I ought, perhaps, to have now tendered my resignation. Certain considerations, however, prevented my doing so for some time. There was still something for me to learn, and I soon observed that I could yet do good service. It was also conceivable that my old relations with the Prince might be restored, as a man of Aegidi’s character, with his self-seeking, mercurial exuberance of zeal, and his almost Jewish vanity, would sooner or later render himself impossible. I therefore remained, and fell in with the wish of the Councillor to “enter into friendly relations with him,” so far as that was possible. Subsequently, however, when he attempted to give me instructions, as a kind of superior, I once and for all entered an energetic protest against such presumption, and declared that I could only carry out such instructions as he could assure me were the direct expression of the Chief’s desire, thus taking up a position towards him, not of subordination, but of equality. I did well in deciding to remain yet a while. I learnt a great deal more, as I still had access to the documents received and despatched, and became more and more intimate with Bucher. The hoped-for opportunities of serving the Chief at the same time as the representative of Keudell’s interests, and without his knowledge, occurred more frequently than I had expected, although my personal intercourse with the Chief was not renewed for the time being. CHAPTER III THE LAST TWENTY MONTHS IN THE FOREIGN OFFICE--DOCUMENTS RECEIVED AND DESPATCHED _July 28th._--Count W. recently sent papers marked “Contracts,” adding, “these have been fetched on the instructions of Herr von Düring, and are intended for Herr von Meding in Thun.” I suspected immediately that the gentleman referred to was the ex-Government Councillor Meding, formerly in charge of press affairs under the Guelphs at Hanover, the patron of the _Situation_ in Paris, who had now given up the cause of George V. in consideration of a respectable _douceur_, or a pension from the Guelph Fund. I thought to myself that it is doubtless to him and to his comrades that v. R. referred when he inquired the other day whether he should pay their money to the Hanoverians in Thun.