to the office of the paper I have mentioned, with the request that the
editor, after reading my testimonials and inspecting my work, would add
a few confirmatory words as to my qualifications. Work and testimonials
alike were to the satisfaction of the editor, and my request for an
editorial comment was granted. I received several offers, each one
containing something tempting about it. It was difficult to make a
choice, but at last I decided to accept a position offered me as private
secretary to the President and Privy-Councillor Von Dewitz, of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz, at this time resident on one of his estates,
Gross-Milchow.

Amongst the other offers was one from Privy-Councillor Von Voldersdorf,
who was looking out for an accountant for his estates in the
Oberpfalz.[28] This situation did not suit me so well as the other, but
I accepted a proposition to fill up the time till the arrangements for
the other post had been completed, by going down to these estates of
Herr Von Voldersdorf, and bringing into order, according to a certain
specified plan, the heavy accounts of his steward, which were at this
time much in arrear. I set off for the Oberpfalz in the first days of
1804. But I was soon called away to Mecklenburg to the situation at
Gross-Milchow which I had definitively chosen, and in the raw,
frightfully severe winter-time of February I journeyed thither by the
mail-coach. Yet, short as had been my stay in the Oberpfalz, and
continual and uninterrupted as had been my labour in order that I might
get through the work I had undertaken, the time I spent in Bavaria
yielded me much that was instructive. The men, ingenuous, lively young
fellows from Saxony and Prussia, received me very kindly, and the
variety of their different services and their readiness to talk about
them, gave me a good insight into the inner relationship between the
landed aristocracy and their retainers. In recalling these circumstances