I returned to my hotel at 3 o’clock. Leverstroem and his black horse were standing at the door. He handed me a card from Bucher, with the words: “The Prince expects you at 4 o’clock.” I hastily donned evening dress and white gloves, and, jumping into a cab, drove to 76 Wilhelmstrasse. Then upstairs and through the old familiar rooms. I had to wait about five minutes in the billiard-room, where the billiard table was quite covered with huge bouquets of flowers. Then into his chamber. He came forward a few paces to meet me with a most friendly smile, shook hands, and said he was glad to see his “old war comrade” once more. I had then to take a seat opposite him, while he sat with his back to the first window. Our conversation lasted till 5.30, that is to say, nearly an hour and a half. He first thanked me for the _Grenzboten_ article, and then said: “It would be well, however, if such communications were repeated, and the origin of the crisis discussed at length.” I replied: “That is my chief reason for coming here--to get materials and information for such articles. The more I get the better. The _Grenzboten_ is absolutely and unconditionally at the disposal of your Serene Highness.” He then gave me various particulars concerning the Court clique and its aristocratic followers in the _Kreuzzeitung_, and among the high officials who had been shelved as well as others who were still in office, and their manifold machinations, intrigues and cabals against him, at the same time giving me an account of his own measures. He drew a detailed picture of the Empress, who opposed him not only in his struggle with the Clericals, but also in purely political questions. “She has always desired to play a part,” he said, “first with the Liberals and the friends of enlightenment, now with the Ultramontanes and the orthodox Court preachers. She has become pious now that she is growing old, and has in consequence taken up with the Clerical circles on the Rhine. If she is not already a Catholic, she will be so very soon. We know that she has negotiated with Mermillod in person, and formerly--during the war--with Dupanloup by letter. She has written to Catholic associations that she disapproves of the ecclesiastical laws, and these letters have been published. And then the defence of the Ursulines. Like Eugen, _i.e._, in 1870, she has, as I subsequently ascertained, issued direct instructions to officials. The Emperor is old, and allows himself to be influenced by her more and more. He has never had that strength of character with which many people credit him. I remember in the period of conflict when things were at the worst that he returned once from a summer resort, where his wife had been frightening him about the Opposition. I went to meet him at Jueterbogk, joining him there in his carriage. He was very depressed, was thinking of the scaffold, and wanted to abdicate. I told him I did not believe things were so bad.