194 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE XVII 



me and mine, but there is nothing to be here chronicled 

 save that in this, as in previous trials, I took refuge in 

 work which seemed to be worthy. The diplomatic service 

 in summer is not usually exacting, especially when one 

 has, as I had, thoroughly loyal and judicious embassy sec 

 retaries. As in a former bereavement I had turned to 

 a study of the character and services of John of Portugal 

 and his great successors in the age of discovery, so now 

 I turned to Fra Paolo Sarpi and the good fight he fought 

 for Venice and humanity. To my large collection of 

 books on the subject, made mainly in Italy, I added 

 much from the old book-shops of Germany, and with 

 these revised my Venetian studies. An old dream of 

 mine had been to bring out a small book on Fra Paolo: 

 now I sought, more modestly, to prepare an essay. 1 The 

 work was good for me. Contemplation of that noblest of 

 the three great Italians between the Renaissance and the 

 Resurrection of Italy did something to lift me above sor 

 row; reading his words, uttered so calmly in all the 

 storm and stress of his time, soothed me. Viewed from 

 my work-table on the island of Riigen, the world became 

 less dark as I thought upon this hero of three centuries 

 ago. 



Then came the death of the Empress Frederick. Even 

 during her tragic struggle with Bismarck, and the unpop 

 ularity which beset her during my former official term at 

 Berlin, she had been kind to me and mine. At my presen 

 tation to her in those days, at Potsdam, when she stood by 

 the side of her husband, afterward the most beloved of 

 emperors since Marcus Aurelius, she evidently exerted 

 herself to make the interview pleasant to me. She talked 

 of American art and the Colorado pictures of Moran, 

 which she had seen and admired ; of German art and the 

 Madonna painted by Knaus for the Russian Empress, 

 which Miss Wolfe had given the Metropolitan Museum 

 at New York ; and in reply to my congratulations upon a 



1 This essay has since been published in the &quot; Atlantic Monthly&quot; 

 of January and February, 1904. 



