On the morning of Friday, the 2nd of November, I read, sorted, and numbered new documents, which were afterwards put into a fresh envelope. Among these was the announcement of March, 1877, by the Emperor William, that he had appointed Bismarck Hereditary Grand Huntsman of Pomerania, reports respecting the illness of the Crown Prince, afterwards Emperor Frederick, from San Remo, Charlottenburg, and Potsdam, a letter from the Emperor William II. to Bismarck, transferring him to the second regiment of Guards, a telegram from the same, dated October 21, 1888, expressing his satisfaction at his journey to South Germany, Vienna, and Rome, whence he had just returned, and his thanks for the Chief’s counsels, which had been justified by his experience while away, and, finally, the letter already alluded to from the Empress Augusta. Nothing of importance among them. At midday, before lunch, I personally handed over to the Chief the envelopes containing the papers. He appeared to have looked through them in the afternoon, as, when he was passing by in the evening, before dinner, as usual, with his two dogs, he gave me his hand and thanked me, expressing his surprise that I had been able to deal with such a mass of letters and papers in so short a time. I said if he wished to have those at Varzin also arranged, and could find no more suitable person to do it, I should be glad if he would let me know when he was next going to his estate in Further Pomerania, so that I might come there and complete my task. I should be delighted to serve him and learn something for myself at the same time. Rottenburg was absent from dinner. He had gone to Hamburg to meet some relatives. During dinner there was some talk of a Herr von Bülow, who had been the Chief’s guest at lunch. I ascertained that in this gentleman I had had before me the famous leader of the Lauenburg nobility, to whom Bismarck had clearly explained his standpoint, first on the Ratzeburg Lake, and again on taking the oath of allegiance in the church there. He is much more harmless than I had fancied him. The Chief said: “I should have invited him to remain to dinner, and he doubtless expected it, but he is so tedious that I did not know what to do with him during the five hours before dinner.” Then, after referring to the letters of the Crown Prince in 1863, which I had arranged, and to his own pencil notes, he came to speak of the Crown Prince himself. I said: “Absalom! And from what you wrote on the back you doubtless wrote him in reply that you did not intend to be ever included among his Ministers.” “Yes,” he rejoined, and the quotation _Leicht fertig ist die Jugend mit dem Wort_! (Youth is hasty in its judgments). He then gave a survey of the various phases of the Crown Prince’s attitude towards himself in the course of his life. “First, in 1848 or 1849. At that time he was still very thin and lanky. He showed great attachment to me, and, when they forbade him to do so