Let us suppose that the stranger is in a position to satisfy this strict, though polite, janitor as to his right to visit all the mysterious chambers behind the screen (which, by the way, Prince Napoleon on his visit to Bismarck is understood not to have been able to do without some delay), and let us further suppose that our stroll through the building takes place in one of the three years from February, 1870, to March, 1873. These are among the most important years of the last decades; and since then, as already indicated, alterations have been made both in the arrangement of the rooms and in the _personnel_ employed there. Finally, it may perhaps be well to remember before entering, and to bear constantly in mind, that this is not the office of the Imperial Chancellor--a misunderstanding which to my knowledge was formerly very frequent, and which may occur occasionally even now; but the Foreign Office, or, to be still more precise, the first or political department of the Foreign Office, which works immediately under the control of the Imperial Chancellor. The Imperial Chancellerie, properly so called, is now located in the palatial building, Nos. 1 and 2 Wilhelmsplatz; while during the period here referred to it was also rather poorly housed. The Imperial Chancellerie, which is to a certain extent the Ministry of the Interior for Germany, at that time under the control of Herr Delbrück, was, and is, both actually and for purposes of business, about as distinct from the Foreign Office as is the Ministry of War and the Admiralty.