286 Humboldt's Letters. 



ise. 



HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. 



BERLIN, THURSDAY NIGHT -from the 13th to 



the llth of April, 1854. 



RECEIVE, noble friend, my most heartfelt thanks, you 

 and the amiable confidant of the " demons." * The 

 King is now invisible to me, on account of the spiritual 

 preparations, and on Monday he goes to Potsdam for 

 five or six days, on account of military afiairs ; but a 

 very warm letter, written by me, will be in his hands 

 to-morrow, at eight o'clock, in Charlottenburg.f Thus 

 we have at least done our duty faithfully* I am fast 

 becoming the responsible minister of the Conservatives; 

 for three days ago I asked the fourth minimum of the 

 red birdj for a man who has conserved his real estate 

 for one hundred and fifty years, for Bouche, a gar- 

 dener, an adopted son from the Champagne. It is a 

 great joy to me that my introduction, which has only 



* Bettina. 



f Informing that on the 17th is the golden wedding of Savigny. 

 f The Prussian order of the Red Eagle. 



Ludwig von Gerlach, in the Second Chamber, had called the 

 representative Bethmann-Hollweg an adopted son of Prussia. 



