Berlin, December 18, ’81.

I must tell you of an extraordinary dream I had last night, which was as clear as I now relate it.

The Reichstag met for the first time after the present recess.  On Count Eulenburg’s entrance the discussion abruptly ceased; after a long interval the President called on the last speaker to continue the debate.  Silence!  The President thereupon declared the sitting adjourned.  This was the signal for great tumult and clamor.  No order, it was urged, should be bestowed on any member during the session of the Reichstag; the Monarch may not be mentioned during the session.  The House adjourns till tomorrow.  Eulenburg’s appearance in the Chamber is again greeted with hisses and commotion—­and then I awoke in such a state of nervous excitement that it was long before I recovered, and I could not sleep from half-past four to half-past six.  All this happened in the House in my presence, as clearly as I have written it down.

I will not hope that the dream will be realized, but it is certainly peculiar.  I dreamt it after six hours of quiet sleep, so it could not have been directly produced by our conversation.

Enfin, I could not but tell you of this curious occurrence.

Your

WILHELM.

* * * * *

BISMARCK TO EMPEROR WILLIAM I.

Berlin, December 18, ’81.

I thank your Majesty most respectfully for the gracious letter.  I quite believe that the dream owed its origin, not exactly to my report, but to the general impression obtained during the last few days from Puttkamer’s[25] oral report, the newspaper articles, and my report.  The pictures we have in our minds when awake do not reappear in the mirror of our dreams until our mental faculties have been well rested by sleep.  Your Majesty’s communication encourages me to relate a dream I had in the troublous days of the spring of 1863.  I dreamt, and I told my dream at once to my wife and to others the next morning, that I was riding along a narrow Alpine path, to the right an abyss, and to the left rocks; the path became narrower and narrower, until at last my horse refused to take another step, and there was no room either to turn or to dismount.  I then struck the smooth rocky wall with my riding whip in my left hand, and invoked God; the whip became interminably long, and the wall of rock collapsed like a scene in the theatre, opening up a wide pathway, with a view over hills and forests such as one sees in Bohemia.  I also caught sight of Prussian troops, with their banners, and, still in my dreams, wondered how I could best report this Quickly to your Majesty.  This dream was realized, and I awoke from it glad and strengthened.

[Illustration:  FRANZ VON LENBACH EMPEROR WILLIAM I]