I sent him a long jocular epistle congratulating him on his birthday on the 25th of October. But I received no answer for over seven weeks, and was already worrying myself with all sorts of fancies, when on the morning of the 22nd of December he himself called upon me. He told me that physically the Prince was in excellent health, and, as it appeared, took exercise, had a good appetite, and at table drank rather too much than too little, and besides he no longer complained of insomnia. Mentally, however, and in particular so far as his memory is concerned, “he is falling to pieces.” By this Bucher meant that he could no longer concentrate his thoughts sufficiently, had no longer a firm hold of the details in a narrative, and was easily turned aside from his subject. He also tells a story one way to-day, and quite differently to-morrow. “He wished me to go to Friedrichsruh for Christmas, but they gave me to understand--and indeed very plainly--that that would not be agreeable to them; and so I am my own master for a couple of weeks.” “Urged by Schweninger he has at length decided to dictate his reminiscences to me for an hour daily, when I take them down in shorthand. But they are merely disconnected fragments, and contain many errors, particularly in the matter of dates. For instance, there were some very interesting particulars respecting 1848, but they must first be compared with Wolf’s ‘Chronik’ and corrected. Chrysander is making himself very useful, also in his capacity of doctor, and has, for instance, done me good service with my gout. The Prince has ascertained on good authority that Lindau has been to the _Korrespondenten_ (or the _Nachrichten_) in Hamburg, and the _Allgemeine Zeitung_ in Munich, setting them against his old Chief and patron, and ‘threatening’ the latter paper with disciplinary measures if it continued to take the Chancellor’s part. The Princess’s ‘dear Rudchen,’ who for other people is a shameless Judas! Kayser, his countryman from the East, who is indeed less of a stock jobber and less worthless for official purposes, was recommended to the Foreign Office by Herbert, while Raschdau, also one of the children of Israel, who has married a millionairess of his tribe, was--if I understood Bucher rightly--introduced by Bill. (...) I asked what the Prince thought of Caprivi. He only knew that the Chief had had an interview with his successor (doubtless while he was still in Berlin--at lunch), when Caprivi said that if the Emperor sent him with an army corps into a position where its destruction might be anticipated, he would remonstrate; if the order were then repeated, he would remain at his post and await events. Bucher feared that nothing would come of the projected autobiography. ‘He has indeed dictated quite a pile of notes, which of course include a great deal of new and valuable matter; but his account is not always reliable, and in particular he often believes that he said or did something which he ought to