n sent out one of the first to reconnoitre,
and discovered, a couple of miles off, at Fresnoi's, a little chateau
with a park. Thither I conducted him, with an escort of the Cuirassier
body-guards, which was meanwhile brought up, and there we concluded
the capitulation with Wimpfen, the French general-in-chief. By its
terms, from forty to sixty thousand French--I do not yet know the
number more exactly--became our prisoners, with everything they
have. The two receding days cost France one hundred thousand men and
an emperor. He started early this morning, with all his court, horses,
and wagons, for Wilhelmshoehe, at Cassel.

It is an event in universal history, a triumph for which we will thank
God the Lord in humility, and which is decisive of the war, even
though we must continue to prosecute it against headless France.

I must close. With heartfelt joy I have learned today, from your
letter and Marie's, of Herbert's reaching you. I met Bill yesterday,
as I telegraphed you, and took him to my arms from his horse before
the King's face, while he stood with his limbs rigid. He is entirely
well and in high spirits. Hans and Fritz Carl and both the Billows I
saw with the Second Dragoon guards, well and cheerful.

Farewell, my heart. Kiss the children.

Your v.B.

Gastein, August 30, '71.

Happy the man to whom God has given a virtuous wife, who writes him
every day. I am delighted that you are well, and that you have come to
be three, to whom I hope to add myself as fourth on the 7th or
8th. * * * You see I have enough mental leisure here to devote myself to
the unaccustomed work of making plans; but all on the presupposition
that the excited Gauls do not worry my little friend Thiers to death, for
then I should have to stay with his Majesty and watch which way the
hare runs. I do not think that likely, but with such a stupid nation
as they are anything is possible. Hearty love to both fat children.

Your most faithful v.B.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: From _The Love Letters of Bismarck_. Permission Harper &
Brothers, New York.]

[Footnote 3: This note has been lost.]

[Footnote 4: In subsequent letters he speaks of her "blue gray-black
eyes."]

[Footnote 5: Inspector at Schoenhausen.]

[Footnote 6: Compare the enclosure, in which I used often to find the
expression of my inmost thought. Now, never any more. (Enclosed was a
copy of Byron's poem, "To Inez.")]

[Footnote 7: Frauelein von Blumenthal, afte