_Monday, March 23rd._--(...) I had waited yesterday in vain to see the Chief on his return from lunch to his study, in order to remind him of the documents which I was to take with me. To-day, after lunch, I called upon him in his own room for this purpose. I apologised for disturbing him, but, as I intended to leave to-morrow, I thought it was of importance to him that I should take the papers with me. “So it is,” he rejoined, “and it is well that you have reminded me of it while I am alone. But why are you going away so soon?” “I do not wish to be any longer a burden to you, Serene Highness.” “But you are nothing of the kind. On the contrary, I am glad to see such a faithful old comrade of the war time; and, moreover, you are so quiet that you disturb no one.” We then agreed that I should remain for a few days longer, and remind him of the papers once more later on. (...) During the day workmen were engaged unpacking large cases of silver plate--a valuable treasure which German manufacturers had presented to the Prince as a token of their esteem. At dinner the old gentleman, who still remains the same lover of nature and of animals, had a great deal to tell about the starlings, for whom he had had a few dozen small wooden shelters put up in the trees behind the house. “They held a public meeting to-day,” he said, “probably in connection with the approach of spring. As I was going for my walk I first saw seven of them sitting together in one place and making music. Shortly after their numbers increased, and finally there were thirty of them sitting together, wing to wing.” He then cast a glance at the grey bull-dog waltzing round the room, and observed, “That reminds me of the funeral honours paid to Windthorst. I should never have thought of getting him (the dog), but the Emperor presented him to me. If it had not been for the Emperor’s intervention at the beginning, they would never have made such a fuss about Windthorst.” After dinner the conversation turned on newspaper tattle, as, for instance, that he had sent twelve cases full of important papers to an English bank to keep for him. “Twelve!” he exclaimed, smiling, “I wish I had even one such case full.” The gossips of the press also reported that he had recently purchased a house in Berlin, such and such a number in the Königgrätzerstrasse--better informed authorities had it that it was two houses--at a very high price. From this he went on to say that they once assessed the rent of his palace (the Palais Radziwill) in the Wilhelmstrasse (for the inhabited house duty) at 50,000 marks. On his remonstrating, they replied that the English Ambassador had assessed his own house, which was not so large, at as high a figure.