I am to go and dine at Babelsberg with the Princess of Prussia. She is to be so kind as to take me in the evening to Sans Souci, where the King told me to come and hear Madame Viardot Garcia quite privately.
_Berlin, October 18, 1843._--The little concert at Sans Souci was very agreeable. Madame Viardot sang very well and was very attractive in spite of her plainness. She has just started for St. Petersburg.
I informed the King that the treaty between my nephew and myself had been concluded. He was extremely gracious upon this occasion and seems to me to have abandoned all his prejudices in favour of the elder branch of my family.[111] I was really touched by his kindness. Yesterday I had a long conference with the Prince of Wittgenstein who has to deal with all questions touching the crown fiefs, as chief minister of the King's household.
_Sagan, October 28, 1843._--The Duchesse Mathieu de Montmorency writes complaining of obstinate bronchitis; I should be sorry if she were to die, for I should lose in her a Christian friend; she and Mgr. de Quélen taught me what a friendship could be that was always equable and kind, in which self-love played no part, for they are friends not merely for time but for eternity. To-day I have also a letter from M. Royer-Collard. His handwriting is greatly altered: I feel that my happiness is threatened in the person of my best friends, and since M. de Talleyrand's death I have been terribly tried in this respect.
Sagan, which I am examining in detail, is a town of seven thousand people with six churches, five of which are Catholic and all of which are interesting: there are also several charitable foundations in the town founded by the Dukes at different times; some are six hundred years old and were founded by the Dukes of the house of Piast.[112] It is touching to see these works still standing when all purely secular monuments so rapidly decay. I have been received here with marks of great attention. For four years everything has been left in a state of utter abandonment and even longer than that, for my sister had moved to Italy and took no interest in her estates.
[112] The Polish dynasty founded by Piast, which proceeded from 842-1370. A branch of the Piast family retained the Duchy of Silesia until 1675.