MEN I HAVE PAINTED
sittings for a portrait only once. At the time of the occupation of Paris by the German troops, the American ambassador, Mr. Washburne, had done some service to the Germans which required the recognition of the Emperor. Bismarck was instructed to offer a decoration to Mr. Washburne, but the ambassador told him that members of the American Diplomatic Corps were prohibited from accepting decorations from other governments. "But we must do something for you: what shall it be? What would you like?" "I should like better than anything else your portrait painted by my friend Mr. Healy," answered the ambassador.
"I was obliged to victimize myself, and sit to Mr. Healy," and continuing, he described his many visits to Lenbach, with whom he was on terms of intimate friendship, and said that he had never given Lenbach any sittings for the numerous portraits that had been made by that painter. It is possible that Lenbach may have sketched him frequently, but that was all.
When breakfast was finished, the Princess said quietly to me, "If it will be of any use to you, the Prince will read the newspaper while he smokes, and you may sketch him." I do not know if this had been prearranged between them, or whether it was not an impromptu expression of a gentle will whose veiled commands could not be disobeyed.
Bismarck was a fluent conversationalist. His English was pungent and forcible, and when speaking of his great boarhound he did not hesitate, even before the ladies, to use a language that was interlarded with the technical and realistic jargon of the kennels.
The doctors for the time being had restricted him to a
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