Baron Manteuffel met at Warsaw with very considerable readiness to make advances, in the sincerity and permanence of which however, after all that has passed, I cannot place any confidence. I am not as yet aware whether the meeting which is to take place to-day at Alexandrowo, was suggested by him or by the Russians. The objections on this side against a meeting on Russian soil have been disposed of by a reference to the difficulty of taking with equal promptitude outside of Russia the necessary precautions for the safety of the Emperor Alexander. So far as I know this meeting takes place to-day, our Emperor being accompanied by an aide-de-camp. According to a report of Minister von Bülow it is mainly inspired by a desire to obtain from the Emperor Alexander an explanation of his threatening attitude. Before this has taken place I cannot expect an answer to my report, which was first communicated to the Emperor on the 2nd, and to which I have up to the present only received a telegraphic reply through Bülow. From Bülow’s telegram, however, it appears that even now the Emperor approves of my re-opening at Vienna the conferences with you, upon which I have already reported to him (--At first he was opposed even to Bismarck’s returning home by way of Vienna--), but that nothing must be settled without his approval. Of course that goes without saying and you will not be impatient if my master requires before coming to a decision the time which his years, his habits, and the novelty of the outlook demand. There is also a further circumstance which indeed is favourable to our plans, namely that H.R.H. the Crown Prince was consulted, and therefore that an exchange of ideas must have taken place between the exalted gentlemen. From my experience of my Sovereign for years past I had hardly hoped that, within twenty-four hours after taking cognisance for the first time of such a comprehensive and novel statement of the situation, he would without more ado agree to the continuation of our conferences. As I shall not remain inactive in the meantime I hope before I leave Gastein to obtain fuller powers. Like you, every day’s further consideration confirms my conviction of the usefulness and necessity of the work which we have undertaken, and I trust God will grant us to secure for our two great States the guarantee of external and internal peace towards which our efforts are directed. I have considered it my duty to inform you of the stage at which I have arrived in my work, and I shall continue to do so as soon as I receive the more detailed expression of my master’s views which has been promised. Should his Majesty commit this to paper at Königsberg on the 4th it would come to my hands on the 7th or at latest the 8th instant. I was greatly tempted after your departure to go personally to Berlin in order to plead our cause verbally, but the state of my health and strength was too indifferent to permit of such a strain.