On Stuergkh mentioning my name as a candidate for the Herrenhaus, the Emperor hesitated a moment and then said: "Ah, yes.

That is the man who is to be Minister for Foreign Affairs when I am dead.

Let him go to the Herrenhaus that he may learn a little more." Political discussions with the Emperor Francis Joseph were often very difficult, as he kept strictly to the Government department in question and only discussed what referred thereto.

While I was ambassador the Emperor would discourse to me on Roumania and the Balkans, but on nothing else.

Meanwhile, the different questions were often so closely interwoven that it was impossible to separate them.