_Wednesday, December 7th._--At dinner the Chief related some of his Frankfurt reminiscences. “It was possible to get on with Thun,” he said. “He was a respectable man. Taken altogether, Rechberg[18] was also not bad. He was at least honourable from a personal standpoint, although violent and irascible--one of those passionate, fiery blondes! It is true that as an Austrian diplomat of those days he was not able to pay too strict a regard to truth. I remember his once receiving a despatch in which he was instructed to maintain the best relations with us, a second despatch being sent to him at the same time enjoining him to follow an exactly opposite course. I happened to call upon him, and he inadvertently gave me the second despatch to read. I saw immediately how matters stood and read it through. Then handing it back to him I said: ‘I beg your pardon, but you have given me the wrong one.’ He was fearfully embarrassed, but I consoled him, saying I would take no advantage of his mistake, using it merely for my personal information.” “The third, however,--Prokesch--was not at all to my liking. In the East he had learnt the basest forms of intrigue and had no sense of honour or truth. A thoroughpaced liar. I remember being once in a large company where some Austrian assertion which was not in accordance with the truth was being discussed. Prokesch, raising his voice in order that I might hear him, said: ‘If that be not true, then the Imperial and Royal Cabinet has commissioned me to commit an act of perfidy, indeed his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty has _lied_ to me!’ and he emphasised the word _lied_. He looked at me whilst he was speaking, and, when he had finished, I replied, quietly: ‘Quite so, Excellency!’ He was obviously aghast, and as he looked round and found all eyes cast down and a deep silence which showed approval of what I had said, he turned away without a word and went into the dining-room where the table was laid. He had recovered himself, however, after dinner, and came over to me with a full glass in his hand--but for that I should have thought he was going to challenge me--and said, ‘Well, let us make peace.’ ‘Certainly,’ I replied, ‘but what I said in the other room was true, and the protocol must be altered.’ The protocol was altered, an admission that it had contained an untruth. A rascally fellow!”