Wednesday, May 26:
Hermine off on a visit to her parents. I in earnest conclave with R. in the morning about what to do with the elder children in the coming days. Resolved to keep them with me and to put up with serious reproaches rather than interrupt their upbringing now and expose them to instability.
R. kneels down before me and says he has no other thought but to make himself worthy of me! In the morning and afternoon instructed the children, also went with them to their piano lesson, when I saw Count B[assenheim] and old Prince Wallerstein.
Discussed the elections in Bavaria; they have turned out in favor of the Catholics, and the party is utterly jubilant. The King has thanked them in writing for the loyal attitude they have shown! Quite definitely Bavaria's downfall is impending, and it is the result of an alliance, manipulated by the priests, between Austria, France, and South Germany against Prussia. In all truth a very wretched state of affairs. The elections in Paris have gone decisively in the direction of the radicals.
Returning home with the children, I met R., who has written to the King. The news of the King's expression of gratitude grieves him deeply; it is too humiliating. In the evening Don Quixote. I, very tired, to bed at 9 o'clock, with the children.