The Minister then sent for the gold pen that had been presented to him by Bissinger, the jeweller, and mentioned that the Countess had written to him asking about it, remarking that “doubtless it was a lie, like the story of the baby at Meaux.” We now heard for the first time that a new-born baby, the child of one of the French soldiers who had fallen in one of the recent battles, was supposed to have been smuggled into the Chief’s bed. This was, of course, a mere newspaper invention. The conversation afterwards turned on the deputation from the Reichstag, which was already at Strassburg, and would arrive here to-morrow. The Chancellor said: “We must begin to think what we are to reply to their address. The speech-making will be a real pleasure to Simson. He has been already engaged in several affairs of the kind--in the first deputation to the Hohenzollernburg respecting the imperial dignity. He makes a good speech, loves to talk, and thoroughly enjoys himself on such occasions.” Abeken observed that Löwe, the member of the Reichstag, said that he also had taken part in such a function, but had afterwards plenty of opportunity to think over the matter in a foreign country. “Ah! Was he also engaged in the 1849 affair?” asked the Chief. “Yes,” said Bucher; “he was President of the Reichstag.” “But,” said the Chief, “he need not have left his country on account of the part he took in the proposal as to the Emperor. It must have been because of his journey to Stuttgart, which was quite a different story.” The Minister then spoke of the Hohenzollernburg, where each branch of the family had a special suite of apartments; of an old castle in Pomerania, where all members of the family of Dewitz had a right to lodgings,--it was now reduced to a picturesque ruin, after having long served as a stone quarry for the inhabitants of the neighbouring country town; and afterwards of a landed proprietor who had a singular way of raising money. “He was always hard up, and on one occasion, when he was in desperate straits, his woods were attacked by caterpillars, then a fire broke out, and finally a number of trees were blown down by a gale. He was miserable, and thought he was bankrupt. So the timber had to be sold, and he suddenly found himself in possession of a lot of money, fifty or sixty thousand thalers, which set him on his legs again. It had never occurred to him that he could have his trees cut down.”