On his rising from table to go to his study, I followed him outside in order to tell him privately that I had found some passages in my diary which might be of interest to him, mentioning in particular Fleming’s despatch on Mohl’s report. He said he would like to see them in the afternoon, and would send for me for the purpose. “I must now answer Augusta, who has once more administered to me one of her gracious Model Letter-Writer epistles.” Later on, when I brought him the diary with the passages of interest marked, he praised Mohl’s description of the relations of parties in Bavaria as apt and accurate. On my saying that it would doubtless have been in the hands of the Grand Duke of Baden three months before the differences at Versailles, and that he would certainly have communicated its contents to the Crown Prince, he answered in a tone of contempt: “Ah, that is mere talk on his part. He never took anything seriously, or studied it thoroughly. Do you really think that they were seriously concerned, to read despatches, and to think over and note the contents of reports? They just met in order to smoke and exchange ill-natured gossip.” He then related once more: “It was before the conference at Donchery when he spoke of using force against the Bavarians, and of eventually shooting down the two army corps if necessary. I said to him that would be an act of unheard-of treachery, which a Prince might decide upon, but which no gentleman could perform. That would be a course similar to Gero’s, in his treatment of the thirty Wendish Princes, a perfidy which had such fatal consequences for the whole Ostmark.” On this occasion he also repeated his plan of campaign with regard to the publication in the _Rundschau_: “First assert it to be a forgery, and express indignation at such a calumny upon the noble dead. Then, when they prove it to be genuine, refute the errors and foolish ideas which it contains, but cautiously, and bearing in mind that he was Emperor and father to the present Emperor.” He then exclaimed suddenly: “Well, he is gone! Made off with himself, with the Public Prosecutor at his heels. Geffcken, I mean, who published it, and who for the matter of that is no Democrat, but a Particularist.” I mentioned to him that, during the latter half of the fifties, Geffcken, under the _nom de plume_ of “Victor,” had, as a friend of Freytag’s and a petty diplomat of the sniffing and spying order, supplied the _Grenzboten_ with Opposition gossip inspired by the Crown Prince and the Coburg clique; that he was afterwards a diligent promoter of the Augustenburger’s cause, but that in 1877, as pointed out in the “Friction” articles, his place-hunting propensities had been recognised at Karlsruhe. I then asked whether he had read _Hofrath_ Schneider’s posthumous work on the Emperor William, and added, “he did not appear to be well disposed towards you.” “Certainly not,” he rejoined; “and he had good reason for it. He hated me because I had