the gallery of _toutes les gloires de la France_, where each drummer at Sebastopol and Magenta is preserved for posterity, simply because he beat his drum.”