There was no occasion for anxiety. The night passed quietly. Next morning as we were at lunch a green _Feldjäger_, or Royal Courier, arrived with dispatches from Berlin. Although such messengers usually make rapid progress, this one had not travelled any quicker than I had done in my fear to arrive too late. He left on Monday, the 8th of August, and had several times taken a special conveyance, yet he had spent nearly four days on the way, as it was now the 12th. I again assisted the Decipherers. Afterwards, while the Minister was with the King, I visited the large and beautiful town church with the Councillors, the chaplain showing us round. In the afternoon, while the Minister was out for a ride, we inspected the Prussian artillery park on a neighbouring height. We dined at four, on the Chancellor’s return. He had ridden a long way in order to see his two sons, who were serving as privates in a regiment of dragoon guards, but found that the German cavalry had already pushed forward towards the upper reaches of the Moselle. He was in excellent spirits, evidently owing to the good fortune which continued to favour our cause. In the course of the conversation, which turned on mythology, the Chief said he could never endure Apollo, who flayed Marsyas out of conceit and envy, and slew the children of Niobe for similar reasons. “He is the genuine type of a Frenchman, one who cannot bear that another should play the flute better than, or as well as, himself.” Nor was Apollo’s manner of dealing with the Trojans to the Count’s taste. The straightforward Vulcan would have been his man, or, better still, Neptune--perhaps because of the _Quos ego_!--but he did not say. After rising from table we had good news to telegraph to Berlin for circulation throughout the whole country, namely, that there were ten thousand prisoners in our hands on the 7th of August, and that a great effect had been produced on the enemy by the victory at Saarbrücken. Somewhat later we had further satisfactory particulars to send home. The Minister of Finance in Paris, evidently in consequence of the rapid advance of the German forces, had invited the French people to deposit their gold in the Bank of France instead of keeping it in their houses. There was also some talk of a proposed proclamation forbidding and finally abolishing the conscription in the districts occupied by the German troops. We also heard from Madrid that the Montpensier party, some politicians belonging to the Liberal Union such as Rios Rosas and Topete, as well as various other party leaders, were exerting every effort to bring about the immediate convocation of the representative assembly in order that the Provisional Government should be put an end to by the election of a King. The Duc de Montpensier, whom they had in view as a candidate, was already in the Spanish capital. The Government, however, obstinately opposed this plan.