On the 4th of April Bucher wrote: “Your request was received in a very friendly way by the Chief, who will give the necessary instructions and see you when you are here. _He is going._ It is not a question of leave of absence, but a peremptory demand to be allowed to retire. The reason: Augusta, who influences her ageing consort, and conspires with Victoria (the Crown Princess), works up the priests through the Radziwills and others, travels _incognito_ from Baden-Baden to Switzerland in order to have tête-à-têtes with Mermillod and other rabid Ultramontanes--an incident which is discussed in every tap-room in Switzerland, and which we know from other sources to be a fact. The successor who seems to have the best prospect, because Augusta desires his appointment, is Schleinitz, the Minister of the Household. You can make use of this, but with that prudence which is imposed by the Press Laws.” Of course I wrote to Bucher by return of post, that in these circumstances I held myself at the Prince’s disposal to do everything and anything which lay in my power, and that I would proceed to Berlin within the next few days. At the same time I wrote the first of the so-called “Friction Articles” of the _Grenzboten_. Advance copies were sent to the principal Berlin papers, and were reproduced by them. They caused a general sensation, and excited much discussion and comment, favourable and otherwise, even in the foreign press. This first article ran:-- “The Resignation of the Imperial Chancellor. “Berlin, _April 7th_. “The following sets forth the present position of affairs in the Wilhelmstrasse. It is not possible to say whether it will be the same when your next issue leaves the press a week hence, as it lies solely with the highest authority in the land to modify it. “The only point that is quite certain is that it is not a question of a longer or shorter leave of absence of our Imperial Chancellor, but rather of his actual retirement from the chief control both of Imperial and Prussian affairs, of a resignation of all his offices which has long been under consideration by the Prince, and has finally been tendered in unmistakable terms. All other accounts of the affair are mere myths and baseless conjectures. The Imperial Chancellor leaves, not, as people say, for a longer holiday than usual, not for a year, but for ever. The only hope, therefore, is that the cause of this decision may yet be removed.