whom the Emperor had brought over with him from Berlin, knocked loudly
at the door and came into my bedroom, and said that he had a message
from the Emperor. It was that he did mean what he had said the night
before. I at once got up and caught a train for London. There I saw the
Foreign Secretary, who, after taking time to think things over, gave me
a memorandum he had drawn up. The substance of it was that the British
Government would be very glad to discuss the Emperor's suggestion, but
that it would be necessary, before making a settlement, to bring into
the discussion France and Russia, whose interests also were involved. I
was requested to sound the Emperor further.

After telling King Edward of what was happening, I had another
conversation in Windsor Castle with the Emperor, who said that he feared
that the bringing in of Russia particularly, not to speak of France,
would cause difficulty; but he asked me to come that night, after a
performance that was to take place in the Castle theater had ended, to
his apartments, to a meeting to which he would summon the Ministers he
had brought with him. He took the memorandum which I had brought from
London, a copy of which I had made for him in my own handwriting, so as
to present it as the informal document it was intended to be. Just
before dinner Baron von Schoen spoke to me, and told me that he had
heard from the Emperor what had happened, and that the Emperor was wrong
in thinking that the attempt to bring in Russia would lead to
difficulty, because he, Baron von Schoen, when he was Ambassador to
Russia, had already discussed the general question with its Government,
and had virtually come to an understanding. At the meeting that night we
could therefore go on to negotiate.

I attended the Emperor in his state rooms at the Castle at one o'clock
in the morning, and sat smoking with him and his Ministers for over two
hours. His Foreign Minister and Count Metternich and the War Minister,
von Einem, were present. I said that I felt myself an intruder, because
it was very much like being present at a sitting of his Cabinet. He
replied, "Be a member of my Cabinet for the evening." I said that I was
quite agreeable.

They then engaged in a very animated conversation, some of them
challenging the proposal of the Emperor to accept the British
suggestions, with an outspokenness which would have astonished the
outside world, with its notions of Teutonic autocracy. Count Met