to make a considerable understatement, that this person
who calls himself Benjamin Bathurst is any such envoy, and we do
not think that it would be any service to the government of His
Britannic Majesty to allow an impostor to travel about Europe in
the guise of a British diplomatic representative. We certainly
should not thank the government of His Britannic Majesty for
failing to take steps to deal with some person who, in England,
might falsely represent himself to be a Prussian diplomat.

This affair touches us as closely as it does your own government;
this man had in his possession a letter of safe-conduct, which
you will find in the accompanying dispatch case. It is of the
regular form, as issued by this Chancellery, and is sealed with
the Chancellery seal, or with a very exact counterfeit of it.
However, it has been signed, as Chancellor of Prussia, with a
signature indistinguishable from that of the Baron Stein, who is
the present Prussian Minister of Agriculture. Baron Stein was
shown the signature, with the rest of the letter covered, and
without hesitation acknowledged it for his own writing. However,
when the letter was uncovered and shown to him, his surprise and
horror were such as would require the pen of a Goethe or a
Schiller to describe, and he denied categorically ever having
seen the document before.

I have no choice but to believe him. It is impossible to think
that a man of Baron Stein's honorable and serious character would
be party to the fabrication of a paper of this sort. Even aside
from this, I am in the thing as deeply as he; if it is signed
with his signature, it is also sealed with my seal, which has not
been out of my personal keeping in the ten years that I have been
Chancellor here. In fact, the word "impossible" can be used to
describe the entire business. It was impossible for the man
Benjamin Bathurst to have entered the inn yard--yet he did. It
was impossible that he should carry papers of the sort found in
his dispatch case, or that such papers should exist--yet I am
sending them to you with this letter. It is impossible that Baron
von Stein should sign a paper of the sort he did, or that it
should be sealed by the Chancellery--yet it bears both Stein's
signature and my seal.

You will also find in the dispatch case other credentials,
ostensibly originating with the British Foreign Office, of the
same character, being signed by persons having no connection with
the Foreign