In the evening, as we sat on a bench outside the door, the Minister joined us for a moment. He asked me for a cigar, but Councillor Taglioni, the King’s decipherer, was quicker than I, which was a pity, as mine were much better. At tea the Chancellor mentioned in the course of conversation that on two occasions he had been in danger of being shot by a sentry, once at San Sebastian and another time at Schluesselburg. From this we learned that he also understood a little Spanish. Passing from the Schluesselburg story, he came to relate the following anecdote, which, however, I was unable to hear quite clearly, and so cannot vouch whether it occurred to the Minister himself or to some one else. One day the Count was walking in the Summer Garden at St. Petersburg, and met the Emperor, with whom, as a Minister in high favour, his relations were somewhat unreserved. The two, after strolling on together for awhile, saw a sentry posted in the middle of a grass plot. Bismarck took the liberty to ask what he was doing there. The Emperor did not know, and questioned the aide-de-camp, who was also unable to explain. The aide-de-camp was then sent to ask the sentry. His answer was, “It has been ordered,” a reply which was repeated by every one of whom the aide-de-camp inquired. The archives were searched in vain--a sentry had always been posted there. At last an old footman remembered that his father had told him that the Empress Catherine had once seen an early snowdrop on that spot, and had given instructions that it should not be plucked. They could find no better way of preserving it than by placing a sentry to guard it, who was afterwards kept on as a matter of habit. The anti-German feeling in Holland and its causes was then referred to. It was thought to be partly due to the circumstance that Van Zuylen, when he was Dutch Minister at Berlin, had made himself unpleasant, and consequently did not receive as much consideration as he desired, so that he possibly left us in ill-humour.