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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Secrets of Potsdam, by William Le Queux
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Secrets of Potsdam
+
+Author: William Le Queux
+
+Release Date: November 11, 2010 [EBook #34278]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECRETS OF POTSDAM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Moti Ben-Ari and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SECRETS OF POTSDAM
+
+
+
+
+_First impression, March, 1917.
+Second impression, March, 1917._
+
+
+
+
+THE
+Secrets of Potsdam
+
+_A STARTLING EXPOSURE OF THE INNER LIFE
+OF THE COURTS OF THE KAISER
+AND CROWN-PRINCE_
+
+REVEALED FOR THE FIRST TIME
+by
+COUNT ERNST VON HELTZENDORFF
+
+_Commander of the Order of the Black Eagle, &c.
+Late Personal-Adjutant to the German Crown-Prince_
+
+
+CHRONICLED BY
+WILLIAM LE QUEUX
+
+LONDON:
+LONDON MAIL LTD.
+39, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN. W.C.
+
+
+
+
+_Copyright in the United States of America by
+William Le Queux, 1917
+Translation and Cinema Rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+_"Veneux Nadon,
+"par Moret-sur-Loing
+"(Seine-et-Marne).
+"February 10th, 1917._
+
+
+"MY DEAR LE QUEUX,
+
+"_I have just finished reading the proofs of your book describing my
+life as an official at the Imperial Court at Potsdam, and the two or
+three small errors you made I have duly corrected._
+
+"_The gross scandals and wily intrigues which I have related to you
+were, many of them, known to yourself, for, as the intimate friend of
+Luisa, the Ex-Crown-Princess of Saxony, you were, before the war,
+closely associated with many of those at Court whose names appear in the
+pages of this book._
+
+"_The revelations which I have made, and which you have recorded here,
+are but a tithe of the disclosures which I could make, and if your
+British public desire more, I shall be pleased to furnish you with other
+and even more startling details which you may also put into print._
+
+"_My service as personal-adjutant to the German Crown-Prince is,
+happily, at an end, and now, with the treachery of Germany against
+civilization glaringly revealed, I feel, in my retirement, no
+compunction in exposing all I know concerning the secrets of the Kaiser
+and his profligate son._
+
+"_With most cordial greetings from_
+"_Your sincere friend_,
+"ERNST VON HELTZENDORFF."
+
+
+
+
+The Secrets of Potsdam
+
+SECRET NUMBER ONE
+
+THE TRAGEDY OF THE LEUTENBERGS
+
+
+You will recollect our first meeting on that sunny afternoon when, in
+the stuffy, nauseating atmosphere of perspiration and a hundred Parisian
+perfumes, we sat next each other at the first roulette table on the
+right as you enter the rooms at Monte Carlo?
+
+Ah! how vivid it is still before my eyes, the jingle of gold and the
+monotonous cries of the croupiers.
+
+Ah! my dear friend! In those pre-war days the Riviera--that sea-lapped
+Paradise, with its clear, open sky and sapphire Mediterranean,
+grey-green olives and tall flowering aloes, its gorgeous blossoms, and
+its merry, dark-eyed populace who lived with no thought of the
+morrow--was, indeed, the playground of Europe.
+
+And, let me whisper it, I think I may venture to declare that few of its
+annual habitues enjoyed the life more than your dear old ink-stained
+self.
+
+What brought us together, you, an English novelist, and I a--well, how
+shall I describe myself? One of your enemies--eh? No, dear old fellow.
+Let us sink all our international differences. May I say that I, Count
+Ernst von Heltzendorff, of Schloss Heltzendorff, on the Mosel, late
+personal-adjutant to His Imperial Highness the Crown-Prince, an official
+attached to that precious young scoundrel's immediate person, call you
+my dear friend?
+
+True, our nations are, alas! at war--the war which the Kaiser and his
+son long sought, but which, as you well know, I have long ago detested.
+
+I have repudiated that set of pirates and assassins of whom I was, alas!
+born, and among whom I moved until I learned of the vile plot afoot
+against the peace of Europe and the chastity of its female inhabitants.
+
+On August 5th, 1914, I shook the dust of Berlin from my feet, crossed
+the French frontier, and have since resided in the comfortable
+old-fashioned country house which you assisted me to purchase on the
+border of the lovely forest of Fontainebleau.
+
+And now, you have asked me to reveal to you some of the secrets of
+Potsdam--secrets known to me by reason of my official position before
+the war.
+
+You are persuading me to disclose some facts concerning the public and
+private life of the Emperor, of my Imperial master the Crown-Prince,
+known in his intimate circle as "Willie," and of the handsome but
+long-suffering Cecil Duchess of Mecklenbourg, who married him ten years
+ago and became known as "Cilli." Phew! Poor woman! she has experienced
+ten years of misery, domestic unhappiness, by which she has become
+prematurely aged, deep-eyed, her countenance at times when we talked
+wearing an almost tragic look.
+
+No wonder, indeed, that there is a heavy and, alas! broken heart within
+the beautiful Marble Palace at Potsdam, that splendid residence where
+you once visited me and were afterwards commanded to a reception held by
+His Imperial Highness.
+
+I risk much, I know, in taking up my pen to tell the truth and to make
+these exposures to you, but I do so because I think it only just that
+your British nation should know the true character of the Emperor and
+of the unscrupulous and ubiquitous "Willie," the defiant young
+Blackguard of Europe, who is the idol of the swaggering German Army, and
+upon whom they pin their hopes.
+
+It is true that the Commander of the Death's Head Hussars--the
+"Commander" who has since the war sanctioned the cold-blooded murder of
+women and children, the shooting of prisoners, rapine, incendiarism, and
+every other devil's work that his horde of assassins could commit--once
+declared that "the day will come when Social Democrats will come to
+Court."
+
+True, he has been known to be present at the golden wedding festivities
+of a poor cobbler in Potsdam; that he has picked up in his yellow
+ninety-horse-power car--with its black imp as a mascot--a poor tramp and
+taken him to the hospital; and that he possesses the charming manner of
+his much-worshipped grandfather, the Emperor Frederick. But he is as
+clever and cunning as his criminal father, Wilhehm-der-Ploetzliche
+(William the Sudden) or Der Einzige (The Only), as the Kaiser is called
+by the people of the Palace. He shows with double cunning but one side
+of his character to the misguided German people, the Prussian Junker
+party, and the Tom-Dick-and-Harry of the Empire who have been made
+cannon-fodder and whose bones lie rotting in Flanders and on the Aisne.
+
+Ah, my dear friend, what a strange life was that of the German Court
+before the war--a life of mummery, of gay uniforms, tinsel, gilded
+decorations, black hearts posing as virtuous, and loose people of both
+sexes evilly scandalizing their neighbours and pulling strings which
+caused their puppets to dance to the War-Lord's tune.
+
+I once lifted the veil slightly to you when you stayed at the Palast
+Hotel in Potsdam and came to us at the Marble Palace, and I suppose it
+is for that reason that you ask me to jot down, for the benefit of your
+readers in Great Britain and her Dominions, a few facts concerning the
+plots of the Kaiser and his son--the idol of Germany, the Kronprinz
+"Willie."
+
+What did you think of him when I presented you?
+
+I know how, later on that same night, you remarked upon his height, his
+narrow chest, and his corset-waist, and how strangely his animal eyes
+set slant-wise in his thin, aquiline face, goggle eyes, which dilate so
+strangely when speaking with you, and which yet seem to penetrate your
+innermost thoughts.
+
+I agreed with you when you declared that there was nothing outwardly of
+the typical Hohenzollern in the Imperial Rake. True, one seeks in vain
+for traces of martial virility. Though his face is so often wreathed in
+boyish smiles, yet his heart is as hard as that of the true
+Hohenzollern, while his pretended love of sport is only a clever ruse in
+order to retain the popularity which, by dint of artful pretence, he has
+undoubtedly secured. Indeed, it was because of the All-Highest One's
+jealousy of his reckless yet crafty son's growing popularity that we
+were one day all suddenly packed off to Danzig to be immured for two
+long years in that most dreary and provincial of all garrisons.
+
+Of the peccadilloes of the elegant young blackguard of Europe--who
+became a fully-fledged colonel in the German Army at the age of
+thirty-one--I need say but little. His life has been crammed with
+disgraceful incidents, most of them hushed up at the Kaiser's command,
+though several of them--especially certain occurrences in the Engadine
+in the winter of 1912--reached the ears of the Crown-Princess, who, one
+memorable day, unable to stand her husband's callous treatment,
+threatened seriously to leave him.
+
+Indeed, it was only by the Kaiser's autocratic order that "Cilli"
+remained at the Marmor Palace. She had actually made every preparation
+to leave, a fact which I, having learned it, was compelled to report to
+the Crown-Prince. We were at the Palace in the Zeughaus-Platz, in
+Berlin, at the time, and an hour after I had returned from Potsdam I
+chanced to enter the Crown-Prince's study. The door was a self-locking
+one, and I had a key. On turning my key I drew back, for His Majesty the
+Emperor, a fine figure in the picturesque cavalry uniform of the
+Koenigsjaeger--who had just come from a review, and had no doubt heard of
+the threatened Royal scandal--was standing astride in the room.
+
+"I compel it!" cried the Emperor, pale with rage, his eyes flashing as
+he spoke. "She shall remain! Go to her at once--make your peace with her
+in any way you can--and appear to-night with her at the theatre."
+
+"But I fear it is impossible. I----"
+
+"Have you not heard me?" interrupted the Emperor, disregarding his son's
+protests. And as I discreetly withdrew I heard the Kaiser add: "Cannot
+you, of our House of Hohenzollern, see that we cannot afford to allow
+Cilli to leave us? The present state of the public mind is not
+encouraging, much as I regret it. Remember Frederick August's position
+when that madcap Luisa of Tuscany ran away with the French tutor Giron.
+Now return to Marmor without delay and do as I bid."
+
+"I know Cilli. She will not be appeased. Of that I am convinced,"
+declared the young man.
+
+"It is my will--the will of the Emperor," were the last words I heard,
+spoken in that hard, intense voice I knew so well. "Tell your wife so.
+And do not see that black-haired Englishwoman again. I had a full report
+from the Engadine a fortnight ago, and this _contretemps_ is only what I
+have expected. It is disgraceful! When will you learn reason?"
+
+Ten minutes later I was seated beside the Crown-Prince in the car on our
+way to Potsdam.
+
+On the road, driving recklessly as I sat by his side, he laughed lightly
+as he turned to me, saying:
+
+"What an infernal worry women really are--aren't they,
+Heltzendorff--more especially if one is an Imperial Prince! Even though
+one is a Hohenzollern one cannot escape trouble!"
+
+How the conjugal relations were resumed I know not. All I know is that I
+attended their Imperial Highnesses to the Lessing Theatre, where, in the
+Royal box, the Kaiser--ever eager to stifle the shortcomings of the
+Hohenzollerns--sat with us, though according to his engagements he
+should have been on his way to Duesseldorf for a great review on the
+morrow. But such public display allayed all rumour of his son's domestic
+infelicity, and both Emperor and Kronprinz smiled benignly upon the
+people.
+
+Early next day the Crown-Prince summoned me, in confidence, and an hour
+later I left on a secret mission to a certain lady whom I may call Miss
+Lilian Greyford--as it is not fair in certain cases in these exposures
+to mention actual names--daughter of an English county gentleman, who
+was staying at the "Kulm" at St. Moritz.
+
+Twenty-four hours afterwards I managed to see the winter-sports young
+lady alone in the hotel, and gave her a verbal message, together with a
+little package from His Imperial Highness, which, when she opened it, I
+found contained a souvenir in the shape of an artistic emerald pendant.
+With it were some scribbled lines. The girl--she was not much more than
+twenty--read them eagerly, and burst into a torrent of tears.
+
+Ah! my dear Le Queux, as you yourself know from your own observations,
+there are as many broken hearts beating beneath the corsets of
+ladies-in-waiting and maids-of-honour, as there are among that frantic
+feminine crowd striving to enter the magic circle of the Royal
+entourage or the women of the workaday world who pass up
+Unter-den-Linden on a Sunday.
+
+Phew! What a world of fevered artificiality revolves around a throne!
+
+Very soon after this incident--namely, in the early days of 1912--I
+found myself, as the personal-adjutant of His Imperial Highness the
+Crown-Prince, involved in a very strange, even inexplicable, affair.
+
+How shall I explain it? Well, the drama opened in the Emperor's Palace
+in Berlin on New Year's night, 1912, when, as usual, a Grand Court
+reception was held.
+
+The scene was one which we who revolve around the throne know so well.
+Court gowns, nodding plumes, gay uniforms, and glittering decorations--a
+vicious, tinselled, gossip-loving little world which with devilish
+intent sows seeds of dark suspicion or struggles for the Kaiser's
+favour.
+
+In the famous White Salon, with its ceiling gaudily emblazoned with the
+arms of the Hohenzollerns as Burgraves, Electors, Kings, Emperors, and
+what-not, its walls of coloured marble and gilded bronze, and its fine
+statues of the Prussian rulers, we had all assembled and were waiting
+the entrance of the Emperor.
+
+Kiderlen-Waechter--the Foreign Secretary--was standing near me, chatting
+with Von Jagow, slim, dark-haired and spruce. The latter, who was
+serving as German Ambassador in Rome, happened to be in Berlin on leave,
+and the pair were laughing merrily with a handsome black-haired woman
+whom I recognized as the Baroness Bertieri, wife of the Italian
+Ambassador.
+
+Philip Eulenburg, one of the Emperor's personal friends (by the way,
+author, with Von Moltke, of the Kaiser's much-advertised "Song to
+AEgir"--a fact not generally known), approached me and began to chat,
+recalling a side-splitting incident that had occurred a few days before
+at Kiel, whither I had been with the Crown-Prince to open a new bridge.
+Oh, those infernal statues and bridges!
+
+Of a sudden the tap of the Chamberlain's stick was heard thrice, the
+gold-and-white doors instantly fell open, and the Emperor, his
+decorations gleaming beneath the myriad lights, smilingly entered with
+his waddling consort, the Crown-Prince, and their brilliant suite.
+
+All of us bowed low in homage, but as we did so I saw the shrewd eyes of
+the All-Highest One, which nothing escapes, fixed upon a woman who stood
+close to my elbow. As he fixed his fierce gaze upon her I saw, knowing
+that glance as I did, that it spoke volumes. Hitherto I had not noticed
+the lady, for she was probably one of those unimportant persons who are
+commanded to a Grand Court, wives and daughters of military nobodies, of
+whom we at the Palace never took the trouble to inquire so long as their
+gilt command-cards, issued by the Grand Chamberlain, were in proper
+order.
+
+That slight contraction of the Emperor's eyebrows caused me to ponder
+deeply, for, knowing him so intimately, I saw that he was intensely
+annoyed.
+
+For what reason? I was much mystified.
+
+Naturally I turned to glance at the woman whose presence had so
+irritated him. She was fair-haired, blue-eyed, _petite_ and pretty. Her
+age was about twenty-five, and she was extremely good-looking. Beside
+her stood a big, fair-haired giant in the uniform of a captain of the
+First Regiment of the Hussars of the Guard, of which the Crown-Prince
+was Colonel-in-Chief.
+
+Within a quarter of an hour I discovered that the officer was Count
+Georg von Leutenberg, and that his pretty wife, whom he had married two
+years before, was the eldest daughter of an English financier who had
+been created a Baron by your rule-of-thumb politicians.
+
+"Pretty woman, eh?" lisped Eulenburg in my ear, for he had noticed her,
+and he was assuredly the best judge of a pretty face in all Berlin.
+
+Next day, just before noon, on entering the Crown-Prince's private
+cabinet, I found "Willie" in the uniform of the 2nd Grenadiers,
+apparently awaiting me in that cosy apartment, which is crammed with
+effigies, statuettes, and relics of the great Napoleon, whom he worships
+just as the War Lord reveres his famous ancestor Frederick the Great.
+
+"Sit down, Heltzendorff," said his Elegant Highness, waving his white,
+well-manicured hand to a chair near by, and puffing at his cigarette.
+"It is really pleasant to have an hour's rest!" he laughed, for he
+seemed in merry mood that day. "Look here! As you know, after the little
+affair with the Crown-Princess I trust to your absolute discretion. Do
+you happen to know Count Georg von Leutenberg, of the Hussars of the
+Guard?"
+
+"By sight only," was my reply. Mention of that name caused me to wonder.
+
+"He is a very good fellow, I understand. Do you know his wife--a pretty
+little Englishwoman?"
+
+"Unfortunately, I have not that pleasure."
+
+"Neither have I, Heltzendorff," laughed the Prince, with a queer look in
+those slant-set eyes which appear so strangely goggly sometimes. "But I
+soon shall know her, I expect. In that direction I want your
+assistance."
+
+"I am yours for your Highness to command," I replied, puzzled to know
+what was in progress. After a few seconds of silence the Crown-Prince
+suddenly exclaimed:
+
+"So good is the report of Von Leutenberg that has reached the Emperor
+that--though he is as yet in ignorance of the fact--he has been promoted
+to the rank of major, and ordered upon a foreign mission--as military
+attache in London. He will leave Berlin to-night to take up his new
+post."
+
+"And the Countess?"
+
+"By a secret report I happen to have here it is shown that they are a
+most devoted pair," he said, glancing at a sheet of buff paper upon
+which was typed a report, one which I recognized as emanating from the
+secret bureau at the Polizei-Prasidium, in Alexander Platz. "They live
+in the Lennestrasse, No. 44, facing the Tiergarten. Note the address."
+
+Then his Highness paused, and, rising, crossed to the big writing-table
+set in the window, and there examined another report. Afterwards,
+glancing at the pretty buhl clock opposite, he suddenly said:
+
+"The Count should call here now. I have sent informing him of the
+Emperor's goodwill, and ordering him to report here to take leave of me
+as his Colonel-in-Chief."
+
+Scarcely had he spoken when Count von Leutenberg was announced by a
+flunkey in pink silk stockings, and a moment later the tall officer
+clicked his heels together and saluted smartly on the threshold.
+
+"I thought you would be pleased at your well-merited promotion," said
+his Highness in quite a genial tone. "The Emperor wishes you to leave
+for London by the ten o'clock express for Flushing to-night, so as to
+report to his Excellency the Ambassador before he departs on leave.
+Hence the urgency. The Countess, of course, will remain in Berlin. You
+will, naturally, wish for time to make your arrangements in London and
+dispose of your house here."
+
+"I think she will wish to accompany me, your Imperial Highness," replied
+the fond husband. "London is her home."
+
+"Ah! That is absurd!" laughed "Willie." "Why, you who have been married
+two whole years are surely not still upon your honeymoon?" and his
+close-set eyes glinted strangely. "You will be far too busy on taking up
+your new appointment to see much of her. No. Let her remain comfortably
+at home in Berlin until you are quite settled. Then I will see that
+Kiderlen grants you leave to return to put your house in order."
+
+From the Count's manner I could see that he was very much puzzled at his
+sudden promotion.
+
+Indeed, on entering he had stammered out his surprise at being singled
+out for such high distinction.
+
+Von Leutenberg's hesitation was the Crown-Prince's opportunity.
+
+"Good!" went on his Highness in his imperious, impetuous way. "You will
+leave for London to-night, and the Countess will remain until you have
+settled. I congratulate you most heartily upon your well-deserved
+advancement, which I consider is an honour conferred by the Emperor upon
+my regiment. I know, too, that you will act to the honour of the
+Fatherland abroad."
+
+And with those words the major was dismissed.
+
+"A charming man!" remarked the Prince, after the door had closed. "He
+has only been brought to my notice quite recently. An enthusiastic
+officer, he will be of great use to us at Carlton House Terrace. There
+is much yet to be done there, my dear Heltzendorff. Fortunately we have
+put our friends the English comfortably to sleep. It has cost us money,
+but money talks in London, just as it does in Berlin."
+
+And he drew a long, ecstatic breath at the mere thought of the great
+international plot in progress--of the staggering blow to be struck
+against France, and the march upon Paris with those men who were his
+boon companions--Von Kluck, Von Hindenburg and Von der Goltz.
+
+"Heltzendorff," he exclaimed a few moments later, after he had reflected
+deeply between the whiffs of his cigarette. "Heltzendorff, I wish you to
+become acquainted with the Countess von Leutenberg, and you must
+afterwards introduce me. I have a fixed and distinct reason. I could
+obtain the assistance of others, but I trust you only."
+
+"But I do not know the lady," I protested, for I had no desire
+whatsoever to become implicated in any double-dealing.
+
+"Hohenstein knows her well. I will see that he introduces you," replied
+the Kaiser's son, with that strange look again in his eyes. "She's
+uncommonly pretty, so mind you don't fall in love with her!" he laughed,
+holding up his finger reprovingly. "I've heard, too, that Count Georg is
+a highly jealous person, but, fortunately, he will be very busy writing
+secret reports at Carlton House Terrace. So go and see Hohenstein at
+once, and get him to introduce you to the pretty little Englishwoman.
+But, remember, not a word of this conversation is to be breathed to a
+single soul."
+
+What did it all mean? Why had the Emperor singled out for advancement
+the husband of that woman, the sight of whom had so greatly annoyed him?
+I confess that I became more than ever puzzled over the curious affair.
+
+Within a week, however, thanks to the introduction of that old roue,
+Hohenstein, I had dined at Count von Leutenberg's pretty house in the
+Lennestrasse in a fine room, the long windows of which commanded a
+delightful view over the Tiergarten and the Siegesallee.
+
+The Countess, extremely charming and refined, having the misfortune of
+being English, had not been taken up warmly by Berlin society. She was,
+I found, a most delightful hostess. The party included Laroque, the
+elegant First Secretary of the French Embassy, and his Parisian wife,
+together with Baron Hoffmann, the burly, round-faced Minister of the
+Interior, and Doctor Paulssen, Under-Secretary at the Colonial Office,
+against whom you will remember there were allegations of atrocities
+committed upon the natives in German East Africa. Hohenstein was,
+however, not there, as he had been suddenly dispatched by the Emperor
+upon a mission to Corfu.
+
+At table the talk ran upon Leutenberg's sudden promotion, whereupon the
+Minister Hoffmann declared:
+
+"His Majesty only gives reward when it is due. When he discerns talent
+he is never mistaken."
+
+A week later the Crown-Prince had returned from a surprise visit the
+Kaiser had made to Stettin. The Emperor had played his old game of
+rousing the garrison in the middle of the night, and then laughing at
+the ludicrous figures cut by his pompous Generals and Colonels rushing
+about in their night attire eager to greet their Sovereign.
+
+I was in the Prince's private room arranging the details of a military
+programme at Potsdam on the following day when he suddenly entered and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Well, Heltzendorff, and how are you proceeding in the Lennestrasse,
+eh?" and he looked at me with those crafty eyes of his. "I hear you were
+at the house last night."
+
+I started. Was I being watched? It was quite true that I had called on
+the previous evening, and, finding the Countess alone, had sat in her
+pretty drawing-room enjoying a long and delightful chat with her.
+
+"Yes. I called there," I admitted. "The Count is returning from London
+next week to take his wife back with him."
+
+The Crown-Prince smiled mysteriously, and critically examined the
+curious snake ring which he always wears upon the little finger of his
+left hand.
+
+"We need not anticipate that, I think. Kiderlen will not grant him
+leave. He is far better in Carlton House Terrace than in the
+Lennestrasse."
+
+"I hardly follow your Highness," I remarked, much mystified at his
+words.
+
+"H'm. Probably not, my dear Count," he laughed. "I do not intend that
+you should."
+
+And with that mysterious remark he turned to meet Count von Zeppelin,
+the round-faced, snow-haired, somewhat florid inventor, who was one of
+his Highness's most intimate friends, and who had at that moment entered
+unannounced. Zeppelin was a character in Berlin. He sought no friends,
+no advertisement, and shunned notoriety.
+
+"Ha, my dear Ferdinand!" cried the Prince, shaking the hand of the man
+who so suddenly became world-famous at the age of seventy. "You have
+travelled from Stuttgart to see me--unwell as you are! It is an honour.
+But the matter is one of greatest urgency, as I have already written to
+you. I want to show you the correspondence and seek your advice," and
+the Prince invited his white-haired friend to the big, carved arm-chair
+beside his writing-table. Then, turning to me, he said: "Will you see
+Von Glasenapp for me, and hand him those orders for Posen? He must leave
+to-night. The General Court-Martial at Stendal I have fixed for the
+25th. I shall be with the Emperor this afternoon. Report here at seven
+to-night--understand?"
+
+Thus was I dismissed, while His Imperial Highness and Count Zeppelin sat
+together in secret counsel.
+
+At ten minutes to seven that evening I unlocked the Crown-Prince's room
+with the key I carried, the other two keys being in the hands of the
+Crown-Princess and her husband. I had placed upon the table a bundle of
+reports which had just been brought round from the Ministry of War, and
+required that scribbly signature, "Wilhelm Kronprinz," when I noticed
+three private letters that had evidently been placed aside. The
+envelopes were addressed in a thin, angular, female hand, and bore an
+English address. I noted it. The name on each was that of a lady
+residing in Aylesbury Avenue, Hampstead, London. The letters bore German
+stamps. In keen curiosity, I took one and examined it, wondering whether
+it could be the correspondence which the Crown-Prince had been so eager
+to show Count von Zeppelin in secret.
+
+I drew the letter from the envelope and scanned it rapidly.
+
+What I read caused me to hold my breath. The signature to the letters
+was "Enid von Leutenberg."
+
+Those letters of hers had, it was plain, been seized in the post on
+their way to London. The Countess either had a traitor in her household
+or secret watch was being kept by the Secret Service upon her
+correspondence.
+
+All three of those letters I read--letters which opened my eyes and
+broadened my mind. Then, taking up my bundle of reports, I crept away
+from the room, carefully re-latching the door. I intended that his
+Highness should return, discover the letters left there inadvertently,
+and put them away ere my arrival, in which case he would never suspect
+that I had any knowledge of their contents.
+
+With the papers in my hand I passed along the many carpeted corridors to
+the south wing of the Palace, where I found Tresternitz, Marshal of the
+Prince's Court, in his room.
+
+The Crown-Prince imitated his father's sharp punctuality, therefore I
+knew that he would be there at seven or soon afterwards.
+
+Tresternitz was always full of scandal concerning those who lived in the
+higher circles of Berlin, and it was to one of these stories of Court
+scandal concerning one of the ladies-in-waiting which I listened while I
+smoked one of his excellent Russian cigarettes.
+
+Then, glancing at the clock, I rose suddenly and left him, returning
+again to the private room.
+
+I found his Highness there, and as I entered I noticed that he had
+hidden those remarkable letters which he had in secret shown to Count
+Zeppelin.
+
+A fortnight went past. The Kaiser, with his mad love of constant travel,
+had been rushing up and down the Empire--to Krupp's at Essen, to the
+trials of a newly-invented howitzer, thence to an inspection at Kassel,
+and afterwards to unveil monuments at Cologne and at Erfurt. The
+Crown-Prince and Princess had accompanied him, the Kaiserin being
+indisposed, and I, of course, had been included in "Willie's" suite.
+
+The week had been a strenuous one of train-travel, luncheons, tiring
+dinners, receptions, dancing, and general junketings, and I was glad
+enough to get back to my bachelor rooms--those rooms in the
+Krausenstrasse that you knew so well before the bursting of the
+war-cloud. To dance attendance upon an Imperial Crown-Prince, as well as
+upon an autocratic Emperor, becomes after a time a wearisome business,
+however gay and cosmopolitan a man may be.
+
+I had only been at home a few hours when a telephone message summoned me
+at five o'clock to the Crown-Prince's Palace.
+
+His Imperial Highness, who had, I knew, been lunching with the Emperor
+at the Koenigliches Schloss across the bridge, seemed unusually serious
+and thoughtful. Perhaps the Emperor had again shown his anger at his
+peccadilloes, as he did so frequently.
+
+"Count," he said, after a few seconds of silence, during which I noted
+that upon his table lay a private letter from the German Ambassador in
+London. "You will recall my conversation regarding the Countess von
+Leutenberg--eh?"
+
+"Perfectly," was my reply.
+
+"I told you that I should require you to introduce me," he said. "Well,
+I want you to do so this evening. She has taken a box at the Koenigliche
+Opera to-night, where they are to play _Falstaff_. I shall be there, and
+you will be with me. Then you will introduce me to your pretty friend.
+Understand?" And he grinned.
+
+That night, in accordance with my instructions, I sat in the Emperor's
+box with the Crown-Prince, Tresternitz, and two personal-adjutants, and,
+recognizing the Countess von Leutenberg in a box opposite, accompanied
+by an elderly lady, I took the Crown-Prince round, and there presented
+her to him, greatly to her surprise and undisguised delight.
+
+The Prince and the Countess chatted together, while I sat with her
+elderly companion. Then, when we had withdrawn, my Imperial Master
+exclaimed:
+
+"Ah! my dear Heltzendorff. Why, she is one of the prettiest women in all
+Berlin! Surely it is unfortunate--most unfortunate."
+
+What was unfortunate? I was further puzzled by that last sentence, yet I
+dare not ask any explanation, and we went back to our own box.
+
+After our return to the Palace the Crown-Prince, who was standing in one
+of the corridors talking with the slim, fair-haired Baroness von Wedel,
+one of his wife's ladies-in-waiting, left her and beckoned me into an
+adjoining room.
+
+"I wish you, Heltzendorff, to call upon the Countess von Leutenberg at
+nine o'clock to-morrow evening. She will expect you."
+
+I looked at his Highness, much puzzled. How did he know that the pretty
+Countess would expect me?
+
+But he gave me no time to reply, merely turning upon his heel, and
+striding down the corridor to the private apartments.
+
+Punctually at nine o'clock that wintry evening I called at the
+Lennestrasse, but Josef, the elderly manservant, informed me that his
+mistress was engaged, adding that His Imperial Highness the Crown-Prince
+had paid a surprise call.
+
+"The Crown-Prince here!" I gasped, astounded.
+
+"Yes, Count. And, further, my mistress is in high glee, for my master
+returned this morning quite unexpectedly from London. He has been out at
+the Ministry for Foreign Affairs all the evening, and I expect him home
+at any moment. The Crown-Prince ordered me to ask you to await him
+here."
+
+Count von Leutenberg in Berlin! What did it mean? He was absurdly
+jealous, I recollected. He might return at any moment and find the
+Crown-Prince alone in the Countess's drawing-room. If so, the situation
+might certainly be a most unpleasant one.
+
+Hardly had the thought crossed my mind when I heard the Count enter, his
+spurs clinking and his sabre rattling as he strode up the stairs.
+
+I crept forth, listening breathlessly.
+
+A few seconds later I heard the Count's voice raised in anger and high,
+bitter words. Next moment I sprang up the stairs and, dashing into the
+room, found the pretty Countess standing near the window, white and
+rigid as a statue, while the two men in uniform faced each other. Von
+Leutenberg's countenance was distorted with rage as he abused the
+Crown-Prince, and openly charged him with having brought about his exile
+to London.
+
+His Highness made no reply, but only smiled sarcastically and shrugged
+his narrow shoulders.
+
+So enraged the other became at this latter gesture that, with a sudden
+movement, he drew his sword.
+
+The Countess shrieked and swooned as I sprang forward and stayed her
+husband's hand.
+
+It was a dramatic moment. The Count instantly realized the enormity of
+his crime, and his hand dropped.
+
+"Enough!" cried the Crown-Prince, waving his adversary aside. Then,
+turning to me, he said in a calm, hard voice:
+
+"Heltzendorff, you are witness that this man has drawn his sword upon
+the heir to the Throne."
+
+And with those haughty words he bowed stiffly and strode out of the
+room.
+
+Two hours later I was commanded to the Kaiser's presence, and found him
+in counsel with his son.
+
+The Emperor, who wore the uniform of the Guards, looked pale and
+troubled, yet in his eyes there was a keen, determined look. As I
+passed the sentries and entered the lofty study, with its upholstery and
+walls of pale green damask--that room from which the Empire and the
+whole world have so often been addressed--the Kaiser broke off short in
+his conversation.
+
+Turning to me as he still sat at his littered table, he said in that
+quick, impetuous way of his:
+
+"Count Heltzendorff, the Crown-Prince has informed me of what has
+occurred this evening in the Lennestrasse. I wish you to convey this at
+once to Count von Leutenberg and to give it into his own hand. There is
+no reply."
+
+And His Majesty handed me a rather bulky envelope addressed in his own
+bold handwriting, and bearing his own private cipher impressed in black
+wax.
+
+Thus commanded, I bowed, withdrew, and took a taxicab straight to the
+Lennestrasse, being ushered by Josef into the presence of husband and
+wife in that same room I had quitted a couple of hours before.
+
+I handed the Count the packet the Emperor had given me, and with
+trembling fingers he tore it open.
+
+From within he drew three letters, those same letters which his wife had
+written to London, and which had been intercepted by the Secret
+Service--the letters which I had read in his Highness's room.
+
+As he scanned the lines which the Emperor had penned his face blanched.
+A loud cry of dismay escaped his wife as she recognized her own letters,
+and she snatched the note from her husband's hand and also read it.
+
+The light died instantly from her beautiful countenance. Then, turning
+to me, she said in a hoarse, hopeless tone:
+
+"Thank you, Count von Heltzendorff. Tell His Majesty the Emperor that
+his command shall be--yes, it shall be obeyed."
+
+Those last words she spoke in a deep, hoarse whisper, a strange, wild
+look of desperation in her blue eyes.
+
+An hour later I reported again at the Imperial Palace, was granted
+audience of the Emperor, and gave him the verbal reply.
+
+His Majesty uttered no word, merely nodding his head slowly in approval.
+
+Next afternoon a painful sensation was caused throughout Berlin when the
+_Abendpost_ published the news that Count von Leutenberg, the man so
+recently promoted by the Emperor, and his pretty wife had both been
+found dead in their room. During the night they had evidently burned
+some papers, for the tinder was found in the stove, and having agreed to
+die together, they being so much attached during life, they had both
+taken prussic acid in some wine, the bottle and half-emptied glasses
+being still upon the table.
+
+The romantic affair, the truth of which I here reveal for the first
+time, was regarded by all Berlin as an inexplicable tragedy. The public
+are still unaware of how those intercepted letters contained serious
+warnings to the British Government of the Emperor's hostile intentions
+towards Britain, and the probable date of the outbreak of war. Indeed,
+they recounted a private conversation which the Countess had overheard
+between the Kaiser and Count Zeppelin, repeating certain opprobrious
+epithets which the All-Highest had bestowed upon one or two British
+statesmen, and she also pointed out the great danger of a pending
+rupture between the two Powers, as well as explaining some details
+regarding the improved Zeppelins in course of construction secretly on
+Lake Constance, and certain scandals regarding the private life of the
+Crown-Prince.
+
+It was for the latter reason that the heir, aided by the War-Lord, took
+his revenge in a manner so crafty, so subtle, and so typical of the
+innate cunning of the Hohenzollerns.
+
+Thus the well-meant warnings of one of your good, honest Englishwomen
+never reached the unsuspicious address to which they were sent, and thus
+did "Willie"--who, as I afterwards discovered, devised that subtle
+vengeance--act as the Emperor's catspaw.
+
+
+
+
+SECRET NUMBER TWO
+
+THE CROWN-PRINCE'S REVENGE
+
+
+The Trautmann affair was one which caused a wild sensation at Potsdam in
+the autumn of 1912.
+
+In the Emperor's immediate entourage there was a great deal of gossip,
+most of it ill-natured and cruel, for most ladies-in-waiting possess
+serpents' tongues. Their tongues are as sharp as their features, and
+though there may be a few pretty maids-of-honour, yet the majority of
+women at Court are, as you know, my dear Le Queux, mostly plain and
+uninteresting.
+
+I became implicated in the unsavoury Trautmann affair, in a somewhat
+curious manner.
+
+A few months after the Leutenberg tragedy I chanced to be lunching at
+the "Esplanade" in Berlin, chatting with Laroque, of the French Embassy.
+Our hostess was Frau Breitenbach, a wealthy Jewess--a woman who came
+from Dortmund--and who was spending money like water in order to wriggle
+into Berlin society. As personal-adjutant of the Crown-Prince I was, of
+course, one of the principal guests, and I suspected that she was
+angling for a card of invitation to the next ball at the Marmor Palace.
+
+Who introduced me to the portly, black-haired, rather handsome woman I
+quite forget. Probably it was some nobody who received a commission upon
+the introduction--for at the Berlin Court introductions are bought and
+sold just as the succulent sausage is sold over the counter.
+
+In the big white-and-gold _salle-a-manger_ of the "Esplanade," which, as
+you know, is one of the finest in Europe, Frau Breitenbach was lunching
+with sixteen guests at one big round table, her daughter Elise, a very
+smartly dressed girl of nineteen, seated opposite to her. It was a merry
+party, including as it did some of the most renowned persons in the
+Empire, among them being the Imperial Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, of
+the long, grave face and pointed beard, and that grand seigneur who was
+a favourite at Court, the multi-millionaire Serene Highness Prince
+Maximilian Egon zu Fuerstenberg. Of the latter it may be said that no man
+rivalled his influence with the Emperor. What he said was law in
+Germany.
+
+Fuerstenberg was head of the famous "Prince's Trust," now dissolved, but
+at that time, with its capital of a hundred million pounds, it was a
+great force in the German commercial world. Indeed, such a boon
+companion was he of the Kaiser's that an august but purely decorative
+and ceremonial place was actually invented for him as Colonel-Marshal of
+the Prussian Court, an excuse to wear a gay uniform and gorgeous
+decorations as befitted a man who, possessing twenty millions sterling,
+was an important asset to the Emperor in his deep-laid scheme for
+world-power.
+
+Another Prince of the "Trust" was fat old Kraft zu Hohenlohe Oehringen,
+but as he had only a paltry ten millions he did not rank so high in the
+War-Lord's favour.
+
+Fuerstenberg, seated next to the estimable Jewess, was chatting affably
+with her. Her husband was in America upon some big steel transaction,
+but her pretty daughter Elise sat laughing merrily with a young,
+square-headed lieutenant of the Death's Head Hussars.
+
+That merry luncheon party was the prologue of a very curious drama.
+
+I was discussing the occult with a middle-aged lady on my right, a
+sister of Herr Alfred Ballin, the shipping king. In society discussions
+upon the occult are always illuminating, and as we chatted I noticed
+that far across the crowded room, at a table set in a window, there sat
+alone a dark-haired, sallow, good-looking young civilian, who,
+immaculate in a grey suit, was eating his lunch in a rather bored
+manner, yet his eyes were fixed straight upon the handsome, dark-haired
+young girl, Elise Breitenbach, as though she exercised over him some
+strange fascination.
+
+Half a dozen times I glanced across, and on each occasion saw that the
+young man had no eyes for the notables around the table, his gaze being
+fixed upon the daughter of the great financier, whose interests,
+especially in America, were so widespread and profitable.
+
+Somehow--why I cannot even now decide--I felt a distinct belief that the
+young civilian's face was familiar to me. It was not the first time I
+had seen him, yet I could not recall the circumstances in which we had
+met. I examined my memory, but could not recollect where I had before
+seen him, yet I felt convinced that it was in circumstances of a
+somewhat mysterious kind.
+
+Two nights later I had dined with the Breitenbachs at their fine house
+in the Alsenstrasse. The only guest beside myself was the thin-faced,
+loud-speaking old Countess von Bassewitz, and after dinner, served in a
+gorgeous dining-room which everywhere betrayed the florid taste of the
+parvenu, Frau Breitenbach took the Countess aside to talk, while I
+wandered with her daughter into the winter garden, with its high palms
+and gorgeous exotics, that overlooked the gardens of the Austrian
+Embassy.
+
+When we were seated in cane chairs, and the man had brought us coffee,
+the pretty Elise commenced to question me about life at the
+Crown-Prince's Court, expressing much curiosity concerning the private
+life of His Imperial Highness.
+
+Such questions came often from the lips of young girls in society, and I
+knew how to answer them with both humour and politeness.
+
+"How intensely interesting it must be to be personal-adjutant to the
+Crown-Prince! Mother is dying to get a command to one of the receptions
+at Potsdam," the girl said. "Only to-day she was wondering--well,
+whether you could possibly use your influence in that direction?"
+
+In an instant I saw why I had been invited to dinners and luncheons so
+often, and why I had been left alone with the sweet-faced, dark-eyed
+girl.
+
+I reflected a moment. Then I said:
+
+"I do not think that will be very difficult. I will see what can be
+done. But I hope that if I am successful you will accompany your
+mother," I added courteously, as I lit a cigarette.
+
+"It is really most kind of you," the girl declared, springing up with
+delight, for the mere thought of going to Court seemed to give her
+intense pleasure. Yet all women, young and old, are alike in that
+respect. The struggle to set foot near the throne is, as you yourself
+have seen, always an unseemly one, and, alas! the cause of many
+heart-burnings.
+
+When I looked in at Tresternitz's room in the Palace next morning, I
+scribbled down the name of mother and daughter for cards.
+
+"Who are they?" grunted the old marshal, removing a big cigar from his
+puffy lips.
+
+"People I know--they're all right, and the girl is very good-looking."
+
+"Good. We can do with a little beauty here nowadays. We've had an
+infernally ugly lot at the balls lately," declared the man, who was the
+greatest gossip at Court, and who thereupon commenced to tell me a
+scandalous story regarding one of the ladies-in-waiting to the Kaiserin
+who had disappeared from the New Palace, and was believed to be living
+in Scotland.
+
+"The Emperor is furious," he added. "But he doesn't know the real truth,
+and never will, I expect."
+
+A week later the Crown-Prince and Princess gave a grand ball at the
+Marmor Palace at Potsdam, and the Emperor himself attended.
+
+Frau Breitenbach, gorgeously attired, made her bow before the
+All-Highest, and her daughter did the same.
+
+That night I saw that the Kaiser was in no good mood. He seldom was at
+the Court functions. Indeed, half an hour before his arrival the
+Crown-Prince had told me, in confidence, of his father's annoyance at
+the failure of some diplomatic negotiations with Britain.
+
+The Emperor, in his brilliant uniform, with the Order of the Black
+Eagle, of which he was _chef-souverain_, and the diamond stars of many
+foreign Orders, presented a truly Imperial figure, his shrewd,
+unrelenting gaze everywhere, his upturned moustache accentuated, his
+voice unusually sharp and commanding.
+
+I spoke with Elise, and afterwards, when I danced with her I saw how
+impressed she was by the glitter and glamour of the Potsdam Court
+circle, and by the fact that she was in the presence of the All-Highest
+One, without whose gracious nod nothing could hope to prosper in the
+Fatherland, and without whose approval no public work could be
+undertaken in Berlin. Those statesmen, admirals and generals present
+might plan, but he alone willed. His approval or his frown was as a
+decree of Providence, and his autocratic will greater than that of his
+"brother," Nicholas of Russia.
+
+I remember how, one day in the Militaer-Kabinett, an old buffer at Court
+whom we called "Hans" Hohenlohe--he was one of the hundred and sixty odd
+members of the aristocratic family of Hohenlohe which swarm the
+Fatherland, mostly penurious, by-the-way, salary-grabbers, all elbowing
+each other to secure the Kaiser's favour--made a very true remark which
+has ever remained in my memory. It was very soon after Herr von Libenau,
+the Imperial Master of Ceremony, had been arrested owing to a scandal at
+Court, though perfectly innocent. My friend "Hans" Hohenlohe said in a
+low, confidential whisper at a shooting party, after the French
+Ambassador had wished us a merry _bon jour_ and passed out:
+
+"My dear friend Heltzendorff, you, like myself, know that war is
+inevitable. It must come soon! The reason is to be found in the madness
+of the Emperor, which has spread among our military party and among the
+people, till most of them are no more sane than himself. Hypnotized by
+good fortune, we have become demented with an overweening vanity and a
+philosophy which must end in our undoing. The Emperor's incessant
+drum-beating, sabre-rattling, and blasphemous appeals to the Almighty
+have brought our German nation to that state which, since the world
+began, has ever gone before destruction."
+
+No truer words were ever spoken of modern Germany.
+
+They recurred to me as, while waltzing with the pretty daughter of the
+Dortmund parvenu, I noticed the Emperor standing aside, chatting with
+old Von Zeppelin, who every now and then patted his silvery hair, a
+habit of his when in conversation. With the pair stood Ernst Auguste,
+the young Duke of Brunswick, who in the following year married the
+Emperor's daughter, the rather petulant and go-ahead Victoria Louise.
+The Prince, who wore the uniform of the Prussian Guard, was laughing
+heartily over some remark of old Zeppelin's as, with my partner, I
+passed quite close to them.
+
+The dainty Elise was, I found, quite an entertaining little person. Old
+Tresternitz had already whispered his opinion of her.
+
+"Undoubtedly the prettiest girl at Court," he had declared, with a
+twinkle in his grey eyes.
+
+From words the pretty Elise let drop that night as she hung upon my arm
+I wondered whether she was really as ingenuous as she pretended. And yet
+Frau Breitenbach was one of dozens of others who strove to enter the
+Court circle, flapping their wings vainly to try and cross the wide gulf
+which separated the "high life" in Berlin from "Court life."
+
+The rooms were stifling, therefore I took my pretty dancing partner
+along a corridor and through several deserted apartments into the east
+wing of the Palace, showing her some of the Crown-Princess's private
+rooms, until at length we stepped through a French window on to the long
+terrace before the lake, the Heilige-See.
+
+There we were alone. The white moon was reflected upon the waters, and
+after the heat of the ball-room the balmy air was delightful.
+
+Against the marble balustrade beside the water I stood chatting with
+her. All was silent save for the tramp of soldiers passing near, for the
+guard was at that hour changing. As became a courtier, I chaffed and
+laughed with her, my intention being to learn more concerning her.
+
+But she was, I found, an extremely discreet and clever little person, a
+fact which further increased the mystery.
+
+One night about two months later I had an appointment with Max Reinhardt
+at the Deutsches Theater, in Berlin, to arrange a Royal visit there, and
+after the performance I went back to the Palace, prior to retiring to my
+rooms in the Krausenstrasse. The guards saluted as I crossed the dark
+courtyard, and having passed through the corridors to the private
+apartments I entered with my key the Crown-Prince's locked study.
+
+To my surprise, I found "Willie" seated there with the Emperor in
+earnest discussion.
+
+With apology, I bowed instantly and withdrew, whereupon the Kaiser
+exclaimed:
+
+"Come in, Heltzendorff. I want you."
+
+Then he cast a quick, mysterious glance at the young man, who had thrown
+himself in lazy attitude into a long cane lounge chair. It was as though
+His Majesty was hesitating to speak with me, or asking his son's
+permission to do so.
+
+"Tell me, Heltzendorff," exclaimed His Majesty suddenly, "do you know
+this person?" and he placed before my astonished gaze a very artistic
+cabinet photograph of the pretty Elise.
+
+"Yes," I answered frankly, quite taken aback. "It is Fraeulein
+Breitenbach."
+
+"And what do you know of her?" inquired His Majesty sharply. "You
+introduced her and her mother to Court, I believe."
+
+I saw that the Emperor had discovered something which annoyed him. What
+could it be?
+
+At once I was compelled to admit that I had set down their names for
+invitation, and, further, I explained all that I knew about them.
+
+"You are certain you know nothing more?" asked the Emperor, his brows
+contracted and his eyes fixed steadily upon mine. "Understand that no
+blame attaches to you."
+
+I assured him that I had revealed all that I knew concerning them.
+
+"Hold no further communication with either mother or daughter," His
+Majesty said. "Leave for Paris by the eight o'clock train to-morrow
+morning, and go to Baron von Steinmetz, the chief of our confidential
+service in France."
+
+Then, turning to the Crown-Prince, he said: "You have his address."
+
+"Yes," said the younger man. "He is passing as Monsieur Felix Reumont,
+and is living at 114 bis, Avenue de Neuilly, close to the Pont."
+
+I scribbled the name and address upon the back of an envelope, whereupon
+His Majesty said:
+
+"Carry my verbal orders to Steinmetz, and tell him to act upon the
+orders I sent him by courier yesterday. And you will assist him. He will
+explain matters fully when you arrive."
+
+Then, crossing to the Crown-Prince's writing-table, His Majesty took a
+large envelope, into which, with the same hand, he dexterously placed
+the photograph with several papers, and sealed them with the
+Crown-Prince's seal. At the moment the Crown-Princess entered, said some
+words to her husband in a low voice, and went out again.
+
+"Give this to Von Steinmetz from me," His Majesty said after she had
+gone.
+
+I bowed as I took it from His Majesty's hand, my curiosity now greatly
+excited regarding Frau Breitenbach and her pretty daughter. What, I
+wondered, was in the wind?
+
+"And, Heltzendorff, please report to me," remarked the Heir, still
+lounging lazily in the chair, his white, well-manicured hands clasped
+behind his head. "Where shall you stay?"
+
+"At the Hotel Chatham. I always stay there in preference to the larger
+hotels."
+
+"And not a bad judge," laughed His Majesty merrily. "I remember when I
+used to go to Paris incognito one could dine at the 'Chatham' most
+excellently--old-fashioned, but very good. Vian's, across the road, is
+also good."
+
+The Kaiser knows Paris well, though he has never visited the French
+capital openly.
+
+Bowing, I took leave of my Imperial master, and next morning at eight
+o'clock, set out upon my mysterious mission.
+
+I found the Baron von Steinmetz living in a good-sized house in the
+leafy Avenue de Neuilly, not far from the bridge. One of the cleverest
+and most astute officials that Germany possessed, and a man high in the
+Kaiser's favour, he had, in the name of Felix Reumont, purchased, with
+Government funds of course, a cinema theatre in the Rue Lafayette, and
+ostensibly upon the proceeds of that establishment lived comfortably out
+at Neuilly.
+
+At eleven o'clock in the morning his valet, evidently a German, showed
+me in.
+
+"I quite understand, my dear Heltzendorff," he said, as in his cosy
+little den he took from the Emperor's packet the picture of Fraeulein
+Elise and stood gazing at it thoughtfully. "It is quite plain why you
+should have been sent by His Majesty."
+
+"Why. I don't understand. But His Majesty told me that you would
+explain. The young lady and her mother are friends of mine."
+
+"Exactly. That's just it!" exclaimed the round-faced, rather florid man
+whom I had once met before. "You apparently know but little of
+them--eh?--or you would not call them your friends!"
+
+Those mysterious words surprised me, but I was the more astounded when
+he continued:
+
+"You of course know of those disgraceful anonymous letters which have
+been continually arriving at Court--of the Emperor's fury concerning
+them."
+
+I replied in the affirmative, for, as a matter of fact, for the past
+three months the whole Court had been flooded with most abusive and
+disgraceful correspondence concerning the camarilla that had again
+sprung up around the Kaiser. The Emperor, the Empress, the Crown-Prince
+and Princess, Prince Eitel, Sophie Caroline, Prince Henry of Prussia and
+others had received letters, most of them in typewriting, containing the
+most intimate details of scandals concerning men and women around the
+Emperor.
+
+Fully a dozen of these letters addressed to the Crown-Prince he had
+handed to me--letters denouncing in some cases perfectly innocent
+people, destroying the reputations of honest men and women, and abusing
+the Heir to the Throne in an outrageous manner.
+
+On at least three occasions "Willie" had shown me letters addressed to
+the Kaiser himself, and intercepted by the Kaiserin, who, in consequence
+of this flood of anonymous epistles that had produced such a terrible
+sensation at Potsdam, had ordered that all such letters found in the
+Imperial post-bag should be handed at once to her.
+
+The great War-Lord's feelings had been sorely wounded by the vitriolic
+shafts, and his vanity much injured by the boldness of the unknown
+letter-writer who had dared to speak his mind concerning the Eulenburg
+scandals, which Maximilian Harden had some time before exposed in the
+_Zukunft_.
+
+All Berlin was gossiping about the scandal of the letters and the
+horrible innuendoes contained in them. The _Allerhoechste Person_, though
+boiling over with anger, blissfully believed that outside the Palaces
+nothing was known of the contents of the correspondence. But the
+Emperor, in his vanity, never accurately gauges the mind of his people.
+
+"The identity of the writer is the point that is engaging my attention,"
+the Baron said, as, seating himself at his big, carved-oak
+writing-table, he opened a drawer and drew forth a bundle of quite a
+hundred letters, adding: "All these that you see here have been
+addressed either to the Emperor or the Empress," and he handed me one or
+two, which on scanning I saw contained some outrageous statements,
+allegations which would make the hair of the All-Highest One bristle
+with rage.
+
+"Well!" I exclaimed, aghast, looking up at the Baron after I had read
+an abusive letter, which in cold, even lines of typewriting commenced
+with the words: "You, a withered crook in spectacular uniform better
+fitted for the stage of the Metropol Theatre, should, instead of
+invoking the aid of Providence, clear out your own Augean stable. Its
+smell is nauseous to the nostrils of decent people. Surely you should
+blush to have feasted in the castle of Liebenberg with the poet, Prince
+Philip, and your degenerate companions, Hohenau, Johannes Lynar, and
+your dearly beloved Kuno!"
+
+And the abusive missive proceeded to denounce two of my friends,
+ladies-in-waiting at the Neues Palais, and to make some blackguardly
+allegations concerning the idol. Von Hindenburg.
+
+"Well," I exclaimed, "that certainly is a very interesting specimen of
+anonymous correspondence."
+
+"Yes, it is!" exclaimed the Baron. "In Berlin every inquiry has been
+made to trace its author. Schunke, head of the detective police, was
+charged by the Emperor to investigate. He did so, and both he and
+Klewitz failed utterly. Now it has been given into my hands."
+
+"Have you discovered any clue to the writer?" I asked anxiously, knowing
+full well what a storm of indignation those letters had produced in our
+own circle.
+
+Presently, when I sat with the Baron at his table, he switched on an
+intense electric light, even though it was day-time, and then spread out
+some of the letters above a small, square mirror.
+
+"You see they are on various kinds of note-paper, bearing all kinds of
+watermarks, of French, English, and German manufacture. Some we have
+here are upon English paper, because it is heavy and thick. Again, three
+different makes of typewriter have been used--one a newly-invented
+importation from America. The written letters are, you will see, mostly
+in a man's hand."
+
+"Yes, I see all that," I said. "But what have you discovered concerning
+their author? The letter I received bore a French stamp and the postmark
+of Angers."
+
+He placed before me quite a dozen envelopes addressed to the Emperor and
+Empress, all bearing the postmark of that town in the Maine-et-Loire.
+Others had been posted in Leipzig, Wilhelmshaven, Tours, Antwerp,
+Berlin-Wilmersdorf, and other places.
+
+"The investigation is exceedingly difficult, I can assure you," he said.
+"I have had the assistance of some of the best scientific brains of our
+Empire in making comparisons and analyses. Indeed, Professor Harbge is
+with me from Berlin."
+
+As he uttered those words the Professor himself, an elderly, spectacled
+man in grey tweeds, entered the room. I knew him and greeted him.
+
+"We have been studying the writing-papers," the Professor said
+presently, as he turned over the letters, some of which were upon
+commercial typewriting paper, some on cheap thin paper from fashionable
+"blocks," and others upon various tinted paper of certain mills, as
+their watermarks showed. The papers were various, but the scurrilous
+hand was the clever and evasive one of some person who certainly knew
+the innermost secrets of the German Court.
+
+"Sixteen different varieties of paper have been received at the Neues
+and Marmor Palaces," the Baron remarked. "Well, I have worked for two
+months, night and day, upon the inquiry, for, as you know, the tentacles
+of our Teuton octopus are everywhere. I have discovered that eleven of
+these varieties of paper can be purchased at a certain small stationer's
+shop, Lancry's, in the Boulevard Haussmann, close to the 'Printemps.'
+One paper especially is sold nowhere else in Paris. It is this."
+
+And he held over a mirror a letter upon a small sheet of note-paper
+bearing the watermark of a bull's head.
+
+"That paper was made at a mill in the south of Devonshire, in England,
+destroyed by fire five years ago. Paper of that make cannot be obtained
+anywhere else in France," he declared.
+
+I at once realized how much patience must have been expended upon the
+inquiry, and said:
+
+"Then you have actually fixed the shop where the writer purchased his
+paper?"
+
+"Yes," he replied. "And we know that the newly-invented typewriter, a
+specimen one, was sold by the Maison Audibert, in Marseilles. The
+purchaser of the typewriter in Marseilles purchases his paper and
+envelopes at Lancry's, in the Boulevard Haussmann."
+
+"Splendid!" I said enthusiastically, for it was clear that the Baron,
+with the thousand-and-one secret agents at his beck and call, had been
+able, with the Professor's aid, to fix the source of the stationery.
+"But," I added, "what is wanted from me?" Why, I wondered, had His
+Majesty sent the Baron that photograph of Elise Breitenbach?
+
+"I want you to go with me to the central door of the 'Printemps' at four
+o'clock this afternoon, and we will watch Lancry's shop across the way,"
+the Baron replied.
+
+This we did, and from four till six o'clock we stood, amid the bustle of
+foot passengers, watching the small stationer's on the opposite side of
+the boulevard, yet without result.
+
+Next day and the next I accompanied the prosperous cinema proprietor
+upon his daily vigil, but in vain, until his reluctance to tell me the
+reason why I had been sent to Paris annoyed me considerably.
+
+On the fifth afternoon, just before five o'clock, while we were
+strolling together, smoking and chatting, the Baron's eyes being fixed
+upon the door of the small single-fronted shop, I saw him suddenly
+start, and then make pretence of utter indifference.
+
+"Look!" he whispered beneath his breath.
+
+I glanced across and saw a young man just about to enter the shop.
+
+The figure was unfamiliar, but, catching sight of his face, I held my
+breath. I had seen that sallow, deep-eyed countenance before.
+
+It was the young man who, two months previously, had sat eating his
+luncheon alone at the "Esplanade," apparently fascinated by the beauty
+of little Elise Breitenbach!
+
+"Well," exclaimed the Baron. "I see you recognize him--eh? He is
+probably going to buy more paper for his scurrilous screeds."
+
+"Yes. But who is he? What is his name?" I asked anxiously. "I have seen
+him before, but have no exact knowledge of him."
+
+The Baron did not reply until we were back again in the cosy room in
+Neuilly. Then, opening his cigar-box, he said:
+
+"That young man, the author of the outrageous insults to His Majesty, is
+known as Franz Seeliger, but he is the disgraced, ne'er-do-well son of
+General von Trautmann, Captain-General of the Palace Guard."
+
+"The son of old Von Trautmann!" I gasped in utter amazement. "Does the
+father know?"
+
+The Baron grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+Then after I had related to him the incident at the "Esplanade," he
+said:
+
+"That is of greatest interest. Will you return to Berlin and report to
+the Emperor what you have seen here? His Majesty has given me that
+instruction."
+
+Much mystified, I was also highly excited that the actual writer of
+those abominable letters had been traced and identified. The Baron told
+me of the long weeks of patient inquiry and careful watching; of how the
+young fellow had been followed to Angers and other towns in France where
+the letters were posted, and of his frequent visits to Berlin. He had
+entered a crack regiment, but had been dismissed the Army for forgery
+and undergone two years' imprisonment. Afterwards he had fallen in with
+a gang of clever international hotel thieves, and become what is known
+as a _rat d'hotel_. Now, because of a personal grievance against the
+Emperor, who had ordered his prosecution, he seemed to have by some
+secret means ferreted out every bit of scandal at Potsdam, exaggerated
+it, invented amazing additions, and in secret sown it broadcast.
+
+His hand would have left no trace if he had not been so indiscreet as to
+buy his paper from that one shop close to the Rue de Provence, where he
+had rooms.
+
+On the third night following I stood in the Emperor's private room at
+Potsdam and made my report, explaining all that I knew and what I had
+witnessed in Paris.
+
+"That man knows a very great deal--but how does he know?" snapped the
+Emperor, who had just returned from Berlin, and was in civilian attire,
+a garb quite unusual to him. He had no doubt been somewhere
+incognito--visiting a friend perhaps. "See Schunke early to-morrow," he
+ordered, "and tell him to discover the link between this young
+blackguard and your friends the Breitenbachs, and report to me."
+
+I was about to protest that the Breitenbachs were not my friends, but
+next instant drew my breath, for I saw that the great War-Lord, even
+though he wore a blue serge suit, was filled with suppressed anger.
+
+"This mystery must be cleared up!" he declared in a hard voice,
+reflecting no doubt upon the terrible abuse which the writer had heaped
+upon him, all the allegations, by-the-way, having contained a certain
+substratum of truth.
+
+Next morning I sat with the bald-headed and astute Schunke at the
+headquarters of the detective police in Berlin, and there discussed the
+affair fully, explaining the result of my journey to Paris and what I
+had seen, and giving him the order from the Kaiser.
+
+"But, Count, if this woman Breitenbach and her pretty daughter are your
+friends you will be able to visit them and glean something," he said.
+
+"I have distinct orders from the Emperor not to visit them while the
+inquiry is in process," I replied.
+
+Schunke grunted in dissatisfaction, stroked his iron-grey beard, but
+made no further comment.
+
+We walked out together, and I left him at the door of the Etat-major of
+the Army in the Koenigsplatz.
+
+Later that same morning I returned to the Marmor Palace to report to the
+Crown-Prince, but found that His Highness was absent upon an official
+visit of inspection at Stuttgart. The Marshal of the Court, Tresternitz,
+having given me the information, laughed, and added:
+
+"Officially, according to to-day's newspapers, His Highness is in
+Stuttgart, but unofficially I know that he is at the Palace Hotel, in
+Brussels, where there is a short-skirted variety attraction singing at
+the Eden Theatre. So, my dear Heltzendorff, you can return to the
+Krausenstrasse for a day or two."
+
+I went back to Berlin, the Crown-Princess being away at Wiesbaden, and
+from day to day awaited "Willie's" return.
+
+In the meantime I several times saw the great detective, Schunke, and
+found that he was in constant communication with Baron Steinmetz in
+Paris. The pair were evidently leaving no stone unturned to elucidate
+the mystery of those annoying letters, which were still falling as so
+many bombs into the centre of the Kaiser's Court.
+
+Suddenly, one Sunday night, all Berlin was electrified at the news that
+General von Trautmann, Captain-General of the Palace Guard--whom, truth
+to tell, the Crown-Prince had long secretly hated because he had once
+dared to utter some word of reproach--had been arrested, and sent to a
+fortress at the Emperor's order.
+
+An hour after the arrest His Majesty's personal-adjutant commanded me by
+telephone to attend at the Berlin Schloss. When we were alone the Kaiser
+turned to me suddenly, and said:
+
+"Count von Heltzendorff, you will say nothing of your recent visit to
+Paris, or of the authorship of those anonymous letters--you understand?
+You know absolutely nothing."
+
+Then, being summarily dismissed by a wave of the Imperial hand, I
+retired, more mystified than ever. Why should my mouth be thus closed? I
+dared not call at the Alsenstrasse to make my own inquiries, yet I knew
+that the police had made theirs.
+
+When I returned to my rooms that evening Schunke rang me up on the
+telephone with the news that my friends the Breitenbachs had closed
+their house and left early that morning for Brussels.
+
+"Where is Seeliger?" I inquired in great surprise.
+
+"In Brussels. The Breitenbachs have gone there to join him, now that the
+truth is out and his father is under arrest."
+
+The Emperor's fury was that of a lunatic. It knew no bounds. His mind,
+poisoned against the poor old General, he had fixed upon him as the
+person responsible for that disgraceful correspondence which for so many
+weeks had kept the Court in constant turmoil and anxiety. Though His
+Majesty was aware of the actual writer of the letters, he would not
+listen to reason, and openly declared that he would make an example of
+the silver-haired old Captain-General of the Guard, who, after all, was
+perfectly innocent of the deeds committed by his vagabond son.
+
+A prosecution was ordered, and three weeks later it took place _in
+camera_, the Baron, Schunke and a number of detectives being ordered to
+give evidence. So damning, indeed, was their testimony that the Judge
+passed the extreme sentence of twenty years' imprisonment.
+
+And I, who knew and held proofs of the truth, dared not protest!
+
+Where was the General's son--the real culprit and author of the letters?
+I made inquiry of Schunke, of the Baron, and of others who had, at the
+order of the All-Highest, conspired to ruin poor Von Trautmann. All,
+however, declared ignorance, and yet, curiously enough, the fine house
+in the Alsenstrasse still remained empty.
+
+Later, I discovered that the Crown-Prince had been the prime mover in
+the vile conspiracy to send the elderly Captain-General to prison and to
+the grave, for of this his words to me one day--a year afterwards--were
+sufficient proof:
+
+"It is a good job, Heltzendorff, that the Emperor rid himself at last of
+that canting old pest, Von Trautmann. He is now in a living tomb, and
+should have been there four years ago!" and he laughed.
+
+I made no response. Instead, I thought of the quiet, innocent old
+courtier languishing in prison because he had somehow incurred the
+ill-will of the Emperor's son, and I confess that I ground my teeth at
+my own inability to expose the disgraceful truth.
+
+About six months after the secret trial of the unfortunate General I had
+accompanied the Crown-Prince on a visit to the Quirinal, and one
+afternoon while strolling along the Corso, in Rome, suddenly came face
+to face with the dainty little figure of Fraeulein Elise Breitenbach.
+
+In delight I took her into Ronzi's, the noted confectioner's at the
+corner of the Piazza Colonna, and there, at one of the little tables,
+she explained to me how she and her mother, having become acquainted
+with Franz Seeliger--not knowing him to be the General's son--they
+suddenly fell under the suspicion of the Berlin Secret Police, and,
+though much puzzled, did not again come to Court.
+
+Some weeks later mother and daughter chanced to be in Paris, and one day
+called at Seeliger's rooms in the Rue de Provence, but he was out. They,
+however, were shown into his room to wait, and there saw upon his table
+an abusive and scurrilous typewritten letter in German addressed to the
+Emperor. Then it suddenly dawned upon them that the affable young man
+might be the actual author of those infamous letters. It was this visit
+which, no doubt, revealed to the Baron the young man's hiding-place.
+Both mother and daughter, however, kept their own counsel, met Seeliger
+next day, and watched, subsequently learning, to their surprise, that he
+was the son of General von Trautmann, and, further, that he had as a
+friend one of the personal valets of the Emperor, from whom, no doubt,
+he obtained his inside information about persons at Court.
+
+"When his poor father was sentenced we knew that the young man was
+living in Brussels, and at once went there in order to induce him to
+come forward, make confession, and so save the General from disgrace,"
+said the pretty girl seated before me. "On arrival we saw him alone, and
+told him what we had discovered in the Rue de Provence, whereupon he
+admitted to us that he had written all the letters, and announced that
+he intended to return to Berlin next day and give himself up to the
+police in order to secure his father's release."
+
+"And why did he not do so?" I asked eagerly.
+
+"Because next morning he was found dead in his bed in the hotel."
+
+"Ah, suicide."
+
+"No," was her half-whispered reply. "He had been strangled by an unknown
+hand--deliberately murdered, as the Brussels police declared. They were,
+of course, much mystified, for they did not know, as we know, that
+neither the young man's presence nor his confession were desired in
+Berlin."
+
+Fearing the Emperor's wrath, the Breitenbachs, like myself, dare not
+reveal what they knew--the truth, which is here set down for the first
+time--and, alas! poor General von Trautmann died in prison at Mulheim
+last year.
+
+
+
+
+SECRET NUMBER THREE
+
+HOW THE KAISER PERSECUTED A PRINCESS
+
+
+The truth of the dastardly plot which caused the downfall of the
+unfortunate and much-maligned Imperial Princess Luisa Antoinette Marie,
+Archduchess of Austria, and wife of Friedrich-August, now the reigning
+King of Saxony, has never yet been revealed.
+
+I know, my dear Le Queux, that you had a good deal to do with the
+"skittish Princess," as she was called, and her affairs after she had
+left the Court of Saxony and went to live near you in the Via Benedetto
+da Foiano, in Florence. You were her friend, and you were afterwards
+present at her secret marriage in London. Therefore, what I here reveal
+concerning a disgraceful conspiracy by which a clever, accomplished, and
+generous Princess of the blood Royal was hounded out of Germany will, I
+think, be of peculiar interest to yourself and to those readers for whom
+you are setting down my reminiscences.
+
+As you know, before being appointed to my recent position in the
+Crown-Prince "Willie's" household, I was personal-adjutant to His
+Majesty the Emperor, and in that capacity accompanied Der Einzige (the
+One) on his constant travels. Always hungry for popular applause, the
+Emperor was ever on the move with that morbid restlessness of which he
+is possessed, and which drove him from city to city, hunting, yachting,
+unveiling statues, opening public buildings, paying ceremonial visits,
+or, when all excuses for travel became exhausted, he presented new
+colours to some regiment in some far-off garrison.
+
+Indeed, within that one year, 1902, I accompanied "William-the-Sudden"
+and his host of adjutants, military and civil secretaries, valets,
+chasseurs and flunkeys, to twenty-eight different cities in Germany and
+Scandinavia, where he stopped and held Court. Some cities we visited
+several times, being unwelcome always because of the endless trouble,
+anxiety and expense caused to the municipal authorities and military
+casinos.
+
+I, of course, knew the charming Imperial Highness the Crown-Princess
+Luisa of Saxony, as she often came on visits to the Kaiserin, but I had
+never spoken much with her until at Easter the Emperor went to visit
+Dresden. He took with him, among other people, one of his untitled boon
+companions, Judicial Councillor Loehlein, a stout, flabby-faced
+hanger-on, who at the time possessed great influence over him. Indeed,
+he was really the Emperor's financial agent. This man had, some time
+ago, very fortunately for the Emperor, opened his eyes to the way in
+which Kunze had manipulated the amazing Schloss Freiheit Lottery, and
+had been able to point out to the All-Highest One what a storm of
+ridicule, indignation and defiance must arise in Berlin if he attempted
+to carry out his huge reconstruction and building scheme.
+
+I was present in the Emperor's room at Potsdam when old Loehlein, with
+whom sat Herr von Wedell, openly declared to the Emperor that if he
+prosecuted his pet building scheme great indignation must arise, not
+only in the capital, but in Hanover, Wiesbaden, and Kassel.
+
+The Kaiser knitted his brows and listened attentively to both of his
+advisers. I well remember how, next day, the Press, in order to allay
+the public dissatisfaction, declared that the huge building projects of
+the Emperor never existed. They had been purely imaginary ideas put
+forward by a syndicate of speculative builders and taken up by the
+newspapers.
+
+Without doubt the podgy, fair-haired man in gold-rimmed spectacles, the
+Judicial Councillor Loehlein, by crushing the Kaiser's mad scheme gained
+considerable popularity in a certain circle. He was, however, a man of
+exceptional craft and cunning, and during the eight years or so he
+remained the intimate friend of the Emperor he must have, by advising
+and looking after the Imperial investments, especially in America,
+amassed a great fortune.
+
+On the occasion of our Easter visit to the Saxon Court--a Court which,
+to say the least, was a most dull and uninteresting one--we all went, as
+is the custom there, to the shoot at the Vogelschiessen, a large wooden
+bird made up of pieces which fall out when hit in a vital part. The bird
+target is set up at the Easter fair held close to Dresden, and on that
+afternoon the whole Court annually go to try their skill at
+marksmanship. We were a merry party. The Emperor went with the old King
+and Queen of Saxony, being accompanied by the Crown-Prince
+Friedrich-August and the Crown-Princess Luisa, merry, laughing, full of
+spirits, and unusually good-looking for a Royalty.
+
+The Saxon Royal Family all shot, and, thanks to her father's tuition,
+the Crown-Princess knocked a piece out of the bird at the first shot,
+which sent the public wild with enthusiasm.
+
+Luisa was the most popular woman in Saxony, and deservedly so, for hers
+had been a love match. Her father, Ferdinand IV., Grand Duke of Tuscany,
+had, at the suggestion of the Emperor Francis Joseph, endeavoured to
+arrange a match between the Princess and the man now known as "foxy"
+Ferdinand of Bulgaria. With that object a grand _diner de ceremonie_ was
+held one night at the Imperial Castle of Salzburg, and at that dinner
+Luisa, suspecting the conspiracy, publicly insulted the Ruler of
+Bulgaria, which for ever put an end to the paternal plans.
+
+After her marriage to the Saxon Crown-Prince the Kaiser, in one of his
+whimsical moods, became greatly attached to her because of her
+frankness, her love of outdoor life, and her high educational
+attainments, hence we often had her visiting at Potsdam or at the Berlin
+Schloss. She was known to be one of the few feminine Royalties in whom
+the Kaiser took the slightest interest.
+
+After our return from the public shooting to the Royal Palace in
+Dresden, a banquet was, of course, held in honour of the Emperor in that
+great hall where, on the walls, the four estates are represented by
+scenes from the history of the Emperor Henry I.
+
+At the grand ball afterwards I found myself chatting with Luisa, who, I
+recollect, wore a most charming and artistic gown of sea-green chiffon,
+_decollete_, of course, with pink carnations in her hair and a few
+diamonds upon her corsage, as well as the Order of St. Elizabeth and her
+magnificent rope of matched pearls, which went twice round her neck and
+reached to her knees--a historic set which had once belonged to Marie
+Antoinette. She looked very charming, and, in her frank way, asked me:
+
+"How do you like my dress, Count? I designed it myself," she added.
+
+I complimented her upon it, but I afterwards heard that the old King of
+Saxony had been horrified at the lowness to which the bodice had been
+cut, and, further, that every yard of green chiffon in Dresden had been
+sold out before noon next day and the dress copied everywhere.
+
+As we stood chatting in a corner of the room, watching the scene of
+unusual brilliancy because of the Kaiser's presence, the Princess,
+turning to me, said suddenly:
+
+"Do you believe in omens, Count von Heltzendorff?"
+
+"Omens!" I exclaimed, rather surprised at her question. "Really, I'm
+afraid I am a little too matter-of-fact to take such things seriously,
+your Highness."
+
+"Well, a curious thing happened here about a month ago," she said. "I
+was----" At that instant the Emperor, in the uniform of the 2nd Regiment
+of Saxon Grenadiers, of which he was chief, and wearing the Order of
+Crancelin of the House of Saxony, strode up, and, standing before us
+exclaimed:
+
+"Well, Luisa? What is the very interesting topic of conversation, eh?"
+He had evidently overheard her words about some curious thing happening,
+for, laughing gaily, he asked; "Now, what did happen a month ago?"
+
+Her Imperial Highness hesitated, as though endeavouring to avoid an
+explanation, but next second she waved her lace fan quickly and said:
+
+"Well, something remarkable. I will tell your Majesty if you really wish
+to hear it."
+
+"By all means, Luisa, by all means," replied His Majesty, placing his
+sound hand behind his back and drawing himself up very erect--a habit of
+his after asking a question.
+
+"Well, recently Friedrich-August and myself have moved into rooms in the
+older wing of the Palace--rooms that have not been occupied for nearly
+forty years. They are old-world, charming, and remind me constantly of
+Augustus the Strong and the times in which he lived. Just about a month
+ago the King and Queen of Roumania were paying us a visit. We were at
+dinner, and while we were all laughing and talking, for 'Carmen Sylva'
+had been telling us one of her stories, we heard a great clatter of
+horses' hoofs and the heavy rumble of wheels, just as though a stage
+coach was crossing the Small Courtyard. All of us listened, and in the
+silence we heard it receding quite distinctly. I at once sent my
+lady-in-waiting to ascertain who had arrived or departed, four-wheeled
+coaches being quite unusual nowadays. It seemed just as though the coach
+had driven out of the Palace gate. The message brought back from the
+guardroom was that no carriage had entered or left. I told this to
+those around the table, and the Queen of Roumania, who had taken much
+interest in omens and folk-lore, seated opposite me, seemed much
+impressed, and even perturbed."
+
+"Then the noise you heard must have been quite an uncanny one, eh?"
+asked the Emperor, deeply interested.
+
+"Quite. Two of the women at the table declared that it must have been
+thunder, and then the conversation proceeded. I, however, confess to
+your Majesty that I was very much puzzled, and the more so because only
+two nights ago, while we sat at dinner Friedrich-August and myself _en
+famille_, we heard exactly the same sounds again!"
+
+"Really!" laughed the Emperor. "Quite uncanny. I hope, here in Dresden,
+you are not believing in spooks, as London society believes in them."
+
+"Not at all," said the Princess earnestly. "I don't believe in omens.
+But, curiously enough, the King told me yesterday that his two old
+aunts, who formerly lived in our wing of the Palace, had sometimes heard
+the clatter of horses' hoofs, the jingle of harness, the grinding of the
+brakes, and the rumbling of heavy carriage wheels."
+
+"H'm!" grunted the Emperor. "I've heard that same story before, Luisa.
+The departing coach means trouble to the reigning family."
+
+"That is exactly what the King said to me only last evening," answered
+Luisa frankly. "Does it mean trouble to me, I wonder?"
+
+"Certainly not," I declared. "Your Imperial Highness need not worry for
+one moment over such things. Nobody nowadays regards such phenomena as
+presage of evil. There is no doubt some perfectly natural explanation of
+the sounds. Every old palace, castle, and even private house, has its
+traditions."
+
+"Quite right, Heltzendorff," laughed the Emperor, "especially in England
+and Scotland. There they have white ladies, grey ladies, men with heads
+like stags, lights in windows, the sound of mysterious bells ringing,
+and all sorts of evil omens. Oh, those dear, superstitious English! How
+ready they are to take up anything unpractical that may be a pleasant
+change to the senses."
+
+"Your Majesty does not believe in omens?" I ventured to remark.
+
+"Omens!" he exclaimed, fixing his gaze upon me. "No; none but cowards
+and old women believe in them." Then, turning to the Princess, he
+smiled, saying: "If I were you, Luisa, I would give your chief of police
+orders to question all the servants. Somebody rattled some dishes,
+perhaps. You say it was during dinner."
+
+But the pretty Crown-Princess was serious, for she said:
+
+"Well, all I can say is that not only did I myself hear, but a dozen
+others at table also heard the noise of horses, not dishes."
+
+"Ah, Luisa! I see you are a trifle nervous," laughed the Emperor. "Well,
+as you know, your Royal House of Saxony has lasted from the days of
+Albert the Courageous in the early fifteenth century, and the Dynasty of
+the Ravensteins has been prosperous from then until to-day, so don't
+trouble yourself further. Why, you are really quite pale and unnerved, I
+see," His Majesty added, for nothing escapes those shrewd, wide-open
+eyes of his.
+
+Then the Emperor, after acknowledging the salute of Baron Georg von
+Metzsch, Controller of the Royal Household--a tall, thin, crafty-eyed
+man, with hair tinged with grey, and wearing a dark blue uniform and
+many decorations--changed the topic of conversation, and referred to the
+Saxon Easter custom which that morning had been carried out.
+
+The Kaiser was in particularly merry mood that night. He had gone to
+Dresden against his inclination, for he had long ago arranged an Easter
+review on the Tempelhofer Feld, but the visit was, I knew, for the
+purpose of a consultation in secret with the King of Saxony. A week
+before, in the Berlin Schloss, I had been sent by the Emperor to obtain
+a paper from his table in the upstairs study, and in looking for the
+document in question--one that he had signed and wished to send over to
+the Reichsamt des Innern (Office of the Interior)--I came across a
+letter from King George of Saxony, begging the Emperor to visit him, in
+order to discuss "that matter which is so seriously threatening the
+honour of our House."
+
+Several times I wondered to what His Majesty of Saxony had referred.
+That morning Emperor and King had been closeted alone together for fully
+three hours, and the outcome of the secret conference seemed to have put
+the All-Highest into a most excellent mood.
+
+He left us, accompanied by Baron von Metzsch and Judicial Councillor
+Loehlein, and I noticed how both men were talking with the Emperor in an
+undertone. To my surprise also I saw how Loehlein cast furtive glances
+towards where I still stood with the Crown-Princess.
+
+A few moments later, however, a smart officer of the Prussian Guard,
+whom I recognized as Count von Castell Rudenhausen, a well-known figure
+in the gay life of Berlin, came forward, and, bowing, invited the
+Princess to waltz.
+
+And a moment later Luisa was smiling at me across the shoulder of her
+good-looking cavalier.
+
+Suddenly, while waltzing, her magnificent rope of historic matched
+pearls accidentally caught in the button of a passing officer, the
+string snapped, and many of the pearls fell rattling upon the polished
+floor.
+
+In a moment a dozen officers in tight uniforms were groping about to
+recover them from the feet of the dancers when, during the commotion, I
+heard the voice of Judicial Councillor Loehlein remark quite loudly:
+
+"Ah! now we can all see who are the Crown-Princess' admirers!"
+
+Luisa flushed instantly in anger and annoyance, but said nothing, whilst
+her lady-in-waiting in silence took the broken rope of pearls, together
+with those recovered from the floor, and a few moments later the
+significant incident ended.
+
+The Saxon Crown-Prince and his wife were at that time a most devoted
+couple, though all of us knew that the modern ideas Luisa had brought to
+Dresden from the Hapsburg Court had much shocked old King George and his
+consort. The Saxon Court was unused to a pretty woman with buoyant
+spirits rejoicing in life with a capital "L." According to the Court
+whisperings, trouble had started a few days after marriage, when the
+King, having given his daughter-in-law a tiara of diamonds, a Royal
+heirloom, with strict injunctions to wear them just as they were--a
+style of the seventeenth century--he one evening at the opera saw her
+wearing the stones re-set in that style known as _art nouveau_. The King
+became furious, and ordered them to be set again in their original
+settings, whereupon Luisa coolly returned the present.
+
+Such was the commencement of the old King's ill-feeling towards her.
+
+The State ball that night was certainly a brilliant one for such a small
+Court, and next day we all returned to Potsdam, for the Emperor had
+suddenly cancelled a number of engagements and arranged to pay a visit
+to Wilhelmshaven, where the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Dockyard)
+contained certain naval secrets he wished to see.
+
+Before we left Dresden, however, I met the Crown-Princess in one of the
+corridors. It was nine o'clock in the morning. She wore her
+riding-habit, for, being a splendid horsewoman, she had just come in
+from her morning canter.
+
+"Well, Count!" she laughed. "So you are leaving us unexpectedly! I
+shall be coming to pay another visit to Potsdam soon. The Emperor
+invited me last night. Au revoir!" And after I had bent over her small
+white hand she waved it merrily and passed the sentry towards her
+private apartments, wherein she had heard the ghostly coach and four.
+
+Her Imperial Highness paid her promised visit to the Empress at the
+Neues Palais in July.
+
+At the time of her arrival the Emperor had left suddenly and gone away
+to Hubertusstock. When anything unusual upset him he always went there.
+I overheard him the day before his departure shouting to Loehlein as I
+passed along one of the corridors. The Judicial Councillor seemed to be
+trying to pacify him, but apparently entirely without avail, for the
+Emperor is a man not easily convinced.
+
+"You are as sly as all the rest!" I heard the Emperor declare in that
+shrill, high-pitched tone which always denotes his anger. "I'll hear
+none of it--no excuses. I want no fawning, no Jew-juggling."
+
+Then, fearing to be discovered, I slipped on past the door.
+
+The next I heard was that the Kaiser had left for that lonely retreat to
+which he went when he wished to be alone in those periods of crazy
+impetuosity which periodically seized the Mad Dog of Europe; and,
+further, that he had taken with him his crafty crony, Loehlein.
+
+During that mysterious absence--when the tinselled world of Potsdam
+seemed at peace--the good-looking Saxon Crown-Princess arrived.
+
+I was on duty on the railway platform to bow over her hand and to
+welcome her.
+
+"Ah! Count von Heltzendorff! Well, did I not say that I should not be
+very long before I returned to Potsdam, eh?" she exclaimed. Then, in a
+whisper, she said with a merry laugh: "Do you remember those clattering
+hoofs and my broken rope of pearls? Nothing has happened yet."
+
+"And nothing will," I assured her as, with a courtier's obeisance, I
+conducted Her Imperial Highness to the Royal carriage, where the
+Crown-Prince "Willie" was awaiting her, chatting with two officers of
+the Guard to while away the time.
+
+Three days later an incident occurred which caused me a good deal of
+thought, and, truth to tell, mystified me considerably.
+
+That somewhat indiscreet journal, the _Militaer Wochenblatt_, had
+published a statement to the effect that Friedrich-August of Saxony and
+the handsome Luisa had had a violent quarrel, a fact which caused a
+great deal of gossip throughout Court circles.
+
+Old Von Donaustauf, who at that time was master of the ceremonies at the
+Emperor's Court, busied himself by spreading strange scandals regarding
+the Crown-Princess Luisa. Therefore, in the circumstances, it struck me
+as strange that Her Highness should have been invited to the puritanical
+and hypocritical circle at Potsdam.
+
+That afternoon, soon after the guard had been changed, I chanced to be
+writing in my room, which overlooked the big central courtyard, when I
+heard the guard suddenly turn out in great commotion, by which I knew
+that His Majesty had suddenly returned from Hubertusstock.
+
+Ten minutes later my telephone rang, and, passing the sentries, I went
+by order to His Majesty's study, that chamber of plots and secrets, hung
+with its faded pale green silk damask, its furniture covered with the
+same material, and its net curtains at the windows threaded with ribbons
+of the same shade.
+
+The moment I entered the Emperor's countenance showed me that he was
+very angry. His low-bowing crony, Loehlein, always a subtle adviser, had
+returned with him, and stood watching the Emperor as the latter
+impatiently paced the room.
+
+I saluted, awaiting orders in silence, as was my habit, but so
+preoccupied was His Majesty that he did not notice my presence, but
+continued his outburst of furious wrath. "Only see what Von Hoensbroech
+has reported!" he cried, suddenly halting against one of those big buhl
+chests of drawers with grey marble tops--heavy pieces of furniture
+veneered with tortoise-shell in which the Emperor keeps his official
+papers. "I am being made a laughing-stock--and you know it, Loehlein! It
+has been said of us that a woman, a whim, or a word will to-day raise
+any person to high rank in our Empire! That blackguard, Harden, has
+actually dared to write it in his journal. Well, we shall see. That
+woman--she shall----"
+
+As the Kaiser uttered those words he suddenly realized that I was
+present, and hesitated. Next second both his tone and his manner
+changed.
+
+"Heltzendorff--I--I--wish you to go to Dresden and take a private
+letter. It will be ready in half an hour. Say nothing to anyone
+concerning your departure, but report to me here at"--and he glanced at
+the small bronze clock on the overmantel between two elegant
+candelabra--"at four o'clock."
+
+As commanded, I reported, but the Kaiser was with the Empress, who, in
+one of her private apartments, was holding _petit cercle_, the Princess
+Luisa being present. Indeed, as I entered that semi-circular salon the
+Kaiser was standing astride before Luisa's chair laughing gaily with
+her. Surely none who saw him at that moment would ever have believed
+that not half an hour before his face had been blanched by anger. He
+could alter his moods just as he changed his three hundred odd uniforms.
+
+There was something mysterious in the wind--of that I felt absolutely
+convinced. The atmosphere of that faded green upstairs room was always
+one of confidential conversations, intimate conferences and secret
+plots--plots despicable and vile, as has since been proved--against the
+peace of the world.
+
+The Emperor, noticing that I had entered the Imperial presence, came
+forward, and I followed him back into the softly-carpeted corridor. Then
+his action further aroused my curiosity, for he took from the inner
+pocket of his tunic an envelope of what you in England call "court"
+size--linen-lined, as are all envelopes used by the Emperor for his
+private correspondence. I saw it had been sealed in black by his own
+hand. Then, as he handed it to me, he said:
+
+"Go to Dresden as quickly as possible and obtain a reply to this."
+
+I clicked my heels together, and, saluting, left upon my secret mission
+to the Saxon Court.
+
+The letter was addressed to Baron Georg von Metzsch at Dresden.
+
+Next day, when I presented it to the tall, thin Controller of the
+Household, who sat in his small but cosy room in the Royal Palace, I saw
+that its contents greatly puzzled him.
+
+He wrote a reply, and as Imperial messenger I returned at once to
+Potsdam, handing it to the Emperor as he strode alone from the Shell
+Saloon, through which he was passing after dinner.
+
+He took it from my hand without a word. The All-Highest never bestows
+thanks upon those who obey his orders. It is, indeed, said to-day that
+Hindenburg has never once, during his whole official career, been
+verbally thanked by his Imperial Master.
+
+The Emperor, with impatient fingers, tore open the envelope, read its
+contents, and then smiled contentedly, after which I went to old Von
+Donaustauf's room, and, tired out by the long journey, smoked a good
+cigar in his company.
+
+Next day we were all back at the Berlin Schloss--for we never knew from
+day to day where we might be--Hamburg, Stuttgart, Duesseldorf or Danzig.
+
+During the morning His Majesty inspected the Berlin garrison in the
+Tempelhofer Feld, and the Princess Luisa rode with him. That same
+afternoon, while I was busy writing in the long room allotted to me in
+the Berlin Schloss, Her Imperial Highness, to my surprise, entered,
+closing the door quietly after her.
+
+"Count von Heltzendorff, you have been on a secret mission to that spy,
+Von Metzsch, in Dresden, have you not?"
+
+I rose, bowed, and without replying courteously offered her a chair.
+
+"Why do you not admit it?" she asked quickly.
+
+"Princess, if the Emperor gives me orders to preserve secrecy, then it
+is my duty to obey," I said.
+
+"I know," she answered, and then I realized how upset and nervous she
+seemed. "But Von Metzsch hates me, and has put about all sorts of
+scandalous reports concerning me. Ah! Count," she sighed, "you do not
+know how very unhappy I am--how I am surrounded by enemies!"
+
+These words caused me much surprise, though I had, of course, heard many
+unsavoury rumours regarding her unhappy position at the Saxon Court.
+
+"I much regret to hear that," I said. "But Your Imperial Highness has
+also many friends, of whom I hope I may be permitted to number myself."
+
+"Ah! it is extremely good of you to say that--very good. If
+you are really my friend, then you can help me. You are in a
+position to watch and discover what is in progress--the reason
+the Emperor exchanges those constant confidences with Von Metszch,
+the man who has twisted my husband around his little finger,
+and who has, with my Lady-of-the-Bedchamber, Frau von Fritsch,
+already poisoned his mind against me. Ah!" she sighed again,
+"you have no idea how much I have suffered!"
+
+She seemed on the verge of a nervous crisis, for I saw that in her fine
+eyes stood the light of unshed tears, and I confess I was much puzzled,
+for I had certainly believed, up to that moment, that she was on
+excellent terms with her husband.
+
+"But surely His Highness the Crown-Prince of Saxony does not believe
+any of those wicked reports?" I said.
+
+"Ah! Then you have heard. Of course, you have. Von Metzsch has taken
+good care to let the whole world know the lies that he and the Countess
+Paule Starhemberg have concocted between them. It is cruel!" she
+declared in a paroxysm of grief. "It is wicked!"
+
+"No, no. Calm yourself, Princess!" I urged sympathetically. "I am at
+least your friend, and will act as such should occasion arise."
+
+"I thank you," she sighed in relief, and she put out her hand, over
+which I bent as I took it in friendship.
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed in a low voice. "I fear I shall require the
+assistance of a friend very soon. Do you recollect my broken pearls?"
+
+And a few moments later she left my room.
+
+Through all that day and the next I wondered what sly, underhand work
+could be in progress. I pitied the good-looking, unconventional Imperial
+Princess who, because of her somewhat hoydenish high spirits, had
+aroused the storm of anger and jealousy in the Saxon Court. But the
+Hapsburgs had ever been unfortunate in their loves.
+
+On the day before the Crown-Princess's visit to the Berlin Court was due
+to end, at about six o'clock in the evening, I passed the sentries and
+ascended to the Emperor's study with some papers I had been going
+through regarding the reorganization of the Stettin garrison. I was one
+of the very few persons ever admitted to that wing of the Palace.
+
+As I approached the door, treading noiselessly upon the soft carpet, I
+heard voices raised excitedly, the door being slightly ajar.
+
+Naturally I halted. In my position I was able to hear a great deal of
+Palace intrigue, but never had I listened to a conversation that held me
+more breathless than at that moment.
+
+"Woman," cried the Emperor, "do you, then, openly defy my authority?"
+
+"What that crafty sycophant, Von Metzsch, has told you is, I repeat, a
+foul and abominable lie," was the reply.
+
+And I knew that the unfortunate Princess was defending her reputation,
+which her enemies at the Court of Saxony had torn to shreds.
+
+"No woman ever admits the truth, of course," sneered the Emperor. "I
+consider you a disgrace to the Dresden Court."
+
+"So this is the manner in which you openly insult your guests!" was the
+Princess's bitter retort. "You, who believe yourself the idol of your
+people, now exhibit yourself in your true light as the traducer of a
+defenceless woman!"
+
+"How dare you utter those words to me!" cried the All-Highest One, in
+fury.
+
+"I dare defend myself--even though you may be Emperor," replied Luisa,
+in a cold, hard tone of defiance. "I repeat that your allegations are
+untrue, and that you have no right to make them. Surely you can see that
+my enemies, headed by the King of Saxony, are all conspiring to effect
+my downfall. I know it! I have written proof of it!"
+
+"Bosh! You say that because you know that the statements are true!"
+
+"You lie!" she cried fiercely. "They are not true. You cannot prove
+them."
+
+"Very well," answered the Emperor in that tone of cold determination
+that I knew too well. "I will prove the charges to my entire
+satisfaction."
+
+I was startled at the manner in which the Princess had dared to call the
+Emperor a liar. Surely nobody had ever done so before.
+
+I drew a long breath, for as I crept away unseen I recollected the
+Kaiser's unrelenting vindictiveness.
+
+Poor Princess! I knew that the red talons of the Hohenzollern eagle
+would sooner or later be laid heavily upon her.
+
+She left Berlin two hours later, but half an hour before her departure I
+found a hurriedly-scribbled note upon my table explaining that she had
+had "a few unpleasant words with the Emperor," and that she was leaving
+for Dresden a day earlier than had been arranged.
+
+A fortnight passed. Twice Baron von Metzsch came to Potsdam, and was on
+each occasion closely closeted with the Emperor, as well as having
+frequent consultations with Judicial Councillor Loehlein. I had strong
+suspicion that the vile conspiracy against the lively daughter of the
+Hapsburgs was still in progress, for I felt assured that the Kaiser
+would never forgive those words of defiance from a woman's lips, and
+that his vengeance, slow and subtle, would assuredly fall upon her.
+
+I did not know at the time--not, indeed, until fully three years
+later--how the blackguardly actions of Von Metzsch, who was a creature
+of the Kaiser, had from the first been instigated by the All-Highest,
+who, from the very day of the Prince's marriage, had, notwithstanding
+his apparent graciousness towards her, determined that a Hapsburg should
+never become Queen of Saxony.
+
+For that reason, namely, because the Emperor in his overweening vanity
+believes himself to be the Heaven-sent ruler of the destinies of the
+German Empire, was much opposed to an Austrian princess as a potential
+queen at Dresden, he set himself the task to ruin the poor woman's life
+and love and to arouse such a terrible scandal concerning her that she
+could not remain in Saxony with every finger pointing at her in
+opprobrium and scorn.
+
+A fresh light, however, was thrown upon what I afterwards realized to be
+a dastardly conspiracy by the receipt of a cipher message late one
+November night at Potsdam. I was at work alone with the Emperor in the
+pale green upstairs room, reading and placing before him a number of
+State documents to which he scrawled his scribbly signature, when the
+telegram was brought.
+
+"Decipher that, Heltzendorff," he commanded, and went on with the work
+of reading and signing the documents, while I sat down with the red
+leather-covered personal code book which bore the Imperial coronet and
+cipher, and presently found that the message, which was from Dresden,
+read:
+
+     "Frau von Fritsch to-day had an interview with Giron, the French
+     tutor to the Crown-Princess's children, but unfortunately the
+     latter refuses to admit any affection for Luisa. Giron angrily
+     declared his intention to leave Dresden, because of Von Fritsch's
+     suggestion. This course, I saw, would be unfortunate for our plans,
+     therefore I urged the King to induce Luisa to request him to
+     remain. She has done so, but to no avail, and Giron left for
+     Brussels to-night. May I be permitted to come to discuss with your
+     Majesty a further elaboration of the plan?--VON METZSCH."
+
+The Emperor read the secret message twice. Then he paused, with knit
+brows, and brushed his moustache with his hand, a habit of his when
+perplexed.
+
+"We go to Erfurt to-morrow, do we not?" he said. "Telegraph in cipher to
+Von Metzsch to meet us there to-morrow evening at seven. And destroy
+that message," he added.
+
+I obeyed his orders, and afterwards continued to deal with the State
+papers, much enlightened by the news transmitted by the Emperor's
+creature.
+
+The Imperial hand was slowly destroying the conjugal happiness of a pair
+who really loved each other, even though they were of the blood royal.
+The long arm of the Emperor was outstretched to crush and pulverize the
+soul of the woman who had dared to defend herself--who had defied the
+imperious will of that man whose hand he had, with awful blasphemy in
+addressing his Brandenburgers, declared to be the hand of God.
+
+I confess that I felt the deepest sympathy for the helpless victim. At
+the Schloss, high above the old-world town of Erfurt, the sneaking
+sycophant Von Metzsch had a long conference with the Emperor but I was
+unable to overhear any word of it. All I know is that the Controller of
+the Saxon Household left Erfurt for Dresden by special train at
+midnight.
+
+A quarter of an hour after the Saxon functionary had departed I was with
+the Emperor receiving orders for the following day, and found him in
+high spirits, by which, knowing him so intimately, I knew that he was
+confident in his ultimate triumph.
+
+Poor, defenceless Luisa! You, my dear Le Queux, to whom the Princess a
+few months afterwards flew for advice, know well how sterling, how
+womanly and honest she was; how she was one victim of many of the
+unholy, unscrupulous intrigues by which the arrogant War-Lord of
+Germany, aided by his devil's spawn, has until the present managed to
+retain his now tottering throne.
+
+Well, I watched the course of events; watched eagerly and daily. Twice I
+had received letters from Her Imperial Highness, short notes in her
+firm, bold handwriting.
+
+From Von Metzsch came several cipher messages to the Emperor after we
+had returned to Potsdam, but Zorn von Bulach, my colleague, deciphered
+all of them, and, as he was not my friend, I did not inquire as to their
+purport. I knew, however, that matters in Dresden were fast approaching
+a crisis, and that the unfortunate Hapsburg Princess could no longer
+sustain the cruel and unjust pressure being put upon her for her
+undoing. That a hundred of Germany's spies and _agents-provocateurs_
+were busy I realized from the many messages by telephone and telegraph
+passing between Berlin and Dresden, and I felt certain that the ruin of
+poor Princess Luisa was nigh.
+
+A significant message came to Potsdam late one December night--a message
+which, when I deciphered it and handed it to the Emperor, caused him to
+smile in triumph.
+
+I bit my lip. The Princess had left Dresden!
+
+Three days later, on December 9th, a further cipher telegram came from
+Von Metzsch, the Emperor's sycophant in Dresden, which read: "Luisa has
+learnt of the Sonnenstein project, and has left Salsburg for Zurich, her
+brother accompanying.--VON METZSCH."
+
+Sonnenstein! That was a private lunatic asylum! I held my breath at the
+awful fate which the Emperor had decided should be hers.
+
+In a few moments the Kaiser had summoned, by his private telephone,
+Koehler, then chief of the Berlin secret police, and given orders that
+the Princess was to be watched in Switzerland. Half an hour later three
+police agents were on their way to Zurich to follow and persecute the
+poor, distracted woman, even beyond the confines of the Empire.
+
+She was, no doubt, in deadly fear of being sent to a living tomb, so
+that her mouth should be closed for ever.
+
+The Emperor, not content with casting her out of Germany, intended to
+wreak a terrible and fiendish revenge upon her by closing her lips and
+confining her in an asylum. She knew that, and seeing herself surrounded
+by enemies and spies on every hand--for even her brother Leopold, with
+whom she had travelled to Switzerland, now refused to assist her--she
+adopted the only method of further escape that at the moment presented
+itself.
+
+Alone and without anyone to advise her, she, as you know, took a
+desperate resolve, one, alas! fraught with disastrous consequences.
+
+The iron had indeed entered the poor Princess's soul.
+
+
+NOTE BY WILLIAM LE QUEUX
+
+_The denouement of this base intrigue of the Emperor's will be best
+related in Her Imperial Highness's own words. In one of her letters,
+which I have on my table as I write, she says:_
+
+_"I saw before me in those never-to-be-forgotten days all the horrors of
+a 'Maison de Sante.' What could I do? I was friendless in a strange
+hotel. Even Leopold seemed disinclined to be further troubled by a
+runaway sister. I knew Frau von Fritsch, that unscrupulous liar, had
+accused me falsely of having secret love affairs, and that the Emperor
+had directed the whole plot which was to culminate in my confinement in
+an asylum. Suddenly a solution occurred to me. I remembered that
+Monsieur Giron, who had already suffered greatly through his friendship
+with me. If he joined me, then my flight from Dresden would be
+considered as an elopement, and I should escape a living death in a
+madhouse! Monsieur Giron was at that moment my only friend, and it was
+for that reason that I telegraphed to him at Brussels. Well, he joined
+me, and by doing so completed the Emperor's triumph."_
+
+_The subtle, ever-scheming Madman of Europe, warped as he is in soul as
+in body, had, with his true Hun craftiness and unscrupulousness, aided
+by Judicial Councillor Loehlein and the spy Von Metzsch, succeeded in
+hounding down an honest, defenceless woman as high born as his own
+diseased self, and casting her in ignominy and shame out of his now
+doomed Empire._
+
+
+
+
+SECRET NUMBER FOUR
+
+THE MYSTERIOUS FRAU KLEIST
+
+
+The clever intrigues of Frau Kleist were unknown to any outside the
+Court circle at Potsdam.
+
+She was indeed a queer personage, "only less of a personality than His
+Majesty," as that shiftiest of German statesmen, Prince Buelow, declared
+to me one day as we sat together in my room in the Berlin Schloss.
+
+Frau Kleist was the Court dancing-mistress, whose fastidious judgment
+had to be satisfied by any young debutante or officer before they
+presumed to dance before Royalty at the State balls. Before every ball
+Frau Kleist held several dance rehearsals in the Weisser-Saal (White
+Salon) at the Berlin Schloss, and she was more exacting than any pompous
+General on parade. Perhaps she was seventy. Her real age I never knew.
+But, friends that we were, she often chatted with me and deplored the
+flat-footedness of the coming generation of Teutons, and more than once
+I have seen her lift her skirts and, displaying neat silk-stockinged
+ankles on the polished floor of the Weisser-Saal, make, for the benefit
+of the would-be debutantes, graceful tiptoe turns with a marvellous
+grace of movement.
+
+Truly Frau Kleist, with her neat waist and thin, refined face, was a
+very striking figure at the Berlin Court. The intricacies of the minuet
+and gavotte, as well as those of the old-world dances in which she
+delighted, were taught by the old lady to Prince Joachim and Princess
+Victoria Luise, both of whom always went in deadly fear of her caustic
+tongue and overbearing manner.
+
+The Emperor never permitted any dancing at Court which was not up to a
+high standard of excellence, and all who sought to dance were compelled
+to pass before the critical eye of the sharp-tongued old lady in her
+stiff silken gown.
+
+Once, I remember, certain young people of the smart set of Berlin sought
+to introduce irregularities in the Lancers, but they soon discovered
+that their cards were cancelled.
+
+Whence she had come or who had been responsible for her appointment
+nobody knew. One thing was quite certain, that though at an age when
+usually rheumatism prevents agility, yet she was an expert dancer.
+Another thing was also certain, that, if a debutante or a young military
+elegant were awkward or flat-footed, she would train them privately in
+the Terpsichorean art, especially in the old-world dances which are so
+popular at Court, and, accepting a little palm-oil, would then pass
+them--after squeezing them sufficiently--as fit to receive the Imperial
+command to the Court balls.
+
+The old woman, sharp-featured and angular as became her age, with her
+complexion powdered and rouged, lived in considerable style in a fine
+house close to the Glienicke Bridge at Potsdam, beneath the Babelsberg,
+a power to be reckoned with by all who desired to enter the Court
+circle.
+
+Regarding her, many strange stories were afloat. One was that she was an
+ex-dancer, the mother of the famous Mademoiselle "Clo-Clo" Durand,
+_premiere danseuse_ of the Paris Opera, and another was that she had
+been mistress of the ballet at the Imperial Opera in Petrograd in the
+days of the Emperor Alexander. But so great a mystery were her
+antecedents that nobody knew anything for certain, save that, at the age
+of nearly seventy, she had access at any hour to the Kaiser's private
+cabinet. I have often seen her whisper to His Majesty strange secrets
+which she had picked up here and there--secrets that were often
+transferred to certain confidential quarters which control the great
+Teuton octopus.
+
+Those at Court who secured the benignant smiles of Frau Kleist knew that
+their future path in life would be full of sunshine, but woe betide
+those upon whom she knit her brows in disapproval. It was all a question
+of bribery. Frau Kleist kept her pretty house and her big Mercedes car
+upon the secret money payments she received from those who "for value"
+begged her favours. With many young officers the payment to Frau Kleist
+was to open the back door to the Emperor's favour.
+
+We in the Neues Palais (New Palace) knew it. But surely it did not
+concern us, for all of us looked askance at those who strove so
+strenuously and eagerly for "commands" to Court functions, and really we
+were secretly glad if the parvenus of both sexes were well bled before
+they were permitted by Frau Erna to make their obeisance before Royalty.
+
+The palace world at every European Court is a narrow little world of its
+own, unknown and unsuspected by the man in the street. There one sees
+the worst side of human nature without any leaven of the best or even
+nobler side. The salary-grabber, the military adventurer, the pinchbeck
+diplomat, the commercial parvenu, and the scientist, together with their
+heavy-jowled, jewel-bedecked women-folk, elbow each other in order to
+secure the notice of the All-Highest One, who, in that green-upholstered
+private room wherein I worked with him, often smiled at the unseemly
+bustle while he calmly discriminated among men and women according to
+their merits.
+
+It is in that calm discretion that the Emperor excels, possessing almost
+uncanny foresight, combined with a most unscrupulous conscience.
+
+"I know! Frau Kleist has told me!" were the words His Majesty used on
+many occasions when I had ventured perhaps to express doubt regarding
+some scandalous story or serious allegation. Therefore I was confident,
+even though a large section of the entourage doubted it, that the
+seventy-year-old dancing-mistress, whose past was a complete mystery,
+was an important secret agent of the Emperor's.
+
+And what more likely? The Kaiser, as ruler of that complex empire, would
+naturally seek to know the truth concerning those who sought his favour
+before they were permitted to click their heels or wag their fans and
+bow the knee in his Imperial presence. And he had, no doubt, with that
+innate cunning, appointed his creature to the position of Court
+dancing-mistress.
+
+The most elegant, corsetted Prussian officer, even though he could dance
+divinely, was good-looking and perfectly-groomed, would never be
+permitted to enter the Court circle unless a substantial number of marks
+were placed within the old woman's palm. It was her perquisite, and many
+in that ill-paid entourage envied her her means of increasing her
+income.
+
+In no Court in Europe are the purse-strings held so tightly as in that
+of Potsdam. The Emperor and Empress, though immensely wealthy, practise
+the economy of London suburbia. But at every Court bribery is rife in
+order to obtain Royal warrants and dozens of other small favours of that
+kind, just as open payment is necessary to-day to obtain titles of
+nobility. The colour of gold has a fascination which few can resist. If
+it were not so there would be no war in progress to-day.
+
+On October 17th, 1908, I had returned with the Emperor and his suite
+from Hamburg, where His Majesty had been present at the launching of one
+of Herr Ballin's monster American liners, and at three o'clock, after
+the Kaiser had eaten a hurried luncheon, I was seated at the side table
+in his private room in the Berlin Schloss, taking down certain
+confidential instructions which he wished to be sent at once by one of
+the Imperial couriers to the commandant of Posen.
+
+Suddenly Von Kahlberg, my colleague, entered with a message that had
+been taken by the telegraphist attached to the Palace, and handed it to
+His Majesty.
+
+Having read it, the Kaiser at once grew excited, and, turning to me,
+said:
+
+"The Crown-Prince sends word from Potsdam that the American, Orville
+Wright, is flying on the Bornstedter Feld. We must go at once. Order the
+cars. And, Von Kahlberg, inform Her Majesty at once. She will accompany
+us, no doubt."
+
+Quickly I placed before His Majesty one of his photographs--knowing that
+it would be wanted for presentation to the daring American--and he took
+up his pen and scrawled his signature across it. Afterwards I placed it
+in the small, green-painted dispatch-box of steel which I always carried
+when in attendance upon His Imperial Majesty.
+
+Within a quarter of an hour three of the powerful cars were on their way
+to Potsdam, the Emperor with Herr Anton Reitschel--a high German
+official at Constantinople--and Professor Vambery, who happened to be at
+the Palace at the time, in the first car; the Kaiserin with her
+daughter, Victoria Luise, and the latter's _ober-gouvernante_
+(governess), with one of the Court ladies, in the next; while in the
+third I rode with Major von Scholl, one of the equerries.
+
+Cheers rose from the crowds as we passed through the Berlin streets, and
+the Emperor, full of suppressed excitement at the thought of seeing an
+aeroplane flight, constantly saluted as we flew along.
+
+On arrival at the Bornstedter Feld it was already growing dusk, and a
+great disappointment awaited us. The Crown-Prince rode up to inform us
+gravely that the flying was over for the day. At this the Kaiser grew
+angry, for he had been out once before upon a wild-goose chase, only to
+find that Orville Wright had gone home, declaring the wind to be too
+strong.
+
+At his father's anger, however, "Willie" burst out laughing, declaring
+that he was only joking, and that all was in readiness. Indeed, as he
+spoke the aviator, in his leather jacket, came up, and I presented him
+to His Majesty, while from everywhere soldiers and police appeared, in
+order to keep back the crowd to the road.
+
+Then, while we stood alone in the centre of the great, sandy plain, Mr.
+Orville Wright clambered into his machine and, rising, made many
+circuits high above us.
+
+The Emperor stood with Herr Reitschel and the shaggy old Professor,
+straining his eyes with keenest interest. It was the first time His
+Majesty had seen an aeroplane in flight. Much had been promised of old
+Von Zeppelin's invention, yet the German public had, until those
+demonstrations by the American aviator, taken but little heed of the
+heavier-than-air machine. At that time, indeed, the Emperor had not
+taken up Von Zeppelin, and it was only after seeing Orville Wright's
+demonstrations that he entered with any enthusiasm into aeronautical
+problems.
+
+High above us against the clear evening sky, wherein the stars had
+already begun to twinkle, the daring American rose, dipped, and banked,
+his machine droning like a huge gad-fly, much to the interest and
+astonishment of the Emperor.
+
+"Marvellous!" he exclaimed, as I stood beside him, with the Empress on
+his right. "How is it done?"
+
+The crowds went wild with enthusiasm. The sight of a man flying in the
+air, manoeuvring his machine at will, rising swiftly, and then planing
+down with the engine cut off, was one of the most amazing spectacles the
+loyal Potsdamers had ever seen. Even the Emperor, with all his wild
+dreams of world-power, could never for a moment have foreseen what a
+great factor aeroplanes would be in the war which he was so carefully
+plotting.
+
+At last Wright came down in a spiral, banked slightly, steadied himself,
+and then came lightly to earth within a few yards of where we stood,
+having been the first to exhibit to the great War-Lord how completely
+the air had been conquered.
+
+Then, quiet, rather unassuming man that he was, he advanced to receive
+the Imperial congratulations, and to be handed the signed photograph
+which, at the proper moment, I produced like a conjurer from my
+dispatch-box. Afterwards, though it had now grown dark, the Emperor, by
+the powerful headlamps of the three cars, thoroughly examined the
+American's aeroplane, the aviator explaining every detail.
+
+From that moment for months afterwards the Kaiser was constantly talking
+of aviation. He commanded photographs of various types of aeroplanes,
+together with all literature on the subject, to be placed before him.
+Indeed, he sent over to Britain, in secret, two officers to attend the
+aeroplane meetings held at Doncaster and Blackpool, where a large number
+of photographs were secretly taken, and duly found their way to his
+table.
+
+Indeed, it would greatly surprise your English friends, my dear Le
+Queux, if they had only seen the many secret reports and secret
+photographs of all kinds regarding Britain's military, naval, and social
+life, which I have found upon the Emperor's table.
+
+During my appointment I had through my hands many amazing reports
+concerning the financial and social position of well-known English
+politicians and officials, reports made with one ulterior motive--that
+of attempted bribery. The Emperor meant war, and he knew that before he
+could hope for success he must thoroughly "Germanize" Great
+Britain--with what result we all now know.
+
+I have recalled the Emperor's first sight of an aeroplane in flight, in
+company with Herr Anton Reitschel and Professor Vambery, because of an
+incident which occurred that same day. Just before midnight the Emperor,
+seated in his room in the Berlin Schloss, was giving me certain
+instructions to be sent to Carlton House Terrace, when the door opened
+without any knock of permission, and upon the threshold there stood
+that arch-intriguer, Frau Kleist, in her stiff black silk gown, and
+wearing a gleaming diamond brooch, the glitter of which was cold as her
+own steely eyes.
+
+"Have I Your Majesty's permission to enter?" she asked, in her
+high-pitched voice.
+
+"Of course, of course," replied the Emperor, turning in his chair. "Come
+in and close the door. It has turned quite cold to-night. Well?" he
+asked, looking at her inquiringly.
+
+The Emperor is a man of very few words, except when he tells a story.
+
+The Court dancing-mistress hesitated for a second. Their eyes met, and
+in that glance I saw complete understanding.
+
+"May I speak in confidence with Your Majesty?" she asked, advancing into
+the room, her stiff, wide skirts rustling. Except the Court ladies she
+was the only female at Court whom the sentries stationed at the end of
+the corridor allowed to pass to His Majesty's private cabinet.
+
+But Frau Kleist had access everywhere. Her eyes were the eyes of the
+Emperor. Many a diplomat, financier, military or naval commander has
+been raised to position of favourite because he first secured--by
+payment, of course, according to his means--the good graces of the
+_ex-ballerina_. And, alas! many a good, honest man has been cast out of
+the Potsdam circle into oblivion, and even to death, because of the
+poisonous declaration of that smiling, bejewelled old hag.
+
+"Of what do you wish to speak?" inquired the Emperor, who, truth to
+tell, was very busy upon a most important matter concerning the building
+of new submarines, and was perhaps a little annoyed by the intrusion,
+though he did not betray it, so clever was he.
+
+"Of the Reitschel affair," was the old woman's low reply.
+
+At her words the Kaiser frowned slightly, and dismissed me. I bowed
+myself out, and closed the door upon the Emperor and his clever female
+spy.
+
+That she should have at that late hour come from Potsdam--for, looking
+down into the courtyard, I saw the lights of her big Mercedes--showed
+that some underhand work was in progress.
+
+Only a week before I had been discussing Anton Reitschel and his
+position with my intimate friend, old Von Donaustauf, Master of
+Ceremonies, who was supposed to control the ex-dancer, but who in
+reality was in a subordinate position to her, because she had the ear of
+the Emperor at any hour. Petty jealousies, dastardly plots, and constant
+intrigues make up the daily life around the Throne. Half the orders
+given in the Emperor's name are issued without his knowledge, and many
+an order transmitted to the provinces without his authority.
+
+By handling, as I did, hundreds of those secret reports which reached
+the Emperor I had learned much concerning Herr Anton Reitschel, and from
+old Von Donaustauf I had also been able to obtain certain missing links
+concerning the intrigue.
+
+Reitschel, a burly, round-faced, fair-haired Prussian of quite superior
+type, held the position of Chief Director of the German-Ottoman Bank in
+Constantinople. His duty for the past three years had been to conciliate
+the Sultan and to lend German money to any industrial enterprise in
+which any grain of merit could possibly be discovered. He had been
+singled out, taken from the Dresdner Bank, and sent to Constantinople by
+the Kaiser in order to play Germany's secret game in Turkey--especially
+that of the Bagdad Railway--and to combat with German gold Great
+Britain's diplomacy with Tewfik Pasha and old Abdul Hamid, in view of
+"The Day," which the Emperor had long ago determined should soon dawn.
+Was he not the War-Lord? And must not a War-Lord make war?
+
+As old Von Donaustauf had put it, between the whiffs of one of those
+exquisite cigarettes, a consignment of the Sultan's own which came from
+the Yildiz Kiosk to Potsdam weekly:
+
+"Our Emperor intends that, notwithstanding Britain's policy in the Near
+East, Germany shall soon rule from Berlin to Bagdad. Herr Reitschel is
+in reality charged with the work of "Germanizing" the Ottoman Empire."
+
+That I already knew by the many secret reports of his which arrived so
+constantly from Constantinople, reports which showed quite plainly that
+though the great German Embassy, with its huge eagles of stone set at
+each end, might have been built for the purpose of impressing the Turks,
+yet the shrewd, farseeing Herr Anton, as head of that big financial
+corporation, held greater sway at that rickety set of offices known to
+us as the Sublime Porte than did his Excellency the Ambassador, with all
+his beribboned crowd of underlings.
+
+Truly the game which the Emperor was playing in secret against the other
+Powers of Europe was a crooked and desperate one. On the one hand the
+Kaiser was making pretence of fair dealing with Great Britain and
+France, yet on the other his agent, Herr Reitschel, was ever busy
+lending money in all directions, and bribing Turkish officials in order
+to secure their favour in Germany's interest.
+
+Yet a further game was being played--one that, in addition to the
+Imperial Chancellor, I alone knew--namely, that while the Kaiser was
+making pretence of being the best friend of the Sultan Abdul Hamid,
+visiting Constantinople and Palestine, building fountains, endowing
+institutes, and bestowing his Imperial grace in so many ways, yet he was
+also secretly supporting the Young Turk party so as to effect the
+Sultan's downfall as part of his sly, Machiavellian policy--a plot
+which, as you know, ultimately succeeded, for poor old Abdul the Damned
+and his harem were eventually packed off, bag and baggage, to Salonika,
+notwithstanding His Majesty's wild entreaty to Berlin for protection.
+
+I happened to be with the Emperor on the Imperial yacht at Tromsoe when
+he received by telegram the personal appeal addressed to him from his
+miserable dupe, and I well recollect how grimly he smiled as he remarked
+to me that it needed no response.
+
+Well, at the period of which I am making the present disclosure, Herr
+Anton had been paying a number of flying visits to Berlin, and had had
+many private audiences of both Kaiser and Sultan, and had on several
+occasions been invited informally to the Imperial luncheon table, a mark
+of esteem bestowed by the Kaiser upon those who may at the moment be
+serving his interests particularly well.
+
+Suddenly all of us were surprised by the announcement that the Kaiser's
+favoured civilian in Turkey had married Mademoiselle Julie de Lagarenne,
+daughter of Paul de Lagarenne, son of the great French sugar refiner,
+and secretary of the French Embassy at Rome. We heard also that, having
+married in Italy, he was bringing his wife to Berlin. Indeed, a week
+after that news was spread I met them both in Kranzler's in Unter den
+Linden, and there he introduced me to a pretty, dark-haired, vivacious
+young Frenchwoman, who spoke German well, and who told me that her
+husband had already given in her name for presentation at the next
+Court.
+
+That was about a month prior to Orville Wright's flight and the midnight
+visit of Frau Kleist to the Emperor.
+
+Truth to tell, the old woman's mention of Herr Reitschel's name caused
+me considerable misgivings, because three weeks before I had gathered
+certain strange facts from a secret report of a spy who in
+Constantinople had been set to watch Herr Reitschel's doings. That spy
+was Frau Kleist's son.
+
+The Kaiser trusts nobody. Even his favourites and most intimate cronies
+are spied upon, and reports upon those familiar blue papers are
+furnished regularly. In view of what I had read in that report from Karl
+Kleist, I stood amazed when, at the grand Court a week later, I had
+witnessed Herr Reitschel's French wife bow before the Emperor and
+Empress and noticed how graciously the Kaiser had smiled upon her. Truly
+the Emperor is sphinx-like and imperturbable. Outside the privacy of his
+own room, that chamber of cunning plots and fierce revenge, he never
+allows his sardonic countenance to betray his inner thoughts, and will
+grasp the hand of his most hated enemy with the hearty warmth of
+friendship, a Satanic _volte-face_ in which danger and evil lurk always,
+a trait inherited to its full degree by the Crown-Prince.
+
+The days that followed Frau Kleist's midnight visit were indeed busy,
+eventful days. Certain diplomatic negotiations with Washington had been
+unsuccessful; Von Holleben, the Ambassador, had been recalled, and given
+an extremely bad half-hour by both Kaiser and Chancellor. In addition,
+some wily American journalist had fathomed the amazing duplicity of
+Prince Henry's visit to the States and Germany's Press Bureau in
+America, while the Yellow Press of New York had published a ghastly
+array of facts and figures concerning the latter, together with
+facsimile documents, all of which had sent His Majesty half-crazy with
+anger.
+
+Nearly three months passed.
+
+Herr Reitschel often came from Constantinople, and frequently brought
+his handsome young wife with him, for he was _persona grata_ at Court.
+To me this was indeed strange in view of the reports of the ex-opera
+dancer's son--who, by the way, lived in Constantinople in the
+unsuspicious guise of a carpet-dealer, and unknown to the bank director.
+
+The latter had, assisted by his wife's fortune, inherited from her
+grandmother, purchased the Schloss Langenberg, the splendid ancestral
+castle and estates of the Princes of Langenberg, situate on a rock
+between Ilmenau and Zella, in the beautiful Thuringian Forest, and
+acknowledged to be one of the most famous shooting estates in the
+Empire. It was not, therefore, surprising that the Emperor, to mark his
+favour, should express a desire to shoot capercailzie there--a desire
+which, of course, delighted Herr Reitschel, who had only a few days
+before been decorated with the Order of the Black Eagle.
+
+One afternoon in mid-autumn the Emperor, accompanied by the Crown-Prince
+and myself, together with the suite, arrived by the Imperial train at
+the little station of Ilmenau, where, of course, Reitschel and his
+pretty wife, with the land-rats, head and under foresters, and all sorts
+of civil officials in black coats and white ties bowed low as the
+All-Highest stepped from his saloon. The Kaiser was most gracious to his
+host and hostess, while the schloss, we found, was almost equal in
+beauty and extent to that of Prince Max Egon zu Fuerstenberg at
+Donau-Eschingen, which place we always visited once, if not twice, each
+year.
+
+The Emperor had complained of a slight cold, and in consequence, just
+before we left Berlin, I had been instructed to summon by telegraph a
+certain Dr. Vollerthun from Augsburg, who was a perfect stranger to us
+all, but who had, I supposed, been recommended to the Emperor by
+somebody who, for some consideration, wished to advance him in his
+profession.
+
+While the Emperor and his host were out shooting, the Crown-Prince and
+several of the suite being of the party, I remained alone in a big,
+circular, old-world room in one of the towers of the Castle, where the
+long, narrow windows overlooked the forest, dealing with a flood of
+important State papers which a courier had brought from Berlin two hours
+before. Papers followed us daily wherever we might be, even when
+yachting at Cowes or in the Norwegian fjords.
+
+About midday Dr. Vollerthun was ushered in to me--a short, stout,
+guttural-speaking man of about sixty, rather bald, and wearing big,
+round, gold-rimmed spectacles. I quickly handed him over to the
+major-domo. He was a stranger, and no doubt one who sought the Emperor's
+favour, therefore as such I took but little interest in him.
+
+About three o'clock that same afternoon, however, a light tap came at
+the door, and on looking round, I saw my hostess standing upon the
+threshold.
+
+She was quietly but elegantly dressed, presenting the true type of the
+smart Parisienne, but in an instant I realized that she was very pale
+and agitated. Indeed her voice trembled when she asked permission to
+enter.
+
+Since her marriage I had many times chatted with her, for she often came
+to the Palace when her husband visited Berlin, as he did so frequently.
+I had danced with her; I had taken her in to dinner at various houses
+where we met, always finding her a bright and very intellectual
+companion.
+
+She quietly closed the door, and, crossing the room with uneven steps,
+advanced to the table from which I had risen.
+
+"Count von Heltzendorff!" she exclaimed in a low, strained voice. "I--I
+have come to seek your aid because--well, because I'm distracted, and I
+know that you are my husband's friend," she exclaimed in French.
+
+"And yours also, Madame," I said earnestly, bowing and pulling forward a
+chair for her.
+
+"My husband is out with the Emperor!" she gasped in a curious, unnerved
+tone. "And I fear; oh, I fear that we are in great peril--deadly peril
+every hour--every moment!"
+
+"Really, Madame, I hardly follow you," I said, standing before the
+dark-haired, handsome French girl--for she was little more than a
+girl--who had inherited the whole fortune of the biggest sugar refinery
+in Europe, the great factory out at St. Denis which supplied nearly
+one-sixth of the refined sugar of the world.
+
+"My husband, whom I love devotedly, has done his best in the interests
+of his Emperor. You, Count, know--for you are in a position to know--the
+real aims of the Kaiser in Turkey. These last six months I have watched,
+and have learned the truth! I know how, when the Emperor went to
+Constantinople five months ago in pretence of friendship towards the
+Sultan, with Professor Vambery as interpreter, he practically compelled
+Abdul Hamid to give him, in return for certain financial advances, those
+wonderful jewels which the Empress Catherine, wife of Peter the Great,
+gave in secret to the Grand Vizier to secure the escape of the Russian
+Army across the Pruth. I know how the Emperor seized those wonderful
+emeralds, and, carrying them back to Potsdam, has given them to the
+Empress. I know, too, how he laughed with my husband at the cleverness
+by which he is fooling the too trustful Turks. I----"
+
+"Pardon, Madame," I said, interrupting her, and speaking in French, "but
+is it really wise to speak thus of the Emperor's secrets? Your husband
+is, I fear, guilty of great indiscretion in mentioning such matters."
+
+"I am his wife, Count, and he conceals little, if anything, from me."
+
+I looked the pretty young woman straight in the face in fear and regret.
+
+Possession of those ancient jewels which, with reluctance, Abdul Hamid
+had brought out from his treasury, was one of the Kaiser's greatest
+secrets, a secret of Potsdam known to no more than three people,
+including myself. The Emperor had specially imposed silence upon me,
+because he did not wish the Powers to suspect his true Eastern policy of
+bribery and double-dealing, blackmail and plunder.
+
+And yet she, the daughter of a French diplomat, knew the truth!
+
+Instantly I realized the serious danger of the secret being betrayed to
+France.
+
+"Madame," I said, leaning against the writing-table as I spoke in
+deepest earnestness. "If I may be permitted, I would urge that the
+Emperor's diplomacy neither concerns your husband, as an official, nor
+yourself. It is his own private affair, and should neither be discussed
+nor betrayed."
+
+"I know," she said. "That is just why I have ventured to come here to
+consult you, M'sieur! You have been my good friend as well as my
+husband's, and here to-day, while the Emperor is our guest beneath our
+roof, I feel that I am in greatest peril!"
+
+"Why?" I asked with considerable surprise.
+
+"The Emperor has already learnt that I know the truth regarding his
+secret," was her slow reply. "By what means His Majesty has discovered
+it, I, alas! know not. But I do know from a confidential quarter that I
+have incurred the Emperor's gravest displeasure and hatred."
+
+"Who is your informant?" I inquired sternly, eager to further
+investigate the great intrigue.
+
+"A certain person who must be nameless."
+
+"Have you spoken to anybody of the Emperor's secret plans in Turkey, or
+of his possession of the Empress Catherine's jewels?"
+
+"I have not uttered a word to a single soul except my husband. I swear
+it."
+
+"Your husband was extremely indiscreet in revealing anything," I
+declared again quite frankly.
+
+"I fully admit that. But what can I do? How shall I act?" she asked in a
+low, tense voice. "Advise me, do."
+
+For some moments I remained silent. The situation, with a pretty woman
+seeking my aid in such circumstances, was difficult.
+
+"Well, Madame," I replied after reflection, "if you are really ready to
+promise the strictest secrecy and leave the matter to me, I will
+endeavour to find a way out of the difficulty--providing you--good
+German that you are by marriage--will take, before the Emperor himself,
+an oath of complete secrecy?"
+
+"I am ready to do anything--anything for my dear husband's sake," the
+handsome young woman assured me, tears welling in her fine dark eyes.
+
+"In that case, then, please leave the matter entirely in my hands," I
+said. And later on she left.
+
+That same night, about ten o'clock, the Emperor, in the dark-green
+uniform which he always wears at dinner after hunting or shooting,
+entered the room to which I had just returned to work.
+
+"Send Frau Kleist to me," he snapped. "And I will summon you later when
+I want you, Heltzendorff."
+
+Frau Kleist! I had no idea the woman had arrived at the castle. But I
+dispatched one of the servants to search for her, and afterwards heard
+her high-pitched voice as she ascended the stairs to hold secret and, no
+doubt, evil counsel with His Majesty.
+
+Below I found the fat, fair-haired little doctor from Augsburg, who was
+still an enigma, but eager to see his Imperial patient, and with him I
+smoked a cigarette to while away the time. I was anxious to return to
+His Majesty, and, as became my duty as his adjutant, to explain what I
+had learnt from the lips of our French hostess.
+
+Suddenly one of the Imperial flunkeys bowed at the door, commanding the
+doctor to the Royal presence, and he left me, hot and flurried, as all
+become who are unused to the Court atmosphere, its rigid etiquette, and
+its constant bows.
+
+Had the Emperor called the unknown doctor into consultation with Frau
+Kleist?
+
+Inquiries I had made concerning the doctor from Augsburg showed that he
+was quite a well-known specialist on mental diseases, and he had also
+written a text-book upon bacteriology and the brain. Why had the Kaiser
+summoned him? He required no brain specialist.
+
+"We leave to-morrow at noon," the Emperor exclaimed brusquely when, an
+hour later, I was summoned to his room. This amazed me, for our
+arrangements were to remain three days longer. I recollected Madame
+Reitschel's words.
+
+"I do not feel at all well," His Majesty added, "and this Dr. Vollerthun
+orders me rest at Potsdam."
+
+In silence I bowed, and then ventured to refer to what was uppermost in
+my mind.
+
+"May I be permitted to speak to your Majesty upon a certain confidential
+subject?" I begged, standing against the table whereat I had been
+writing the greater part of that day.
+
+"What subject?" snapped the All-Highest.
+
+"Your Majesty's negotiations with the Sultan of Turkey. Frau Reitschel
+has learnt of them, but she is eager to come before you and take oath of
+entire secrecy."
+
+The Kaiser's eyes narrowed and glowed in sudden anger.
+
+"A woman's oath!" he cried. "Bah! Never have I believed in silence
+imposed upon any woman's tongue--more especially that of a born enemy! I
+appreciate your loyalty and acumen, Von Heltzendorff, but I have,
+fortunately, known this for some little time, and in strictest secrecy
+have taken certain measures to combat it. Remember that these words have
+never been uttered to you! Remember that! You are adjutant, and I am
+Emperor. Understand! I fully appreciate and note your loyal report, but
+it is not woman's sphere to enter our diplomacy, except as a secret
+agent of our Fatherland. Let us say no more."
+
+Ten minutes later, being dismissed, I wandered back through the great,
+silent, echoing corridors of the ancient castle to my own room. A great
+human drama, greater than any ever placed upon the stage, was now being
+enacted. Throwing his loaded dice, the Emperor, with all his craft,
+cunning, and criminal unscrupulousness behind his mask of Christianity,
+and aided by his unprincipled son, the Crown-Prince, was actually
+plotting the downfall of the Turkish Empire and the overthrow of Islam
+in Europe. Between the All-Highest One and the realization of those
+dastardly plans for world-power so carefully and cleverly thought out in
+every detail night after night in the silence of that dull, faded green
+room upstairs at Potsdam, stood one frail little Parisienne, the
+vivacious, well-meaning Madame Reitschel!
+
+Next day we left the Schloss Langenberg, but before doing so we heard
+with regret that our charming little hostess had been suddenly taken ill
+during the night, and the Kaiser, as a mark of favour, had ordered his
+doctor, Vollerthun, to remain behind to attend her. That Herr Reitschel
+was in great distress I saw from his face as he stood taking leave of
+his Imperial guest on the little platform at Ilmenau.
+
+Back in Berlin, I wondered what was in progress in that far-off Schloss
+in Thuringia, but a week later the truth became vividly apparent when I
+read in the _Staats-Anzeiger_ an announcement which disclosed to me the
+terrible truth.
+
+I held my breath as my eyes followed the printed lines.
+
+Frau Reitschel, the young wife of the famous Anton Reitschel of
+Constantinople, had, the journal reported, been seized by a sudden and
+somewhat mysterious illness on the night prior to the Emperor's
+departure from the Schloss Langenberg, and though His Majesty had
+graciously left his own physician behind to attend her, the unfortunate
+lady had developed insanity to such a hopeless degree that it had been
+necessary to confine her in the Rosenau private asylum at Coburg.
+
+In a second I realized how the dancing-mistress and the mental
+specialist from Augsburg had been the tools of the Emperor. That
+"mysterious illness," developing into madness, was surely not the result
+of any natural cause, but had been deliberately planned and executed by
+means of a hypodermic syringe, in order that the woman who had learnt
+the secret of the Emperor's double cunning in the Near East should be
+for ever immured in a madhouse.
+
+Outside the trio responsible for the cruel and dastardly act, I alone
+knew the truth how, by the Emperor's drastic action, he had prevented
+the secret of his chicanery leaking out to the Powers.
+
+Poor Madame Reitschel! She died early in 1913, a raving lunatic. Her
+devoted husband, having served the Emperor's purpose, had been recalled
+to Berlin, where, bereft of the Kaiser's favour, he predeceased her by
+about six months, broken-hearted, but in utter ignorance of that foul
+plot carried out under his very nose and in his own castle.
+
+
+
+
+SECRET NUMBER FIVE
+
+THE GIRL WHO KNEW THE CROWN-PRINCE'S SECRET
+
+
+Late on the night of November 18th, 1912, I was busily at work in the
+Crown-Prince's room--that cosy apartment of which I possessed the
+key--at the Marble Palace at Potsdam.
+
+I, as His Imperial Highness's personal-adjutant, had been travelling all
+day with him from Cologne to Berlin. We had done a tour of military
+inspections in Westphalia, and, as usual, "Willie's" conduct, as became
+the heir-apparent of the psalm-singing All-Highest One, had not been
+exactly exemplary.
+
+With his slant eyes and sarcastic grin he openly defied the Emperor, and
+frequently referred to him to his intimates as "a hoary old
+hypocrite"--the truth of which recent events have surely proved.
+
+On the night in question, however, much had happened. The Emperor had, a
+month before, returned from a visit to England, where he had been
+engaged by speeches and hand-shakes, public and private, blowing a
+narcotic dust into the nostrils of your dear but, alas! too confiding
+nation.
+
+You British were all dazzled--you dear English drank the Imperial
+sleeping-draught, prepared so cunningly for you and your Cabinet
+Ministers in what we in Berlin sometimes called "the Downing-Strasse."
+You lapped up the cream of German good-fellowship as a cat laps milk,
+even while agents of our Imperial War Staff had held Staff-rides in
+various parts of your island. All of you were blind, save those whom
+your own people denounced as scaremongers when they lifted their voices
+in warning.
+
+We at Potsdam smiled daily at what seemed to us to be the slow but sure
+decline of your great nation from its military, naval, and commercial
+supremacy. The Kaiser had plotted for fourteen years, and now he was
+being actively aided by his eldest son, that shrewd, active agnostic
+with a criminal kink.
+
+"Heltzendorff!" exclaimed the Crown-Prince, as he suddenly entered the
+room where I was busy attending to a pile of papers which had
+accumulated during our absence in Westphalia, and which had been sorted
+into three heaps by my assistant during our absence. "Do get through all
+those letters and things. Burn them all if you can. What do they
+matter?"
+
+"Many of them are matters of grave importance. Here, for instance, is a
+report from the Chief of Military Intelligence in Washington."
+
+"Oh, old Friesch! Tear it up! He is but an old fossil at best. And yet,
+Heltzendorff, he is designed to be of considerable use," he added. "His
+Majesty told me to-night that after his visit to England he has
+conceived the idea to establish an official movement for the improvement
+of better relations between Britain and Germany. The dear British are
+always ready to receive such movements with open arms. At Carlton House
+Terrace they strongly endorse the Emperor's ideas, and he tells me that
+the movement should first arise in commercial and shipping circles. Herr
+Ballin will generate the idea in his offices in London and the various
+British ports, while His Majesty has Von Gessler, the ex-Ambassador at
+Washington, in view as the man to bring forth the suggestion publicly.
+Indeed, to-night from the Wilhelmstrasse there has been sent a message
+to his schloss on the Mosel commanding him to consult with His Majesty.
+Von Bernstorff took his place at Washington a few months ago."
+
+"But Von Gessler is an inveterate enemy of Britain," I exclaimed in
+surprise, still seated at my table.
+
+"The world does not know that. The whole scheme is based upon Britain's
+ignorance of our intentions. We bring Von Gessler forward as the dear,
+good, Anglophile friend with his hand outstretched from the
+Wilhelmstrasse. Oh, Heltzendorff!" he laughed. "It is really intensely
+amusing, is it not?"
+
+I was silent. I knew that the deeply-laid plot against Great Britain was
+proceeding apace, for had I not seen those many secret reports, and did
+I not possess inside knowledge of the evil intentions of the Emperor and
+his son.
+
+"Get through all that--to-night if you can, Heltzendorff," the
+Crown-Prince urged. "The Crown-Princess leaves for Treseburg, in the
+Harz, to-morrow, and in the evening we go to Nice."
+
+"To Nice!" I exclaimed, though not at all disinclined to spend a week or
+so on the Riviera.
+
+"Yes," he said. "I have a friend there. The Riviera is only pleasant
+before the season, or after. One cannot go with the crowd in January or
+February. I have already given orders for the saloon to leave at eleven
+to-morrow night. That will give us ample time."
+
+A friend there! I reflected. I, knowing his partiality to the eternal
+petticoat, could only suppose that the attraction in Nice was of the
+feminine gender.
+
+"Then the lady is in Nice!" I remarked, for sometimes I was permitted,
+on account of my long service with the Emperor, to speak familiarly.
+
+"Lady, no!" he retorted. "It is a man. And I want to get to Nice at the
+earliest moment. So get through those infernal documents. Burn them all.
+They are better out of the way," he laughed.
+
+And, taking a cigarette from the golden box--a present to him from
+"Tino" of Greece--he lit it, and wishing me good night, strode out.
+
+Just before eleven o'clock on the following night we left the Marmor
+Palace. His Imperial Highness travelled incognito as he always did when
+visiting France, assuming the name of Count von Gruenau. With us was his
+personal valet, Schuler, the military secretary, Major Lentze, and
+Eckardt, the Commissioner of Secret Police for His Highness's personal
+protection, who travelled with us wherever we went. In addition, there
+was an under-valet, and Knof, the Crown-Prince's favourite chauffeur.
+When abroad cars were either bought and afterwards re-sold, or else
+hired, but Knof, who was a celebrated racing motorist and had driven in
+Prince Henry's tour of exploration through England, and who had gained
+many prizes on the various circuits, was always taken as "driver."
+
+After a restless night--for there were many stoppages--I spent next day
+with the Crown-Prince in long and tiring discussions on military affairs
+as we travelled due south in the beautifully-fitted Imperial car,
+replete with its smoking saloon with wicker chairs, its four bathrooms,
+and other luxuries. I endeavoured to obtain from him some reason why we
+were proceeding to Nice, but to all my inquiries he was smilingly dumb.
+He noticed my eagerness, and I saw that he was amused by it.
+
+Yet somehow, as we travelled towards the Italian frontier--for our road
+lay through Austria down to Milan, and thence by way of Genoa--he seemed
+to become unduly thoughtful and anxious.
+
+Only a fortnight before he had had one of those ever-recurring and
+unseemly quarrels with his long-suffering wife.
+
+"Cilli is a fool!" he had declared openly to me, after she had left the
+room in anger.
+
+We had been busy arranging a programme of official visits in Eastern
+Germany, when suddenly the Crown-Princess entered, pale with anger, and
+disregarding my presence--for I suppose I was regarded as one who knew
+all the happenings of the palace, and whose discretion could be relied
+upon--began to demand fiercely an explanation of a certain anonymous
+letter which she held in her hand.
+
+"Kindly read that!" she said haughtily, "and explain what it means!"
+
+The Crown-Prince grinned idiotically, that cold, sinister expression
+overspreading his countenance, a look which is such a marked
+characteristic of his.
+
+Then, almost snatching the letter from his young wife's fingers, he read
+it through, and with a sudden movement tore it up and flung it upon the
+carpet, saying:
+
+"I refuse to discuss any unsigned letter! Really, if we were to notice
+every letter written by the common scum we should, indeed, have
+sufficient to do."
+
+His wife's arched brows narrowed. Her pale, delicate face, in which the
+lines of care had appeared too prematurely, already betrayed fiercest
+anger.
+
+"I happen to have inquired, and I now know that those allegations are
+correct!" she cried. "This dark-haired singer-woman, Irene Speroni, has
+attained great success on the variety stage in Italy. She is the star of
+the Sala Margherita in Rome."
+
+"Well?" he asked in defiance. "And what of it, pray?"
+
+"That letter you have destroyed tells me the truth. I received it a few
+days ago, and sent an agent to Italy in order to learn the truth. He has
+returned to-night. See!" And suddenly she produced a crannied snapshot
+photograph, of postcard size, of the Crown-Prince in his polo-playing
+garb, and with him a smartly-dressed young woman, whose features were in
+the shadow. I caught sight of that picture, because when he tossed it
+from him angrily without glancing at it, I picked it up and handed it
+back to the Crown-Princess.
+
+"Yes," she cried bitterly, "You refuse, of course, to look upon this
+piece of evidence! I now know why you went to Wiesbaden. The woman was
+singing there, and you gave her a pair of emerald and diamond earrings
+which you purchased from Vollgold in Unter den Linden. See! Here is the
+bill for them!"
+
+And again she produced a slip of paper.
+
+At this the Crown-Prince grew instantly furious, and, pale to the lips,
+he roundly abused his long-suffering wife, telling her quite frankly
+that, notwithstanding the fact that she might spy upon his movements, he
+should act exactly as his impulses dictated.
+
+That scene was, indeed, a disgraceful one, ending in the poor woman, in
+a frantic paroxysm of despair, tearing off the splendid necklet of
+diamonds at her throat--his present to her on their marriage--and
+casting it full into his face.
+
+Then, realizing that the scene had become too tragic, I took her small
+hand, and, with a word of sympathy, led her out of the room and along
+the corridor.
+
+As I left her she burst into a sudden torrent of tears; yet when I
+returned again to the Crown-Prince I found his manner had entirely
+changed. He treated his wife's natural resentment and indignation as a
+huge joke, and it was then that His Imperial Highness declared to me:
+
+"Cilli is a fool!"
+
+That sunny afternoon the Crown-Prince had sprawled himself on the plush
+lounge of the smoking car as the train travelled upon that picturesque
+line between Genoa and the French frontier at Ventimiglia, the line
+which follows the coast for six hours. With the tideless sapphire
+Mediterranean lapping the yellow beach on the one side and high brown
+rocks upon the other, we went through Savona, Albenga, the old-world
+Porto Maurizio to the glaring modern town of San Remo and palm-embowered
+Bordighera, that beautiful Italian Riviera that you and I know so well.
+
+"Listen, Heltzendorff," his Highness exclaimed suddenly between the
+whiffs of his cigarette. "In Nice I may disappear for a day or two. I
+may be missing. But if I am, please don't raise a fuss about it. I'm
+incognito, and nobody will know. I may be absent for seven days. If I am
+not back by that time then you may make inquiry."
+
+"But the Commissary of Police Eckardt! He will surely know?" I remarked
+in surprise.
+
+"No. He won't know. I shall evade him as I've so often done before,"
+replied His Imperial Highness. "I tell you of my intentions so that you
+may curb the activities of our most estimable friend. Tell him not to
+worry, and he will be paid a thousand marks on the day Count von Gruenau
+reappears."
+
+I smiled, for I saw the influence of the eternal feminine.
+
+"No, Heltzendorff. You are quite mistaken," he said, reading my
+thoughts, and putting down his cigarette end. "There is no lady in this
+case. I am out here for secret purposes of my own. For that reason I
+take you into my confidence rather than that unnecessary inquiry should
+be made and some of those infernal journalists get hold of the fact that
+the Count von Gruenau and the Crown-Prince are one and the same person. I
+was a fool to take this saloon. I ought to have travelled as an ordinary
+passenger, I know, but," he laughed, "this is really comfortable and,
+after all, what do we care what the world thinks--eh? Surely we can
+afford to laugh at it when all the honours of the game are already in
+our hands."
+
+And at that moment we ran into the pretty, flower-decked station of San
+Remo, the place freshly painted for the attraction of the winter
+visitors who annually went south for sunshine.
+
+His words mystified me, but I became even more mystified by his actions
+a few days later.
+
+I was in ignorance that a fortnight before Hermann Hardt, one of His
+Highness's couriers, had left Potsdam and on arrival at Nice had rented
+for three months the fine Villa Lilas--the winter residence of the
+American millionaire leather merchant, James G. Jamieson, of Boston, who
+had gone yachting to Japan.
+
+You know Nice, my dear Le Queux--you know it as well as I do, therefore
+you know the Villa Lilas, that big white mansion which faces the sea on
+Montboron, the hill road between the port of Nice and Villefranche. Half
+hidden among the mimosa, the palms, and grey-green olives, it is after
+the style of Mr. Gordon Bennett's villa at Beaulieu, with a big glass
+front and pretty verandas, with climbing geraniums flowering upon the
+terraces.
+
+We soon settled there, for the household staff had arrived three days
+before, and on the evening of our arrival I accompanied the Crown-Prince
+down into the town to the Jetee promenade, the pier-pavilion where the
+gay cosmopolitan world disports itself to chatter, drink and gamble.
+
+It was a glorious moonlit night, and "Willie," after strolling through
+the great gilded saloons, in one of which was a second-rate variety
+entertainment--the season not having yet commenced--went outside. We sat
+at the end of the pier smoking.
+
+"Nice is dull as yet, is it not?" he remarked, for each year he always
+spent a month there incognito, the German newspapers announcing that he
+was away shooting. But "Willie," leading the gay life of the Imperial
+butterfly, much preferred the lively existence of the Cote d'Azur to the
+remote schloss in Thuringia or elsewhere.
+
+I agreed with him that Nice had not yet put on the tinsel and pasteboard
+of her Carnival attractions. As you know, Carnival in Nice is gay
+enough, but, after all, it is a forced gaiety got up for the profit of
+the shops and hotels, combined with the "Cercle des Bains" of
+Monaco--the polite title of the Prince's gilded gambling hell.
+
+We smoked together and chatted, as we often did when His Imperial
+Highness became bored. I was still mystified why we had come to the
+Riviera so early in the season, because the white and pale green paint
+of the hotels was not yet dry, and half of them not yet open.
+
+Yet our coming had, no doubt, been privately signalled, because within
+half an hour of our arrival at the Villa Lilas a short, stout old
+Frenchman, with white, bristly hair--whom I afterwards found out was
+Monsieur Paul Bavouzet, the newly-appointed Prefect of the Department of
+Alpes-Maritimes--called to leave his card upon the Count von Gruenau.
+
+The Imperial incognito only means that the public are to be deluded.
+Officialdom never is. They know the ruse, and support it all the world
+over. His Highness the Crown-Prince was paying his annual visit to Nice,
+and the President had sent his compliments through his representative,
+the bristly-haired little Prefect.
+
+Soon after eleven that night the Crown-Prince, after chatting affably
+with me, strolled back to the Promenade des Anglais, where Knof, the
+chauffeur, awaited us with a big open car, in which we were whizzed
+around the port and up to Montboron in a few minutes.
+
+As I parted from the Crown-Prince, who yawned and declared that he was
+tired, he said:
+
+"Ah! Heltzendorff. How good it is to get a breath of soft air from the
+Mediterranean! We shall have a port on this pleasant sea one day--if we
+live as long--eh?"
+
+That remark showed the trend of events. It showed how, hand in hand with
+the Emperor, he was urging preparations for war--a war that had for its
+primary object the destruction of the Powers which, when the volcano
+erupted, united as allies.
+
+The bright autumn days passed quite uneventfully, and frequently I went
+pleasant motor runs into the mountains with His Highness, up to the
+frontier at the Col di Tenda, to La Vesubie, Puget-Theniers, and other
+places. Yet I was still mystified at the reason of our sojourn there.
+
+After we had been at the Villa Lilas about ten days I was one afternoon
+seated outside the popular Cafe de l'Opera, in the Place Massena, when a
+lady, dressed in deep mourning and wearing the heavy veil in French
+style, passed along the pavement, glanced at me, and then, hesitating,
+she turned, and, coming back, advanced to the little table in the corner
+whereat I was sitting.
+
+"May I be permitted to have a word with you, Monsieur?" she asked in
+French, in a low, refined voice.
+
+"Certainly," was my reply, and, not without some surprise, I rose and
+drew a chair for her.
+
+She glanced round quickly, as though to satisfy herself that she would
+not be overheard, but, as a matter of fact, at that hour the chairs on
+the terraces of the cafe were practically deserted. At the same moment,
+viewing her closely, I saw that she was about twenty-four, handsome,
+dark-haired, with well-cut features.
+
+"I know, Monsieur, that I am a complete stranger to you," she exclaimed
+with a smile, "but to me you are quite familiar by sight. I have passed
+you many times in Berlin and in Potsdam, and I know that you are Count
+von Heltzendorff, personal-adjutant to His Highness the
+Crown-Prince--or Count von Gruenau, as he is known here in France."
+
+"You know that!" I exclaimed.
+
+She smiled mysteriously, replying:
+
+"Yes. I--well, I happen to be a friend of His Highness."
+
+I held my breath. So this pretty young Frenchwoman was one of my young
+Imperial master's friends!
+
+"The fact is, Count," she went on, "I have travelled a considerable
+distance to see you. I said that I was one of the Crown-Prince's
+friends. Please do not misunderstand me. I know that he has a good many
+lady friends, but, as far as I am concerned, I have never been
+introduced to him, and he does not know me. I am his friend because of a
+certain friendliness towards him."
+
+"Really, Madame, I don't quite understand," I said.
+
+"Of course not," she answered, and then, glancing round, she added:
+"This place is a little too public. Cannot we go across to the garden
+yonder?"
+
+At her suggestion I rose and walked with her to a quiet spot in the
+gardens, where we sat down, and I listened with interest to her.
+
+She told me that her name was Julie de Rouville, but she would give no
+account of where she lived, though I took it that she was a young widow.
+
+"I have ventured to approach you, Count, because I cannot approach the
+Crown-Prince," she said presently. "You probably do not know the true
+reason of his visit here to Nice?"
+
+"No," I said. "I admit that I do not. Why is he here?"
+
+"It is a secret of his own. But, curiously enough, I am aware of the
+reason, and that is why I have sought you. Would it surprise you if I
+told you that in a certain quarter in France it will, in a few days, be
+known that the German Emperor is establishing a movement for an
+_entente_ between Germany and Britain, and that the whole affair is
+based upon a fraud? The Emperor wants no _entente_, but only war with
+France and with Britain. The whole plot will be exposed in a few days!"
+
+"From what source have you derived this knowledge?" I asked, looking at
+her in amazement that she should know one of the greatest State secrets
+of Germany.
+
+But she again smiled mysteriously, and said:
+
+"I merely tell you this in order to prove to you that I am in possession
+of certain facts known to but few people."
+
+"You evidently are," I said. "But who intends to betray the truth to
+France?"
+
+"I regret, Count, that I cannot answer your question."
+
+"If you are, as you say, the Crown-Prince's friend, it would surely be a
+friendly act to let us know the truth, so that steps may be taken,
+perhaps, to avoid the secret of Germany's diplomacy from leaking out to
+her enemies."
+
+"All I can tell you, Count, is that the matter is one of gravest
+importance."
+
+"But will you not speak openly, and give us the actual facts?"
+
+"I will--but to His Imperial Highness alone," was her answer.
+
+"You wish to meet him, then?" I asked, rather suspicious that it might
+after all be only a woman's ruse. And yet what she had said showed that
+she knew the Emperor's secret, for she had actually mentioned Von
+Gessler's name in connection with the pretended Anglo-German _entente_.
+
+"If His Highness will honour me with an interview, then I will reveal
+all I know, and, further, will suggest a means of preventing the truth
+from leaking out."
+
+"But you are French," I said.
+
+"I have told you so," she laughed. "But probably His Highness will
+refuse to see Julie de Rouville, therefore I think it best if you show
+him this."
+
+From her little gold chain-purse she produced a small, unmounted
+photograph of herself, and handed it to me.
+
+"When he recognizes who wishes to see him he will fully understand," she
+said, in a quiet, refined voice. "A letter addressed to Julie de
+Rouville at the Post Restante at Marseilles will quickly find me."
+
+"At Marseilles?" I echoed.
+
+"Yes. I do not wish the letter to be sent to me here. From Marseilles I
+shall duly receive it."
+
+I was silent for a few moments.
+
+"I confess," I exclaimed at last. "I confess I do not exactly see the
+necessity for an interview with His Highness, when whatever you tell
+me--as his personal-adjutant--will be regarded as strictly in
+confidence."
+
+Truth to tell, I was extremely suspicious of her. She might be desirous
+of meeting the Prince with some evil intent.
+
+"I have already said, Count Heltzendorff, that I am His Highness's
+friend, and wish to approach him with motives of friendship."
+
+"You wish for no payment for this information, eh?" I asked
+suspiciously, half believing that she might be a secret agent of France.
+
+"Payment--of course not!" she answered, half indignantly. "Show that
+photograph to the Crown-Prince, and tell him that I apply for an
+interview."
+
+Then, rather abruptly, she rose, and, thanking me, wished me good
+afternoon, and walked away, leaving me with her photograph in my hand.
+
+The Crown-Prince was out motoring, and did not get back to the Villa
+until after seven o'clock.
+
+As soon as I heard of his return I went to his room, and recounted my
+strange adventure with the dark-haired young woman in black. He became
+keenly interested, and the more so when I told him of her secret
+knowledge of the Kaiser's intended establishment of a bogus _entente_
+with Great Britain.
+
+"She wishes to see you," I said. "And she told me to give you her
+photograph."
+
+I handed it to him.
+
+At sight of it his face instantly changed. He held his breath, and then
+examined the photograph beneath the light. Afterwards I noticed a
+strange, hard look at the corners of his mouth, while his teeth set
+themselves firmly.
+
+Next second, however, he had recovered his self-possession, and with a
+low laugh said:
+
+"Yes. Of course, I know her. She wants me to write to Julie de Rouville
+at the Post Restante at Marseilles, eh? H'm--I'll think it over."
+
+And I could see that sight of the photograph had not only displeased
+him, but it also caused him very considerable uneasiness.
+
+Late in the afternoon, two days later, His Highness, who had been
+walking alone, and who had apparently evaded the vigilance of the
+ever-watchful Eckardt, returned to the Villa with a stranger, a tall,
+rather thin, fair-haired man, undoubtedly a German, and the pair were
+closeted together, holding counsel evidently for a considerable time.
+Where His Highness met him I knew not, but when later on I entered the
+room I saw that the pair were on quite friendly terms.
+
+His Highness addressed him as Herr Schaefer, and when he had left he told
+me that he was from the Wilhelmstrasse, and had been attached to the
+Embassy at Washington, and afterwards in London, "for affairs of the
+Press"--which meant that he was conductor of the German Press
+propaganda.
+
+It seemed curious that the young man Schaefer should be in such high
+favour with the Crown-Prince.
+
+I watched closely. Whatever was in progress was a strict secret between
+the pair. The more I saw of Hans Schaefer the more I disliked him. He
+had cruel eyes and heavy, sensuous lips--a coarse countenance which was
+the reverse of prepossessing, though I could see that he was a very
+clever and cunning person.
+
+For a full fortnight the Crown-Prince and the man Schaefer were almost
+inseparable. Was it for the purpose of meeting Schaefer that we had gone
+to Nice? The man had been back from London about two months, and had, I
+learnt, been lately living in Paris.
+
+One evening while strolling in the sunset by the sea along the
+tree-lined Promenade des Anglais, I suddenly encountered Julie de
+Rouville, dressed in mourning, a quiet, pathetic figure, just as we had
+last met.
+
+I instantly recollected that since the evening when I had given her
+photograph to the Crown-Prince he had never mentioned her, and I could
+only believe that for some mysterious reason sight of the picture had
+recalled some distasteful memory.
+
+"Ah, Count!" she cried, as I halted and raised my hat. "This is, indeed,
+a welcome meeting! I have been looking out for you for the past two
+days."
+
+"I've been staying over at Cannes," was my reply. "Well?"
+
+She indicated a seat, and upon it we sat together.
+
+"I have to thank you for giving my photograph and message to His
+Highness," she said in that sweet, refined voice that I so well
+remembered.
+
+"I trust that the Crown-Prince has written to you--eh?"
+
+She smiled, a trifle sadly I thought.
+
+"Well, no----" was her rather vague reply.
+
+"Then how are you aware that I gave your message?"
+
+She shook her head and again smiled.
+
+"I had my own means of discovery. By certain signs I knew that you had
+carried out your promise," she said. "But as I have heard nothing, I
+wish you, if you will, to deliver another message--a very urgent one.
+Tell him I must see him, for I dread daily lest the truth of the
+Kaiser's real intentions be known at the Quai d'Orsay."
+
+"Certainly," was my polite reply. "I will deliver your message this
+evening."
+
+"Tell him that my sole desire is to act in the interests of the Emperor
+and himself," she urged.
+
+"But, forgive me," I said, "I cannot see why you should interest
+yourself in the Crown-Prince if he declines to communicate with you."
+
+"I have my reasons, Count von Heltzendorff," was her rather haughty
+reply. "Please tell him that the matter will not brook further delay."
+
+I had seen in the London newspapers during the past week how eagerly the
+English journalists, with the dust cast into their eyes, were blindly
+advocating that the British public should welcome the great German
+national movement, headed by Baron von Gessler, supported by Ballin,
+Delbrueck, and Von Wedel, with the hearty co-operation of the Emperor and
+the Imperial Chancellor--the movement to establish better relations with
+Great Britain.
+
+I knew that the secret should at all hazards be kept, and that night I
+told the Crown-Prince of my second meeting with the pretty woman in
+black and her urgent request.
+
+He laughed, but made no remark. Yet I knew by his tone that he was not
+so easy in his mind as he desired me to believe.
+
+It also seemed strange why, if the young Frenchwoman was so desirous of
+meeting him, she did not call at the Villa.
+
+About a week later it suddenly occurred to me to endeavour to discover
+the real identity of the lady in black, but as I was not certain whether
+she actually lived in Nice it was rather difficult. Nevertheless, by
+invoking the aid of my friend Belabre, inspector of the Surete of Nice,
+and after waiting a few days I made an astounding discovery, namely,
+that the lady who called herself De Rouville was an Italian cafe concert
+singer named Irene Speroni--the woman who had aroused the jealousy of
+the Crown-Princess! And she knew that important State secret of Germany!
+
+The situation was, I saw, a most serious one. Indeed, I felt it my duty
+to mention my discovery to His Highness, when, to my surprise, he was
+not in the least angry. He merely said:
+
+"It is true, Heltzendorff--true what the Crown-Princess declared--that I
+went to Wiesbaden and that I gave the woman a pair of emerald earrings
+which I ordered from old Vollgold. But there was no reason for jealousy.
+I saw the woman, and gave her the present in the hope of closing her
+lips."
+
+In a moment I understood. The pretty variety artiste was endeavouring to
+levy blackmail. But how could she, in her position, have learnt the
+secret of the Emperor's intentions?
+
+She was, I found, living as Signorina Speroni, with her maid, at the
+Hotel Bristol over at Beaulieu, just across the blue bay of
+Villefranche, and as the days went on I realized the imminent danger of
+exposure, and wondered if the Kaiser knew of it.
+
+I made a remark to that effect to His Highness one morning, whereupon he
+replied:
+
+"Don't disturb yourself, my dear Heltzendorff! I have not overlooked the
+matter, for it is one that closely concerns both the Emperor and myself.
+The woman obtained the secret by opening the dispatch-box of one who
+believed her to be his friend, and then she attempted to use her
+knowledge in order to drag me into her net. But I do not think I am very
+likely to be caught--eh?"
+
+At that moment Herr Schaefer entered the room, therefore further
+discussion was out of the question.
+
+From inquiries I made later on I found that the concert singer had
+suddenly left the hotel, therefore I went over to Beaulieu and had an
+instructive chat with the hall porter, a German of course. From him I
+learnt that the Signorina had been staying there ever since the date
+when we had arrived at Nice, and, further, that two gentleman had been
+frequently in the habit of calling upon her. One was a smart young
+Frenchman who came in a motor-car, and the other was a German. From the
+description of the latter I at once came to the conclusion that it was
+none other than Herr Schaefer!
+
+"The one gentleman did not know of the other's visits," said the bearded
+porter, with a laugh. "The Signorina always impressed silence upon me,
+because she thought one would be jealous of the other. The German
+gentleman seemed very deeply in love with her, and she called him Hans.
+He accompanied her when she left here for San Remo."
+
+I reported this to His Highness, but he made no remark. That some
+devilish plot was being carried out I suspected. The Hohenzollerns are
+ready to go to any length to prevent their black secrets from leaking
+out.
+
+My surmise proved correct, for, a week later, some fishermen found upon
+the brown rocks near Capo Verde, beyond San Remo, the body of a woman,
+fully dressed, afterwards identified as that of Irene Speroni, the
+singer so popular in Rome.
+
+It was proved that on the previous night she had been seen by two
+peasants walking along the sea road near San Lorenzo, accompanied by a
+tall, thin man, who seemed greatly excited, and was talking in German.
+It was believed by the Italian police that the unknown German, in a fit
+of jealousy, threw her into the sea.
+
+From facts I gathered some months later I realized that the whole plot
+had been most cunningly conceived by the Crown-Prince. Schaefer, after
+his return from America, had met the woman Speroni, who was performing
+in London, and she had, unknown to him, opened his dispatch-box, and
+from some secret correspondence had learned the real truth regarding the
+proposed _entente_ which the Emperor contemplated.
+
+Schaefer, alarmed at the woman's knowledge, and yet fascinated by her
+charms, had gone to the Crown-Prince, and he, in turn, had seen the
+woman in Wiesbaden. Finding her so dangerous to the Emperor's plans, His
+Highness then conceived a fiendish plot. He first introduced her to a
+young French Marquis, de Vienne by name, who pestered her with his
+attentions, and followed her to Beaulieu. Having so far succeeded, the
+Crown-Prince went to Nice, and cleverly played upon Schaefer's love for
+the woman, pointing out that she was playing a double game, and urging
+him to watch.
+
+He did so, and discovered the truth. Then there occurred the tragedy of
+jealousy, exactly as the police believed.
+
+Herr Schaefer, the tool of His Imperial Highness, had, however, escaped
+to Germany, and the police of San Remo are still in ignorance of his
+identity.
+
+
+
+
+SECRET NUMBER SIX
+
+THE AFFAIR OF THE HUNCHBACKED COUNTESS
+
+
+I suppose that none of your British friends have ever heard the name of
+Thyra Adelheid von Kienitz.
+
+She was a funny little deformed person, aged, perhaps, seventy, widow of
+the great General von Kienitz, who had served in the Franco-German
+campaign, and who, before his death, had been acknowledged to be as
+great a strategist as your own Lord Roberts, whom every good German--I
+did not write Prussian--salutes in reverence.
+
+Countess von Kienitz was the daughter of a certain Countess von Borcke,
+and after living for many years in retirement in her picturesque old
+schloss perched on a rock not far from the famous wine district of
+Berncastel, on the winding Mosel river, became suddenly seized with an
+idea to re-enter Berlin society.
+
+With this view she rented a fine house not far from the Liechtenstein
+Bridge, and early in 1911 commenced a series of wildly-extravagant
+entertainments--luncheons, dinners, and supper concerts, at which were
+artistes to whom three-thousand-mark fees were often paid--with a view,
+as it seemed to me, to attract the more modern and go-ahead section of
+Berlin society.
+
+At first the smarter set looked askance at the ugly, deformed,
+painted-up old woman with the squeaky voice, and they strenuously
+declined invitations to her splendid, newly-furnished mansion in the
+Stulerstrasse. Indeed, the name of the Countess von Kienitz became
+synonymous for all that was grotesque, and her painted, doll-like
+countenance and yellow wig were the laughing-stock of both the upper and
+middle classes.
+
+Nevertheless she strenuously endeavoured to surround herself with young
+society of both sexes, and many smart dances were given at the
+Stulerstrasse during the season--dances at which the swaggering Prussian
+officer was seen at his gorgeous best.
+
+One afternoon, seated by the Crown-Prince as he drove recklessly his
+great Mercedes car along the Bismarckallee in the direction of Potsdam,
+we passed an overdressed old woman, very artificial, with yellow hair,
+and short of stature.
+
+"Look, Heltzendorff! Is she not like that old crow, Von Kienitz?"
+
+"Yes, her figure is very similar," I admitted.
+
+"Ah! The old woman was introduced to me the other night at
+Bismarck-Bohlen's house. _Himmel!_ What a freak! Have you seen her
+wig?"
+
+I replied that I had visited once or twice at the Stulerstrasse, and
+that the company I had met there were certainly amusing. I mentioned
+some of their names, among them that of young Von Ratibor, Major
+Gersdorff, of the Death's Head Hussars, Von Heynitz, of the Koenigsjaeger,
+a well-known man about town, his friend Winterfeld, together with a
+number of ladies of the very ultra go-ahead set. At this His Highness
+seemed highly interested.
+
+"She certainly seems a very curious old person," he laughed. "Fancies
+that she's but twenty-five, and actually had the audacity to dance at
+Bismarck-Bohlen's. Somebody was cruel enough to ask her to sing a French
+_chansonnette_!"
+
+"Did she?" I inquired.
+
+"Of course. She put herself into a martial attitude, and sang something
+about 'Le drapeau' of 'Jacques Bonhomme,' as though we wished to know
+anything about it. The man who suggested the song was sorry."
+
+I laughed heartily. Sometimes the Crown-Prince could be humorous, and it
+certainly must have been distinctly quaint when, as a result of the joke
+played upon the old Countess, she so completely turned the tables upon
+the party by singing a song full of French sentiment.
+
+That circumstance told me that she must be a very clever old lady, even
+though she wore that tow-coloured wig which sometimes on nights of
+merriment got a trifle askew.
+
+Judge my great surprise, however, when, about six weeks later, Frau von
+Alvensleben, the pretty _Grande Maitresse_ of the Court of the
+Crown-Princess, stopped me in one of the corridors of the Marmor Palace
+and, drawing me aside, whispered:
+
+"I have news for you, my dear Count. We have a new arrival at
+Court--Frau Yellow-Wig."
+
+I looked at her, for the moment puzzled. She saw that I did not follow
+her.
+
+"Countess von Kienitz--a friend of yours, I believe."
+
+"Friend of mine!" I echoed. "I've only been to her house three or four
+times, just in a crowd, and out of curiosity."
+
+"_Oh, la la!_ Well, she has told the Crown-Princess that you are her
+friend, and, in brief, has entirely fascinated Her Imperial Highness."
+
+I gasped. At what a pass we had arrived when the Crown-Princess was
+receiving that old woman whose reputation was of the gayest and most
+scandalous!
+
+What the _Grande Maitresse_ had told me was perfectly correct, for
+three days later a dance was held, and as I entered the room I saw
+amid that gay assemblage the yellow-haired old widow of the
+long-forgotten military hero wagging her lace fan and talking quite
+familiarly with Her Imperial Highness. To my utter amazement also,
+His Majesty the Emperor, in the gay uniform of the 3rd Regiment of
+Uhlans of Saxony--of whom he was chief, among a hundred-and-one other
+high military distinctions--advanced and smiled graciously upon her as
+she bowed as low as rheumatism and old age allowed.
+
+The fascination which the ugly, shrill-voiced old woman exercised over
+"Cilli" was quickly remarked, and, of course, gossip became more rife
+than ever, especially when, a week later, it was announced that she had
+actually been appointed a lady-in-waiting.
+
+The Crown-Prince, too, soon became on friendly terms with her, and many
+times I saw them chatting together as though exchanging confidences.
+Why?
+
+His Highness, usually so utterly piggish towards ladies, given to
+snubbing even the highest-born in the Empire, was always smiling and
+gracious towards her.
+
+"I can't make it out," declared Von Behr, the Chamberlain _du service_,
+to me one day two months later, while I was smoking with him in his
+room. "The old woman has the most complete control over Her Highness.
+Because she was averse to the journey, we are not going to Norway this
+year. Besides, since her appointment she has succeeded in plotting the
+dismissal of both Countess von Scheet-Plessen and Countess von
+Brockdorff."
+
+"I know," I replied. I had been discussing it only a few hours before
+with Major von Amsberg, aide-de-camp of the Prince Eitel Frederic, and
+he, too, had expressed himself both mystified and disgusted with the
+mysterious power exercised by the old woman in the yellow wig. "It seems
+so extraordinary," I went on, "that the Court should so utterly
+disregard the woman's reputation."
+
+"Bah, my dear Heltzendorff!" laughed the Chamberlain. "When a woman
+arrives at seventy she has outlived all the peccadilloes of youth. And,
+after all, the reputations of most of us here are tarnished--more or
+less--eh?"
+
+His remarks were indeed true. Nevertheless, it did not lessen the
+mystery of the appointment of the little old Countess as a
+lady-in-waiting, nor did it account for the strange influence which she
+held over the Imperial pair.
+
+One evening I went to the Countess's house in the Stulerstrasse to a
+dinner-party, at which there were present the Crown-Prince, Admiral von
+Spee from Kiel, and Von Ilberg, the Emperor's doctor, together with the
+old Duke von Trachenberg, who held the honorary and out-of-date office
+of grand cupbearer to the Emperor, and the eternal "Uncle" Zeppelin.
+With us were a number of ladies, including their Serene Highnesses the
+Princess von Radolin and the Duchess von Ratibor, both ladies of the
+Court of the Kaiserin, and several others of the ultra-smart set.
+
+After the meal there was a small dance, and about midnight, after
+waltzing with a pretty girl, the daughter of the Baron von
+Heintze-Weissenrode, we strolled together into the fine winter garden
+with its high palms, its plashing fountains, and its cunningly-secreted
+electric lights.
+
+I was seated with her, chatting gaily, for we had met in July at
+Stubbenkammer, on the island of Ruegen. She had been staying with her
+father at Eichstadt's, in Nipmerow, and we had all three been on some
+pleasant excursions along the Baltic coast, with its picturesque beech
+woods, white cliffs, and blue bays.
+
+We were recalling a delightful excursion up to the Herthaburg, on the
+road to Sassnitz, that "altar of sacrifice" which tradition connects
+with the mysterious rites of the beautiful goddess Hertha, mentioned by
+Tacitus, when suddenly we overheard voices.
+
+Two persons were approaching somewhere behind us, conversing in
+Italian--a man and a woman.
+
+"Hush!" I whispered mischievously. "Listen! Do you know Italian?"
+
+"Alas! no," was her reply. "Do you?"
+
+I did not answer, for I had already recognized the voices as those of
+our hostess and the Crown-Prince.
+
+Next moment, however, my companion's quick ears caught that unmistakable
+squeaky voice.
+
+"Why, it's the Countess!" she exclaimed.
+
+I made no reply, but continued to recall that glorious summer's day
+beside the blue Baltic, while His Highness and the little old
+lady-in-waiting seated themselves out of sight a short distance away,
+and continued a very confidential discussion in an undertone in the
+language in which, after German, I happened perhaps to be most
+proficient.
+
+The pair were discussing somebody named Karl Krahl, and the curious
+discussion was undoubtedly regarding some evil intent.
+
+"I saw the Emperor to-day," declared the old woman in her sibilant
+Italian, so that no one should understand, for Italian is seldom spoken
+in Germany. "His Majesty shares my views now, though he did not do so
+at first. Indeed, I was very near being dismissed in disgrace when I
+first broached the affair. But, fortunately, he now knows the truth and
+sees the advantage of--well, you know, eh?"
+
+"_Certo, Contessa_," replied the Crown-Prince, who speaks Italian
+extremely well, though not with half the fluency of his hostess. "I
+quite foresee the peril and the force of your argument."
+
+"How shall we act?" asked the old woman. "It remains for you to devise a
+plan. At any moment matters may approach a crisis. One can never account
+for the confidences exchanged by those who love each other. And,
+remember, Krahl is in love."
+
+The Crown-Prince grunted, but as several couples entered at that moment
+the pair suddenly broke off their confidential chat, and, rising, went
+out together.
+
+Who was this Karl Krahl against whom some deep-laid plot was levelled?
+
+I searched various directories, lists of persons engaged in the
+Government offices in the Wilhelmstrasse, the Leipzigerstrasse, and
+Unter den Linden; I consulted the Director of Berlin Police, Von Jagow;
+the well-known Detective Schunke, and Heinrich Wesener,
+Assistant-Director of the Secret Service of the General Staff; but
+nobody knew Karl Krahl. There seemed to be no record of him anywhere.
+
+In October I went with the Crown-Prince and the Emperor upon a round of
+ceremonial military inspections to the garrisons in Silesia--namely,
+Breslau, Leignitz, and Oppeln--and afterwards to Luebeck, where we
+presented new colours to two regiments. Thence, while the Emperor and
+his Staff returned direct to Berlin, I accompanied His Imperial Highness
+to Ballenstedt, the beautiful schloss in the Harz Mountains. Here once
+or twice each season the Crown-Prince's habit was to invite a few of his
+most intimate chums to shoot in the forests of Stecklenberg and the
+Lauenberg, and along that curious sandstone ridge known as the
+Teufelsmauer, or "Devil's Wall."
+
+The sport was always excellent, especially about the romantic district
+of Neue Schenke, near Suderode.
+
+The guns consisted of five well-known officers from Berlin, together
+with Dr. Zeising, the Master-General of Forests, and Lieut.-General von
+Oertzen, the fat old Inspector-General of Cavalry. As usual, we all had
+a most enjoyable time.
+
+On the third day, after a champagne luncheon taken at the forester's
+little house at Neue Schenke, we were about to resume our sport. Indeed,
+all the guests had gone outside, preparing to go to their allotted
+stations, when the head forester, a stalwart man in green livery,
+entered, and, addressing the Crown-Prince, said:
+
+"There is a man to see Your Imperial Highness, and refuses to leave. He
+gives his name as Karl Krahl."
+
+In an instant I pricked up my ears.
+
+His Highness's brows narrowed for a second, which showed his annoyance,
+then, smiling affably, so clever was he, like his Imperial father, in
+the concealment of his real feelings--he replied:
+
+"Oh, yes--Krahl! I recollect. Yes, I will see him here."
+
+Next moment the person whom I had heard discussed so strangely in the
+little old woman's beautiful winter garden was ushered in.
+
+He was dark-haired, aged about twenty-eight, I judged, with small,
+shrewd black eyes, dressed in a well-cut suit of grey country tweeds,
+and but for his German name I should have taken him for an English
+tourist, one of those familiar objects of the Harz in peace time. His
+appearance instantly interested me, the more so owing to the fact that
+he had come to that remote spot and at that hour to pay a visit to the
+Emperor's son.
+
+"Come in, Karl!" exclaimed the Crown-Prince affably, as he grasped his
+visitor's hand. His Highness did not often offer his manicured hand to
+others, and at this I was, I admit, greatly surprised. "The forester did
+not know you, of course. Well, I am very pleased to see you. Have you
+come straight here?"
+
+"Yes, your Highness. I went first to Berlin, and learning that you were
+here I thought I had better lose no time."
+
+"Quite right," laughed his Highness who, turning to me, said:
+"Heltzendorff, will you tell the others to go on--that I am detained for
+an hour on State business, and--and that I will join them as soon as
+possible. I will find you in the woods, on the left of the Quedlinburg
+Road, before one comes to the Wurmtal. Apologize for me, but the delay
+is inevitable. I have a conference with Herr Krahl."
+
+While His Highness remained behind at the forester's house to chat alone
+with the mysterious Karl Krahl, we went out among the birds and had some
+excellent sport. Yet the sight of that ferret-eyed young man, whom I had
+long endeavoured in vain to trace, caused me considerable wonderment.
+Who was that young fellow in whom the little old Countess seemed to take
+such deep and peculiar interest? What was his offence that she, with the
+Crown-Prince, should concoct, as it seemed to me, such a plot as that I
+had partly overheard?
+
+That there was a woman in the case I felt assured, but her name had not
+been mentioned, and I had no suspicion of whom it could be. I realized,
+however, that something important must be in progress, otherwise His
+Highness, devoted to sport as he was, would never have given up the best
+afternoon to consult with that stranger in grey tweeds.
+
+The forester and beaters had come with us, as the Crown-Prince had, at
+his own request, been left alone with his mysterious visitor.
+
+After a couple of short beats we arrived at the spot on the forest road
+to Quedlinburg, a most romantic and picturesque gorge, where His
+Highness had arranged to meet us, and there we sat down and waited. Both
+Von Oertzen and Dr. Zeising, being unduly stout, had been puffed in
+coming up the steep mountain side, and as we sat we gossiped, though
+impatient to set forth again.
+
+A full half-hour had passed, yet the head forester, who was keeping a
+look-out along the road, did not signal His Highness's approach.
+
+"I wonder what can have detained him?" remarked the Inspector-General of
+Cavalry.
+
+I explained that a strange young man had come to the forester's house.
+
+"Well," laughed a smart young lieutenant of Uhlans, "I could have
+understood the delay if it had been a lady!"
+
+An hour went past. The light would soon fade, and we, knowing "Willie's"
+utter disregard for his appointments, at last decided to continue the
+shoot, leaving one of the foresters to tell His Highness the direction
+we had taken.
+
+The Crown-Prince did not, however, join us, and darkness had fallen ere
+we returned to the forester's house. Of His Highness there was no sign,
+a fact which much surprised us. In the room wherein I had left him his
+gun and green Tyrolese hat were lying upon a chair, and the fact that
+all the cars were still ranged outside showed that he had not driven
+back to the castle.
+
+The Crown-Prince had disappeared!
+
+Knof, His Highness's chauffeur, who had been walking with us, was sent
+back post-haste to the schloss to ascertain whether he had been seen
+there, for His Highness's movements were often most erratic. We knew
+that if the whim took him he would perhaps go off in an opposite
+direction, or trudge back to the castle with utter disregard of our
+natural anxiety.
+
+Lights were lit, and we enjoyed cigars awaiting Knof's return. In an
+hour he was back with the news that nothing had been heard of His
+Highness. Soon after we had left that morning, however, a young man in a
+grey suit had called and seen the major-domo, who had directed him where
+His Highness might be found.
+
+Upon Eckardt--the commissary of police responsible for His Highness's
+safety--the onus rested. Yet, had he not been sent out with the party,
+as His Highness had expressed to me a wish to be left alone with the
+stranger, whose name I alone knew.
+
+While we were discussing the most judicious mode of action--for I
+scented much mystery in this visit of Karl Krahl--one of the party
+suddenly discovered, lying upon the ledge of the window, a lady's small
+and rather elegant handbag of black _moire_ silk.
+
+"Hulloa!" I cried when he held it up for inspection. "This reveals to us
+one fact--a woman has been here!"
+
+I opened the bag, and within found a small lawn handkerchief with a
+coronet embroidered in its corner, a tiny tortoise-shell mirror, and
+four one-hundred-mark notes, but no clue whatever as to its owner.
+
+The mystery was increasing hourly, but the gay party, knowing "Willie's"
+susceptibility where the fair sex were concerned, only laughed and
+declared that His Highness would assuredly turn up before the evening
+was over.
+
+Truth to tell, I did not like the situation. His Highness's
+disappearance was now known to fifty or so persons, beaters, and others,
+and I feared lest it might get into the Berlin papers. With that object
+I called them together and impressed upon them that most complete
+silence must be maintained regarding the affair.
+
+Then Knof drove me alone back to the schloss. I wondered if His
+Highness, wishing to get away unobserved, returning in secret there,
+had left me a written message in his room. He had done that on one
+occasion before.
+
+I dashed up to the small, old-world room which by day overlooked the
+romantic and picturesque valley, but upon the table whereat I had been
+writing early that morning there was nothing.
+
+As I turned to leave I heard a footstep, and next instant saw the little
+deformed old Countess facing me.
+
+Her appearance quite startled me. Apparently she had just arrived, for
+she was in a dark blue bonnet and warm travelling coat.
+
+"Ah! Count von Heltzendorff!" she cried in that squeaky, high-pitched
+voice of hers. "Is His Imperial Highness here? I must see him
+immediately."
+
+"No, Countess. His Imperial Highness is not here," was my reply. "This
+afternoon he mysteriously disappeared from the forester's lodge at Neue
+Schenke, and we are unable to trace him."
+
+"Disappeared!" gasped the old lady, instantly pale and agitated.
+
+"Yes," I said, looking her straight in the face.
+
+"Do you know whether he had a visitor to-day--a young, dark-haired man?"
+
+"He had, Countess. A man called, and saw him. At His Highness's request
+I left him alone with his visitor at the forester's house. The man's
+name was Karl Krahl."
+
+"How did you know his name?" she asked, staring at me with an expression
+of distinct suspicion.
+
+"Because--well, because I happen to have learnt it some time ago," I
+said. "And, further, on returning to the house we found this little bag
+in the room wherein I had left the Crown-Prince."
+
+"Why!--a lady's bag!" she exclaimed as I held it out for inspection.
+
+"Yes," I said in a somewhat hard tone. "Do you happen to recognize it?"
+
+"Me? Why?" asked the old woman.
+
+"Well, because I think it is your own property," I said with a sarcastic
+smile. "I have some recollection of having seen it in your hand!"
+
+She took it, examined it well, and then, with a hollow, artificial
+laugh, declared:
+
+"It certainly is not mine. I once had a bag very similar, but mine was
+not of such good quality."
+
+"Are you really quite certain, Countess?" I demanded in a low,
+persuasive voice.
+
+"Quite," she declared, though I knew that she was lying to me. "But why
+trouble about that bag while there is a point much more important--the
+safety and whereabouts of His Imperial Highness?" she went on in a great
+state of agitation. "Tell me, Count, exactly what occurred--as far as
+you know."
+
+I recounted to her the facts just as you have already written them down,
+and as I did so I watched her thin, crafty old face, noticing upon it an
+expression full of suspicion of myself. She was, I now realized,
+undecided as to the exact extent of my knowledge.
+
+"How did you know that the young man's name was Krahl?" she asked
+eagerly. "You had perhaps met him before--eh?"
+
+But to this leading question I maintained a sphinx-like silence. That
+the little old woman who had so unexpectedly become a lady-in-waiting
+was playing some desperate double game I felt sure, but its exact import
+was still an enigma.
+
+"In any case," she said, "would it not be as well to return to the Neue
+Schenke and make search?"
+
+I smiled. Then, in order to let her know that I was acquainted with
+Italian, the language she had spoken on that well-remembered night in
+her own conservatory, I exclaimed:
+
+"Ahe! alle volte con gli occhi aperti si far dei sogni." (Sometimes one
+can dream with one's eyes open.)
+
+Her thin eyebrows narrowed, and with a shrug of her shoulders the clever
+old woman replied:
+
+"Dal false bene viene il vero male." (From an affected good feeling
+comes a real evil.)
+
+I realized at that moment that there was more mystery in the affair than
+I had yet conceived. His Imperial Highness was certainly missing, though
+the female element of the affair had become eliminated by my recognition
+of her own handbag. She, too, had been in secret to the forester's
+house--but with what object?
+
+Half an hour later we were back at the little house in the forest.
+
+The guests had all returned to the castle, and only Eckardt, the police
+commissary, remained, with the forester and his underlings. Already
+search had been made in the surrounding woods, but without result. Of
+his Imperial Highness there was no trace.
+
+In the long room, with its pitch-pine walls, and lit by oil lamps, the
+crafty old Countess closely questioned Eckardt as to the result of his
+inquiries. But the police official, who had become full of nervous fear,
+declared that he had been sent off by His Highness, and had not since
+found any trace of him. He spoke of the little black silk bag, of
+course, and attached great importance to it.
+
+Within half an hour we had reorganized the beaters from the
+neighbourhood and, with lanterns, set out again to examine some woods to
+the east which had not been searched. About ten o'clock we set forth,
+the Countess accompanying us and walking well, notwithstanding her age,
+though I could see that it was a fearful anxiety that kept her active.
+To the men with us every inch of the mountain side was familiar, and for
+hours we searched.
+
+Suddenly, not far away, a horn was blown, followed by loud shouts.
+Quickly we approached the spot, and Eckardt and myself, as we came up,
+looked upon a strange scene. Close to the trunk of a great beech tree
+lay the form of the Crown-Prince, hatless, outstretched upon his face.
+
+Instantly I bent, tore open his shooting jacket, and to my great relief
+found that his heart was still beating. He was, however, quite
+unconscious, though there seemed no sign of a struggle. As he had left
+his hat and gun in the house, it seemed that he had gone forth only for
+a moment. And yet we were quite a mile from the forester's house!
+
+The Countess had thrown herself upon her knees and stroked his brow
+tenderly when I announced that he was still living. By her actions I saw
+that she was filled by some bitter self-reproach.
+
+With the lanterns shining around him--surely a weird and remarkable
+scene which would, if described by the journalists, have caused a great
+sensation in Europe--the Crown-Prince was brought slowly back to
+consciousness, until at last he sat up, dazed and wondering.
+
+His first words to me were:
+
+"That fellow! Where is he? That--that glass globe!"
+
+Glass globe! Surely His Highness's mind was wandering.
+
+An hour later he was comfortably in bed in the great old-world room in
+the castle, attended by a local doctor--upon whom I set the seal of
+official silence--and before dawn he had completely recovered.
+
+Yet, even to me, he declared that he retained absolutely no knowledge of
+what had occurred.
+
+"I went out quickly, and I--well, I don't know what happened," he told
+me soon after dawn, as he lay in bed. Strangely enough, he made no
+mention of the man, Karl Krahl.
+
+Later on he summoned the Countess von Kienitz, and for twenty minutes or
+so he had an animated discussion with her. Being outside the room,
+however, I was unable to hear distinctly.
+
+Well, I succeeded, by bribes and threats, in hushing up the whole affair
+and keeping it out of the papers, while by those who knew of the
+incident it was soon forgotten.
+
+I suppose it must have been fully three months later when one evening,
+having taken some documents over to the Emperor for signature at the
+Berlin Schloss, I returned to the Prince's private room in the Palace,
+when, to my great surprise, I found the man Karl Krahl seated there. He
+looked very pale and worn, quite unlike the rather athletic figure he
+presented at the forester's house.
+
+"If you still refuse to tell me the truth, then I shall take my own
+measures to find out--severe measures! So I give you full warning," the
+Crown-Prince was declaring angrily, as I entered so unexpectedly.
+
+I did not withdraw, pretending not to notice the presence of a visitor,
+therefore His Highness himself beckoned the young man, who followed him
+down the corridor to another room.
+
+The whole affair was most puzzling. What had happened on that afternoon
+in the Harz Mountains I could not at all imagine. By what means had His
+Highness been rendered unconscious, and what part could the little old
+Countess have played in the curious affair?
+
+In about half an hour the Crown-Prince returned in a palpably bad
+humour, and, flinging himself into his chair, wrote a long letter, which
+he addressed to Countess von Kienitz. This he sealed carefully, and
+ordered me to take it at once to the Stulerstrasse and deliver it to her
+personally.
+
+"The Countess left for Stockholm this morning," I was informed by the
+bearded manservant. "She left by the eight o'clock train, and has
+already left Sassnitz by now."
+
+"When do you expect her to return?"
+
+The man did not know.
+
+On going back to His Highness and telling him of the Countess's
+departure, he bit his lip and then smiled grimly.
+
+"That infernal old woman has left Germany, and will never again put her
+foot upon our soil, Heltzendorff," he said. "You may open that letter.
+It will explain something which I know must have mystified you."
+
+I did so. And as I read what he had written I held my breath. Truly, it
+did explain much.
+
+Imposing the strictest silence upon me, the Crown-Prince then revealed
+how utterly he and the Crown-Princess had been misled, and how very
+narrowly he had escaped being the victim of a cunning plot to effect his
+death.
+
+The little old Countess von Kienitz had, it seemed, sworn to avenge the
+degradation and dismissal of her son, who had been in the famous Death's
+Head Hussars. She had secretly traced the Crown-Prince as author of a
+subtle conspiracy against him, the underlying motive being jealousy.
+With that end in view she had slowly wormed her way into His Highness's
+confidence, and introduced to him Karl Krahl, a neurotic young Saxon who
+lived in London, and who pretended he had unearthed a plot against the
+Kaiser himself.
+
+"It was to tell me the truth concerning the conspiracy that Krahl came
+to me in secret at Ballenstedt. He remained with me for half an hour,
+when, to my great surprise, we were joined by the Countess. The story
+they told me of the plot against the Emperor was a very alarming one,
+and I intended to return at once to Berlin. The Countess had left to
+walk back to the schloss, when presently we heard a woman's scream--her
+voice--and we both went forth to discover what was in progress. As I ran
+along a little distance behind Krahl, suddenly what seemed like a thin
+glass globe struck me in the chest and burst before my face. It had
+been thrown by an unknown hand, and, on breaking, must have emitted some
+poisonous gas which was intended to kill me, but which happily failed.
+Until yesterday the whole affair was a complete mystery, but Krahl has
+now confessed that the Countess conceived the plot, and that the hand
+that had thrown the glass bomb was that of her son, who had concealed
+himself in the bushes for that purpose."
+
+Though, of course, I hastened to congratulate His Highness upon his
+fortunate escape, yet I now often wonder whether, if the plot had
+succeeded, the present world-conflict would ever have occurred.
+
+
+
+
+SECRET NUMBER SEVEN
+
+THE BRITISH GIRL WHO BAULKED THE KAISER
+
+
+"How completely we have put to sleep these very dear cousins of ours,
+the British!" His Imperial Highness the Crown-Prince made this remark to
+me as he sat in the corner of a first-class compartment of an express
+that had ten minutes before left Paddington Station for the West of
+England--that much-advertised train known as the Cornish-Riviera
+Express.
+
+The Crown-Prince, though not generally known, frequently visited England
+and Scotland incognito, usually travelling as Count von Gruenau, and we
+were upon one of these flying visits on that bright summer's morning as
+the express tore through your delightful English scenery of the Thames
+Valley, with the first stopping-place at Plymouth, our destination.
+
+The real reason for the visit of my young hotheaded Imperial Master was
+concealed from me.
+
+Four days before he had dashed into my room at the Marmor Palace at
+Potsdam greatly excited. He had been with the Emperor in Berlin all the
+morning, and had motored back with all speed. Something had occurred,
+but what it was I failed to discern. He carried some papers in the
+pocket of his military tunic. From their colour I saw that they were
+secret reports--those documents prepared solely for the eyes of the
+Kaiser and those of his precious son.
+
+He took a big linen-lined envelope and, placing the papers in it,
+carefully sealed it with wax.
+
+"We are going to London, Heltzendorff. Put that in your dispatch-box. I
+may want it when we are in England."
+
+"To London--when?" I asked, much surprised at the suddenness of our
+journey, because I knew that we were due at Weimar in two days' time.
+
+"We leave at six o'clock this evening," was the Crown-Prince's reply.
+"Koehler has ordered the saloon to be attached to the Hook of Holland
+train. Hardt has already left Berlin to engage rooms for us at the
+'Ritz,' in London."
+
+"And the suite?" I asked, for it was one of my duties to arrange who
+travelled with His Imperial Highness.
+
+"Oh! we'll leave Eckardt at home," he said, for he always hated the
+surveillance of the Commissioner of Secret Police. "We shall only want
+Schuler, my valet, and Knof."
+
+We never travelled anywhere without Knof, the chauffeur, who was an
+impudent, arrogant young man, intensely disliked by everyone.
+
+And so it was that the four of us duly landed at Harwich and travelled
+to London, our identity unknown to the jostling crowd of Cook's tourists
+returning from their annual holiday on the Continent.
+
+At the "Ritz," too, though we took our meals in the restaurant, that
+great square white room overlooking the Park, "Willie" was not
+recognized, because all photographs of him show him in elegant uniform.
+In a tweed suit, or in evening clothes, he presents an unhealthy, weedy
+and somewhat insignificant figure, save for those slant animal eyes of
+his which are always so striking in his every mood.
+
+His Imperial Highness had been on the previous day to Carlton House
+Terrace to a luncheon given by the Ambassador's wife, but to which
+nobody was invited but the Embassy staff.
+
+And that afternoon in the great dining-room, in full view of
+St. James's Park and Whitehall, the toast of "The Day" was drunk
+enthusiastically--the day of Great Britain's intended downfall.
+
+That same evening an Imperial courier arrived from Berlin and called at
+the "Ritz," where, on being shown into the Crown-Prince's sitting-room,
+he handed His Highness a sealed letter from his wife.
+
+"Willie," on reading it, became very grave. Then, striking a match, he
+lit it, and held it until it was consumed. There was a second
+letter--which I saw was from the Emperor. This he also read, and then
+gave vent to an expression of impatience. For a few minutes he
+reflected, and it was then he announced that we must go to Plymouth next
+day.
+
+On arrival there we went to the Royal Hotel, where the Crown-Prince
+registered as Mr. Richter, engaging a private suite of rooms for himself
+and his secretary, myself. For three days we remained there, taking
+motor runs to Dartmoor, and also down into Cornwall, until on the
+morning of the fourth day the Crown-Prince suddenly said:
+
+"I shall probably have a visitor this morning about eleven o'clock--a
+young lady named King. Tell them at the bureau to send her up to my
+sitting-room."
+
+At the time appointed the lady came. I received her in the lobby of the
+self-contained flat, and found her to be about twenty-four,
+well-dressed, fair-haired and extremely good-looking. Knowing the
+Crown-Prince's _penchant_ for the petticoat, I saw at once the reason of
+our journey down to Plymouth.
+
+Miss King, I learned, was an English girl who some years previously had
+gone to America with her people, and by the heavy travelling coat and
+close-fitting hat she wore I concluded that she had just come off one of
+the incoming American liners.
+
+One thing which struck me as I looked at her was the brooch she wore. It
+was a natural butterfly of a rare tropical variety, with bright golden
+wings, the delicate sheen of which was protected by small plates of
+crystal--one of the most charming ornaments I had ever seen.
+
+As I ushered her in she greeted the Crown-Prince as "Mr. Richter," being
+apparently entirely unaware of his real identity. I concluded that she
+was somebody whom His Highness had met in Germany, and to whom he had
+been introduced under his assumed name.
+
+"Ah! Miss King!" he exclaimed pleasantly in his excellent English,
+shaking hands with her. "Your boat should have been in yesterday. I fear
+you encountered bad weather--eh?"
+
+"Yes, rather," replied the girl. "But it did not trouble me much. We had
+almost constant gales ever since we left New York," she laughed
+brightly. She appeared to be quite a charming little person. But his
+fast-living Highness was perhaps one of the best judges of a pretty face
+in all Europe, and I now realized why we had travelled all the way from
+Potsdam to Plymouth.
+
+"Heltzendorff, would you please bring me that sealed packet from your
+dispatch-box?" he asked, suddenly turning to me.
+
+The sealed packet! I had forgotten all about it ever since he had handed
+it me at the door of the Marmor Palace. I knew that it contained some
+secret reports prepared for the eye of the Emperor. The latter had no
+doubt seen them, for the Crown-Prince had brought them with him from
+Berlin.
+
+As ordered, I took the packet into the room where His Highness sat with
+his fair visitor, and then I retired and closed the door.
+
+Hotel doors are never very heavy, as a rule, therefore I was able to
+hear conversation, but unfortunately few words were distinct. The
+interview had lasted nearly half an hour. Finding that I could hear
+nothing, I contented myself in reading the paper and holding myself in
+readiness should "Mr. Richter" want me.
+
+Of a sudden I heard His Highness's voice raised in anger, that shrill,
+high-pitched note which is peculiar both to the Emperor and to his son
+when they are unusually annoyed.
+
+"But I tell you, Miss King, there is no other way," I heard him shout.
+"It can be done quite easily, and nobody can possibly know."
+
+"Never!" cried the girl. "What would people think of me?"
+
+"You wish to save your brother," he said. "Very well, I have shown you
+how you can effect this. And I will help you if you agree to the
+terms--if you will find out what I want to know."
+
+"I can't!" cried the girl, in evident distress. "I really can't! It
+would be dishonest--criminal!"
+
+"Bah! my dear girl, you are looking at the affair from far too high a
+standpoint," replied the man she knew as Richter. "It is a mere matter
+of business. You ask me to assist you to save your brother, and I have
+simply stated my terms. Surely you would not think that I should travel
+from Berlin here to Plymouth in order to meet you if I were not ready
+and eager to help you?"
+
+"I must ask my father. I can speak to him in confidence."
+
+"Your father!" shrieked Mr. Richter in alarm. "By no means. Why, you
+must not breathe a single word to him. This affair is a strict secret
+between us. Please understand that." Then, after a pause, he asked in a
+lower and more serious voice:
+
+"Your brother is, I quite admit, in direst peril, and you alone can save
+him. Now, what is your decision?"
+
+The girl's reply was in a tone too low for me to overhear. Its tenor,
+however, was quickly apparent from the Crown-Prince's words:
+
+"You refuse! Very well, then, I cannot assist you. I regret, Miss King,
+that you have had your journey to England for nothing."
+
+"But won't you help me, Mr. Richter?" cried the girl appealingly. "Do,
+do, Mr. Richter!"
+
+"No," was his cold answer. "I will, however, give you opportunity to
+reconsider your decision. You are, no doubt, going to London. So am I.
+You will meet me in the hall of the Carlton Hotel at seven o'clock on
+Thursday evening, and we will dine together."
+
+"But I can't--I really can't do as you wish. You surely will not compel
+me to--to commit a crime!"
+
+"Hush!" he cried. "I have shown you these papers, and you know my
+instructions. Remember that your father must know nothing. Nobody must
+suspect, or you will find yourself in equal peril with your brother."
+
+"You--you are cruel!" sobbed the girl. "Horribly cruel!"
+
+"No, no," he said cheerfully. "Don't cry, please. Think it all over,
+Miss King, and meet me in London on Thursday night."
+
+After listening to the appointment I discreetly withdrew into the
+corridor on pretence of summoning a waiter, and when I returned the
+pretty English girl was taking leave of "Mr. Richter."
+
+Her blue eyes betrayed traces of emotion, and she was, I saw, very pale,
+her bearing quite unlike her attitude when she had entered there.
+
+"Well, good-bye, Miss King," said His Highness, grasping her hand. "It
+was really awfully good of you to call. We shall meet again very
+soon--eh? Good-bye."
+
+Then, turning to me, he asked me to conduct her out.
+
+I walked by her side along the corridor and down the stairs, but as we
+went along she suddenly turned to me, remarking:
+
+"I wonder if all men are alike?"
+
+"Alike, why?" I asked, surprised.
+
+"Mr. Richter--ah! he has a heart of stone," she declared. "My poor
+brother!" she added, in a voice broken in emotion. "I have travelled
+from America in order to try and save him ere it is too late."
+
+"Mr. Richter is your friend--eh?" I asked as we descended.
+
+"Yes. I met him at Frankenhausen two years ago. I had gone there with my
+father to visit the Barbarossa Cavern."
+
+"Then you have lived in Germany?"
+
+"Yes, for several years."
+
+By this time we were at the door of the hotel, and I bowed to her as she
+smiled sadly and, wishing me adieu, passed out into the street.
+
+On returning to the Crown-Prince, I found him in a decidedly savage
+mood. He was pacing the floor impatiently, muttering angrily to himself,
+for it was apparent that some deeply-laid plan of his was being thwarted
+by the girl's refusal to conform to his wishes and obtain certain
+information he was seeking.
+
+The Crown-Prince, when in a foreign country, was never idle. His energy
+was such that he was ever on the move, with eyes and ears always open to
+learn whatever he could. Hence it was at two o'clock that afternoon Knof
+brought round a big grey open car, and in it I sat beside the Emperor's
+son while we were driven around the defences of Plymouth, just as on
+previous occasions we had inspected those of Portsmouth and of Dover.
+
+On the following Thursday evening we had returned to London, and the
+Crown-Prince, without telling me where he was going, left the Ritz
+Hotel, merely explaining that he might not be back till midnight. It was
+on that occasion, my dear Le Queux, you will remember, that I dined with
+you at the Devonshire Club, and we afterwards spent a pleasant evening
+together at the "Empire."
+
+I merely told you that His Highness was out at dinner with a friend. You
+were, naturally, inquisitive, but I did not satisfy your curiosity.
+Secrecy was my duty.
+
+On returning to the hotel I found the Crown-Prince arranging with Knof a
+motor run along the Surrey hills on the following day. He had a large
+map spread before him--a German military map, the curious marks upon
+which would have no doubt astonished any of your War Office officials.
+The map indicated certain spots which had been secretly prepared by
+Germany in view of the projected invasion.
+
+To those spots we motored on the following day. His Imperial Highness,
+at the instigation of the Emperor, actually made a tour of inspection of
+those cunningly-concealed points of vantage which the Imperial General
+Staff had, with their marvellous forethought and bold enterprise,
+already prepared right beneath the very nose of the sleeping British
+lion.
+
+From the Crown-Prince's jaunty manner and good spirits I felt assured
+that by the subtle persuasive powers he possessed towards women--nearly
+all of whom admired his corseted figure and his gay nonchalance--he had
+brought the mysterious Miss King into line with his own
+cunningly-conceived plans--whatever they might be.
+
+We lunched at the Burford Bridge Hotel, that pretty old-fashioned house
+beneath Box Hill, not far from Dorking.
+
+After our meal in the long public room, newly built as an annexe, we
+strolled into the grounds for a smoke.
+
+"Well, Heltzendorff," he said presently, as we strolled together along
+the gravelled walks, "we will return to the Continent to-morrow. Our
+visit has not been altogether abortive. We will remain a few days in
+Ostend, before we return to Potsdam."
+
+Next afternoon we had taken up our quarters at a small but very select
+hotel on the Digue at Ostend, a place called the "Beau Sejour." It was
+patronized by old-fashioned folk, and "Herr Richter" was well known
+there. There may have been some who suspected that Richter was not the
+visitor's real name, but they were few, and it always surprised me how
+well the Crown-Prince succeeded in preserving his incognito--though, of
+course, the authorities knew of the Imperial visit.
+
+Whenever "Willie" went to Ostend his conduct became anything but that of
+the exemplary husband. Ostend in the season was assuredly a gay place,
+and the Crown-Prince had a small and select coterie of friends there who
+drank, gambled and enjoyed themselves even more than they did at Nice in
+winter.
+
+But his mind was always obsessed by the coming war. Indeed, on that very
+evening of our arrival, as we strolled along the gaily-illuminated Digue
+towards the big, bright Kursaal, he turned to me suddenly and said:
+
+"When the hour comes, and Prussia in her greatness strikes them, this
+place will soon become German territory. I shall make that building
+yonder my headquarters," and he jerked his thumb in the direction of the
+summer palace of the King of the Belgians.
+
+The following day, about three o'clock, while the Crown-Prince was
+carelessly going through some letters brought by courier from Potsdam, a
+waiter came to me with a message that a Miss King desired to see Mr.
+Richter.
+
+In surprise I received her, welcoming her to Ostend. From the neat dress
+of the pretty English girl I concluded that she had just crossed from
+Dover, and she seemed most anxious to see His Highness. I noted, too,
+that she still wore the beautiful golden butterfly.
+
+When I entered his room to announce her his slant brows knit, and his
+thin lips compressed.
+
+"H'm! More trouble for us, Heltzendorff, I suppose!" he whispered
+beneath his breath. "Very well, show her in."
+
+The fair visitor was in the room for a long time--indeed, for over an
+hour. Their voices were raised, and now and then, curiously enough, I
+received the impression that, whatever might have been the argument, the
+pretty girl had gained her own point, for when she came out she smiled
+at me in triumph, and walked straight forth and down the stairs.
+
+The Crown-Prince threw himself into a big arm-chair in undisguised
+dissatisfaction. Towards me he never wore a mask, though, like his
+father, he invariably did so in the presence of strangers.
+
+"Those accursed women!" he cried. "Ah! Heltzendorff, when a woman is in
+love she will defy even Satan himself! And yet they are fools, these
+women, for they are in ignorance of the irresistible power of our
+Imperial house. The enemies of the Hohenzollerns are as a cloud of gnats
+on a summer's night. The dew comes, and they are no more. It is a pity,"
+he added, with a sigh of regret. "But those who are either conscientious
+or defiant must suffer. Has not one of our greatest German philosophers
+written: 'It is no use breathing against the wind'?"
+
+"True," I said. Then, hoping to learn something further, I added:
+"Surely it is a nuisance to be followed and worried by that little
+English girl!"
+
+"Worried! Yes. You are quite right, my dear Heltzendorff," he said. "But
+I do not mind worry, if it is in the interests of Prussia, and of our
+House of Hohenzollern. I admit the girl, though distinctly pretty, is a
+most irritating person. She does not appeal to me, but I am compelled to
+humour her, because I have a certain object in view."
+
+I could not go further, or I might have betrayed the knowledge I had
+gained by eavesdropping.
+
+"I was surprised that she should turn up here, in Ostend," I said.
+
+"I had written to her. I expected her."
+
+"She does not know your real rank or station?"
+
+"No. To her I am merely Herr Emil Richter, whom she first met away in
+the country. She was a tourist, and I was Captain Emil Richter, of the
+Prussian Guards. We met while you were away on holiday at Vienna."
+
+I was anxious to learn something about Miss King's brother, but "Willie"
+was generally discreet, and at that moment unusually so. One fact was
+plain, however, that some secret report presented to the Emperor had
+been shown to her. Why? I wondered if His Highness had been successful
+in coercing her into acting as he desired.
+
+Certainly the girl's attitude as she had left the hotel went to show
+that, in the contest, she had won by her woman's keen wit and foresight.
+I recollected, too, that she was British.
+
+A fortnight afterwards we were back again at Potsdam.
+
+About three months passed. The Crown-Prince had accompanied the Emperor
+to shoot on the Glatzer Gebirge, that wild mountainous district beyond
+Breslau. For a week we had been staying at a great, high-up, prison-like
+schloss, the ancestral home of Prince Ludwig Lichtenau, in the
+Woelfelsgrund.
+
+The Emperor and his suite had left, and our host had been suddenly
+called to Berlin by telegram, his daughter having been taken ill.
+Therefore, the Crown-Prince and we of the suite had remained for some
+further sport.
+
+On the day after the Emperor's departure I spent the afternoon in a
+small panelled room which overlooked a deep mountain gorge, and which
+had been given up to me for work. I was busy with correspondence when
+the courier from Potsdam entered and gave me the battered leather pouch
+containing the Crown-Prince's letters. Having unlocked it with my key, I
+found among the correspondence a small square packet addressed to His
+Imperial Highness, and marked "Private."
+
+Now, fearing bombs or attempts by other means upon his son's precious
+life, the Emperor had commanded me always to open packets addressed to
+him. This one, however, being marked "Private," and, moreover, the
+inscription being in a feminine hand, I decided to await His Highness's
+return.
+
+When at last he came in, wet and very muddy after a long day's sport, I
+showed him the packet. With a careless air he said:
+
+"Oh, open it, Heltzendorff. Open all packets, whether marked private or
+not."
+
+I obeyed, and to my surprise found within the paper a small
+leather-covered jewel-case, in which, reposing upon a bed of dark blue
+velvet, was the beautiful ornament which I had admired at the throat of
+the fair-haired British girl--the golden butterfly.
+
+I handed it to His Highness just as he was taking a cigarette from the
+box on a side table.
+
+The sight of it electrified him! He held his breath, standing for a few
+seconds staring wildly at it as though he were gazing upon some hideous
+spectre, sight of which had frozen his senses.
+
+He stood rigid, his thin countenance as white as paper.
+
+"When did that arrive?" he managed to ask, though in a hoarse voice,
+which showed how completely sight of it had upset him.
+
+"This afternoon. It was in the courier's pouch from Potsdam."
+
+He had grasped the back of a chair as though to steady himself, and for
+a few seconds stood there, with his left hand clapped over his eyes,
+endeavouring to collect his thoughts.
+
+He seemed highly nervous, and at the same time extremely puzzled.
+Receipt of that unique and beautiful brooch was, I saw, some sign, but
+of its real significance I remained in entire ignorance.
+
+That it had a serious meaning I quickly realized, for within half an
+hour the Crown-Prince and myself were in the train on our
+two-hundred-mile journey back to Berlin.
+
+On arrival His Imperial Highness drove straight to the Berlin Schloss,
+and there had a long interview with the Emperor. At last I was called
+into the familiar pale-green room, the Kaiser's private cabinet, and at
+once saw that something untoward had occurred.
+
+The Emperor's face was dark and thoughtful. Yet another of the black
+plots of the Hohenzollerns was in process of being carried out! Of that
+I felt only too confident. The Crown-Prince, in his badly-creased
+uniform, betraying a long journey--so unlike his usual spick-and-span
+appearance--stood nervously by as the Kaiser threw himself into his
+writing-chair with a deep grunt and distinctly evil grace.
+
+"I suppose it must be done," he growled viciously to his son. "Did I not
+foresee that the girl would constitute a serious menace? When she was in
+Germany she might easily have been arrested upon some charge and her
+mouth closed. Bah! our political police service grows worse and worse.
+We will have it entirely reorganized. The Director, Laubach, is far too
+sentimental, far too chicken-hearted."
+
+As he spoke he took up his pen and commenced to write rapidly, drawing a
+deep breath as his quill scratched upon the paper.
+
+"You realize," he exclaimed angrily to his son, taking no notice of my
+presence there, because I was part and parcel of the great machinery of
+the Court, "you realize what this order means?" he added, as he appended
+his signature. "It is a blow struck against our cause--struck by a mere
+slip of a girl. Think, if the truth came out! Why, all our propaganda in
+the United States and Britain would be nullified in a single day, and
+the 'good relations' we are now extending on every hand throughout the
+world in order to mislead our enemies would be exposed in all their true
+meaning. We cannot afford that. It would be far cheaper to pay twenty
+million marks--the annual cost of the whole propaganda in America--than
+to allow the truth to be known."
+
+Suddenly the Crown-Prince's face brightened, as though he had had some
+sudden inspiration.
+
+"The truth will not be known, I promise you," he said, with a strange,
+evil grin. I knew that expression. It meant that he had devised some
+fresh and devilish plan. "The girl is defiant to-day, but she will not
+remain so long. I will take your order, but I may not have occasion to
+put it in force."
+
+"Ah! You have perhaps devised something--eh? I hope so," said the
+Emperor. "You are usually ingenious in a crisis. Good! Here is the
+order; act just as you think fit."
+
+"I was summoned, Your Majesty," I said, in order to remind him of my
+presence there.
+
+"Ah! Yes. You know this Miss King, do you not?"
+
+"I received her in Plymouth," was my reply.
+
+"Ah! then you will again recognize her. Probably your services may be
+very urgently required within the next few hours. You may go," and His
+Majesty curtly dismissed me.
+
+I waited in the corridor until His Imperial Highness came forth. When he
+did so he looked flushed and seemed agitated.
+
+There had, I knew, occurred a violent scene between father and son, for
+to me it seemed as though "Willie" had again fallen beneath the
+influence of a pretty face.
+
+He drove me in the big Mercedes over to Potsdam, where I had a quantity
+of military documents awaiting attention, and, after a change of
+clothes, I tackled them.
+
+Yet my mind kept constantly reverting to the mystery surrounding the
+golden butterfly.
+
+After dinner that night I returned again to my workroom, when, upon my
+blotting-pad, I found a note addressed to me in the Crown-Prince's
+sprawling hand.
+
+Opening it, I found that he had scribbled this message:
+
+     "_I have left. Tell Eckardt not to trouble. Come alone, and meet me
+     to-morrow night at the Palast Hotel, in Hamburg. I shall call at
+     seven o'clock and ask for Herr Richter. I shall also use that name.
+     Tell nobody of my journey, not even the Crown-Princess. Explain
+     that I have gone to Berlin._--WILHELM, KRONPRINZ."
+
+I read the note through a second time, and then burned it.
+
+Next day I arrived at the Palast Hotel, facing the Binnenalster, in
+Hamburg, giving my name as Herr Richter.
+
+At seven o'clock I awaited His Highness. Eight o'clock
+came--nine--ten--even eleven--midnight, but, though I sat in the private
+room I had engaged, no visitor arrived.
+
+Just after twelve, however, a waiter brought up a note addressed to Herr
+Richter.
+
+Believing it to be meant for me, I opened it. To my great surprise, I
+found that it was from the mysterious Miss King, and evidently intended
+for the Crown-Prince. It said:
+
+     "_My brother was released from the Altona Prison this evening--I
+     presume, owing to your intervention--and we are now both safely on
+     our way across to Harwich. You have evidently discovered at last
+     that I am not the helpless girl you believed me to be. When your
+     German police arrested my brother Walter in Bremen as a spy of
+     Britain I think you will admit that they acted very injudiciously,
+     in face of all that my brother and myself know to-day. At Plymouth
+     you demanded, as the price of Walter's liberty, that I should
+     become attached to your secret service in America and betray the
+     man who adopted me and brought me up as his own daughter. But you
+     never dreamed the extent of my knowledge of your country's vile
+     intrigues; you did not know that, through my brother and the man
+     who adopted me as his daughter, I know the full extent of your
+     subtle propaganda. You were, I admit, extremely clever, Herr
+     Richter, and I confess that I was quite charmed when you sent me,
+     as souvenir, that golden butterfly to the hotel in
+     Frankenhausen--that pretty ornament which I returned to you as a
+     mark of my refusal and defiance of the conditions you imposed upon
+     me for the release of my brother from the sentence of fifteen years
+     in a fortress. This time, Herr Richter, a woman wins! Further, I
+     warn you that if you attempt any reprisal my brother will at once
+     expose Germany's machinations abroad. He has, I assure you, many
+     good friends, both in Britain and America. Therefore if you desire
+     silence you will make no effort to trace me further. At
+     Frankenhausen you called me 'the golden-haired butterfly,' but you
+     regarded me merely as a moth! Adieu!_"
+
+Twelve hours later I handed that letter to the Crown-Prince in Potsdam.
+Where he had been in the meantime I did not know. He read it through;
+then, with a fierce curse upon his thin, curled lips, he crushed it in
+his hand and tossed it into the fire.
+
+
+
+
+SECRET NUMBER EIGHT
+
+HOW THE CROWN-PRINCE WAS BLACKMAILED
+
+
+The Crown-Prince had accompanied the Emperor on board the _Hohenzollern_
+on his annual cruise up the Norwegian fjords, and the Kaiserin and the
+Crown-Princess were of the party.
+
+I had been left at home because I had not been feeling well, and with
+relief had gone south to the Lake of Garda, taking up my quarters in
+that long, white hotel which faces the blue lake at Gardone-Riviera. A
+truly beautiful spot, where the gardens of the hotel run down to the
+lake's edge, with a long veranda covered with trailing roses and
+geraniums, peaceful indeed after the turmoil and glitter of our Court
+life in Germany.
+
+One morning at luncheon, however, just as I had seated myself at my
+table set in the window overlooking the sunlit waters, a tall, rather
+thin-faced, bald-headed man entered, accompanied by an extremely pretty
+girl, with very fair hair and eyes of an unusual, child-like blue. The
+man I judged to be about fifty-five, whose blotchy face marked him as
+one addicted to strong liquors, and whose dress and bearing proclaimed
+him to be something of a roue. He walked jauntily to the empty table
+next mine, while his companion stared vacantly about her as she followed
+him to the place which the obsequious _maitre d'hotel_ had indicated.
+
+The stranger's eyes were dark, penetrating, and shifty, while there was
+something about the young girl's demeanour that aroused my interest.
+Her face, undeniably beautiful, was marred by a stare of complete
+vacancy. She glanced at me, but I saw that she did not see. It was as
+though her thoughts were far away, or else that she was under the spell
+of some weird fascination.
+
+That strange, blank expression in her countenance caused me to watch
+her. On the one hand, the man had all the appearance of a person who had
+run the whole gamut of the vices; while the fair-haired, blue-eyed girl
+was the very incarnation of maiden innocence.
+
+Perhaps it was because I kept my eyes upon her that the dark-eyed man
+knit his brows and stared at me in defiance. Instinctively I did not
+like the fellow, for as they started their meal I saw plainly the rough,
+almost uncouth, manner in which he treated her.
+
+At first I believed that they might be father and daughter, but this
+suggestion was negatived when, on inquiry at the bureau, I was told that
+the man was Martinez Aranda, of Seville, and that his companion was his
+niece, Lola Serrano.
+
+The latter always appeared exquisitely dressed, and the gay young men,
+Italian officers and others, were all eager to make her acquaintance.
+Yet it seemed to me that the man Aranda forbade her to speak to anyone.
+Indeed, I watched the pair closely during the days following, and could
+plainly discern that the girl went in mortal fear of him.
+
+On the third day, while walking along the terrace facing the lake, I
+came across the Spaniard, who, in affable mood, started a conversation,
+and as we leaned upon the stone balustrade, smoking and gossiping, the
+pretty girl with hair so fair even though she were a Southerner came up,
+and I was introduced.
+
+She wore a cool white linen gown, a big sun-hat, and carried a pale blue
+sunshade. But my eye, expert where a woman's gown is concerned, told me
+that that linen frock was the creation of one of the Paris
+men-dressmakers, whose lowest charge for such a garment is one thousand
+francs. Aranda and his pretty niece were certainly persons of
+considerable means.
+
+"How very beautiful the lake always appears at any hour!" the girl
+exclaimed in French after her uncle had exchanged cards with me. "Truly
+Italy is delightful."
+
+"Ah, Mademoiselle," I replied. "But your brilliant Spain is ever
+attractive."
+
+"You know Spain?" inquired the bald-headed man at once.
+
+"Yes, I know Spain, but only as a spring visitor," was my reply.
+
+And from that conversation there grew in a few days quite an affable
+friendship. We went together on excursions, all three of us, once by the
+steamer up to Riva, where on landing and passing through the Customs we
+sat at the cafe and sipped that delicious coffee topped by a foam of
+cream, the same as one got at the "Bristol" in Vienna, or the "Hungaria"
+in Budapest. Then at evening, while the pretty Lola gossiped with a
+weedy old Italian Marchioness, whose acquaintance she had made, her
+uncle played billiards with me, and he was no bad player either!
+
+As soon as the Spaniard learnt of my position as personal-adjutant of
+His Imperial Highness the Crown-Prince he became immediately interested,
+as most people were, and plied me with all sorts of questions regarding
+the truth of certain scandals that were at the moment afloat concerning
+"Willie." As you know, I am usually pretty discreet. Therefore, I do not
+think that he learned very much from me.
+
+We were alone in the billiard-room, having a game after luncheon one
+day, when a curious conversation took place.
+
+"Ah, Count! You must have a very intimate knowledge of life at the
+Berlin Court," he remarked quite suddenly, in French.
+
+"Yes. But it is a strenuous life, I assure you," I declared, laughing.
+
+"The Crown-Prince sometimes goes abroad incognito," he said, pausing and
+looking me straight in the face.
+
+"Yes--sometimes," I admitted.
+
+"He was in Rome in the first week of last December. He disappeared from
+Potsdam, and the Emperor and yourself were extremely anxious as to what
+had become of him. He had gone to Berlin alone, without any attendant,
+and completely disappeared. Yet, while you were all making secret
+inquiries, and fearing lest the truth should leak out to the Press, His
+Imperial Highness was living as plain Herr Wilhelm Nebelthau in an
+apartment at Number Seventeen, Lungtevere Mellini. Isn't that so?"
+
+I stared agape at the Spaniard.
+
+I thought myself the only person who knew that fact--a fact which the
+Crown-Prince had revealed to me in the strictest secrecy.
+
+Could this man Martinez Aranda be an agent of police? Yet that seemed
+quite impossible.
+
+"You appear to have a more intimate knowledge of His Highness's
+movements than I have myself," I replied, utterly amazed at the extent
+of the man's information.
+
+His dark, sallow face relaxed into a mysterious smile, and he bent to
+make another stroke without replying.
+
+"His Highness should be very careful in the concealment of his movements
+when he is incognito," he remarked presently.
+
+"You met him there, eh?" I asked, eager to ascertain the truth, for that
+secret visit to Rome had been a most mysterious one, even to me.
+
+"I do not think I need reply to that question," he said. "All I can say
+is that the Crown-Prince kept rather queer company on that occasion."
+
+Those words only served to confirm my suspicions. Whenever "Willie"
+disappeared alone from Potsdam I could afterwards always trace the
+disappearance to his _penchant_ for the eternal feminine. How often,
+indeed, had I been present at scenes between the Crown-Princess and her
+husband, and how often I had heard the Emperor storm at his son in that
+high-pitched voice so peculiar to the Hohenzollerns when unduly excited.
+
+The subject soon dropped, but his statements filled me with
+apprehension. It was quite plain that this well-dressed, bald-headed
+Spaniard was in possession of some secret of the Crown-Prince's, a
+secret which had not been revealed to me.
+
+More than once in the course of the next few days, when we were alone
+together, I endeavoured to learn something of the nature of the secret
+which took his Highness to the Eternal City, but Aranda was very clever
+and discreet. In addition, the attitude of the girl Lola became more
+than ever strange. There was a blank look in those big, beautiful eyes
+of hers that betrayed something abnormal. But what it was I failed to
+decide.
+
+One evening after dinner I saw her walking alone in the moonlight along
+the terrace by the lake, and joined her. So preoccupied she seemed that
+she scarcely replied to my remarks. Then suddenly she halted, and as
+though unable to restrain her feelings longer I heard a low sob escape
+her.
+
+"Mademoiselle, what is the matter?" I asked in French. "Tell me."
+
+"Oh, nothing, Monsieur, nothing," she declared in a low, broken voice.
+"I--I know I am very foolish, only----"
+
+"Only what? Tell me. That you are in distress I know. Let me assist
+you."
+
+She shook her handsome head mournfully.
+
+"No, you cannot assist me," she declared in a tone that told me how
+desperate she had now become. "My uncle," she exclaimed, staring
+straight before her across the moonlit waters, whence the dark mountains
+rose from the opposite bank. "Count, be careful! Do--my--my uncle."
+
+"I don't understand," I said, standing at her side and gazing at her
+pale countenance beneath the full light of the moon.
+
+"My uncle--he knows something--be careful--warn the Crown-Prince."
+
+"What does he know?"
+
+"He has never told me."
+
+"Are you in entire ignorance of the reason of the visit of His Highness
+to Rome? Try and remember all you know," I urged.
+
+The girl put both her palms to her brow, and, shaking her head, said:
+
+"I can remember nothing--nothing--oh! my poor head! Only warn the man
+who in Rome called himself Herr Nebelthau!"
+
+She spoke in a low, nervous tone, and I could see that she was decidedly
+hysterical and much unstrung.
+
+"Did you meet Herr Nebelthau?" I asked eagerly.
+
+"Me? Ah, no. But I saw him, though he never saw me."
+
+"But what is the secret that your uncle knows?" I demanded. "If I know,
+then I can warn the Crown-Prince."
+
+"I do not know," she replied, again shaking her head. "Only--only--well,
+by some means my uncle knew that you had left Potsdam, and we travelled
+here on purpose to meet you to obtain from you some facts concerning the
+Crown-Prince's movements."
+
+"To meet me?" I echoed in surprise. In a moment I saw that Aranda's
+intentions were evidently evil ones. But just at that juncture the
+Spaniard came forth in search of his niece.
+
+"Why are you out here?" he asked her gruffly. "Go in. It is too cold for
+you."
+
+"I came out with the Count to see the glorious panorama of the lake,"
+explained the girl in strange humbleness, and then, turning reluctantly,
+she obeyed him.
+
+"Come and have a hand at bridge," her uncle urged cheerfully. "The
+Signora Montalto and young Boileau are ready to make up the four."
+
+To this I agreed, and we followed the girl into the big, white-panelled
+lounge of the hotel.
+
+Two days later, about four o'clock in the afternoon, Aranda received a
+telegram, and an hour later left with his niece, who, as she parted from
+me, whispered:
+
+"Warn the Crown-Prince, won't you?"
+
+I promised, and as they drove off to the station I stood waving my hand
+to the departing visitors.
+
+A week later I had word from Cuxhaven of the arrival of the
+_Hohenzollern_ from Trondhjem, and at once returned to the Marmor
+Palace, where on the night of my arrival the Crown-Prince, wearing his
+Saxon Uhlan uniform, entered my room, gaily exclaiming:
+
+"Well, Heltzendorff, how are things on the Lake of Garda, eh?"
+
+I briefly explained where I had been, and then, as he lit a cigarette,
+standing astride near the fireplace, I asked permission to speak upon a
+confidential matter.
+
+"More trouble, eh?" he asked, with a grin and a shrug of the shoulders.
+
+"I do not know," I said seriously, and then, in brief, I related how the
+man Aranda had arrived with the girl Lola at the hotel, and what had
+followed.
+
+As soon as I mentioned the Lungtevere Mellini, that rather aristocratic
+street, which runs parallel with the Tiber on the outskirts of Rome, His
+Highness started, his face blanched instantly, and he bit his thin lip.
+
+"_Himmel!_" he gasped. "The fellow knows that I took the name of
+Nebelthau! Impossible!"
+
+"But he does," I said quietly. "He is undoubtedly in possession of some
+secret concerning your visit to Rome last December."
+
+In His Highness's eyes I noticed a keen, desperate expression which I
+had scarcely ever seen there before.
+
+"You are quite certain of this, Heltzendorff, eh?" he asked. "The man's
+name is Martinez Aranda?"
+
+"Yes. He says he is from Seville. His niece, Lola Serrano, told me to
+warn you that he means mischief."
+
+"Who is the girl? Do I know her?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Why does she warn me?"
+
+"I cannot say," was my reply. "As you are aware, I have no knowledge of
+the nature of Your Highness's visit to Rome. I merely report all that I
+could gather from the pair, who evidently went to Gardone to meet me."
+
+"Where are they now?"
+
+"In Paris--at the Hotel Terminus, Gare St. Lazare. I found out that they
+had taken tickets to Verona and thence to Paris, therefore I telegraphed
+to my friend Pinaud, of the Surete, who quickly found them and reported
+to me by wire within twenty-four hours."
+
+"H'm! This is serious, Heltzendorff--infernally serious," declared the
+Crown-Prince, with knit brows, as he commenced to pace the room with his
+hands clasped behind his back.
+
+Suddenly he halted in front of me and smoothed his hair--a habit of his
+when perplexed.
+
+"First, the Emperor must know nothing, and the Crown-Princess must be
+kept in entire ignorance at all costs," he declared. "I can now foresee
+a great amount of trouble. Curse the women! I trusted one, and she--ah!
+I can see it all now."
+
+"Is it very serious?" I asked, still anxious to glean the truth.
+
+"Serious!" he cried, staring at me wildly. "Serious! Why, Heltzendorff,
+it means everything to me--everything!"
+
+The Crown-Prince was not the kind of man to exhibit fear. Though
+degenerate in every sense of the word, and without the slightest idea of
+moral obligations, yet he was, nevertheless, utterly oblivious to danger
+of any sort, being wildly reckless, with an entire disregard of
+consequences. Here, however, he saw that the secret, which he had fondly
+believed to be his alone, was known to this mysterious Spaniard.
+
+"I cannot understand why this girl, Lola--or whatever she calls
+herself--should warn me. I wonder who she is. What is she like?"
+
+I described her as minutely as I could, more especially the unusual
+fairness of her hair, and the large, wide-open, blue eyes. She had a
+tiny mole upon her chin, a little to the left.
+
+The description seemed to recall some memory, for suddenly he exclaimed:
+
+"Really, the girl you describe is very like one that I met about a year
+ago--a thief-girl in the Montmartre, in Paris, called Lizette Sabin. I
+came across her one night in one of the cabarets."
+
+As he spoke he went across to a big antique chest of drawers, one of
+which he unlocked with his key, and after a long search he drew out a
+cabinet photograph and handed it to me.
+
+I started. It was a picture of the pretty Lola!
+
+He watched my face, and saw that I recognized it.
+
+Then he drew a long sigh, tossed his cigarette away savagely, and
+throwing back the photograph into the drawer, relocked it.
+
+"Yes," he declared, turning to me again. "The situation is most
+abnormally disturbing, Heltzendorff. A storm is brewing, without a
+doubt. But the Emperor must know nothing, remember--not the slightest
+suspicion. Ah! What an infernal fool I was to believe in that woman.
+Bah! They are all alike. And yet----" and he paused--"and yet if it were
+not for the petticoat Germany's secret diplomacy--the preparation for
+the great 'Day' when we shall stagger the world--could not proceed.
+This, my dear Heltzendorff, has shown me that you may with advantage use
+a woman of whatever age as your catspaw, your secret agent, your bait
+when angling for important information, or your go-between in secret
+transactions; but never trust one with knowledge of your own personal
+affairs."
+
+"Then I take it that this girl-thief of the Montmartre whom you met when
+out for an evening's amusement is the cause of all this trouble? And yet
+she said that she did not know you!"
+
+"Because it was to her advantage to disclaim knowledge of me. Personally
+I do not think that the pretty Lizette is my enemy or she would not warn
+me against this infernal Spaniard, whoever he may be."
+
+"If the matter is so serious, had I not better go to Paris to-morrow and
+see Pinaud?" I suggested.
+
+"Excellent!" he exclaimed. "Watch must be kept upon them. The one thing
+to bear in mind, however, is that neither the Emperor nor my wife learn
+anything. Go to Paris to-morrow, and tell Pinaud from me to do his best
+on my behalf."
+
+Next morning I left for Paris, and on arrival spent half an hour with
+Georges Pinaud in his room at the Surete.
+
+"So His Imperial Highness does not wish the arrest of the girl Lizette
+Sabin?" he exclaimed presently. "I have her _dossier_ here," and he
+indicated a cardboard portfolio before him. "It is a pretty bad one. Her
+last sentence was one of twelve months for robbing an English baronet at
+a dancing-hall in the Rue du Bac."
+
+"His Highness does not wish for her arrest. He only desires the pair to
+be kept under close observation."
+
+"The man Aranda is, I have discovered, a dangerous person," said the
+famous detective, leaning back in his chair. "He has served a sentence
+at Cayenne for the attempted murder of a woman in Lyons. He is, of
+course, an adventurer of the most expert type."
+
+I longed to reveal to my friend Pinaud the whole facts, but this was
+against my instructions. I merely asked him as a favour to institute a
+strict vigilance upon the pair, and to report to me by telegraph if
+either of them left Paris.
+
+Aranda was still living at the Hotel Terminus, but the pretty Lizette
+had gone to stay with two girl friends, professional dancers, who lived
+on the third floor of a house half-way up the Rue Blanche. So having
+discharged my mission, I returned on the following day to Potsdam,
+where, on meeting me, the Crown-Prince seemed much relieved.
+
+His only fear--and it was a very serious one--was that to the Emperor
+there might be revealed the reason of that secret visit of his to Italy.
+I confess that I myself began to regard that visit with considerable
+suspicion. Its nature must have been, to say the least, unusual if he
+had been so aghast at the real truth being discovered.
+
+In the strenuous days that followed, weeks, indeed, I frequently
+reflected, and found myself much mystified. More than once His Highness
+had asked me: "Any news from Pinaud?" And when I replied in the negative
+"Willie's" relief was at once apparent.
+
+One day I had been lunching in Berlin at the "Bristol," in Unter den
+Linden, at a big party given by the Baroness von Buelow. Among the dozen
+or so present were Von Ruxeben, the Grand Marshal of the Court of
+Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; Gertrud, Baroness von Wangenheim, Grand Mistress of
+the Court of the Duchess; the Minister Dr. Rasch; and, of course, old
+"Uncle" Zeppelin, full of plans, as always, of new airships and of the
+destruction of London. Indeed, he sat next me, and bored me to death
+with his assurances that on "The Day" he would in twenty-four hours lay
+London in ruins.
+
+The guests around the table, a gay and clever circle, saw that "Uncle"
+had button-holed me, and knew from my face how utterly bored I was.
+Truth to tell, I was much relieved when suddenly, when the meal was
+nearly over, a waiter whispered that somebody wished to see me out in
+the lounge.
+
+It was a messenger from Potsdam with a telegram that had come over the
+private wire. It read: "Aranda left Paris two days ago. Destination
+unknown.--PINAUD."
+
+The information showed that the fellow had cleverly evaded the agents of
+the Surete, a very difficult feat in such circumstances. That very fact
+went to prove that he was a cunning and elusive person.
+
+Half an hour later I was sitting with Heinrich Wesener,
+Assistant-Director of the Secret Service of the General Staff. I sought
+him in preference to the famous detective, Schunke, because, while
+matters passing through the Secret Service Bureau were always regarded
+as confidential, those submitted to the Berlin police were known to many
+subordinates who had access to the _dossiers_ and informations.
+
+I told Wesener but little--merely that His Imperial Highness the
+Crown-Prince was desirous of knowing at the earliest moment if a
+Spaniard named Martinez Aranda should arrive in Berlin.
+
+The curiosity of the Assistant-Director was immediately aroused. So many
+scandals were rife regarding "Willie" that the stout, fair-haired
+official was hoping to obtain some further details.
+
+"Excuse me for a moment," he said, and, after ringing his bell, a clerk
+appeared. To the man he gave orders to go across and inspect the police
+register of strangers, and ascertain if the man Aranda had arrived in
+the capital.
+
+Ten minutes later the clerk returned, saying that a Spaniard named
+Aranda had arrived from Paris early that morning with a young lady named
+Sabin, and that they were staying at the Central Hotel, opposite the
+Friedrich-Strasse Station.
+
+Upon this information I went to the "Central," and from the hall-porter
+discovered that Aranda had left the hotel an hour before, but that his
+supposed niece was upstairs in her room.
+
+Afterwards I hurried back to Potsdam as quickly as possible, only to
+find that the Crown-Prince was out with Knof motoring somewhere. Of the
+Crown-Princess I inquired whither he had gone, but, as usual, she had no
+idea. "Willie" was ever erratic, and ever on the move.
+
+Six o'clock had already struck when he returned, and the sentry informed
+him that I was extremely anxious to see him. Therefore, without removing
+his coat, he ascended to my room, where he burst in breezily.
+
+When I told him what I had discovered in Berlin the light died instantly
+out of his face.
+
+"Is the fellow really here, Heltzendorff?" he gasped. "I had a letter
+from him a week ago declaring his intention to come here."
+
+"You did not reply, I hope?"
+
+"No. The letter I found upon my dressing-table, but I have not
+discovered who placed it there," he said. "The fellow evidently intends
+to carry out his threat and expose me to the Emperor."
+
+"What can he expose?" I queried.
+
+But "Willie" was not to be caught like that. He merely replied:
+
+"Well--something which must at all hazards be concealed. How this
+Spaniard can know I cannot in the least imagine--unless that woman gave
+me away!"
+
+For the next two days I was mostly out with his Highness in the car, and
+in addition the Kaiser reviewed the Prussian Guard, a ceremony which
+always gave me much extra work.
+
+On the third day I had in the morning been out to the Wildpark Station,
+and, passing the sentries, had re-entered the Palace, when one of the
+footmen approached me, saying:
+
+"Pardon, Count, but there is a gentleman to see his Imperial Highness.
+He will give no name, and refuses to leave. I called the captain of the
+guard, who has interrogated him, and he has been put into the blue
+ante-room until your return."
+
+At that moment I saw the captain of the guard striding down the corridor
+towards me.
+
+"A bald-headed man is here to see His Highness, and will give no name,"
+he told me. "He is waiting now. Will you see him?"
+
+"No," I said, my suspicions aroused. "I will first see the
+Crown-Prince."
+
+After some search I found the latter lolling at his ease in his own
+smoking-room in the private apartments, reading a French novel and
+consuming cigarettes.
+
+"Hulloa, Heltzendorff! Well, what's the trouble?" he asked. "I see
+something is wrong from your face."
+
+"The man Aranda is here," I replied.
+
+"Here!" he gasped, starting up and flinging the book aside. "Who let him
+in?"
+
+"I don't know, but he is below demanding to see you."
+
+"Has he made any statement? Has he told anybody what he knows?" demanded
+the Crown-Prince, who at that moment presented what might be termed a
+white-livered appearance, cowed, and even trembling. In his slant eyes
+showed a look of undisguised terror, and I realized that the truth,
+whatever it might be, was a damning and most disgraceful one.
+
+"I can't see him, Heltzendorff," he whined to me. "See him; hear what
+he has to say--and--and you will keep my secret? Promise me."
+
+I promised. And I should have kept that promise were it not for his
+brutal and blackguardly acts after the outbreak of war--acts which
+placed him, with his Imperial father, beyond the pale of respectable
+society.
+
+I was turning to leave the room, when he sprang towards me with that
+quick agility of his, and, placing his white, manicured hand upon my
+arm, said:
+
+"Whatever he may say you will not believe--will you?"
+
+"And if he wants money?" I asked.
+
+"Ascertain the amount, and come here to me."
+
+A quarter of an hour later Martinez Aranda sat in my room opposite my
+table. I had told him that unfortunately His Imperial Highness was
+engaged, for the Emperor had come over from the Neues Palace for
+luncheon. Then I inquired the nature of his business.
+
+"Well, Count, you and I are not altogether strangers, are we?" was his
+reply, as he sat back calmly and crossed his legs, perfectly at his
+ease. "But my business is only with His Highness, and with nobody else."
+
+"His Highness sees nobody upon business. I am appointed to deal with all
+his business affairs, and anything told to me is the same as though
+spoken into his ear."
+
+The Spaniard from Montmartre was silent for a moment.
+
+"If that is the case, then I would be glad if you will obtain his
+permission for me to speak. He will remember my name."
+
+"I already received orders before I invited you up," I said. "His
+Highness wishes you to deal with me. He knows that you are here to
+settle some delicate little piece of business concerning that secret
+visit of his to Rome--eh?"
+
+"Yes," he answered, after a few seconds' pause. "I am well aware, Count,
+that for mention of the reason I am here you might call the guard to
+arrest me for blackmail. But first let me assure His Highness that such
+action would not be advisable in the interests of either himself or of
+the Emperor. I have already made arrangements for exposure in case His
+Highness endeavours to close my mouth by such means."
+
+"Good. We understand each other. What is your complaint?" I inquired.
+
+"I know the truth concerning the mysterious death of the woman, Claudia
+Ferrona, in Rome last December," he said briefly.
+
+"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Perhaps you will tell me next that the Crown-Prince
+is an assassin? Come, that will be really interesting," I laughed.
+"Perhaps you will tell me how it all happened--the extent of your
+knowledge."
+
+"Why should I do that? Go to the Crown-Prince and tell him what I
+allege--tell him that the girl, Lizette Sabin, whom he knows, was a
+witness."
+
+"Well, let us come to business," I said. "How much do you want for your
+silence?"
+
+"I want nothing--not a sou!" was the hard reply. "All I want is to
+reveal to the Emperor that his son is responsible for a woman's death.
+And that is what I intend doing. You hear that! Well, Count von
+Heltzendorff, please go and tell him so."
+
+Quickly realizing the extreme gravity of the situation, I returned to
+the Crown-Prince and told him the startling allegation made against him.
+
+His face went as white as paper.
+
+"We must pay the fellow off. Close his mouth somehow. Help me,
+Heltzendorff," he implored. "What can I do? He must not reveal the truth
+to the Emperor!"
+
+"Then it really is the truth!" I exclaimed, astounded.
+
+The Crown-Prince hung his head, and in a low, hoarse voice replied:
+
+"It is my accursed luck! The woman must have told the truth to this
+scoundrel of a Spaniard before--before she died!"
+
+"And Lizette?" I asked. "She is a witness, the fellow says."
+
+"No, no!" cried His Highness wildly, covering his white face with his
+hands as though to hide the guilt written upon his countenance. "Say no
+more! Ask the fellow's price, and pay him. We must not allow him to go
+to the Emperor."
+
+Three minutes later I went back to my room, but it was empty. The
+Spaniard had walked out, and would, no doubt, be wandering somewhere in
+the private apartments.
+
+At that instant the telephone rang, and, answering it, I heard that His
+Majesty had just arrived by car, and was on his way up to the room
+wherein I stood--the room in which he generally met his son.
+
+For a moment I was perplexed, but a few seconds later I held my breath
+when I saw coming down the corridor the Emperor, and walking with him
+the adventurer, who had apparently met him on his way downstairs.
+
+I confess that at that most dramatic moment I was entirely nonplussed. I
+saw how cleverly Aranda had timed his visit, and how, by some means, he
+knew of the internal arrangements of the Marmor Palace.
+
+"Yes," the Emperor exclaimed to the Spaniard. "You wish to have
+audience. Well?"
+
+In a second I broke in.
+
+"May I be permitted to say a word, Your Majesty?" I said. "There is a
+little business matter pending between this gentleman and His Imperial
+Highness the Crown-Prince--a little dispute over money. I regret that
+Your Majesty should be disturbed by it. The matter is in course of
+settlement."
+
+"Oh, money matters!" exclaimed the Emperor, who always hated mention of
+them, believing himself to be far too important a person to trouble
+about them. "Of course, you will see to a settlement, Count." And the
+Emperor turned his back deliberately upon the man who accosted him.
+
+"It is not money that I want," shouted the adventurer from Paris, "but
+I----"
+
+I did not allow him to conclude his sentence, but hustled him into an
+adjoining room, closing the door after him.
+
+"Now, Monsieur Aranda, you want money, I know. How much?" I asked
+determinedly.
+
+"Two hundred thousand marks," was his prompt reply, "and also fifty
+thousand for Lola."
+
+I pretended to reflect. He saw my hesitation, and then added:
+
+"For that sum, and not a sou less, I am prepared to sign a statement
+that I have lied, and that there is no truth in the allegation."
+
+"Of what? Tell me the facts, as you know them, and I will then repeat
+them to His Imperial Highness."
+
+For a few seconds he was silent, then in a cold, hard voice he revealed
+to me what was evidently the truth of the Crown-Prince's secret visit to
+Rome. I listened to his statement utterly dumbfounded.
+
+The allegations were terrible. It seemed that a popular Spanish variety
+actress, whom the populace of Rome knew as "La Bella," but whose real
+name was Claudia Ferrona, lived in a pretty apartment on the Lungtevere
+Mellini, facing the Tiber. His Highness had met her in Coblenz, where
+she had been singing. "La Bella" had as her particular friend a certain
+high official in the Italian Ministry of War, and through him she was
+enabled to furnish the Crown-Prince with certain important information.
+The General Staff in the Wilhelmstrasse were eager to obtain some very
+definite facts regarding Italy's new armaments, and His Highness had
+taken upon himself the task of obtaining it.
+
+As Herr Nebelthau he went in secret to Rome as guest of the vivacious
+Claudia, whose maid was none other than the thief-girl of the
+Montmartre, Lizette Sabin. This girl, whose intellect had become
+weakened, was entirely under the influence of the clever adventurer
+Aranda. On the second night after the arrival of the Crown-Prince in
+Rome, he and the actress had taken supper together in her apartment,
+after which a fierce quarrel had arisen between them.
+
+Seized by a fit of remorse, the variety singer blankly refused to
+further betray the man to whom her advancement in her profession was
+due, whereupon His Highness grew furious at being thwarted at the last
+moment. After listening to his insults, "La Bella" openly declared that
+she intended to reveal the whole truth to the Italian official in
+question. Then the Crown-Prince became seized by one of those mad,
+frenzied fits of uncontrollable anger to which he is at times, like all
+the Hohenzollerns, subject, and with his innate brutality he took up a
+bottle from the table and struck the poor girl heavily upon the skull,
+felling her like a log. Afterwards with an imprecation on his lips, he
+walked out. So terribly injured was the girl that she expired just
+before noon next day. Not, however, before she had related the whole
+circumstances to the maid, Lizette, and to the man Aranda, who, truth to
+tell, had placed the maid in the actress's service with a view of
+robbing her of her jewels. He saw, however, that, with the death of
+Claudia Ferrona, blackmail would be much more profitable.
+
+Having heard this amazing story, I was careful to lock the Spaniard in
+the room, and then returned to where the Crown-Prince was so anxiously
+awaiting me.
+
+Half an hour later the adventurer left the Palace, bearing in his pocket
+a draft upon the private banking house of Mendelsohn, in the
+Jaegerstrasse in Berlin, for two hundred and fifty thousand marks.
+
+In return for that draft the wily Spaniard signed a declaration that he
+had invented the whole story, and that there was not a word of truth in
+it.
+
+It was only, however, when I placed that document into the hands of the
+Crown-Prince that His Imperial Highness breathed freely again.
+
+
+
+
+SECRET NUMBER NINE
+
+THE CROWN-PRINCE'S ESCAPADE IN LONDON
+
+
+It was five o'clock on a bright September morning when His Imperial
+Highness climbed with unsteady gait the three flights of stairs leading
+to the handsome flat which he sometimes rented in a big block of
+buildings half-way along Jermyn Street when he made secret visits to
+London.
+
+As his personal-adjutant and keeper of his secrets I had been awaiting
+him for hours.
+
+I heard him fumbling with the latch-key, and, rising, went along the
+hall and opened the door.
+
+"Hulloa, Heltzendorff!" he exclaimed in a thick, husky voice. "_Himmel!_
+I'm very glad to be back."
+
+"And I am glad to see Your Highness back," I said. "I was beginning to
+fear that something unpleasant had happened. I tell you frankly, I do
+not like you going out like this alone in London. Somebody is certain to
+discover you one day."
+
+"Oh, bosh! my dear Heltzendorff. You are just like a pastor--always
+preaching." And as he tossed his crush hat upon the table and divested
+himself of his evening overcoat he gave vent to a half-drunken laugh,
+and then, just as he was, in his dress-coat and crumpled shirt-front,
+with the stains of overnight wine upon it, he curled himself upon the
+couch, saying:
+
+"Tell that idiot of a valet not to disturb me. I'm tired."
+
+"But don't you think you ought to go to bed?" I queried.
+
+"Too tired to undress, Heltzendorff--too tired," he declared with an
+inane grin. "Oh, I've had a time--phew! my head--such a time! Oh, old
+Lung Ching is a real old sport!"
+
+And then he settled himself and closed his eyes--surely a fine spectacle
+for the German nation if he could then have been publicly exhibited.
+
+His mention of Lung Ching caused me to hold my breath. That wily
+Chinaman kept an establishment in the underworld of Limehouse, an opium
+den of the worst description, frequented by yellow men and white women
+of the most debased class.
+
+A year before one of the Crown-Prince's friends, an attache at the
+Embassy on Carlton House Terrace, had introduced him to the place. The
+fascinations of the opium pipe had attracted him, and he had been there
+many times to smoke and to dream, but always accompanied by others. The
+night before, however, he had declared his intention to go out alone, as
+he had been invited to dine by a great German financier living in Park
+Lane. It was now evident, however, that he had not been there, but had
+gone alone to that terrible den kept by Lung Ching.
+
+There, in the grey light of dawn, I stood gazing down upon the
+be-drugged son of the Emperor, feeling relief that he was back again,
+and that no trouble had resulted from his escapade.
+
+I called the valet, and, having handed his master over to him, I went
+out, and, finding a taxi, drove out to Lung Ching's place in Limehouse.
+I knew the sign, and was soon admitted into the close, sickly-smelling
+place, which reeked with opium. The villainous Chinaman, with a face
+like parchment, came forward, and instantly recognized me as the
+companion of the young German millionaire, Herr Lehnhardt. Of him I
+inquired what my master had been doing during the night.
+
+"Oh, 'e smoke--'e likee pipee!" was the evil, yellow-faced ruffian's
+reply.
+
+"Was he alone?"
+
+"Oh, no. 'E no alonee. 'E lil ladee," and he grinned. "She likee pipee.
+Come, you see--eh?"
+
+The fellow took me into the long, low-ceilinged room, fitted with bunks,
+in which were a dozen or so sleeping Chinamen. Suddenly he indicated a
+bunk wherein lay a girl huddled up--a well-dressed English girl. Her hat
+and jacket had been removed, and she lay, her face full in the light,
+her arm above her head, her eyes closed in sound slumber, with the
+deadly pipe beside her.
+
+I bent to examine her pale countenance more closely. I started. Yes! I
+had not been mistaken. She was the young daughter of one of the
+best-known and most popular leaders of London society.
+
+I had no idea until that moment that she and the Crown-Prince were such
+friends. A fortnight before the Crown-Prince, as Herr Lehnhardt, had
+attended a gay river party at Henley, and I had accompanied him. At the
+party the pair had been introduced in my presence. And now, within those
+few days, I found her oblivious to the world in the worst opium den in
+London!
+
+After considerable effort, I aroused her. But she was still dazed from
+the effect of the drug, so dazed, indeed, that she did not recognize me.
+However, I got her into a taxi, and having ascertained her mother's
+address from the "Royal Blue Book" in the London club of which I was a
+member, and where I arrived at an unearthly hour, I took her to Upper
+Brocklion Street.
+
+Of the woman who opened the door I learned, to my relief, that the
+family were at their place in Scotland, and that the house, enshrouded
+in dust-sheets, was in the hands of herself and her husband as
+caretakers.
+
+When I half lifted the young lady--whom I will here call Miss Violet
+Hewitt for the sake of the good name of her family--out of the taxi the
+woman became greatly alarmed. But I assured her there was nothing wrong;
+her young mistress had been taken ill, but was now much better. A doctor
+was not needed.
+
+For half an hour I remained there with her, and then, as she had
+recovered sufficiently, I rose to go, intending to let her make her own
+explanations to the caretaker.
+
+We were alone, and she was seated in a big arm-chair. She saw my
+intention to leave, whereupon she struggled to her feet, for she now
+realized to her horror what had occurred.
+
+"You are Count von Heltzendorff!" she exclaimed, passing her hand across
+her brow, as though suddenly recollecting. "We met at Henley. Ah! I know
+I--I can't help it. I have been very foolish--but I can't help it. The
+craving grows upon me."
+
+"You met my friend Lehnhardt last night, did you not?"
+
+"Yes, I did. Quite accidentally. I was waiting in the lounge of the
+'Ritz' for a man-friend with whom I had promised to dine when Mr.
+Lehnhardt came in and recognized me. My friend had not turned up, so I
+accepted his invitation to have dinner at Claridge's. This we did, and
+during the meal he spoke of opium, and I admitted that I was fond of it,
+for I smoke it sometimes at a girl-friend's at Hampstead. Therefore we
+agreed to go together to Lung Ching's."
+
+"He left you there," I said.
+
+"I know. I certainly did not expect him to go away and leave me in such
+a place," said the girl, who was very pretty and not more than twenty,
+even though addicted to the terrible opium habit. "But," she added, "you
+will keep my secret--won't you?"
+
+"Most certainly, Miss Hewitt," was my reply. "This should serve as a
+severe lesson to you."
+
+Then I bade her farewell, and left her in the good hands of the
+caretaker.
+
+On my return to Jermyn Street the Crown-Prince was in bed, sleeping
+soundly.
+
+I remember standing at the window of that well-furnished bachelor's
+sitting-room--for the place was owned by an old German-American
+merchant, who, I expect, had a shrewd suspicion of the identity of the
+reckless young fellow named Lehnhardt who sometimes, through a
+well-known firm of house-agents, rented his quarters at a high figure.
+The Crown-Prince used eight different names when abroad incognito,
+Lehnhardt being one of them.
+
+"His Highness is very tired," the valet declared to me, as he entered
+the room. "Before I got him to bed he asked for you. I said you had gone
+out."
+
+"And what did he say?"
+
+"Well, Count, all he said was, 'Ah, our dear Heltzendorff is always an
+early riser. He gets up before I go to bed!'" And the ever-faithful
+valet laughed grimly. When the Crown-Prince went upon those frequent
+debauches in the capitals of Europe, his valet always carried with him a
+certain drug, a secret known to the Chinese, an injection of which at
+once sobered him, and put both sense and dignity into him. I have seen
+him in the most extreme state of helpless intoxication at five in the
+morning, and yet at eight, he having received his injection, I have
+watched him mount his horse and ride at the head of his regiment to an
+inspection, as bright and level-headed as any trooper following.
+
+The drug had a marvellous and almost instantaneous effect. But it was
+used only in case of great emergency, when, for instance, he was
+suddenly summoned by the Emperor, or perchance he had to accompany his
+wife to some public function.
+
+That the drug had bad effects I knew quite well. I have often seen him
+pacing the room holding his hands to his head, when, three hours later,
+the dope was gradually losing its potency, leaving him inert and ill.
+
+When the valet had retired, I stood gazing down into the growing life of
+Jermyn Street, deploring the state of society which had resulted in the
+pretty Violet Hewitt becoming, at twenty, a victim to opium.
+
+Truly in the world of London, as in Berlin, there are many strange
+phases of life, and even I, familiar as I was with the gaieties of the
+capitals, and the night life of Berlin, the Montmartre in Paris, and the
+West End in London, here confess that when I discovered the pretty girl
+sleeping in that dirty bunk in that fetid atmosphere I was staggered.
+
+Before three o'clock in the afternoon "Willie" reappeared, well groomed
+and perfectly dressed. I had been out lunching at the "Berkeley" with a
+friend, and on re-entering the chambers, found him in the sitting-room
+smoking a cigarette.
+
+The effects of his overnight dissipation had entirely passed. He seated
+himself upon the arm of a chair and asked:
+
+"Well, Heltzendorff, I suppose you've been out to lunch--eh? Anything
+interesting in this town?"
+
+"The usual set at the 'Berkeley,'" I replied.
+
+"Oh! The 'Berkeley!' Very nice, but too respectable. That is where one
+takes one's aunt, is it not?" he laughed.
+
+I admitted that it was a most excellent restaurant.
+
+"Good food and good amusement, my dear Heltzendorff, one can never find
+together. The worse the food the better the entertainment. Do you
+remember the 'Rat Mort'--eh?"
+
+"No," I said sharply. "That is a long-past and unwelcome memory."
+
+The Imperial profligate laughed heartily.
+
+"Oh, my dear Heltzendorff, you are becoming quite pharisaical. You! Oh!
+that is really amusing!"
+
+"The 'Rat Mort' never amused me," I said, "a cafe of the Montmartre
+where those who dined were----"
+
+I did not finish my sentence.
+
+"Were very pretty and interesting women, Heltzendorff," he declared.
+"Ah! don't you recollect when you and I dined there not long ago, all of
+us at a long table--so many charming ladies--oh!"
+
+"I have forgotten it, Prince," I said, rebuking him. "It has passed from
+my memory. That place is just as unfitted for you as is Lung Ching's."
+
+"Lung Ching's! Ah--yes, the old yellow fellow is a good sort," he
+exclaimed, as though recollecting.
+
+"And the lady you took there--eh?"
+
+"The lady?" he echoed. "Why, _Gott!_ I left her there. I did not
+remember. _Gott!_ I left little Miss Violet in that place!" he gasped.
+
+"Well?" I asked.
+
+"Well, what can I do. I must go and see."
+
+I smiled, and then told him what I had done.
+
+"H'm," he exclaimed. "You are always a good diplomat,
+Heltzendorff--always a good friend of the erratic Hohenzollerns. What
+can I do to-night--eh? Suggest something."
+
+"I would suggest that you dined _en famille_ at the Embassy," I replied.
+
+"The Embassy! Never. I'm sick and tired of His Excellency and his
+hideous old wife. They bore me to death. No, my dear Heltzendorff. I
+wonder----"
+
+And he paused.
+
+"Well?" I asked.
+
+"I wonder if Miss Hewitt would go to the theatre to-night--eh?"
+
+"No," I snapped, for my long service gave me permission to speak my mind
+pretty freely. "She is, I admit, a very charming young lady, but
+remember she does not know your identity, and if her parents discover
+what happened last night there will be a most infernal lot of trouble.
+Recollect that her father, a financial magnate, is acquainted with the
+Emperor. They have raced their yachts against each other. Indeed, Henry
+Hewitt's won the Kiel Cup last year. So, personally, I think the game
+that your Imperial Highness is playing is a distinctly dangerous one."
+
+"Bah! It is only amusement. She amuses me. And she is so fond of the
+pipe. She has been a visitor of Lung Ching's for over a year. She has a
+faithful maid who goes with her, and I suppose she pays the old Chinaman
+well."
+
+"I suppose so," I remarked, for I knew that if the villainous old Ching
+were paid well he would guarantee her safety in that den of his.
+
+I could see by the Crown-Prince's face that he was unimpressed by my
+warning. Too well did I know to what mad, impetuous lengths he would go
+when of a sudden a pretty face attracted him. So utterly devoid is he of
+self-control that a woman's eyes could lead him anywhere. A glance at
+that weak chin of his will at once substantiate my statement.
+
+His visit to Lung Ching's had left him somewhat muddled and limp, and
+the next few days passed uneventfully. We went down into Surrey to stay
+with a certain Baron von Rechberg, who had been a fellow-student of His
+Highness's at Bonn. He was now head of a German bank in London, and
+lived in a beautiful house surrounded by a large park high among the
+Surrey hills. Count von Hochberg, "Willie's" bosom friend, whom he
+always addressed as "Mickie," while the Count in turn called him
+"Caesar," being in London at the time, accompanied us, and so merrily did
+the time pass that the incident at Lung Ching's went out of my memory.
+
+One night when we had all three returned to London "Willie" and Von
+Hochberg spent the evening in the lounge of the Empire Theatre, and both
+returned to the Prince's rooms about one o'clock in the morning.
+
+"Heltzendorff, Mickie is going with me to Scotland to-morrow morning,"
+said His Highness, as he tossed his overcoat upon the couch of that
+luxurious little sitting-room within sight of the Maison Jules. "You
+will stay here and attend to anything that may come through from
+Potsdam. A courier should arrive to-morrow night, or is it Knof who is
+coming? I forget."
+
+"Your Highness sent Knof over to get the correspondence," I reminded
+him, for it was necessary that all pressing matters should be attended
+to, or the Emperor's suspicions might be aroused that his son was absent
+abroad.
+
+"Ah, the good Knof! Of course, he will be back to-morrow night. He will
+have seen the Princess and told her how ill I have been, and how I am
+gradually growing better," he laughed. "Trust Knof to tell a good, sound
+lie."
+
+"All chauffeurs can do that, my dear Caesar," exclaimed Von Hochberg,
+with a grin.
+
+Naturally I was filled with wonder regarding the nature of the
+expedition which the pair were about to undertake, but, though we all
+three smoked together for an hour, "Willie" seemed unusually sober, and
+did not let drop a single hint regarding their mysterious destination.
+
+Von Hochberg was living at the Coburg Hotel, and before he left "Willie"
+arranged to breakfast with him at eight o'clock next morning, so that
+they might leave Euston together by the ten o'clock express.
+
+I roused the valet, who worked for an hour packing His Highness's
+suit-case.
+
+"One case only," the Crown-Prince had ordered. "I shall only be up there
+a couple or three days. No evening clothes. I shall not want them."
+
+That remark told me that he did not intend to pay any formal visit, as
+he had done on most of his journeys to Scotland.
+
+"Your Imperial Highness will take guns, of course," I remarked.
+
+"Guns!" he echoed. "No--no guns this time. If I want to shoot rabbits I
+can borrow a farmer's blunderbuss," he laughed.
+
+That "Mickie," the hare-brained seeker after pleasure, was to be his
+companion caused me some uneasiness. It was all very well for the
+Crown-Prince to live in London as Herr Lehnhardt. London was a big
+place, and those who catered for his Imperial pleasures were paid well,
+and did not seek to inquire into his antecedents or whether he was
+really what he represented himself to be.
+
+Money talks in the underground London, just as it does on the Stock
+Exchange. But it sometimes, I assure you, took a long purse to keep the
+foreign papers quiet regarding the wild escapades of the Kaiser's heir.
+
+That night somehow I felt a good deal of apprehension regarding this
+mysterious flying visit to Scotland. That the pair had some deeply-laid
+scheme on hand I knew from their evasiveness. But what it was I failed
+to discover.
+
+Early that morning I put "Caesar" into a taxi with his suit-case. He wore
+a rough suit of tweeds, and took with him his walking-stick and a
+khaki-coloured waterproof coat, presenting the picture of a young man
+going North to shoot.
+
+"I'll be back in a few days, Heltzendorff. Attend to the letters," he
+urged. "Throw away as many as you can. If I want you I will telegraph."
+
+And with that he drove to the "Coburg" to meet his old chum, "Mickie."
+
+About three o'clock that same afternoon, while walking along Piccadilly,
+I was surprised to come face to face with Von Hochberg.
+
+"Why! I thought you had gone North!" I exclaimed.
+
+"No, Heltzendorff. Caesar went alone," he replied, somewhat confounded at
+our unexpected meeting. "He wanted to be alone, I think."
+
+"Where has he gone?" I inquired. "He left me no address."
+
+"No. And I have none either," the Count replied.
+
+This set me thinking. The situation was even worse with the Crown-Prince
+wandering in Scotland alone. His indiscretions were such that his
+identity might very easily leak out, and the truth concerning his
+absence would quickly reach the Emperor's ears.
+
+As I stood chatting with His Highness's gay companion I confess that I
+felt annoyed at the manner in which I had been tricked. He was often
+afraid of my caustic tongue when I spoke of his indiscretions, and it
+was further quite plain to me that Von Hochberg had simply pretended
+that he was accompanying his friend North.
+
+That evening Knof arrived from Potsdam with a satchelful of
+correspondence, and until a late hour I was kept busy inventing replies
+which would eventually be taken to Holzemme, in the Harz Mountains, and
+posted from there. We always made arrangements for such things when His
+Highness was secretly out of Germany.
+
+I snatched a meal at Jules', close by, and resumed my work till long
+after midnight, inventing some picturesque fictions in reply to many
+official documents.
+
+One letter was from Her Imperial Highness. At her husband's order I
+opened it, read it, and sealed it up again. It contained reproaches, but
+nothing of extreme urgency. There had been occasions when I had read
+"Cilli's" letters in the absence of her erratic husband, and sent to her
+little untruths by wire, signed "Wilhelm, Kronprinz."
+
+Truly my position was one of curious intimacy. Sometimes His Highness
+trusted me with his innermost secrets, while at others he regarded me
+with distinct suspicion. That the elegant Von Hochberg knew of
+"Willie's" whereabouts I felt convinced, but apparently His Highness had
+given him orders not to divulge it to me.
+
+The next day and the next I waited in vain for some word from His
+Highness. I had sent Knof back to the Harz to post the replies I had
+written, and with nothing to do I idled about London.
+
+On the third day, when I returned to Jermyn Street after lunch, I found
+a stout German, named Henkel, who carried on a hairdresser's business
+near High Street, Kensington, but who was really a secret agent. He was
+one of the few persons who knew of the Crown-Prince's visit, for each
+time we came to London we took this man into our confidence.
+
+"I have received a telegram from Holzemme, Count," he said as I entered,
+and then he handed me the message, which, after a few minutes'
+examination--for though in plain language it was nevertheless not what
+it purported to be--I saw to my dismay was an important message to
+"Willie" from the Emperor, who was at that moment in Corfu.
+
+The message had been received by Koch, my assistant, whom I had left at
+Holzemme. He had disguised it and re-transmitted it to Henkel to hand to
+me. We always took this precaution, because when abroad incognito, both
+the Crown-Prince and myself frequently changed our names. So, by
+employing Henkel in London and a man named Behm in Paris, we were
+always certain of receiving any important message.
+
+When the spy Henkel had left I stood looking out of the window down into
+Jermyn Street, quite at a loss how to act. The message was one of the
+greatest importance, and, if not replied to at once, the Emperor would,
+I knew, institute inquiries, for he was well aware of his son's wild
+escapades.
+
+My first impulse was to wire Koch a reply to be dispatched to His
+Majesty, but on reflection I realized that the question was one which I
+could not answer with truth. No. I must find His Highness at all
+hazards.
+
+At once I went to the Coburg Hotel, and fortunately found Count von
+Hochberg, who at first refused to reveal where his friend was hidden.
+But when I showed him the telegram and explained the great urgency of a
+reply, in order to prevent the Emperor from inquiring and knowing the
+truth, he realized the necessity.
+
+"Well, Heltzendorff," he said, somewhat reluctantly, "Caesar is at some
+little place they call St. Fillans, in Scotland."
+
+"I know it," I cried eagerly. "A place at the end of Loch Earn! We
+motored past it one day about two years ago. I shall go North at once."
+
+"But you can telegraph to him," the Count suggested.
+
+"To what address?"
+
+"Ah! Why, of course, I don't know his address--only that he is at St.
+Fillans. I had a note yesterday."
+
+Travelling by way of Perth and Gleneagles, I next morning found myself
+strolling along the picturesque village at the end of the beautiful
+loch, which presented a truly delightful picture in the autumn sunlight.
+At the hotel nothing was known of Mr. Lehnhardt, and though I devoted
+the whole morning to making inquiries I could find no trace of His
+Highness. The latter would certainly not betray himself as a German,
+for, speaking English so well, he might very easily adopt an English
+name. I ate my lunch at the hotel which faces the loch, with Ben
+Voirlich rising high beyond, and afterwards resumed my wanderings. In
+many quarters I described my "friend" of whom I was in search, but
+nobody seemed to have seen him. The precious hours were flying, and I
+knew that the Emperor at Corfu was impatiently awaiting a reply.
+
+I hired a car and drove seven miles to the farther end of the loch, to
+the village of Lochearnhead. There I made inquiry at the hotel and
+elsewhere, afterwards going on to Balquidder with similar result. It was
+past six o'clock when I returned to St. Fillans with the feeling that
+His Highness had deceived even his friend "Mickie," and that I had had
+my long journey and quest for nothing. Not a soul seemed to have seen
+anybody answering to "Willie's" description. I snatched another hasty
+meal at the hotel, and then, in the dusk, set off in the opposite
+direction along the pretty road which led to Comrie. The light was fast
+fading, but I knew that there would be a full moon, and the night was
+perfect.
+
+I had walked about three miles, and had probably lost my way, for I was
+off the main road, when, on my left, saw the lighted windows of a
+comfortable-looking cottage standing back from the road behind a
+well-kept flower garden. There were woods on each side of the road, and
+I concluded that it was a keeper's house. As I passed I heard voices,
+and saw two figures standing at the garden gate--a man and a
+woman--chatting confidentially.
+
+In the next second I recognized the man's voice as that of the
+Crown-Prince, and as quickly I stepped upon the grass so that they might
+not be attracted by my footsteps. Concealed by the shadow of the hedge
+on the opposite side of the road, I stealthily approached until I could
+distinguish, by the light from the open door of the cottage, that the
+woman was a stout, elderly person, probably the keeper's wife.
+
+Both surprised and interested, I stood there watching. It seemed as
+though they were awaiting someone, for after a few moments, they both
+retired inside the cottage.
+
+Presently, however, "Willie" emerged alone. He had on his hat and
+carried a stick, and as he swung through the gate and went forward he
+whistled softly to himself the air of a gay waltz of which he was
+particularly fond.
+
+Within myself I chuckled at being thus able to watch his mysterious
+movements, for he seemed entirely preoccupied and quite unconscious of
+being followed, though I fear my footsteps fell heavily at times.
+
+Suddenly, while passing along a part of the road overshadowed by woods
+on either side, he halted in the darkness. I heard him speak, and I also
+heard the welcome he received in a girl's voice. It was as I had
+surmised, and I drew a long breath.
+
+I heard the pair talking, but from where I stood I could not overhear
+any of their conversation. I heard His Highness laugh gaily, and though
+he lit a cigarette his companion's face was turned from me so that I
+could not catch a glimpse of it in the fitful light.
+
+Presently, after he had held her in his arms and kissed her, they turned
+back in my direction.
+
+As they passed I heard the girl say:
+
+"I've been waiting for quite a quarter of an hour, Mr. Lehnhardt. I
+thought perhaps something had prevented you from keeping the
+appointment."
+
+"All my mistake, dear," was his reply. "My mistake. Forgive me."
+
+"Of course," she said, laughing, and I saw that she had her arm linked
+in his as they walked back in the direction of the keeper's cottage.
+
+I followed in wonder, and not without anger. For the Heir of the
+Hohenzollerns to ramble upon such rural escapades was, I knew,
+distinctly dangerous. Exposure might come at any moment.
+
+They had strolled together nearly half a mile when of a sudden, as they
+again passed into the deep shadows, the girl gave vent to a loud scream
+for help, and at the same moment men's angry voices were heard.
+
+The pair had been attacked by three men who had apparently been lying
+hidden in the wood.
+
+I heard a man shout, and then a sharp crack like that of a whip. The
+Kaiser's son was shouting, too, while the girl was screaming and crying
+shame upon those who had attacked the man with whom she had been
+walking.
+
+"You infernal German!" I heard one of the men shriek. "I'll teach you to
+come sneaking here and take my sister out for midnight walks! Take
+that--you cur--and that!--whoever you are!"
+
+Next second the startling truth was plain to me.
+
+His Imperial Highness the German Crown-Prince was being ignominiously
+and soundly thrashed by an irate brother!
+
+I saw that it was high time that I interfered. The Crown-Prince had been
+flung upon the ground, and the angry young man was lashing him as I
+dashed in among them with my revolver drawn.
+
+"Come, cease that," I shouted. "Down with that whip. You've attacked
+these people on the high road, and if you strike again I'll fire."
+
+"Hulloa!" cried one man. "Why, here's another German!"
+
+"German or not--enough!" I commanded, and bending down, assisted the
+fallen Prince to rise.
+
+"You--you shall pay for this, I swear!" declared "Willie," angrily
+facing the man who had struck him. Then, turning to me, he apparently
+recognized my voice, for he asked--"How in the name of Fate did you come
+here, Heltzendorff?"
+
+"I will explain later," I replied in German. "Let us get out of this."
+
+"But I cannot leave Violet. I--I----"
+
+He had replied in the same language, which the men apparently did not
+understand.
+
+"Enough; come," I said. Then in English I added, "We will wish these
+gentlemen good-night."
+
+I took his arm and led him away amid the derisive laughter of the irate
+brother and his two friends, leaving the girl with them.
+
+When we were out of earshot I told him of the Emperor's telegram, and
+added:
+
+"That lady was Miss Hewitt, was she not?"
+
+"Yes. Her father's estate is a few miles from here. She's a perfect
+little fiend for opium--got bitten with the habit when she was
+travelling with her married sister in China, and Maggie, her old nurse,
+who lives in the cottage we shall pass in a minute, lets her go there on
+the quiet and smoke. I have had two or three pipes there lately," he
+added merrily.
+
+"_Himmel!_" I gasped. "How dangerous! She has no idea of who you are, I
+hope?"
+
+"Not in the least."
+
+"Good. Let us attend to the Emperor's telegram at once."
+
+And a quarter of an hour later we were discussing the Kaiser's inquiry
+in a clean, comfortable, but out-of-the-way cottage in which "Willie"
+had established himself so as to be near the pretty girl for whom he had
+conceived that passing fascination.
+
+Until to-day Violet Hewitt has been entirely ignorant of the identity of
+the man who, like herself, was so addicted to opium. These lines, if
+they meet her eye, will reveal to her a curious and, no doubt, startling
+truth.
+
+
+
+
+SECRET NUMBER TEN
+
+HOW THE KAISER ESCAPED ASSASSINATION
+
+
+"The Emperor commands you to audience at once in the private
+dining-room," said one of the Imperial servants, entering the Kaiser's
+study, where I was awaiting him.
+
+It was seven o'clock on a cold, cheerless morning, and I had just
+arrived at Potsdam from Altona, the bearer of a message from the
+Crown-Prince to his father.
+
+I knew that the Emperor always rose at five, and that he was
+breakfasting, as was his habit, alone with the Empress in that
+coquettish private dining-room of the Sovereigns, a room into which no
+servant is permitted, Augusta preparing and serving the coffee with her
+own hands. It was the one hour which the All-Highest before the war
+devoted to domesticity, when husband and wife could gossip and discuss
+matters alone and in secret.
+
+As I passed downstairs to the room, to which entrance was forbidden even
+to the Crown-Prince himself, I naturally wondered why I had been
+commanded to audience there.
+
+On tapping upon the mahogany door of the little private salon the
+Empress's hard voice gave permission to enter, whereupon I bowed myself
+into the cosy little place, hung with reseda silk and with pictures by
+Loncret, Perne and Watteau. Upon one side of the room was a beautiful
+buhl cabinet, and at the little round table placed near the window sat
+the Imperial pair.
+
+The Empress was reading a letter, but His Majesty rose as I entered. He
+was wearing a grey tweed suit, a well-worn and, no doubt, easy one, in
+which nobody ever saw him, for he always changed into uniform before he
+went to his study.
+
+"Have you any knowledge of the contents of the letter which you have
+brought from the Crown-Prince?" he asked me bluntly, and I saw by his
+eyes that he seemed somewhat mystified.
+
+I replied in the negative, explaining that I had been with His Imperial
+Highness to Kiel, and afterwards to Altona, where the Crown-Princess had
+performed the opening ceremony of a new dock.
+
+"Where are you going now?" he asked suddenly. "There are other
+engagements, I believe?"
+
+"To Thorn. His Imperial Highness inspects the garrison there on
+Thursday," I said.
+
+"Ah! of course. I intended to go, but it is impossible."
+
+Then, after a pause, the Emperor looked me straight in the face and
+suddenly said:
+
+"Heltzendorff, have you any knowledge of any man called Minckwitz?"
+
+I reflected.
+
+"I know Count von Minckwitz, Grand-Master of the Court of the Duke of
+Saxe-Altenbourg," was my reply.
+
+"No. This is a man, Wilhelm Minckwitz, who poses as a musician."
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"You are quite certain that you have never heard the name? Try to
+recollect whether the Crown-Prince has ever mentioned him in your
+presence."
+
+I endeavoured to recall the circumstance, for somehow very gradually I
+felt a distinct recollection of having once heard that name before.
+
+"At the moment I fail to recall anything, Your Majesty," was my answer.
+
+The Emperor knit his brows as though annoyed at my reply, and then
+grunted deeply in dissatisfaction.
+
+"Remain here in Potsdam," he said. "Telegraph to the Crown-Prince
+recalling him at my orders, and I will cancel the inspection at Thorn.
+Tell the Crown-Prince that I wish to see him to-night immediately upon
+his return."
+
+Then, noticing for the first time that the Emperor held a paper in his
+hand, I realized that by its colour it was one of those secret reports
+furnished for the Kaiser's eye alone--a report of one of the thousands
+of spies of Germany spread everywhere.
+
+Minckwitz! I impressed that name upon my memory, and, being dismissed,
+bowed myself out of the Imperial presence.
+
+Returning to the Marmor Palace I sent a long and urgent message over the
+private wire to "Willie" at Altona, repeating His Majesty's orders, and
+recalling him at once. Quite well I knew that such an unusual message
+would arouse His Highness's apprehension that for some offence or other
+he was about to receive a paternal castigation. But I could not be
+explicit, because I had no knowledge of the reason the Emperor was
+cancelling our engagement at Thorn.
+
+At nine o'clock that night the Crown-Prince, gay in his Hussar uniform,
+burst into the room wherein I was attending to the correspondence.
+
+"What in the name of Fate does all this mean, Heltzendorff?" he
+demanded. "Why did the Emperor fail to reply to my message?"
+
+"I delivered it," I said. And then I described what took place in the
+Emperor's private dining-room. When I mentioned the name of Minckwitz
+the Crown-Prince started and his cheeks blanched.
+
+"Did he ask you that?" he gasped.
+
+"Yes. I told him the only person I knew of that name was Count von
+Minckwitz."
+
+"Ah, that little fat, old Master of the Court. Oh! The Emperor knows him
+well enough. It is somebody else he is referring to."
+
+"Do you know him?" I asked eagerly.
+
+"Me? Why--why, of course not!" was "Willie's" quick reply, in a tone
+which showed me that he was not telling the truth.
+
+"His Majesty wishes to see you at once," I urged, full of wonder.
+
+I could plainly see that His Imperial Highness had been much upset at
+mention of the mysterious person called Minckwitz. What could the
+Emperor know of him? Was there some scandal at the root of it all, some
+facts which the Crown-Prince feared might be revealed?
+
+Travel-stained, and without changing his tunic, "Willie" went to the
+telephone and ordered Knof to bring back the car. And in it he drove
+across to the Neues Palais to see the Emperor.
+
+I had an important appointment in Berlin that night, and waited until
+quite late for "Willie's" return. As he did not come I left for the
+capital, and on arrival at my rooms rang up Wolff's Agency, and gave out
+a paragraph to the Press that His Imperial Highness the Crown-Prince had
+been compelled to abandon his journey to Thorn, owing to having
+contracted a chill. His wife "Cilli"--the contraction for Cecilia--had,
+however, gone to visit Princess Henry of Rohnstock at Fuerstenstein.
+
+Several weeks went by, and one day we were at the ancient schloss at
+Oels, in far Silesia, the great estate which the Crown-Prince inherited
+on coming of age. The castle is a big, prison-like place, surrounded by
+wide lands and dense forests, lying between the town of Breslau and the
+Polish frontier, a remote, rural place to which "Willie" loved sometimes
+to retire with a few kindred spirits in order to look over the estate
+and to shoot.
+
+The guests included old Count von Reisenach, Court Chamberlain, of the
+Prince of Schombourg-Lippe, who was a noted raconteur and bon-vivant,
+with Major von Heidkaemper, of the 4th Bavarian Light Cavalry, a constant
+companion of "Willie's," and Karl von Pappenheim, a captain of the
+Prussian Guard, who had been educated at Oxford, and who was so English
+that it was often difficult for people from London to believe that he
+was a Prussian.
+
+Von Pappenheim, a tall, good-looking, fair-moustached man under thirty,
+was one of "Willie's" new friends. He was the son of a great landowner
+of Erfurt, and the pair had for the past month been inseparable. He was
+a shrewd, keen-eyed man, who seemed ever on the alert, but, of course,
+obsessed by military dignity, and as full of swagger as any Prussian
+officer could be. He had a sister, Margarete, a pretty girl, a year or
+so his junior, who had been to the Marmor Palace on one occasion. The
+Crown-Princess had received her, but from the fact that she was not
+invited a second time I concluded that the inevitable jealousy had
+arisen, because in my presence "Willie" had more than once referred to
+her beauty.
+
+I sometimes suspected that "Willie's" sudden and close friendship with
+Von Pappenheim had some connection with his intense admiration of the
+latter's sister. I, however, learnt the truth concerning their intimacy
+in a curious way while at the Schloss Oels.
+
+One day I had accompanied the party out after stag, for, being a fair
+shot, I frequently snatched a day's sport. Soon after luncheon, which we
+took at a forester's house, we went forth again, and I concealed myself
+at a point of vantage, lying behind a screen of ferns and branches
+specially constructed as cover.
+
+I was alone, at some considerable distance from the others, and had been
+there waiting for nearly an hour with my gun in readiness when suddenly
+I heard the cracking of dried wood not far away.
+
+Something was moving. I raised my gun in breathless eagerness.
+
+Next moment, however, I heard the voices of two men.--"Willie" and his
+friend, Von Pappenheim. They were approaching me, speaking in low,
+confidential tones.
+
+"You quite understand," "Willie" was saying. "My position is a terrible
+one. I don't know how to extricate myself. If I dare reveal the truth
+then I know full well what their vengeance will be."
+
+"But, my dear Caesar," was Karl von Pappenheim's reply, for he was on
+such intimate terms that he called His Highness by the name Von Hochberg
+had bestowed upon him, "is it not your duty to risk all and tell the
+truth?" he suggested seriously.
+
+The pair had halted only a few yards from me and taken cover behind a
+dead bush which had been cut down and placed conveniently at the spot,
+in case the shooting party were a large one and the screen behind which
+I had concealed myself was insufficient. So near were they that I could
+hear all that was said.
+
+"The Emperor would neither believe me nor forgive me," "Willie" said.
+"Minckwitz is a clever devil. He would bring manufactured evidence which
+must implicate me."
+
+Minckwitz! That was the name which the Emperor had uttered, asking me if
+I knew him! That incident at the Neues Palais flashed across my memory.
+I recollected, too, how, when I had referred to the circumstance, His
+Highness had become pale and agitated. Mention of the name had affected
+him curiously.
+
+"But can he bring evidence?" asked his companion.
+
+"Yes, curse him!--he can!"
+
+"You can refute it, surely?"
+
+"No, I can't. If I could I should make a clean breast of the whole
+matter," "Willie" declared. From the tone of his voice I realized how
+utterly bewildered he was.
+
+"But cannot I help you? Cannot I see Minckwitz and bluff him?" his
+friend suggested.
+
+"You don't know him," was the reply. "He holds me in the hollow of his
+hand."
+
+"Ah! Then you have been horribly indiscreet--eh?"
+
+"I have. I admit I have, Karl; and I do not see any way out of it."
+
+"But, my dear Caesar, think of the danger existing day by day--hour by
+hour!" cried Von Pappenheim. "Think what there is at stake! That letter
+you showed me this morning reveals only too plainly what is intended."
+
+"It is a letter of defiance, I admit."
+
+"And a catastrophe must inevitably occur if you do not act."
+
+"But how can I act?" cried the Crown-Prince, in despair. "Suggest
+something--I cannot. If I utter a syllable Minckwitz will most certainly
+carry out his threat against me."
+
+"Contrive to have him arrested upon some charge or other," Karl
+suggested.
+
+"If I did he would produce the evidence against me," declared the
+Crown-Prince.
+
+A silence then fell between the pair. Suddenly Karl asked:
+
+"Does Von Heltzendorff know?"
+
+"He knows nothing," was "Willie's" answer. "The Emperor questioned him,
+but he was in ignorance of Minckwitz's existence. He was naturally
+surprised, but I did not regard it as judicious to enlighten him."
+
+"He is your confidential adjutant. If I were you I should tell him the
+truth. No time should be lost, remember."
+
+Then, after a few seconds of silence. Von Pappenheim went on:
+
+"Why, I never thought of it! My sister Margarete knows Minckwitz. She
+might perhaps be useful to us--eh?"
+
+"Why, yes!" cried "Willie," "a woman can frequently accomplish a thing
+where a man would fail. A most excellent idea. Let us leave the others
+to their sport and get back to the schloss and discuss a line of
+action--eh?"
+
+And in agreement the pair emerged from their ambush, and retraced their
+steps along the path they had come.
+
+Still greatly puzzled at the nature of the secret which the Crown-Prince
+was withholding from me, I came out of my hiding-place and presently
+rejoined the party.
+
+That night we all dined together, as was our habit when at Oels, but I
+saw that "Willie" was upset and nervous, and noticed that he drank his
+champagne heavily. On the contrary, Von Pappenheim was wary and
+watchful.
+
+Next evening Von Pappenheim's sister Margarete, fair-haired, _petite_
+and rather doll-like, arrived at the Castle.
+
+During dinner an Imperial courier arrived from Berlin with a letter from
+the Emperor, and "Willie" opened it, read it, and then, excusing
+himself, left the table. I rose and followed him, as was my duty, but
+when outside the room His Highness sent me back, saying in a thick,
+husky voice:
+
+"I shall not want you. Von Heltzendorff; I will write the reply myself."
+
+On my return the guests were discussing the effect of the Emperor's
+message upon their host, Von Pappenheim being particularly anxious. He
+said something in a low voice to his sister, when the latter became at
+once thoughtful. Indeed, the remainder of the meal was a very dull
+affair, and it was with relief that we rose and went out into the big
+ancient hall, with its vaulted ceiling, where coffee was always served.
+
+The courier had left on his return journey to the capital, yet "Willie"
+did not again reappear. At eleven o'clock I found him lying in a very
+advanced state of intoxication upon the sofa in the room set apart for
+me for my writing. Near him stood an empty brandy bottle and an empty
+syphon of soda-water.
+
+I called his faithful valet, and together we half carried him to his
+room, where he was undressed and put to bed. Hardly had I returned to my
+room when Von Pappenheim entered in search of his host.
+
+"His Highness is not well, and has retired to his room," I said. "He
+expressed a desire to see nobody to-night."
+
+Von Pappenheim's face changed.
+
+"Oh!" he cried in despair. "Why did he not see me and tell me the truth!
+Precious hours are flying, and we must act if the situation is to be
+saved."
+
+"What situation?" I asked, in pretended ignorance.
+
+"You know nothing, Von Heltzendorff, eh?" he asked, looking me straight
+in the face.
+
+"Nothing," was my reply.
+
+"You have no knowledge of the trap into which the Crown-Prince fell when
+he was in Paris with you six months ago, and when he and I first met?"
+
+"A trap! What do you mean?"
+
+"Has he told you nothing?"
+
+"Not a syllable."
+
+"Ah! Then I cannot be frank with you until I obtain His Highness's
+permission. He told me that you knew nothing, but I did not believe it.
+Knowing well what implicit confidence he places in you, I believed that
+you knew the ghastly truth."
+
+"You alarm me," I said. "If the situation is grave, then I may be able
+to be of some assistance, more especially if time is pressing."
+
+He hesitated, but refused to reveal a single fact before receiving the
+Crown-Prince's permission.
+
+Into what trap had "Willie" fallen during our last visit to Paris I
+could not conceive. His wild orgies in the Montmartre, his constant
+absences alone, his terrible craving for excitement, his wild and
+reckless search for pleasure in the lowest haunts of vice, had ever been
+a source of anxiety to me. Times without number had I lifted a warning
+finger, only to be derided and ridiculed by the son of the All-Highest
+One.
+
+Next day, soon after His Highness was dressed, he entered my room.
+
+"Heltzendorff," he said, "I have been chatting with Von Pappenheim and
+his sister upon a little matter of business which closely concerns
+myself. I want you to leave in an hour's time and go to Hanover. In the
+Kirchroeder Strasse, No. 16, out at Kleefeld there lives a certain man
+named Minckwitz--a Pole by birth. He has two nieces--one about twenty
+and the other two years older. With them you have no concern. All I want
+is that you engage a photographer, or, better, yourself take a snapshot
+of this man Minckwitz, and bring it to me. Be discreet and trust no one
+with the secret of your journey."
+
+"Exactly. There is a doubt as to the man's identity, eh?"
+
+"Willie" nodded in the affirmative.
+
+Satisfied that I should at last see the mysterious person whose identity
+the Emperor had wished to establish, I set out from Oels on my long
+journey right across Germany.
+
+In due course I arrived in Hanover, and found the house situate in the
+pleasant suburb. Here I found that "Willie's" suspicions were correct,
+and the man Minckwitz was living under the name of Sembach and
+pretending to be a musician. I watched, and very soon with my own camera
+took in secret a snapshot of the mysterious individual as he walked in
+the street. With this I left two days later on my return to Oels.
+
+The photograph was that of a thin, narrow-faced, deep-eyed man, with a
+scraggy, pointed beard--a typical Pole, and when I handed it to
+"Willie" he held his breath.
+
+"Look!" he cried, turning to Von Pappenheim and his sister, who were
+both present. "Look! There is no mistake! That is the man. What shall we
+do? No time must be lost. How can I act?"
+
+Brother and sister exchanged glances blankly. From inquiries I had made
+in Hanover, it seemed that the man was a stranger, a music-master, who
+had arrived there about a month ago. I feared to make inquiry through
+the police, because my official capacity as personal-adjutant to the
+Crown-Prince was too well known, and suspicion might have thus been
+aroused.
+
+The trio again held secret counsel, but I was not told the nature of
+their deliberations. All I knew was that the Crown-Prince was in some
+terrible and most dangerous difficulty.
+
+That afternoon I met the girl Margarete walking alone in the grounds
+near the Schloss. The autumn sun was pleasant, though there was a sharp
+nip in the air, which told of the coming of the early Silesian winter.
+Most of the trees were already bare, and the ground was carpeted with
+the gold-brown leaves of the great beeches.
+
+We had walked together for some distance, when I suddenly halted and
+asked her point-blank why they were all in such great fear of Herr
+Minckwitz.
+
+She started, staring at me with her big blue eyes.
+
+"His Highness has not told you, Count. Therefore, it would ill become me
+to reveal his secret," was her cold rebuke.
+
+"But if the situation is so grave, and if I have been entrusted with the
+secret mission to Hanover, I may, perhaps, be of service in the matter.
+I understand that you are acquainted with Herr Minckwitz, _alias_
+Sembach--eh?"
+
+"Who told you that?"
+
+"Nobody. I learnt it myself," I answered, with a smile.
+
+For a second she reflected, then, with a woman's cleverness, she said:
+
+"I can tell you nothing. Ask the Crown-Prince himself." And she refused
+to discuss the matter further. Indeed, she left the Castle two hours
+later.
+
+That night I went boldly to "Willie," finding him alone in a little
+circular room in one of the towers of the Castle, to which he often
+retired to smoke and snooze.
+
+I stood before him, and without mincing matters told him what I had
+overheard and all I knew.
+
+The effect of my words was almost electrical. He sat up, staring at me
+almost dazed at my statement.
+
+"It is true, Heltzendorff. Alas! True!" he replied. But he would even
+then give me no inkling of the reason of his fear.
+
+"If this Herr Minckwitz means mischief, then surely it would be easy to
+secure his arrest for some offence or other, and you need not appear in
+it," I suggested.
+
+"I've thought of all that. But if the police lay hands upon him, then he
+will revenge himself on me. He will carry out his threat--and--and,
+Heltzendorff, I could never hold up my head again."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I can't be more explicit. I'm in a hole, and I cannot extricate
+myself."
+
+I reflected for a moment. Then I said:
+
+"You appear to fear some action of Minckwitz's. If that is so, I will
+return to Hanover and watch. If there is any hostile intent, I will
+endeavour to prevent it. Fortunately, he does not know me."
+
+Next night I was back again in Hanover, having stopped in Berlin to pick
+up a friend of mine upon whose discretion I could rely implicitly--a
+retired member of the detective force named Hartwieg. Together we
+started to watch the movements of the mysterious Polish musician, and
+to our surprise we found that he had three friends, one of them a
+furrier living in the Burgstrasse, who visited him regularly each
+evening. They always arrived at the same hour, and generally left about
+eleven o'clock. Through five days we kept watch, alternately closely
+shadowing the man who called himself Sembach, and becoming acquainted
+with his friends, most of whom seemed of a very queer set.
+
+There was no doubt that Minckwitz and the two young women were
+associates of some criminal gang, and, further, I was staggered one
+evening to watch the arrival at the house of a young man whom I
+recognized as Brosch, an under-valet of the Emperor's at the Neues
+Palais.
+
+For what reason had he come from Potsdam?
+
+He remained there till noon on the following day. When he emerged,
+accompanied by Minckwitz, the pair went into the city, and we followed,
+when, curiously enough, I came face to face with Von Pappenheim's
+sister, who was apparently there for the same purpose as myself! Happily
+she was too intent in her conversation with Minckwitz, whom she met as
+though accidentally, to notice my presence.
+
+Then, at last, the musician raised his hat and left her, rejoining the
+young man Brosch.
+
+The pair went to a bookshop in the Herschelstrasse, and presently, when
+they came forth again, Brosch was carrying a good-sized volume wrapped
+in brown paper.
+
+My curiosity was aroused, therefore I went into the shop, made a
+purchase, and learned from the shopman that the younger of the pair had
+purchased a well-known German reference-book, Professor Nebendahl's
+"Dictionary of Classical Quotations."
+
+Strange that such a book should be purchased by an under-valet!
+
+Leaving the detective Hartwieg to watch, I took the next train back to
+Potsdam, where I was fortunate enough to find the Emperor giving
+audience to the Imperial Chancellor. At the conclusion of the audience I
+sought, and was accorded, a private interview, at which I recalled His
+Majesty's anxiety to ascertain something regarding the man Minckwitz.
+
+"Well--and have you found him?" asked the Emperor very eagerly.
+
+I replied in the affirmative. Then he told me something which held me
+breathless, for, unlocking a drawer, he showed me an anonymous letter of
+warning he had received, a letter which, posted in Paris, stated that an
+attempt was to be made upon his life, and hinting that the Crown-Prince
+might be aware of it.
+
+"Of course," he laughed, "I do not regard it seriously, but I thought we
+ought to know the whereabouts of this man Minckwitz, who is probably an
+anarchist."
+
+"Will Your Majesty leave the matter entirely in my hands?" I suggested.
+"The police must not be informed."
+
+"It shall be as you wish. I give you authority to act just as you deem
+best if you really anticipate danger."
+
+"I do anticipate it," I replied, and a few moments later bowed myself
+out of the Imperial presence.
+
+During that day I idled about the Palace, gossiping with the officials
+and _dames du palais_, awaiting the return of the young man Brosch. That
+night he did not come back, but he arrived at the Palace about seven
+o'clock on the following morning. The head valet was furious at his
+absence, but the young man made a very plausible excuse that his sister
+out at Lichtenberg was very dangerously ill.
+
+I had had no sleep that night, but as soon as I was informed of the
+under-valet's return, I repaired to the Emperor's study and secreted
+myself beneath a great damask-covered settee which runs along the wall
+opposite the door. For nearly an hour I remained there, when the door
+was opened stealthily and there entered the young man whom I had seen in
+Hanover on the previous day. He carried a book in his hand. This he
+swiftly exchanged for another similar book of the same appearance, and a
+moment later crept out again, closing the door noiselessly.
+
+Quickly I came forth and took up the classical dictionary, a copy of
+which was usually upon the Emperor's table. It presented just the same
+appearance as the book that Brosch had taken away, only it was
+considerably heavier.
+
+Without delay I dashed out, sought the Emperor's valet, and was admitted
+to His Majesty's presence.
+
+Three minutes later we were both in the study. I took up the book and
+held it to his ear. Just as I had heard, he could detect the faint
+ticking of a watch within.
+
+The book had been hollowed out and a time bomb inserted! It was, no
+doubt, set to explode between eight and nine o'clock, when the Emperor
+would be at his desk.
+
+"Take it out quickly!" shrieked the Kaiser in terror, when he realized
+the true import of the plot.
+
+In obedience, handling the book very carefully, I rushed with it
+downstairs out into the open. I placed it on the grass some distance
+away, while the Emperor followed me, utterly astounded at the discovery.
+
+Having deposited it, I dashed back to where the Emperor was standing
+upon the steps, greatly to the surprise of the sentries, when hardly had
+I reached him than there showed a blood-red flash, followed by a
+terrific report and concussion--an explosion which, had it occurred in
+the upstairs study, must have blown the Emperor's head off as he sat.
+
+His Majesty stood white and rigid, instantly realizing what a narrow
+escape he had had, while the noise caused the greatest alarm, and
+people began rushing hither and thither to ascertain the cause.
+
+In a few seconds His Majesty was calm again.
+
+"Say nothing of this, Heltzendorff," he said. "Let it remain a mystery.
+Come upstairs and I will speak on the telephone to the police."
+
+"Your Majesty gave the matter unreservedly into my hands," I reminded
+him.
+
+"Ah! that is so. I forgot," he exclaimed, and after thanking me he
+added: "Take what steps you like, but have the offenders punished, and
+also try to discover who sent me that anonymous warning."
+
+The young valet, who had been, no doubt, heavily bribed by Minckwitz to
+substitute the book, had already disappeared, and, as a matter of fact,
+has never been seen in Germany since.
+
+The man Minckwitz had also, it seemed, suddenly left Hanover on the
+night of my departure, for Hartwieg, following him, reported to me by
+wire that he was in Paris.
+
+Without delay I travelled to the French capital, saw my old friend
+Pinaud of the Surete, and told him the whole story, explaining in
+confidence that for some mysterious reason the Crown-Prince feared that
+if the man were arrested he might reveal something unpleasant.
+
+"I quite understand," replied the French detective, with a smile. "I
+know that, six months ago, while the Crown-Prince was in Paris, he was
+one night enticed by a girl into the gaming-house kept by the notorious
+Minckwitz. There a quarrel ensued, and the Crown-Prince, fearing attack,
+drew his revolver, which went off and shot one of Minckwitz's
+confederates stone dead. The Crown-Prince has ever since been paying big
+sums to hush up the affair. Until recently Minckwitz conceived the idea
+that if the Emperor died and the Crown-Prince came to the Throne it
+would mean to him considerably more money each year. Therefore he
+conceived that diabolical plot. I warned the Crown-Prince of it, and he
+threatened to expose Minckwitz and have him arrested. Minckwitz, in
+turn, threatened that if His Highness made the slightest movement to
+thwart his plans he would expose to the world that the German
+Crown-Prince, during his latest escapade in the Montmartre, had killed a
+man. Finding this to be the case, I myself wrote that anonymous letter
+of warning, which I addressed to the Emperor."
+
+"And which has had the effect of saving His Majesty's life," I remarked.
+
+That night Minckwitz found himself arrested upon a charge of
+blackmailing a Portugese nobleman, and was later on sentenced to fifteen
+years' imprisonment.
+
+In his solitary hours in prison he often wonders, I expect, why his
+dastardly plot failed. Had it been successful, however, it certainly
+would have had a great effect upon the future history of the world.
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+_Printed at The Chapel River Press, Kingston, Surrey._
+
+
+
+
+NOTE ADDED BY COUNT ERNST VON HELTZENDORFF:
+
+_I propose, with the assistance of my friend the Commendatore William Le
+Queux, to issue in Great Britain a further instalment of my revelations
+of "The Secrets of Potsdam" at an early date._
+
+
+
+
+_In the Press.       Uniform with this volume._
+
+FOR THE QUEEN
+
+By
+E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+Author of
+"Those Other Days," "Mr. Wingrave, Millionaire." etc., etc.
+
+LONDON:
+LONDON MAIL LTD.
+39, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+Both Hotel and Hotel appear and were not changed.
+
+Page 28: Umlaut added to three occurrences of "Fuerstenberg".
+
+Page 103: hyphen removed from "ear[-]rings".
+
+Page 106: "Leichtenstein" changed to "Liechtenstein" (Liechtenstein
+Bridge).
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Secrets of Potsdam, by William Le Queux
+
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