Moreover, experience has taught me that in explaining important and difficult matters to my master I attain my object, not more rapidly, it is true, but more certainly, by writing than in verbal intercourse, as, in the latter, difficulties occasionally arise which have no real connection with the matter under consideration. I hope to complete my cure here by the 15th or 16th, and to be then once more equal to the demands of the coming winter. Trusting that we shall soon meet again, I remain, with friendly and cordial respect, “Your most devoted, “Bismarck.” Stolberg writes to Bismarck from Berlin on the 17th of September: “In continuation of my official communication of to-day, I have the honour dutifully to inform your Serene Highness of the following. As the Emperor was almost on the point of giving his approval he suddenly became embarrassed, and said there was still another obstacle, which he had mentioned to you in his last letter, and which obliged him to attach importance to the exclusion of every possibility of our being placed under an obligation to support Austria in a war of aggression against Russia. After some hesitation his Majesty made me pledge my word that, with the exception of your Serene Highness, I would speak to no one on the subject, and then referred to an understanding entered into by the two Emperors at St. Petersburg in 1873 (with your previous knowledge, but without your counter-signature), by which each was bound to render assistance to the other in certain circumstances. This has obviously been the chief stumbling-block, and has given rise to the notion of treachery towards the Emperor Alexander to which Herr von Bülow alluded from Stettin. Although this statement was too vague for me, in ignorance of the matter in question, to thoroughly appreciate the weight of the objection, I considered it my duty, in view of the approaching decision, to seize hold of the statement made by the Emperor, namely, that if the possibility above mentioned were excluded, his objection would cease, and therefore to propose the addition. “Although this objection would be thus obviated, his Majesty nevertheless wishes to hear what your Serene Highness has to say upon that point, and desires me to inform you to that effect. After giving his sanction the Emperor was somewhat affected, and told me that this decision had cost him a great effort. He believed, however, that he ought to follow the advice of a tried counsellor like your Serene Highness.--I am, with the profoundest respect, &c.” Stolberg’s suggested addition ran as follows:--