The Chancellor then went on to give us a full account of his experiences during the last hours of the battle and the following night. I shall give these and other particulars later on, as I heard them from the Minister. Here I will only mention that the King had ventured too far to the front, which Bismarck thought was not right. Referring to our men, the American General Sheridan said: “Your infantry is the best in the world; but it was wrong of your generals to advance their cavalry as they did.” I may further mention that Bohlen in the course of the conversation said to the Chancellor: “Did you hear how the Bavarian muttered when the result seemed doubtful--‘Things look bad! It’s a bad case!’--and was obviously delighted to think we were going to be beaten?” The Bavarian referred to was Prince Luitpold. The name of General Steinmetz then came up. The Chancellor said that he was brave, but self-willed and excessively vain. Small and slight of figure, when he came into the Diet he always stood near the President’s chair so as to be noticed. He used to attract attention by pretending to be very busy taking notes of what went on, as if he were following the debate with great care. “He evidently thought the newspapers would mention it, and praise his zeal. If I am not mistaken his calculation proved correct.” On Monday, the 22nd of August, I wrote in my diary: “Called to the Chief at 10.30 A.M. He asked first after my health and whether I also had been attacked by dysentery. He had had a bad time of it the night before. The Count down with dysentery! God save him from it! It would be worse than the loss of a battle. Without him our whole cause would be reduced to uncertainty and vacillation.” On the instructions of the Chief I sent the _Kölnische Zeitung_ the translation of part of a confidential report according to which the Emperor Alexander was favourably disposed towards the French. I also wired to Berlin respecting the closing of some small telegraph offices the officials of which were required for the field service. There is no longer any doubt that we shall retain Alsace and Metz, with its environs, in case of a final victory over France. The considerations that have led the Chancellor to this conclusion, and which have already been discussed in an academic way in the English press, are somewhat as follows: