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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43407 ***
+
+ Every attempt has been made to replicate the original, printed. Some
+typographical errors have been corrected; a list follows the text. Some
+ illustrations have been moved from mid-paragraph for ease of reading.
+ (etext transcriber's note)
+
+
+
+
+ THE EMPRESS FREDERICK
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+ The
+ Empress Frederick
+
+ A MEMOIR
+
+ _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+ NEW YORK
+ Dodd, Mead and Company
+ 1914
+
+ COPYRIGHT, 1913,
+ BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Memoirs of Royal personages form not the least interesting part of the
+whole vast field of biography, in spite of the fact that such memoirs
+differ from the lives of most persons in a private station because of
+the reticence and discretion which are necessary, especially in regard
+to affairs of State and political characters. It is often not until a
+whole generation has passed that it is possible to publish a full
+biography of a member of a Royal House, and in the meantime the exalted
+rank of the subject operates both to enhance and to diminish the
+interest of the memoir.
+
+This is also true in a modified degree of statesmen, of whom full and
+frank biographies are seldom possible until their political associates
+and rivals have alike disappeared from the scene. This necessary delay
+is a test of the subject's greatness, for it has sometimes happened that
+by the time a full memoir can be published the public interest in the
+individual has waned.
+
+By heredity, by training, by all the circumstances of their lives, Royal
+personages form a caste apart; and though their lot may seem to some
+persons enviable, it is often not realised how great are the sacrifices
+of happiness and contentment which they are called upon to make as the
+inevitable consequence of their exalted position.
+
+The Empress Frederick presents an extraordinary example of what this
+exalted position may bring in the way of both happiness and suffering.
+Her life has the added interest that, quite apart from her rank, she
+possessed an intensely vivid and human personality. History furnishes
+examples of many Royal personages who have been, so to speak, crushed
+and stunted in their intellectual and spiritual growth by the restraints
+of their position.
+
+Not so the subject of this memoir. The Empress was a woman of remarkable
+moral and intellectual qualities--indeed, it is not difficult to see
+that, had she been born in a private station, she would have attained
+certainly distinction, and very possibly eminence, in some branch of
+art, letters, or science. Her rank, far from crushing and stunting her
+powers, had the effect of diffusing her intellectual interests over many
+fields, and perhaps laid her open to the charge of dilettanteism. But
+such a charge cannot really be maintained in view of the solid
+constructive work which she achieved, both in the field of philanthropy
+and in that of the application of art to industry. The exacting mental
+discipline which she underwent at the hands of her father, though it was
+in some respects ill-advised as her life turned out, at any rate
+supplied her with the habit of mental concentration which enabled her to
+carry out those practical and lasting enterprises with which her name
+in Germany should ever be associated. Her early training disciplined her
+eager, natural enthusiasm for all that was good and serviceable to
+humanity, and directed it especially to the welfare of soldiers and of
+women and children. She was "a doer of the Word and not a hearer only."
+All through her life one is perhaps most profoundly impressed by her
+inexhaustible energy; her sense of the tremendous importance and
+interest of life, of the wonders of knowledge, of the delights of art
+and literature, and of all that there is to do and to feel and to think
+in the short years that are given us on earth.
+
+One of the greatest dangers to which Royal personages are exposed by the
+circumstances of their position is that of falling into an attitude of
+gentle cynicism. Naturally they are often brought into contact with the
+seamy side of human nature, while at the same time they are not perhaps
+so well acquainted with its better side, as are persons of less exalted
+rank. That the cleverer among them should take up an attitude of
+humorous toleration of the whole human comedy is consequently very
+natural.
+
+It is no small testimony to the Empress Frederick's moral greatness
+that, though she had experiences in plenty of the bad side of human
+nature, she was never tempted to relapse into such an attitude. No one
+was ever less of a cynic. She was full of intense passionate
+enthusiasms and of a profound sympathy for the unfortunate, and the
+disinherited of the earth. In her warm heart there was no room for
+hatred or for contempt of others, and she was equally incapable of
+shrugging her shoulders at the foibles and follies of poor humanity.
+
+This eagerness to be up and doing was, however, combined, as has been
+often seen in the history of mankind, with a touching faith in the power
+of logic and reason. It was not exactly that the Empress held too high
+an opinion of human nature, but she undoubtedly showed too little
+appreciation of human stupidity and, we must add, of human malice. She
+had been brought up with kindly, honourable, well-bred, and, on the
+whole, very intelligent people, and when she came into rough collision
+with less agreeable qualities of human nature, she suffered intensely.
+But she was not soured as a less noble nature might have been; on the
+contrary, she continued to the end of her life always to believe the
+best of people, always to assume that they are actuated by good motives,
+as well as by reason and common-sense. She seems to have missed the key
+to the oddities and the vagaries, as well as to the baser qualities of
+human nature, and therein lies, perhaps, the secret of the tragedy of
+her life.
+
+That tragedy, as we know, was greatly enhanced by the singular blows of
+fate. Her rank had, strangely enough, given her a marriage of love and
+affection more real and more lasting than often falls to the lot of
+private persons. But the husband whom she adored, as well as two
+idolized children, were taken from her.
+
+It was her fate also to be constantly misunderstood; to see the purity
+of her motives doubted and her most innocent actions misconstrued. Owing
+partly to the circumstances of her time, partly to her own generous and
+warm-hearted but imprudent impulsiveness, she failed to win the
+affection of her adopted country as a whole, though she certainly earned
+its respect and esteem. This was not the least bitter trial of her life,
+for she was one of those natures who have a craving for affection and
+understanding sympathy; and the criticism and even the hostility with
+which she was regarded in Germany were all the more painful to her in
+that she could not in the least understand on what they were based.
+
+Perhaps she was too deeply convinced of the superiority of England and
+of English institutions, and made too little allowance for the
+sensitiveness of a people who were then slowly emerging into a national
+in place of a particularist consciousness. At the same time it is
+certain that, however she had comported herself, she could not have
+escaped criticism of which she was no more than the ostensible object,
+and the real purpose of which is to be found in the political
+cross-currents of the period.
+
+In this memoir the attempt is made to draw a true picture of this
+singularly engaging and generous personality, who played her part in
+great affairs, and who suffered all reversals of fortune, the anguish of
+bereavement, and the pain of cruel disease, alike with unflinching
+courage and dignity.
+
+The materials have been found, not only in many works of history,
+biography, memoir and reminiscence, both German and English, some of
+which are little known, especially to English readers, but also in the
+recollection of persons who were honoured with the Empress's friendship.
+The aim of the writer has been, while avoiding such indiscriminate
+laudation as really degrades the subject of it, to draw a full-length
+portrait of one of the noblest and most attractive characters in the
+long history of the Royal Houses of Europe.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+ PAGE
+
+PEDIGREE SHOWING THE FAMILY CONNECTIONS OF THE
+EMPEROR AND EMPRESS FREDERICK xv
+
+CHAP.
+
+I CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD 1
+
+II BETROTHAL 23
+
+III OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES 36
+
+IV MARRIAGE 58
+
+V EARLY MARRIED LIFE 71
+
+VI BIRTH OF PRINCE WILLIAM 100
+
+VII ADVICE FROM ENGLAND 115
+
+VIII DEATH OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA 133
+
+IX FIRST RELATIONS WITH BISMARCK 162
+
+X THE WAR OF THE DUCHIES 177
+
+XI HOME LIFE AND RELIGION 198
+
+XII THE AUSTRIAN WAR: WORK IN THE HOSPITALS 210
+
+XIII THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR 227
+
+XIV PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ACTIVITIES 245
+
+XV THE CROWN PRINCE'S REGENCY 263
+
+XVI SILVER WEDDING: THE CROWN PRINCE'S ILLNESS 279
+
+XVII THE HUNDRED DAYS' REIGN 299
+
+XVIII EARLY WIDOWHOOD: FALL OF BISMARCK 315
+
+XIX THE PLANNING OF FRIEDRICHSHOF: VISIT TO PARIS 329
+
+XX LIFE AT FRIEDRICHSHOF 340
+
+XXI LAST YEARS 354
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+The Empress Frederick (Photogravure) _Frontispiece_
+
+ FACING
+ PAGE
+
+The Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal 18
+
+The Princess Royal, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa 54
+
+Her Royal Highness Victoria, Princess Royal 98
+
+His Royal Highness, Prince Frederick William of Prussia 138
+
+Her Royal Highness, Princess Frederick William of
+Prussia 180
+
+Her Royal Highness, Princess Frederick William of
+Prussia and Infant Prince Frederick William Victor
+Albert 218
+
+Frederick William, Crown Prince of Prussia, after the
+Franco-Prussian War 258
+
+The Late Empress Frederick 302
+
+The Late Empress Frederick 342
+
+
+
+
+ PEDIGREE SHOWING THE FAMILY CONNECTIONS OF THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS
+ FREDERICK, AND THEIR DESCENT FROM KING JAMES I OF ENGLAND
+
+
+ ERNEST AUGUSTUS, = SOPHIA (grand-dau. of James I),
+ Elector of Hanover, | 1630-1714.
+ 1629-1698. |
+ |
+ +------------------------+--------------+
+ | |
+ SOPHIA CHARLOTTE, = FREDERICK I, GEORGE I,
+ 1668-1705. | King of Prussia, 1660-1727.
+ | 1657-1713. |
+ | |
+ +--------+ +-----------------+----+
+ | | |
+ FREDERICK WILLIAM I, = SOPHIA DOROTHEA, GEORGE II,
+ King of Prussia, | 1687-1757. 1683-1760.
+ 1688-1740. | |
+ | |
+ +--------------+------+ |
+ | | |
+ FREDERICK THE GREAT, PRINCE AUGUSTUS FREDERICK,
+ 1712-1786. WILLIAM, PRINCE OF WALES,
+ 1722-1758. 1707-1757.
+ | |
+ FREDERICK WILLIAM II, GEORGE III,
+ 1744-1797. 1738-1820.
+ | |
+ | +------+--------+
+ FREDERICK WILLIAM III, | | |
+ 1770-1840. GEORGE IV, | EDWARD,
+ | 1762-1830. | DUKE OF KENT,
+ +---------------+------+ | 1767-1820.
+ | | | |
+ FREDERICK WILLIAM IV, WILLIAM I, WILLIAM IV |
+ 1795-1861. German Emperor, 1765-1837. |
+ 1797-1888. |
+ | QUEEN VICTORIA,
+ | 1819-1901.
+ | |
+ +-----------+ +-----------------+
+ | | |
+ EMPEROR FREDERICK, = VICTORIA, PRINCESS KING EDWARD VII,
+ 1831-1888. | ROYAL, 1841-1910.
+ | 1840-1901. |
+ | KING GEORGE V.
+ |
+ +--------+--------+----------+-+----+------+------+---------+
+ | | | | | | | |
+ EMPEROR | HENRY, | VICTORIA, | SOPHIA, |
+ WILLIAM II, | _b._ 1862. | _b._ 1866;. | _b._ 1870;. |
+ _b._ 1859. | _m._ Princess | _m._ Prince | Queen of the |
+ | | Irene of Hesse, | Adolphus of | Hellenes. |
+ Six sons and | his first cousin. | Schaumburg | | |
+ | | | -Lippe. | | |
+ one daughter. | | | | Three sons and |
+ | Three sons. | | two daughters. |
+ | | | |
+ CHARLOTTE, SIGISMUND, WALDEMAR, MARGARET,
+ _b._ 1860;. 1864-1866. 1868-1879 _b._ 1872;.
+ _m._ Prince _m._ Prince
+ Bernhard of Frederick Charles
+ Saxe-Meiningen. of Hesse-Cassel.
+ | |
+ One daughter. Six sons.
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPRESS FREDERICK
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD
+
+
+Before the birth of the Princess Royal in November 1840, no direct heir
+had been born to a reigning British Sovereign for nearly eighty years.
+The Prince Regent, afterwards George IV, was born in 1762, two years
+after his father's accession, and the death in childbirth of the Prince
+Regent's daughter, Princess Charlotte, when she was only twenty, was
+still vividly remembered.
+
+Queen Victoria was now but little older than Princess Charlotte, and the
+birth of her first child was regarded with a certain anxiety by the
+nation. It might prove to be the only child, and in that event much
+would hang on the preservation of its life. Those members of the "Old
+Royal Family" who were next in succession were not popular, and the
+little Princess Royal may truly be described as having been the child of
+many prayers.
+
+It was natural that Queen Victoria should have recourse to Prince
+Albert's confidential adviser, Baron Stockmar, the more so that he was a
+skilled physician. Stockmar therefore came to London early in November.
+Those were not the days of trained nurses, but rather of the types
+immortalised by Dickens, and it is interesting to find the shrewd old
+German, characteristically in advance of his time, urging the Prince to
+be most careful in the choice of a nurse, "for a man's education begins
+the first day of his life, and a lucky choice I regard as the greatest
+and finest gift we can bestow on the expected stranger."
+
+On November 13 the Court arrived at Buckingham Palace, where on the 21st
+the Princess was born. "For a moment only," the Queen says, "was the
+Prince disappointed at its being a daughter and not a son."
+
+The character of the monarchy in England has changed so much, both
+absolutely and also relatively to the people, that it is difficult for
+us to realise the measure of prejudice and even contempt which still
+subsisted before Queen Victoria had had time to win the full confidence
+of her subjects. It is not therefore really surprising that the little
+Princess Royal should have been greeted on her first appearance with a
+shower of caricatures, some of them not remarkable for their refinement.
+
+Still, a good deal of the rough humour lavished on the Princess was
+kindly in its intention, though sometimes there was a sting in the tail.
+For instance, Melbourne, the Prime Minister, was shown as nurse, proudly
+presenting the Princess Royal to John Bull: "I hope the caudle is to
+your liking, Mr. Bull. It must be quite a treat, for you have not had
+any for a long time." John Bull replies: "Well, to tell you the truth,
+Mother Melbourne, I think the caudle the best of it, for I had hoped
+for a boy."
+
+Melbourne's fatherly devotion to the Queen was indeed a piece of luck
+for the caricaturists of the day. A cartoon entitled "Old Servants in
+New Characters" shows him dressed as a nurse with the infant Princess in
+his care; she is sitting in a tiny carriage, with Lord John Russell as
+outrider.
+
+It was arranged that the christening should take place in London on
+February 10, the anniversary of the Queen's marriage, the infant
+receiving the names of Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise. Even the
+christening of the Princess Royal inspired a long satirical poem. One
+verse ran:
+
+ "This is the Bishop, so bold and intrepid,
+ A-making the water so nice and so tepid,
+ To christen the Baby, who's stated, no doubt,
+ Her objection to taking it 'cold without.'"
+
+The sponsors were Prince Albert's brother, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and
+Gotha (represented in his absence by the Duke of Wellington), the King
+of the Belgians, the Queen Dowager (Adelaide), the Duchess of
+Gloucester, the Duchess of Kent, and the Duke of Sussex. Lord Melbourne
+remarked of the Princess to the Queen next day: "How she looked about
+her, quite conscious that the stir was all about herself! This is the
+time the character is formed!" The Prime Minister would have agreed with
+Stockmar's view that a man's education (and presumably also a woman's)
+begins with the first day of life.
+
+Prince Albert sent a vivid account of the ceremony to the venerable
+Dowager Duchess of Gotha:
+
+"The christening went off very well. Your little great-grandchild
+behaved with great propriety, and like a Christian. She was awake, but
+did not cry at all, and seemed to crow with immense satisfaction at the
+lights and brilliant uniforms, for she is very intelligent and
+observing. The ceremony took place at half-past six P. M., and after it
+there was a dinner, and then we had some instrumental music. The health
+of the little one was drunk with great enthusiasm. The little girl bears
+the Saxon Arms in the middle of the English, which looks very pretty."
+
+The Princess Royal, like her brothers and sisters, led an ideal
+childhood. All through her later life she often referred to the
+unclouded happiness of these early years, and it comes out equally
+clearly in the published correspondence of her sister, Princess Alice.
+In this matter both Prince Albert and Queen Victoria were in advance of
+their time, and the Prince, especially, perceived, what was not then at
+all generally believed, that children could be made happy without being
+spoiled.
+
+Perhaps the most sensible decision of the parents was that the Royal
+children should come in contact as little as possible with the actual
+life of the Court. Not that the tone of the Court was bad; on the
+contrary, it was singularly high, but the Queen and Prince Albert knew
+the subtle danger of even innocent petting and flattery on young and
+impressionable minds.
+
+So it was that the Royal children had very little to do with the Queen's
+ladies-in-waiting--indeed they were only seen by them for a few moments
+after dinner at dessert, or when driving out with their parents. The
+Queen and the Prince entrusted the care of their sons and daughters
+exclusively to persons who possessed their whole confidence, and with
+whom they could be in constant direct communication. Both were kept
+regularly informed of the minutest details of what was being done for
+their children, and as the princesses grew older they had an English, a
+French, and a German governess, who were, in their turn, responsible to
+a lady superintendent.
+
+It has been the custom of late to speak as if the children of Queen
+Victoria had been over-educated and over-stimulated. This was at least
+partly true of their infancy, but if they had been really over-educated,
+they would not have turned out as well as they did later, nor would they
+have all delighted in looking back with fond reminiscence to their
+earliest years.
+
+The Princess Royal was soon recognised by all those about her as
+intellectually the flower of the happy little flock. She was clever,
+self-willed, and high-spirited; learning everything that was put before
+her with marvellous intelligence and rapidity. Her dearest friend and
+companion was her sister, the sweet-natured, pensive Princess Alice, who
+was next in age, after the Prince of Wales, to herself. The two lived
+for some years a life which was exactly alike. They shared the same
+lessons, the same amusements, the same interests; both had a strong love
+of art and of drawing; both were, if anything, over-sensitively alive to
+the claims of duty and of patriotism.
+
+Naturally the most detailed and accurate impression of the Princess
+Royal's childhood is to be derived from the correspondence of Sarah Lady
+Lyttelton, who was appointed Governess to the Royal children in April
+1842.
+
+This lady, who was then approaching her fifty-fifth birthday, was the
+daughter of the second Earl Spencer, and sister of that Lord Althorp who
+was a member of Lord Grey's Reform Ministry, and who played a notable
+part in politics rather by his strength of character than by any
+commanding ability. Lady Sarah married the third Lord Lyttelton in 1813.
+It is interesting to recall that her son, afterwards the fourth Lord
+Lyttelton, married Mrs. Gladstone's sister, Miss Glynne. Sarah Lady
+Lyttelton was widowed in 1837 after a singularly happy married life, and
+soon afterwards Queen Victoria appointed her a lady-in-waiting.
+
+When, some four years later, she was given the responsible post of
+Governess to the Royal children, she was already very well known to the
+Queen and the Prince Consort, as well as to their closest adviser. Lord
+Melbourne, for instance, heartily approved the appointment, declaring
+that no other person so well qualified could have been selected.
+
+The picture of the Princess Royal which her guardian draws in these
+letters is one of an extraordinarily winning though precocious child,
+and if it seems to modern judgment that the precocity was rather too
+much stimulated, it must be remembered that we are back in the 'forties,
+when a scientific study of the psychology of infants was not dreamed of.
+Moreover, it is abundantly evident that the little Princess had such a
+way with her, "so innocent arch, so cunning simple," that it must have
+required no ordinary resolution to avoid spoiling her, while even the
+most scientific modern expert would probably have found it very hard to
+draw the line between over-stimulation and proper encouragement of her
+remarkable intelligence.
+
+Lady Lyttelton had her first glimpse of the Princess Royal in July 1841.
+She describes her as a fine, fat, firm, fair, Royal-looking baby, "too
+absurdly like the Queen." Her look was grave, calm, and penetrating, and
+she surveyed the whole company most composedly. She was shown at her
+carriage window to the populace; and Lady Lyttelton, noting the
+universal grin in all faces, declares that the baby will soon have seen
+every set of teeth in the kingdom!
+
+Some months later she records that "the dear Babekin is really going to
+be quite beautiful. Such large smiling soft blue eyes, and quite a
+handsome nose, and the prettiest mouth." The child early acquired the
+appropriate pet name of "Pussy," while she herself, finding Lady
+Lyttelton's name too large a mouthful, simplified it to "Laddle."
+
+It may be here recorded that an absurd rumour had been circulated that
+the Princess Royal had been born blind, and it was this and other
+foolish gossip which first induced the Queen, at the suggestion of
+Prince Albert, to issue an official Court Circular, which has been
+continued ever since.
+
+The Queen had the baby constantly with her, and thought incessantly
+about her, with the result that the child was perhaps rather
+over-watched and over-doctored. She was fed on asses' milk, arrow-root,
+and chicken broth, which were measured out so carefully that Lady
+Lyttelton fancied she left off hungry. Lady Lyttelton, indeed, had some
+experience of this dieting craze, for her brother, Lord Althorp, at one
+time, when he had a terror of getting fat, used to weigh out his own
+breakfast every morning, and when he had consumed the tiny allowance
+used to hasten out of the room lest he should be led into temptation!
+
+The little Princess was over-sensitive and affectionate, and rather
+irritable in temper, and with a prophetic eye Lady Lyttelton says that
+"it looks like a pretty mind, only very unfit for roughing it through a
+hard life, which hers may be."
+
+After the birth of the Prince of Wales, Lady Lyttelton gives us a
+passing, but sufficiently terrible glimpse of the anxieties which Royal
+parents must all suffer, more or less. She mentions that threatening
+letters aimed directly at the children were received, and though they
+were probably written by mad people, nevertheless no protection in the
+way of locks, guard-rooms, and intricate passages was omitted for the
+defence of the Royal nurseries; while the master key was never out of
+Prince Albert's own keeping.
+
+The Princess Royal spent her second birthday at Walmar Castle, and she
+is described as being "most funny all day," joining in the cheers and
+asking to be lifted up to look at "the people," to whom she bowed very
+actively whether they could see her or not.
+
+Perhaps one reason why she became, and remained, so fond of France was
+that from infancy she was placed in the charge of a French lady, Madame
+Charlier. She was very advanced through all her childhood, especially in
+music and painting, yet she remained quite natural and simple in all her
+ways.
+
+She was only three years old when Prince Albert wrote to Stockmar: "The
+children in whose welfare you take so kindly an interest are making most
+favourable progress. The eldest, 'Pussy,' is now quite a little
+personage. She speaks English and French with great fluency and choice
+of phrase." But to her parents she generally talked German.
+
+"Our _Pussette_," the Queen writes a few weeks afterwards, "learns a
+verse of Lamartine by heart, which ends with 'Le tableau se déroule à
+mes pieds.' To show how well she understood this difficult line, I must
+tell you the following _bon-mot_. When she was riding on her pony, and
+looking at the cows and sheep, she turned to Madame Charlier, and said:
+'Voilà le tableau qui se déroule à mes pieds!' Is not this extraordinary
+for a child of three years?"
+
+It is evident that the oral teaching of languages had very sensibly
+preceded that of books, for when the Princess is four years and three
+months old we hear that she is getting on very well with her lessons,
+"but much is still to be done before she can read."
+
+In spite of her accomplishments, she was a very natural human child, and
+could be naughty on occasion. Lady Lyttelton records about this time
+that the Princess, after an hour's naughtiness, said she wished to speak
+to her; but instead of the expected penitence, she delivered herself as
+follows: "I am very sorry, Laddle, but I mean to be just as naughty next
+time"--a threat which was followed by a long imprisonment.
+
+Perhaps the Princess Royal's happiest days were spent at Osborne, where
+she began going at the age of five. There the Royal children had a
+cottage, built on the Swiss model, to themselves. It comprised a
+dining-room, a kitchen, a store-room, and a museum; and in it the
+Princesses were encouraged to learn how to do household work, and to
+direct the management of a small establishment. When in their Swiss
+cottage, each princess was allowed to choose her own occupation and to
+enjoy a certain liberty; their parents used to be invited there as
+guests at meals which the Princess Royal and Princess Alice had
+themselves prepared.
+
+Years later, when they had both married to Germany, there were certain
+tunes which neither the Princess Royal nor Princess Alice could hear
+without tears rising to their eyes, so powerfully did the recollection
+of the happy birthdays and holidays they spent at Osborne remain with
+them. Not long before her death Princess Alice wrote to her mother:
+"What a joyous childhood we had, and how greatly it was enhanced by dear
+sweet Papa, and by all your kindness to us!"
+
+Many happy days were also spent by the Princesses at Balmoral. In the
+Highlands the restraints of Court life were entirely thrown off, and the
+Queen encouraged her daughters to come into close contact with the
+poorer classes of their neighbours, indeed everything in reason was done
+to arouse their sympathies for the needy and the suffering.
+
+The Princess Royal showed even in her early childhood an astonishing
+power of vivid expression. For example, when she was about five and a
+half, she found mentioned in a history book the name of an ancient poet
+called Wace. Lady Lyttelton thereupon observed that she had never heard
+of that poet till then, but the Princess insisted: "Oh, yes, I daresay
+you did, only you have forgotten it. Réfléchissez! Go back to your
+_youngness_ and you will soon remember."
+
+That the child had a natural and instinctive religious feeling is shown
+by another incident. She had narrowly escaped serious injury from
+treading on a large nail, and Lady Lyttelton explained to her that it
+had pleased God to save her from great pain. Instantly the child said:
+"Shall we kneel down?"
+
+In October 1847 the Princess Royal had an accident which might have been
+very serious.
+
+The children were riding with their ponies when the Princess was quietly
+thrown after a few yards of cantering. She was not hurt, but the Prince
+of Wales's pony ran away with him. Fortunately he was strapped into the
+saddle, and, after one loud cry for help, he showed no signs of fear,
+but cleverly kept as tight hold of the reins as he could pull. The
+Princess Royal was not at all frightened herself until she saw her
+brother's danger, and then she screamed out: "Oh, can't they stop him?
+Dear Bertie!" and burst into tears. Fortunately all ended well, and the
+children went on riding as fearlessly as ever.
+
+In October 1848 the Royal children, crossing in the yacht _Fairy_ from
+Osborne on their way to Windsor, witnessed a terrible accident--the
+sinking of a boatload of people in a sudden squall. It made a deep
+impression on all the children, and the Princess Royal kept thinking of
+it all that night.
+
+It is about this time that Lady Lyttelton observes: "The Princess Royal
+might pass, if not seen but only overheard, for a young lady of
+seventeen in whichever of her three languages she chose to entertain the
+company."
+
+Nearly a year afterwards, Lady Lyttelton notes that "dear Princessey"
+had been now perfectly good ever since they came to Osborne, and she
+says that she continues to reflect and observe and reason like a very
+superior person, and is as affectionate as ever.
+
+Again, in April 1849, she notes every moment more and more "the blessed
+improvement of the Princess Royal." "She is becoming capable of
+self-control and principle and patience, and her wonderful powers of
+head and heart continue. She may turn out a most distinguished
+character." And a few months later she notes that "the Princess Royal is
+so enormously improved in manner, in temper, and conduct--altogether as
+really to give a bright promise of all good. Her talent and brilliancy
+have naturally lost no ground: she may turn out something remarkable."
+All the children showed real kindness to the poor, visiting them and
+beginning to understand what poverty is.
+
+The Princess accompanied her parents and the Prince of Wales on a visit
+to Ireland in August 1849, and afterwards went to Cherbourg, that being
+her first visit to France. It was during that stay at Cherbourg that the
+curé of a neighbouring village gave the young English Princess a
+charming sketch done by one of his parishioners, a then unknown artist
+named Jean François Millet.
+
+The Princess Royal and the Prince of Wales made their first official
+appearance in London on October 30, 1849, when they represented their
+mother, who was suffering from chicken-pox, at the opening of the new
+Coal Exchange. The scene has been often described, notably by Miss
+Alcott, the author of _Little Women_, who was however, naturally more
+interested in the Prince than in his sister.
+
+Much to their delight, the children went from Westminster to the City in
+the State barge rowed by twenty-six watermen, and all London turned out
+to greet them. They were very wisely not allowed to attend the big
+public luncheon, but were given their lunch in a private room. Lady
+Lyttelton mentions that the gentleman who made the arrangements was so
+overcome by his loyal feelings at the sight of the children that he
+melted into tears and had to retire!
+
+In the summer before the Princess's tenth birthday, Lady Lyttelton
+records: "Princess Royal standing by me to-day, as I was trying a few
+chords on the pianoforte, was pleased and pensive like her old self. 'I
+like chords, one can _read_ them. They make one sometimes gay, sometimes
+sad. It used to be too much for me to like formerly.'"
+
+The year 1851 was memorable in the Princess Royal's life, for it was
+then that she first met her future husband.
+
+It has been said that Prince Frederick William of Prussia, who was
+twenty at the time, became attracted to his future wife during this
+first visit of his to the English Court, when he accompanied his parents
+and his only sister to see the Great Exhibition. But that is surely
+absurd, for the Princess, charming and clever as she was, was then only
+a child.
+
+Still the English Court was probably never seen to greater advantage
+than during that year of miracles, and it is clear that the young
+Prussian Prince saw for the first time a Royal family leading a happy,
+natural life, full of affection and kindness. Queen Victoria's children
+were healthy, well-mannered, and devoted to their parents, and the
+leader and head of the little band was the Princess Royal, full of eager
+interest in everything she was allowed to see and know, blessed with
+high spirits and a keen sense of humour even then already well
+developed. She was adored by her father, and encouraged in every way to
+"produce herself," to use an expressive French phrase.
+
+Prince Frederick William could not but note the contrast between the
+young people whose friendship he was making at Windsor, and the shy,
+etiquette-ridden Royal children of the minor German courts. Nor could he
+help contrasting this delightful domestic scene with what he knew at
+home. At Berlin he was in constant contact with a Royal family
+profoundly disunited and unhappy. Only three years before his first
+visit to England he had stood at the palace window and seen the first
+shot fired in the Revolution of 1848.
+
+Although the Prince had a tenderly-loved sister, he had spent a lonely,
+austere youth, for his parents, though outwardly on good terms, were in
+no sense united as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were united--indeed,
+it was an open secret that the Prince of Prussia had only one love in
+his life, Elise Radziwill.
+
+Prince Frederick William's sister was only a very little older than the
+Princess Royal. The two princesses formed on this visit a friendship
+destined never to be broken, and henceforth the Royal children called
+the Prince and Princess of Prussia "Uncle Prussia" and "Aunt Prussia."
+
+The Great Exhibition itself undoubtedly helped to strengthen Prince
+Frederick William's attraction to England. The palace of glass in Hyde
+Park absorbed the minds and thoughts of the whole Royal family, if only
+because all those who were old enough to understand anything of public
+affairs were aware that the success or failure of the enterprise would
+seriously affect the position of Prince Albert in England.
+
+The feeling among the Royal family is shown by a passage in a letter of
+Queen Victoria to Lady Lyttelton. Writing on May 1, the opening day of
+the Exhibition, Her Majesty said:
+
+"The proudest and happiest day of--as you truly call it--my happy life.
+To see this great conception of my beloved husband's mind--to see this
+great thought and work, crowned with triumphant success in spite of
+difficulties and opposition of every imaginable kind, and of every
+effort to which jealousy and calumny could resort to cause its failure,
+has been an immense happiness to us both."
+
+Prince Frederick William, thoughtful beyond his years, and already under
+the spell of Prince Albert's kindly and affectionate interest, began to
+regard England as the model State, and took most significant pains to
+make himself better acquainted with her national life and polity. Even
+on this comparatively short visit he found time to make an excursion to
+the industrial North.
+
+On his return to Bonn University his admiration for England by no means
+waned, and his English tutor, Mr. Perry, gives us an interesting glimpse
+of the thoroughness with which he set to work to increase his knowledge:
+
+"At the request of the Prince, I visited him three times a week, and had
+the honour of superintending his studies in English history and
+literature, in both of which he took special interest. His love for
+England and his great veneration of the Queen were most remarkable, and
+our intercourse became very agreeable and confidential. He manifested
+the keenest interest for all that I was able to tell him of England's
+political and social life, and when our more serious studies were over,
+we amused ourselves by writing imaginary letters to Ministers and
+leading members of English society."
+
+It was in truth with England that Prince Frederick William fell in love
+on this memorable visit, not with the little Princess Royal, though he
+was undoubtedly attracted, as all the people round her were, by her
+winning charm and quick intelligence.
+
+The idea of a marriage between the two had, however, occurred to other
+people, as is shown by the fact that in the following year the Princess
+of Prussia desired to visit England with a view to suggesting it. But
+the Prince's uncle, King Frederick William IV, influenced by his
+pro-Russian consort, did not look on the proposal with favour, and it
+remained in abeyance, partly on account of the Princess Royal's
+youth, partly owing to the outbreak of the Crimean War.
+
+[Illustration: THE PRINCE OF WALES AND THE PRINCESS ROYAL
+
+PAINTED BY COMMAND OF THE QUEEN]
+
+The Crimean War made an immense impression on the Princess Royal. For
+months the Queen, the Prince, and the elder Royal children thought and
+talked of nothing else. The children contributed drawings to be sold for
+the benefit of the war funds, and we know that the Princess's emotions
+were deeply stirred by the thought of the sufferings of the wounded and
+by the work of Florence Nightingale, which was followed with intense
+interest in the Royal circle. The Princess in fact was able at a most
+impressionable age to realise something of the horrors of war, and this
+was destined, as we shall see, to bear rich fruit.
+
+The war also led directly to the Princess's first real sight of France.
+In August, 1855, the Princess Royal and the Prince of Wales accompanied
+their parents on a State visit to the Emperor Napoleon III and the
+Empress Eugénie.
+
+Of this visit a story was told at the time which greatly delighted all
+the Royal families of the Continent. Much as Queen Victoria and Prince
+Albert were respected for their solid virtues, their artistic taste in
+matters of dress was considered to be not always infallible. It was
+feared at the French Court that the Princess Royal would be dressed, not
+exactly unbecomingly, but in a style which would by no means harmonise
+with Parisian taste and Parisian surroundings. The question was how to
+beguile her parents into dressing the child in a suitable manner.
+
+In this difficulty someone suggested a really brilliant stratagem. The
+height and other measurements of the Princess Royal were obtained, and a
+doll of exactly corresponding size was procured, provided with a large
+and exquisitely finished wardrobe, and despatched to Buckingham Palace
+as an Imperial gift to the Princess. The expected then happened. Queen
+Victoria transferred most of the doll's wardrobe to her daughter, with
+the result that the Princess appeared at her best and everyone was
+pleased.
+
+The children stayed at the delightful country palace of Saint Cloud,
+whence they drove in every day to see the sights of Paris. They were
+not, of course, present at evening entertainments, but an exception was
+made on the occasion of the great ball held in the Galeries des Glaces
+at Versailles, when they supped with the Emperor and Empress. They both
+became sincerely attached to the Emperor, who was himself very fond of
+children. Indeed, his young guests enjoyed themselves so much that,
+according to an oft-quoted story, the Prince of Wales asked that his
+sister and himself might stay on after their parents had gone home, "for
+there are six more of us at home and they don't want _us_!"
+
+As to their conduct, Prince Albert wrote to the Duchess of Kent: "I am
+bound to praise the children greatly. They behaved extremely well, and
+pleased everybody. The task was no easy one for them, but they
+discharged it without embarrassment and with natural simplicity."
+
+This visit laid the foundation of that strong affection and admiration
+for France and the French which thenceforth characterised the Princess
+Royal. It was on this visit, too, that she conceived her enthusiastic
+adoration of the Empress Eugénie. Her character was now beginning to be
+formed, and it is the key to the tragedy of her life, for a cruel fate
+so ordered her future that, while she was made to pay the full penalty
+for her failings, her many lovable and generous qualities seemed often
+to find none but the most grudging recognition.
+
+During the whole of her life, the Princess Royal had a peculiarity which
+only belongs to the generous-hearted and impulsive. She was apt to be
+violently attracted, sometimes for very little reason, to those she met,
+and then she would be proportionately cast down if these new friends and
+acquaintances did not turn out on fuller knowledge all that she had
+expected them to be. Those who knew her well are agreed in saying that
+she was not a good judge of character. She was apt to see in human
+beings what she expected to see, not what was there. She not only liked
+some people at first sight, but she had an equally instinctive dislike
+of others, and this was an even greater misfortune, for sometimes the
+prejudices she thus formed were hard to eradicate. In this she was quite
+unlike Queen Victoria, who, having once formed a wrong impression, was
+capable of altering it entirely if she was given good reason to change
+her mind.
+
+As she grew up to womanhood, the Princess Royal was very wisely allowed
+to make the acquaintance of some of the brilliant men and women of the
+day who were admitted to her parents' friendship. One of these was the
+second Lord Granville, the "Pussy" Granville who was afterwards Foreign
+Minister in Mr. Gladstone's Cabinets, and we may conclude this chapter
+with a quotation which shows how he could count on the young Princess's
+appreciation of a funny story.
+
+Lord Granville, who went to St. Petersburg as the head of the special
+British Mission at the coronation of the Tsar Alexander, wrote a long
+letter to Queen Victoria, in which he requested the Queen to convey his
+respectful remembrances to the Princess Royal; and he went on to advise
+the Princess, when residing abroad, not to engage a Russian maid: 'Lady
+Wodehouse found hers eating the contents of a pot on her dressing-table,
+which happened to be castor-oil pomatum for the hair!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BETROTHAL
+
+
+Even in the days of her extreme youth, Queen Victoria, owing to the fact
+that she was the reigning Sovereign, had to know much that is generally
+concealed from the young concerning the private lives and careers of
+their relatives. This is made abundantly clear in the extracts from her
+Majesty's private diary which have already been published.
+
+In these intimate records, written by the girl Queen herself, we see
+that Lord Melbourne early decided never to treat his Royal mistress as a
+child. When she asked him a question he evidently answered her
+truthfully; and she must have asked him many questions concerning that
+group of princes and princesses who, even then, were already known as
+the "Old Royal Family." They were Queen Victoria's own aunts and uncles;
+and over those who were still living when she came to the throne she
+possessed, as Sovereign, very peculiar and extended powers. It was
+inevitable that they should play a considerable part, if not in her
+life, certainly in her imagination; and yet we hardly ever find them
+mentioned in the work she directly supervised and inspired--the life of
+the Prince Consort. Her fear, her contempt, her horror, of the way they
+had conducted their lives, her dread lest even their innocent follies,
+and their sad tragedies of the heart, should be repeated in the lives of
+her own sons and daughters, were perhaps only revealed to trusted
+friends in her old age.
+
+It may even be doubted if Queen Victoria ever communicated to Prince
+Albert certain of the facts which had necessarily to be made known to
+her. Whether she did so or not, the course she very early set herself to
+pursue--a course, be it remembered, in which she persisted at a time
+when she seemed to lack courage and energy to go on even with life
+itself, that is during the years that immediately succeeded the Prince
+Consort's death--proved how determined she was to secure that the lives
+of her children should be entirely different from those of their
+great-uncles and great-aunts.
+
+That her daughters, and later her grand-daughters, should marry early,
+and make marriages of inclination; that her sons' wives should be chosen
+among princesses young, charming, sympathetic, and personally attractive
+to each prince concerned--this was one of Queen Victoria's chief and
+most anxious preoccupations. She may have tried to guide inclination,
+she undoubtedly tried to arrange suitable alliances, but in no single
+case did she ever seriously oppose a marriage based on strong
+attraction.
+
+In that matter Queen Victoria was a typical Englishwoman. To her mind, a
+union between a young man and a young woman based on any other
+foundation save strong mutual love and confidence, was vile; and all
+through her life she wished ardently to ensure that those marital
+blessings which fall comparatively often on ordinary people, but
+comparatively seldom on members of the Royal caste, should be the lot of
+her immediate descendants.
+
+It was natural that the Queen, with that eager enthusiasm which was so
+much a part of her character, especially in this still radiantly happy
+period of her life, should have welcomed the thought of a marriage
+between her eldest daughter and the future King of Prussia. She had
+formed the most favourable opinion of Prince Frederick William during
+his brief sojourn in England in 1851. He was a man of high and
+honourable character at a time when such virtues were rare among the
+marriageable princes of reigning families, and his parents were regarded
+by the Queen and Prince Albert as among their dearest and most intimate
+friends.
+
+The Prince of Prussia had spent some time in England after the Berlin
+revolution of 1848, and on parting from Madame Bunsen, the wife of the
+Prussian Minister, he had exclaimed: "In no other State or country could
+I have passed so well the period of distress and anxiety through which I
+have gone." During his stay he had become intimate with the Queen and
+Prince Albert--indeed, the Queen, as was her way when she trusted and
+admired, had grown to be warmly attached to him. She regarded him as
+noble-minded, honest, and cruelly wronged; and, what naturally endeared
+him to her still more, he showed great confidence in Prince Albert,
+apparently always accepting the advice constantly tendered him by the
+Prince.
+
+All through his life Prince Albert had seen a vision of a Germany united
+under the leadership of Prussia, and it was delightful to him to learn
+that it was now open to him to enter into a close relationship with one
+whom he naturally believed destined to play a supreme part in the
+regeneration of his beloved fatherland. It is not generally known that
+Prince Albert had written a pamphlet entitled "The German Question
+Explained," in which he propounded a scheme for a federated German
+Empire with an Emperor at the head. This pamphlet must have been either
+privately printed or withdrawn from circulation, for not even Sir
+Theodore Martin, when writing the Prince's life, could procure a copy.
+
+This suggested marriage of the Princess Royal opened out to her father
+the fair prospect of being able to bring about by his counsel and
+assistance the realisation of his disinterested ambitions for the future
+welfare of Germany. The then King of Prussia was already sick unto
+death; the Prince of Prussia had now passed middle age; everything
+pointed to the probability that within a reasonable time Prince
+Frederick William would become ruler of Prussia and, incidentally,
+overlord of the German peoples.
+
+There is good authority for the truth of the now famous story of "La
+Belle Alliance."
+
+In 1852 the Princess of Prussia came to England on a short visit to her
+aunt, Queen Adelaide. The then Prussian Envoy, Baron von Bunsen, while
+waiting to be received by the Princess, turned over in her sitting-room
+some engravings which had been sent by a print-seller; among them was
+that of a painting of the farm-house at Waterloo named by the Belgians,
+"La Belle Alliance." In the same room was a portrait of the Princess
+Royal and one of Prince Frederick William. The Baron placed the two
+portraits side by side over the engraving, and when the Princess entered
+the room, he silently pointed out to her what he had done, and she saw
+the two young faces above the words "La Belle Alliance." "A rapid glance
+was exchanged, but not a word was spoken," wrote Baron von Bunsen's son
+many years after.
+
+As for the young Prince himself, when the question of his marriage had
+to be discussed, it was natural that his first thought, as also, it is
+clear, that of his mother, turned to England--to that affectionately
+united Royal family who were the envied model of all European Courts.
+The feeling of that day is indicated by a curious caricature, which was
+largely reproduced on the Continent. It shows a huge pair of scales. In
+one scale, high in the air, stand huddled together the then reigning
+sovereigns of Europe; in the other, touching the ground, proudly alone,
+stands the slight figure of Queen Victoria. Under the cartoon runs the
+significant words, "Light Sovereigns."
+
+England alone among the nations had had no trouble worth speaking of in
+'48, and among the Princesses and Queens of her day it was believed that
+Queen Victoria alone possessed the faithful love of her husband.
+
+The greatest obstacle to the marriage, though neither Queen Victoria nor
+Prince Albert suspected it, was the King of Prussia himself. It is plain
+that at no time did he favour the suggestion, and that at last he
+yielded was in response to a strong appeal made to him in person by the
+young Prince. But, even so, the King desired the matter to be kept
+secret as long as possible. He did not even tell his Queen, and his own
+immediate circle and Household only heard of the betrothal when it was
+being widely rumoured in the German newspapers.
+
+General von Gerlach came to the King one day with a sheet of the
+_Cologne Gazette_ and indignantly complained of the "absurd reports that
+were being spread about." It is said that the young Prince was going on
+to England from Ostend for the purpose of proposing for the hand of an
+English Princess. The King laughed aloud, and observed: "Well, yes, and
+it is really the case," to the amazement and consternation of von
+Gerlach.
+
+While the matter was being thus discussed at Berlin, the Princess Royal
+was kept in absolute ignorance. But the Crimean War and the subsequent
+visit to France had quickened her sensibilities, turned her from a child
+into a woman, and made her in a measure ready for the event which was
+about to occur. It should, however, be plainly said--the more so because
+later historians have blamed Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in the
+matter--that neither of her parents was willing even to consider the
+idea of any immediate betrothal. On the contrary, they wished that the
+two young people should meet in an easy friendly fashion, and thus have
+a real opportunity of becoming well acquainted the one with the other.
+
+Prince Frederick William of Prussia arrived at Balmoral on September 14,
+1855. He allowed some days to elapse, and then, on the morning of the
+20th, he sought out Queen Victoria and laid before her and Prince Albert
+his proposal of marriage. That proposal the parents of the Princess
+Royal accepted in principle, but they requested him to say nothing to
+their daughter till after she had been confirmed. It was their wish
+that, for some months at any rate, the young Princess should continue
+the simple yet full life of unconstrained girlhood. It was therefore
+suggested that the Prince should return in the following spring. The
+Queen also stipulated that the marriage should not take place till after
+the Princess Royal's seventeenth birthday.
+
+After this interview with Prince Frederick William, Prince Albert wrote
+to Stockmar:
+
+"I have been much pleased with him. His prominent qualities are great
+thought, straight-forwardness, frankness, and honesty. He appears to be
+free from prejudices, and pre-eminently well-intentioned; he speaks of
+himself as personally greatly attracted by Vicky. That she will have no
+objection to make I regard as probable."
+
+Prince Albert wrote the following day to Lord Clarendon, who was then
+Foreign Minister, informing him that he might communicate the news to
+the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, and to no one else. "Pam" was
+pleased to approve, declaring that the marriage would be in the
+interest, not only of the two countries, but of Europe in general.
+
+Queen Victoria did not fail to communicate the interesting secret to her
+beloved uncle, King Leopold, observing that her wishes on the subject of
+the future marriage of her daughter had been realised in the most
+gratifying and satisfactory manner. Indeed, she spoke of the joy with
+which she and Prince Albert for their part had accepted the suitor,
+while she reiterated that "the child herself is to know nothing till
+after her confirmation, which is to take place next winter."
+
+The days went on, and a sincere effort was made to keep what had taken
+place from the knowledge of the young Princess. Letters of warm
+congratulation arrived from Coblentz, as well as a very cordial message
+from the King of Prussia. Prince Frederick William's relations were
+quite at one with the Queen and Prince Albert as to the propriety of
+postponing the betrothal till after the Princess Royal's confirmation.
+
+But the plan so carefully made was not destined to be carried out. The
+Prince was very much in love, and, as the Emperor of the French truly
+observed in a letter to Prince Albert: "On devine ceux qui aiment." It
+was impossible to keep such a secret, and one which so closely concerned
+herself, from a girl as clever and mentally alive as the Princess Royal.
+What happened is best told in Queen Victoria's entry in her diary on
+September 29:
+
+"Our dear Victoria was this day engaged to Prince Frederick William of
+Prussia, who had been on a visit to us since the 14th. He had already
+spoken to us, on the 20th, of his wishes; but we were uncertain, on
+account of her extreme youth, whether he should speak to her himself, or
+wait till he came back again. However, we felt it was better he should
+do so, and during our ride up Craig-na-Ban this afternoon, he picked a
+piece of white heather (the emblem of 'good luck,') which he gave to
+her; and this enabled him to make an allusion to his hopes and wishes
+as they rode down Glen Girnoch, which led to this happy conclusion."
+
+A few days later her father wrote to Stockmar: "She manifested towards
+Fritz and ourselves the most childlike simplicity and candour. The young
+people are ardently in love with one another, and the purity, innocence,
+and unselfishness of the young man have been on his part touching." To
+Mr. Perry, his English tutor at Bonn, the Prince declared that his
+engagement was not politics, nor ambition, "It was my heart."
+
+At the time of her engagement the Princess Royal was not yet fifteen,
+and it was arranged that the marriage should take place in two years and
+three months.
+
+In one respect the Princess was singularly fortunate. In the majority of
+Royal marriages, the bride has not only to make her home in a country
+where everything will be foreign to her, but she is sometimes even
+ignorant of the language, manners, and customs which she will have
+henceforth to adopt as her own.
+
+The Princess Royal, however, had to undergo no such sudden initiation.
+To her Germany was in truth a second fatherland, if only as the
+birthplace of her beloved father. She had been as familiar with the
+German as with the English language from her birth, constantly writing
+long letters to German relations and friends, and keeping up--to give
+but one instance--a close correspondence with her parents' trusted
+friend, Baron Stockmar, who had for her the greatest affection and
+admiration.
+
+In a letter quoted in his memoirs Stockmar says: "From her youth upwards
+I have been fond of her, have always expected great things of her, and
+taken all pains to be of service to her. I think her to be exceptionally
+gifted in some things, even to the point of genius."
+
+This familiarity with the German language was very well as a foundation,
+but Prince Albert considered that there was much to build on it. The
+whole of the Princess's education was now arranged solely with a view to
+the life she was to lead as wife of the Prussian heir-presumptive. In
+addition to giving her, for an hour every day, special instruction in
+German political and legal institutions and sociology, Prince Albert
+made her henceforth his intellectual companion, preparing her as if she
+was destined to be a reigning sovereign rather than a queen consort. Not
+only did he discuss with her all current international questions, but he
+read her the long political letters he received daily from abroad, and
+discussed with her what he should write in reply.
+
+It was indeed a mental training which, particularly in those 'fifties
+which now seem so remote from us, would have been deemed only
+appropriate for the cleverest of boys in a private station. But Prince
+Albert had long known that his daughter was a good deal cleverer than
+most boys, and he was really running no risks in subjecting her to this
+intelligent preparation for her high destiny. As much as he could, he
+taught her himself, and such teaching as was entrusted to others he
+supervised with conscientious care.
+
+In one of his letters to his future son-in-law, the Prince wrote: "Vicky
+is learning many and various things. She comes to me every evening from
+six to seven, when I put her through a kind of general catechising. In
+order to make her ideas clear, I let her work out subjects for herself,
+which she then brings to me for correction. She is at present writing a
+short compendium of Roman history."
+
+In order to give the Princess a clear picture of German policy--or
+rather of German policy as Prince Albert then hoped it would become,
+that is, broad and liberal in conception and aim--he set her to
+translate a German pamphlet published at Weimar. This essay by J. G.
+Droysen, entitled "Karl August und die Deutsche Politik," would be
+counted rather stiff reading even by experts. But the Princess seems to
+have done her task admirably, and the proud father sent the manuscript
+to Lord Clarendon, who was genuinely impressed by the way it had been
+translated. He wrote back to the Prince:
+
+"In reading Droysen I felt that the motto of Prussia should be _semper
+eadem_, and in thinking of his translator I felt that she is destined to
+change that motto into the _vigilando ascendimus_ of Weimar."
+
+The statesman added the further tribute to the young translator: "The
+Princess's manner would not be what it is if it were not the reflection
+of a highly cultivated intellect, which, with a well-trained
+imagination, leads to the saying and doing of right things in right
+places."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES
+
+
+The Queen and Prince Albert, as we know, much wished to keep the fact of
+the Princess's engagement a secret from the public. But rumour was
+naturally busy with the visit of the Prussian Prince to Balmoral, and on
+the day after his departure, that is on October 3, there appeared in the
+_Times_ a leading article, in which the proposed alliance of the
+Princess Royal was alluded to with anything but approval--indeed, in
+Germany the article was considered grossly insulting both to the King of
+Prussia and to Germany. Prince Albert was very much angered at the terms
+in which it was written, which he described as "foolish and degrading to
+this country."
+
+But the article was really inspired by a consciousness of the violent
+dislike of England entertained by the Court of Prussia, and especially
+by the camarilla surrounding the then sovereign and his consort, and
+this was better realised by publicists than by Royal circles in England.
+
+Amazing as it may seem to us now, it is nevertheless abundantly clear
+that neither Queen Victoria nor Prince Albert, well served as they were
+in some respects by the faithful Stockmar, had any idea of the real
+situation at the Prussian Court. The extreme youth of their daughter
+made them wish to postpone the marriage for a while, but there is no
+hint in any of the many letters and documents which have now come to
+light of the slightest fear that she would lack a good reception in that
+new country which she already loved as part of Prince Albert's
+fatherland. On the contrary, the Prince had evidently persuaded himself
+that his daughter's marriage would be very popular in Germany--more
+popular than it happened to be just then in England. Like most men of
+high, strong, narrow character, Prince Albert never allowed himself to
+perceive what at the moment he did not wish to see.
+
+This view is entirely borne out by the letters which Prince Albert wrote
+then and later to the Prince of Prussia. Even when addressing one who
+was far older than himself, and already in the position of a ruler, he
+always assumed the attitude of mentor rather than of adviser; and as one
+glances over the immensely long epistles, dealing with a state of things
+of which the writer could know but very little, one wonders if the
+future Emperor William had the patience always to read them to the very
+end. Even were there no other evidence existing, these letters remain to
+show how curiously lacking Prince Albert was in that knowledge of
+elementary human nature which belongs to so many commoner types of mind.
+
+The Prince Consort's misapprehension is the more extraordinary when we
+consider that his brother, Duke Ernest of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, judged the
+situation with accuracy. In a letter published in his memoirs the Duke
+says:
+
+"The family events at Balmoral and Stolzenfels [King Frederick William
+IV was staying at Stolzenfels when he received the news of the
+engagement of his nephew to the Princess Royal and of his niece,
+Princess Louise, to the Prince Regent of Baden] gave rise to all kinds
+of dissatisfaction in many reactionary circles of the Prussian capital.
+The more the Liberal papers of Germany applauded, the more disagreeably
+was the other side affected by the unpopularity of the circumstances
+which threatened to strengthen, at the Court of Berlin, the influence of
+the Royal relations whose sentiments were not regarded with favour. One
+of the peculiarities of Frederick William IV was that, with reference to
+his personal sympathies, he would not submit to any coercion from those
+who were familiar with politics and affairs of State, so that the secret
+opponents had to beware of expressing their displeasure at the new
+family connections."
+
+As we have seen, the King of Prussia had kept his own counsel in the
+affair of his nephew's engagement, which he had only sanctioned in
+consequence of Prince Frederick William's strong personal appeal. His
+Queen was intensely pro-Russian, and as a result of the Crimean War had
+conceived a positive hatred for England and the English.
+
+As for the Princess of Prussia, afterwards the Empress Augusta, she was
+a woman of the highest cultivation, the old cultivation of Weimar and of
+the French eighteenth century, but she had not much influence in Berlin,
+where even then she was said to be strongly inclined to Roman
+Catholicism. The Prince of Prussia was himself not really popular. It
+was inevitable therefore, in all the circumstances, that the prospect of
+an English alliance should become a fresh cause of contention and
+division, in which the voices of disapproval decidedly prevailed.
+
+Even after the engagement had been actually announced, Prince Frederick
+William told Lady Bloomfield, the wife of the British Minister in
+Berlin, that, though he was very much disappointed that the Queen and
+Prince Albert wished the marriage to be postponed as the Princess Royal
+was so young, it was perhaps a good thing, for by that time party spirit
+in Prussia would run less high. The strength of that party spirit was
+ominously shown on the occasion of the marriage of the Prince's sister,
+Princess Louise, when the great nobility of Prussia ostentatiously
+absented themselves from the festivities.
+
+General von Gerlach, who as we have seen extracted from the King of
+Prussia that dry admission that the rumours of the English engagement
+were well-founded, drew also a more interesting comment on the news from
+a very different personage. Bismarck, who was already regarded as a man
+with a future, and at the time held an important diplomatic post at the
+Diet at Frankfort, wrote to the General on April 8, 1856, a commentary
+which was in some ways extraordinarily prophetic:
+
+"You ask me in your letter what I think of the English marriage. I must
+separate the two words to give you my opinion. The 'English' in it does
+not please me, the 'marriage' may be quite good, for the Princess has
+the reputation of a lady of brain and heart. If the Princess can leave
+the Englishwoman at home and become a Prussian, then she may be a
+blessing to the country. If our future Queen on the Prussian throne
+remains the least bit English, then I see our Court surrounded by
+English influence, and yet us, and the many other future sons-in-law of
+her gracious Majesty, receiving no notice in England save when the
+Opposition in Parliament runs down our Royal family and country. On the
+other hand, with us, British influence will find a fruitful soil in the
+noted admiration of the German 'Michael' for lords and guineas, in the
+Anglomania of papers, sportsmen, country gentlemen, &c. Every Berliner
+feels exalted when a real English jockey from Hart or Lichtwald speaks
+to him and gives him an opportunity of breaking the Queen's English on a
+wheel. What will it be like when the first lady in the land is an
+Englishwoman?"
+
+Not less interesting in their way are the comments which Prince
+Albert's brother, Duke Ernest, made on his niece's betrothal:
+
+"The Royal House of Prussia has long afforded in its genealogical
+history a singular spectacle of waverings between the West and East of
+Europe. While family alliances between Orthodox Russia and Catholic
+Austria were almost wholly excluded, the Protestant faith did not at all
+prevent the Hohenzollerns from having a strong leaning towards the
+family of the Tsars, and the connections which were thus made
+undoubtedly exerted their influence upon Germany. The Crimean War may be
+regarded as a political lesson on this concatenation of circumstances.
+Was it not most extraordinary that even before peace had been concluded
+with Russia, the Royal House of Prussia was, in its matrimonial aims, on
+the point of exhibiting a marked tendency towards the West of Europe?
+The union of a Prussian heir-apparent with a Princess of my House, with
+its numerous branches, was an event which at the time unquestionably
+seemed opposed to the Russian tradition.
+
+"If we remember how at the end of the war everyone looked upon my
+brother as the active force against Russia, though at the beginning this
+was by no means clear, the marriage of a Prussian Prince who was
+destined to the succession with a daughter of the Queen of England
+necessarily possessed a decided political character. My brother,
+however, loved his eldest daughter too well to be influenced entirely
+by political considerations in respect of her marriage; and I often had
+an opportunity of observing that the chief wish of his heart for many
+years had been to see his favourite child occupy some exalted position.
+With paternal ambition, he was wont to picture to himself his promising
+daughter, whose abilities had been early developed, upon a lofty throne,
+but, more than all, I know that he was anxious to make her also truly
+happy. The Prince of Prussia, above all other scions of reigning Houses,
+afforded the greatest hopes for the future."
+
+There was another Court at which the news of the engagement was regarded
+with mixed feelings. The Emperor Napoleon at first received the
+Anglo-Prussian alliance almost with dismay. He feared that, by
+strengthening Prussian influence, it would have the effect of weakening,
+and possibly destroying, the French understanding with England. But he
+allowed himself to be reassured by Lord Clarendon, who declared that
+Queen Victoria's affection for the House of Prussia was private and
+personal, and had nothing to do with politics. Prince Frederick William,
+returning by way of Paris as a successful suitor, had brought the
+Emperor a letter from the Queen, and to it Napoleon replied, rather
+coldly:
+
+"We like the Prince very much, and I do not doubt that he will make the
+Princess happy, for he seems to me to possess every characteristic
+quality belonging to his age and rank. We endeavoured to make his stay
+here as pleasant as possible, but I found his thoughts were always
+either at Osborne or at Windsor."
+
+It was on this visit of the Prince's that the Empress Eugénie made the
+following comments in a letter to an intimate friend, which, in view of
+those later events in which Moltke played so great a part, possess a
+pathetic significance:
+
+"The Prince is a tall, handsome man, almost a head taller than the
+Emperor; he is slim and fair, with a light yellow moustache--in fact, a
+Teuton such as Tacitus described, chivalrously polite, and not without a
+resemblance to Hamlet. His companion, Herr von Moltke (or some such
+name), is a man of few words, but nothing less than a dreamer, always on
+the alert, and surprising one by the most telling remarks. The Germans
+are an imposing race. Louis says it is the race of the future. Bah! Nous
+n'en sommes pas encore là."
+
+There was also a neighbouring sovereign to whose opinion all those who
+appreciate the complex dynastic relations of that period will be
+inclined to attach importance. This was the King of the Belgians.
+
+Though he was in no sense the noble, selfless human being Queen Victoria
+took him to be, King Leopold was nevertheless a very shrewd judge of
+human nature, and had evidently seen enough of the Princess Royal to
+note certain peculiarities in her character which had escaped the
+loving, partial eyes of her parents. This is clearly shown in a letter
+written by Queen Victoria in the December of 1856. In this letter there
+is a passage, prefaced by "Now one word about Vicky," in which the Queen
+protests that she has never seen her daughter take any predilection to a
+person which was not _motivé_ by a certain amiability, goodness, or
+distinction of some kind or other. She goes on to say: "You need be
+under no apprehension whatever on this subject; and she has moreover
+great tact and esprit de conduite."
+
+This surely makes it clear that King Leopold was aware of the sudden
+fancies which the Princess Royal, even at that early age, often showed
+to those who attracted her, and that for no sufficient reason. Probably
+in this case he was thinking of the Princess Royal's passionate
+attachment to the Empress Eugénie--an attachment which lasted all
+through her youth, and which perhaps had more justification for it than
+some other of her enthusiasms for individuals.
+
+In England, at any rate at first, the news of the engagement was
+received rather coldly, almost as if it was a _mésalliance_, though the
+knowledge that it was really a love-match did much to reconcile public
+opinion. The following passage from a letter written by Mr. Cobden, at
+this time the triumphant protagonist of the Anti-Corn Law League,
+reflects as well as anything the general feeling that the bridegroom
+was indeed "a lucky fellow":
+
+"It is generally thought that the young Prince Frederick William of
+Prussia is to be married to our Princess Royal. I was dining
+_tête-à-tête_ with Mr. Buchanan, the American Minister, a few days ago,
+who had dined the day before at the Queen's table, and sat next to the
+Princess Royal. He was in raptures about her, and said she was the most
+charming girl he had ever met: 'All life and spirit, full of frolic and
+fun, with an excellent head, and a _heart as big as a mountain_'--those
+were his words. Another friend of mine, Colonel Fitzmayer, dined with
+the Queen last week, and, in writing to me a description of the company,
+he says that when the Princess Royal smiles, 'it makes one feel as if
+additional light were thrown upon the scene.' So I should judge that
+this said Prince is a lucky fellow, and I trust he will make a good
+husband. If not, although a man of peace, I shall consider it a _casus
+belli_!"
+
+To the bride's parents, if not to herself and her betrothed, the fact
+that the marriage negotiations were not quite pleasantly conducted must
+have been not only painful but astonishing. It was actually suggested
+that the ceremony should take place in Berlin, but Queen Victoria very
+properly scouted the proposal, which was really in the circumstances
+disagreeably like an insult. She wrote in her emphatic, italicising way
+to Lord Clarendon, the Foreign Secretary:
+
+"The Queen _never_ could consent to it, both for public and private
+reasons, and the assumption of its being _too much_ for a Prince Royal
+of Prussia to _come_ over to marry _the Princess Royal of Great Britain
+IN_ England is too _absurd_, to say the least. The Queen must say that
+there never was even the _shadow_ of a _doubt_ on _Prince Frederick
+William's_ part as to _where_ the marriage should take place, and she
+suspects this to be the mere gossip of the Berliners. Whatever may be
+the usual practice of Prussian Princes, it is not _every_ day that one
+marries the eldest daughter of the Queen of England. The question
+therefore must be considered as settled and closed."
+
+In view of all this and of what was to befall the Princess Royal in the
+land for which she even then cherished so fond an affection, and of
+which she had already formed so high an ideal, there is something
+intensely pathetic in the blindness of her parents to the real
+conditions of her future life. This blindness is shown with amazing
+clearness in the sentence, certainly inspired and very likely written by
+Queen Victoria herself, which concludes the chapter, in Sir Theodore
+Martin's _Life of the Prince Consort_, dealing with the betrothal of the
+Princess Royal:
+
+"No consideration, public or private, would have induced the Queen or
+himself [_i.e._, Prince Albert] to imperil the happiness of their child
+by a marriage in which she could not have found scope to practise the
+constitutional principles in which she had been reared."
+
+The idea that the Prussia of that day, or indeed of any day, would have
+amiably afforded a foreign princess scope to practise constitutional
+principles of any sort seems extraordinary, and yet, as we shall see,
+there was some little justification for it at the time, though it was
+quickly swept away by the course of events.
+
+The confirmation of the Princess Royal took place on March 20, 1856, in
+the private chapel at Windsor Castle. The Princess was led in by her
+father, followed by her godfather, the King of the Belgians, who had
+come to England on purpose, and the Royal children and most of the
+members of the Royal family were present, as were also the Ministers,
+the great officers of State, and many of those whom Disraeli was wont to
+describe as the "high nobility."
+
+In fact, everything was done to make the rite a State ceremony--a
+striking contrast to the more recent practice by which the princes and
+princesses of England have all been confirmed privately, in the presence
+of their near relatives only.
+
+The second Lord Granville, the statesman who shared with the Princess
+Royal the flattering nickname of "Pussy," wrote to Lord Canning this
+lively account of the confirmation. The inaudible Archbishop was J. B.
+Sumner; his Lordship of Oxford was the Samuel Wilberforce, called by his
+enemies "Soapy Sam," who played a conspicuous part in the Court and
+social life of the period:
+
+"Had a slight spasm in bed; sent for Meryon. It was well before he came.
+He desired me not to go to Windsor for the confirmation of the Princess
+Royal. I went, and am none the worse; my complexion beautiful. It was an
+interesting sight. As Pam observed, 'Ah, ah! a touching ceremony; ah,
+ah!' The King of the Belgians the same as I remember him when I was a
+boy, and he used to live for weeks at the Embassy, using my father's
+horses, and boring my mother to death. The Princess Royal went through
+her part well. The Princess Alice cried violently. The Archbishop read
+what seemed a dull address; luckily it was inaudible. The Bishop of
+Oxford rolled out a short prayer with conscious superiority. Pam
+reminded Lord Aberdeen of their being confirmed at Cambridge, as if it
+was yesterday. I must go to bed, so excuse haste and bad pens, as the
+sheep said to the farmer when it jumped out of the fold."
+
+There was certainly too much pomp about the Princess Royal's
+confirmation for the taste of another spectator, Princess Mary of
+Cambridge, afterwards Duchess of Teck. She succeeds in drawing in a few
+words a remarkably vivid picture of what happened:
+
+"The ceremony was very short (the service for the day being omitted) and
+not solemn enough for my feeling, although the anthems were fine and
+well-chosen. It was followed by a great deal of standing in the Green
+Drawing-room, where the Queen held a kind of tournée in honour of the
+Ministers, who had come down for the confirmation; after which dear
+Victoria, who looked particularly nice, and was very much impressed with
+the solemnity of the rite, received our presents on the occasion, and
+about half-past one we sat down to lunch _en famille_ as usual."
+
+It was on April 29, 1856, that the betrothal was publicly announced on
+the conclusion of the Crimean War, and in the following month the
+Princess appeared as a débutante at a Court ball at Buckingham Palace.
+
+This spring "Fritz of Prussia," as his future father-in-law called him,
+came to pay a long visit to his fiancée. It is curious that Queen
+Victoria, in spite of her strong belief in love as the only right
+foundation for an engagement, had by no means the English notion of
+discreetly leaving the young people a good deal alone together. On the
+contrary, she seems to have entirely adopted the Continental practice of
+chaperonage; a passage in a letter written by her to King Leopold shows
+that she was always with them, and that she naturally found it very
+boring, but she endured it because she thought it was her duty.
+
+Prince Frederick William was still in England when in June the Princess
+Royal met with rather a terrifying accident, which is worthy of mention
+because it showed how strong was her character and how high her physical
+courage.
+
+The Princess was sealing a letter at her writing-table, when suddenly
+the sealing-wax flamed out and the flames caught her muslin sleeve. Her
+English governess, Miss Hildyard, was fortunately seated close to her,
+and her music mistress, Mrs. Anderson, was also in the room, giving
+Princess Alice a lesson. They sprang at once to the Princess's
+assistance and beat out the flames with a hearthrug; but not before her
+right arm had been severely burned from below the elbow to the shoulder.
+She showed the greatest self-possession and presence of mind, her first
+words being: "Send for Papa, and do not tell Mamma till he has been
+told."
+
+The Princess Royal had a long engagement, probably the longest that any
+lady of her rank has had, at least in modern times, but the months as
+they went by were fully occupied with her father's sedulous preparation
+of her intellect, as well as with the more frivolous preparations of her
+trousseau. In May 1857 Parliament voted for the Princess a dowry of
+£40,000 and an annuity of £4000--a provision which does not now seem to
+have erred on the side of generosity. But it must be remembered that
+what economists call "the purchasing power of the sovereign" was
+considerably greater then than now, and to find the modern equivalent
+of these sums one would have to add probably as much as 25 per cent.
+
+Prince Frederick William, attended by Count Moltke, paid another visit
+to England in June, and made his first public appearance with the
+Princess at the Manchester Art Exhibition. The young couple seem to have
+corresponded on quite the old-fashioned voluminous scale. After the
+Prince had gone home again in August, Moltke writes to his wife that the
+Princess had written a letter of forty pages to the Prince, and he adds
+the sarcastic comment: "How the news must have accumulated!"
+
+Whatever the aide-de-camp may have thought, the Prince himself was
+certainly a happy lover in his own characteristically serious way. We
+find him a few months later writing to his French tutor, the Swiss
+Pastor Godet, a long and moving letter, in which he alludes very frankly
+to the difficulties which even then surrounded his position. Then, going
+on to speak of his coming marriage, he says:
+
+"Yes, if you knew my betrothed you would, I am sure, thoroughly
+understand my choice, and you would realise that I am truly happy. I can
+but bless and thank God to have given me the happiness of finding in her
+everything which ensures the true union of hearts, and repose and calm
+in home life, for I do not care, as you know, for the world, which I
+find empty and with very little happiness in it."
+
+The seventeenth birthday of the Princess Royal, the last she was to
+spend with her family before her marriage, was saddened by the death of
+Queen Victoria's half-brother, Prince Leiningen. The Royal family were
+all extremely fond of him, especially the Princess Royal, to whom he had
+ever shown himself a most affectionate and kindly uncle. This was the
+first time the Princess had come in close contact with death, and it
+made the more impression on her owing to the passionate grief which her
+grandmother, the Duchess of Kent, showed at the loss of her only son.
+
+The wedding had now been fixed for January 25, 1858, and already in
+October the bride had taken leave of those places in Balmoral which were
+dear to her. Of this Prince Albert writes to the widowed Duchess of
+Gotha:
+
+"Vicky suffers from the feeling that all those places she visits she
+must look upon for the last time as her home. The Maid of Orleans with
+her 'Joan says to you an everlasting farewell,' often comes into my
+mind." And in another letter: "The departure from here will be heavy for
+all of us, particularly for Vicky who is going away for good, and the
+good Highland people who love her so much say: 'I suppose we shall never
+see you again,' which naturally upsets her."
+
+These rather sentimental farewells had been going on for a long time.
+Queen Victoria, in a letter a fortnight before the wedding, says that
+her daughter had had ever since January 1857 a succession of emotions
+and leave-takings which would be most trying to anyone, but particularly
+so to so young a girl with such powerful feelings. The loving mother
+goes on to say that she is much improved in self-control, and is so
+clever and sensible that her parents can talk to her of anything.
+
+Her other parent, in a letter to his grandmother, spoke of the frightful
+gap which the separation for ever of this dear daughter would make in
+the family circle, and then, with his characteristic optimism, he adds
+that in Germany people seem ready to welcome her with the greatest
+friendliness.
+
+Here perhaps is the place to consider what sort of a country was the
+"Germany" whither Prince Albert was sending his cherished daughter as
+future Queen.
+
+To begin with, it was not yet "Germany" at all; it was Prussia. We are
+well accustomed in the twentieth century to regard Germany as one of the
+Great Powers of Europe, with her enormous army and her expanding navy
+and mercantile marine, with all else for which the Fatherland stands in
+science, letters, and industry. It is necessary, however, to realise
+that the Princess Royal's marriage was to bring her to what was then a
+very different country. Prussia was in fact not to be compared in power,
+wealth, or security with the Princess's native land. Including Silesia,
+Brandenburg, and Westphalia, the country only had a population of some
+seventeen millions in 1858, or about that of England alone. The revenue
+was comparatively insignificant, but the army numbered 160,000 officers
+and men; the navy had 55 ships, 3500 officers and men, and 265 guns;
+while the mercantile marine is given as 826 ships of 268,000 tons.
+
+The Germanic Confederation had superseded the Confederation of the Rhine
+formed by Napoleon. It included Austria, as well as Prussia and the
+various German States, and by the nature of its constitution it was weak
+where it should have been strong. The jealousy felt by Austria for the
+hegemony of Prussia among the smaller German States, and the internal
+jealousies of those States among themselves, almost doomed the
+Confederation to impotence. Indeed, the primary object of the
+Confederation, namely, the maintenance of the external security of the
+States, was in constant danger, owing partly to the complicated
+regulations for voting in the Diet, partly to a military system which
+was full of compromises and certain to produce, on the outbreak of war,
+a maximum of confusion and a minimum of efficiency.
+
+The constitutional liberties of the individual States had been gravely
+menaced by a series of feudal decrees passed between 1830 and 1840;
+while in 1850 the Confederation had actually suppressed the constitution
+of Hesse-Cassel. In Prussia itself the Manteuffel Ministry had been
+working, beneath the cloak of the constitutional reforms granted in
+1850, to establish a centralised police State on the model of the French
+préfet system combined with typical Prussian mediævalism.
+
+[Illustration: THE PRINCESS ROYAL
+
+VICTORIA ADELAIDE MARY LOUISA
+
+BORN NOVEMBER 21, 1840]
+
+It was in 1847 that King Frederick William IV uttered the famous words
+that he would never allow a piece of written parchment to be placed,
+like a second Providence, between God in heaven and his country. Now the
+constitution of only two years later did seem to be such a piece of
+written parchment, but this was only in appearance, because it did not
+settle by organic laws the crucial questions of political liberty, but
+left them in practice to the Chambers which it called into existence.
+The task of Baron Manteuffel's Ministry, therefore, resolved itself into
+obtaining a sufficiently reactionary Parliament which could be trusted
+to remove the foundations of political liberty laid by the great
+constitutional lawgiver, Stein, and his follower, Hardenburg.
+
+It was not till 1855, three years before the Princess Royal's marriage,
+that a thoroughly servile Chamber was obtained. The two principal
+reforms effected by Stein, namely, the localising of the administration
+and the independence of officials, were abolished, and the
+administration was carefully centralised on the French model, and the
+whole official class was made dependent upon the Government. This latter
+object was effected by an ingenious theory--that any opposition to a
+constitutional Ministry which enjoyed the confidence of the sovereign
+became constructively an offence against the Crown, and therefore
+punishable.
+
+It is significant that it took five years before a really servile
+Chamber was obtained, even by these methods. The Prussian mediævalists
+did not altogether like the police supremacy established by the
+Manteuffel Ministry; but, on the other hand, by their alliance with the
+Ministry they had the satisfaction of staving off certain reforms which
+they especially dreaded, notably the equalisation of the land tax, the
+removal of the rural police from the control of the lord of the manor,
+and the liberal organisation of the rural communes. Moreover, they were
+given practical freedom to do what they liked in ecclesiastical and
+educational administration.
+
+It must be remembered that, while England has had from time to time her
+mediævalists, they have, on the whole, failed to make any real
+impression on politics, and have exerted their influence only in the
+province of religious belief and in that of art. It was different in
+Prussia, where feudalism as a practical system had a much longer life.
+
+Numerous small States within the kingdom of Prussia, with their feudal
+powers and rights, had to be broken up by the Great Elector as a first
+step towards a Prussian nationality. It was really by continuing the
+Great Elector's work in this respect that Stein had aroused that
+national movement which eventually threw off the French yoke. But
+Frederick William III had set himself to reorganise the provincial
+States on the basis of a strict observance of their historical rights.
+This reorganisation did not satisfy the mediævals because it failed to
+provide any real check upon the bureaucratic character of the remaining
+part of the King's administration.
+
+At the time of the Princess Royal's marriage there still survived an
+extraordinary number of little States, each with its ruling family, and
+for the most part as poor as they were proud.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MARRIAGE
+
+
+It is the universal testimony that at the time of her wedding the
+Princess Royal was at the height of her youthful beauty and charm. This
+is not the mere flattery of courtiers, to whom all Royal ladies are
+beautiful as a matter of course; it is the opinion expressed by a
+multitude of observers in contemporary private letters, diaries, and
+reminiscences. And of all the descriptions of her at this time in
+existence the most lifelike we owe to a German lady of rank, one of the
+Princess's future ladies-in-waiting, Countess Walpurga de Hohenthal, who
+afterwards married Sir Augustus Berkeley Paget, British Ambassador in
+Rome and Vienna. This lady gives in her book of reminiscences, _Scenes
+and Memories_, this vivid vignette of her Royal mistress as she looked
+just before her marriage:
+
+"The Princess appeared extraordinarily young. All the childish roundness
+still clung to her and made her look shorter than she really was. She
+was dressed in a fashion long disused on the Continent, in a
+plum-coloured silk dress fastened at the back. Her hair was drawn off
+her forehead. Her eyes were what struck me most; the iris was green
+like the sea on a sunny day, and the white had a peculiar shimmer which
+gave them the fascination that, together with a smile showing her small
+and beautiful teeth, bewitched those who approached her. The nose was
+unusually small and turned up slightly, and the complexion was ruddy,
+perhaps too much so for one thing, but it gave the idea of perfect
+health and strength. The fault of the face lay in the squareness of the
+lower features, and there was even a look of determination about the
+chin, but the very gentle and almost timid manner prevented one
+realising this at first. The voice was very delightful, never going up
+to high tones, but lending a peculiar charm to the slight foreign accent
+with which the Princess spoke both English and German."
+
+As we have already seen, Queen Victoria felt strongly that it was not
+every day that even a future King married the daughter of a Queen of
+England, and she was resolved to surround the ceremony with all possible
+pomp and circumstance. The reader may for the most part be spared the
+details of these functions. What is interesting to us, looking back on
+that age which seems so remote from our own, is the curious note of
+tearful sentiment, which some would now call by a harsher name, yet
+mingled with high hopes and pathetic confidence in the future.
+
+The Court spent the early part of January 1858 at Windsor Castle, and on
+the 15th, the day of the departure for London, the Queen wrote in her
+diary:
+
+"Went to look at the rooms prepared for Vicky's 'Honeymoon.' Very
+pretty. It quite agitated me to look at them. Poor, poor child! We took
+a short walk with Vicky, who was dreadfully upset at this real break in
+her life; the real separation from her childhood! She slept for the last
+time in the same room with Alice. Now all this is cut off."
+
+And we may quote, too, a characteristic passage from a letter written to
+the Queen by her sister, the Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, with
+reference to another young Royal bride:
+
+"Poor little wife now! I have quite the same feeling as you have on
+these dear young creatures entering the new life of duties, privations,
+and trials, on their marrying so young. Alas! the sweet blossoms coming
+in contact with rude life and all its realities so soon, are changed
+into mature and less lovely persons, so painful to a mother's eye and
+feeling; and yet we must be happy to see them fulfil their _Bestimmung_
+(destiny); but it is a happiness not unmixed with many a bitter drop of
+anguish and pain."
+
+By the 19th all the Royal guests had arrived in London, among them the
+King of the Belgians with his sons, the Prince and Princess of Prussia,
+and Princes and Princesses in such numbers that the accommodation of
+Buckingham Palace was taxed to the uttermost. "Such a house-full," says
+the Queen in her diary. "Such bustle and excitement!" Between eighty and
+ninety sat down to dinner at the Royal table daily. "After dinner," says
+the same record, "a party, and a very gay and pretty dance. It was very
+animated, all the Princes dancing."
+
+The first of the public festivities was a performance at Her Majesty's
+Theatre of _Macbeth_, by Helen Faucit and Phelps, while Mr. and Mrs.
+Keeley appeared in a farce. This was the first of four representations,
+organised at the Queen's command in honour of the marriage, and each was
+made the occasion of an extraordinary popular demonstration. A great
+ball, at which over a thousand guests were present, was given at the
+Palace, and there was also a State performance of Balfe's opera, _The
+Rose of Castille_.
+
+Prince Frederick William arrived on January 23, and on the next day
+Queen Victoria writes:
+
+"Poor dear Vicky's last unmarried day. An eventful one, reminding me so
+much of mine. After breakfast we arranged in the large drawing-room the
+gifts (splendid ones) for Vicky in two tables. Fritz's pearls are the
+largest I ever saw, one row. On a third table were three fine
+candelabra, our gift to Fritz. Vicky was in ecstasies, quite startled,
+and Fritz delighted."
+
+More magnificent presents kept on arriving, and the Queen goes on:
+
+"Very busy--interrupted and disturbed every instant! Dear Vicky gave me
+a brooch (a very pretty one) before Church with her hair; and, clasping
+me in her arms, said: 'I hope to be worthy to be your child!'" At the
+end of the day the Queen and Prince "accompanied Vicky to her room,
+kissed her and gave her our blessing, and she was much overcome. I
+pressed her in my arms, and she clung to her truly adored papa with much
+tenderness."
+
+Of the wedding itself Queen Victoria made herself the historian for all
+time, and we cannot do better than quote her vividly emotional account
+of the scene:
+
+"Monday, January 25.--The second most eventful day in my life as regards
+feelings. I felt as if I were being married over again myself, only much
+more nervous, for I had not that blessed feeling which I had then, which
+raises and supports one, of giving myself up for life to him whom I
+loved and worshipped--then and ever! Got up, and, while dressing,
+dearest Vicky came to see me, looking well and composed, and in a fine
+quiet frame of mind. She had slept more soundly and better than before.
+This relieved me greatly. Gave her a pretty book called _The Bridal
+Offering_."
+
+Before the procession started for the Chapel Royal at St. James's
+Palace, the Queen and the Princess were daguerreotyped together with
+Prince Albert, but, says the Queen, "I trembled so, my likeness has
+come out indistinct." Her Majesty continues:
+
+"Then came the time to go. The sun was shining brightly; thousands had
+been out since very early, shouting, bells ringing, &c. Albert and
+Uncle, in Field Marshal's uniform, with bâtons, and the two eldest boys
+went first. Then the three girls in pink satin trimmed with Newport
+lace, Alice with a wreath, and the two others with only _bouquets_ in
+their hair of cornflowers [the favourite flower of Queen Louise of
+Prussia and of all her children and descendants], and marguerites; next
+the four boys in Highland dress. The flourish of trumpets and cheering
+of thousands made my heart sink within me. Vicky was in the carriage
+with me, sitting opposite. At St. James's took her into a dressing-room
+prettily arranged, where were Uncle, Albert, and the eight bridesmaids,
+who looked charming in white tulle, with wreaths and bouquets of pink
+roses and white heather.
+
+"Then the procession was formed, just as at my marriage, only how small
+the _old_ Royal family has become! Mama last before me--then Lord
+Palmerston with the Sword of State--then Bertie and Alfred. I with the
+two little boys on either side (which they say had a most touching
+effect) and the three girls behind. The effect was very solemn and
+impressive as we passed through the rooms, down the staircase, and
+across a covered-in court.
+
+"The Chapel, though too small, looked extremely imposing and
+well,--full as it was of so many elegantly-dressed ladies, uniforms, &c.
+The Archbishop, &c. at the altar, and on either side of it the Royal
+personages. Behind me Mama and the Cambridges, the girls and little boys
+near me, and opposite me the dear Princess of Prussia, and the foreign
+Princes behind her. Bertie and Affie, not far from the Princess, a
+little before the others.
+
+"The drums and trumpets played marches, and the organ played others as
+the procession approached and entered. There was a pause between each,
+but not a very long one, and the effect was thrilling and striking as
+you heard the music gradually coming nearer and nearer. Fritz looked
+pale and much agitated, but behaved with the greatest self-possession,
+bowing to us, and then kneeling down in a most devotional manner. Then
+came the bride's procession and our darling Flower looked very touching
+and lovely, with such an innocent, confident, and serious expression,
+her veil hanging back over her shoulders, walking between her beloved
+father and dearest Uncle Leopold, who had been at her christening and
+confirmation.
+
+"My last fear of being overcome vanished on seeing Vicky's quiet, calm,
+and composed manner. It was beautiful to see her kneeling with Fritz,
+their hands joined, and the train borne by eight young ladies, who
+looked like a cloud of maidens hovering round her, as they knelt near
+her. Dearest Albert took her by the hand to give her away. The music
+was very fine, the Archbishop very nervous; Fritz spoke very plainly.
+Vicky too. The Archbishop omitted some of the passages."
+
+Sarah Lady Lyttelton, too, noted the calm and rather serious, though
+happy and loving, expression of the Princess's look and manner--"not a
+bit of bridal missiness and flutter."
+
+Another eye-witness of the scene supplies a moving touch: "The light of
+happiness in the eyes of the bride appealed to the most reserved among
+the spectators, and an audible 'God bless you!' passed from mouth to
+mouth along the line."
+
+The Queen's description proceeds:
+
+"When the ceremony was over, we both embraced Vicky tenderly, but she
+shed not one tear, and then she kissed her grandmama, and I Fritz. She
+then went up to her new parents, and we crossed over to the dear Prince
+and Princess [of Prussia], who were both much moved, Albert shaking
+hands with them, and I kissing both and pressing their hands with a most
+happy feeling. My heart was so full. Then the bride and bridegroom left
+hand in hand, followed by the supporters, the 'Wedding March' by
+Mendelssohn being played, and we all went up to the Throne Room to sign
+the register. Here general congratulations, shaking hands with all the
+relations. I felt so moved, so overjoyed and relieved, that I could have
+embraced everybody."
+
+The young couple drove off to Windsor for a honeymoon of only two days,
+as was then the custom with Royal personages.
+
+"We dined," says Queen Victoria, "_en famille_, but I felt so lost
+without Vicky." In the evening, however, there came a messenger from
+Windsor with a letter from the bride, containing the news that the Eton
+boys had dragged the carriage of the Prince and Princess from the
+railway station to the Castle, and that they had been welcomed by
+immense crowds and with the greatest enthusiasm. All London, too, was
+illuminated, and there were great rejoicings in the streets. The Duke of
+Buccleuch made it his business to mingle with the humblest people in the
+crowds, and he afterwards greatly pleased the Queen with his account of
+their simple, hearty enthusiasm.
+
+Of those two days at Windsor, the bride, thirty-six years later, when
+she was already a widow, spoke to her old friend, Bishop Boyd Carpenter.
+She received the Bishop in the red brocade drawing-room which overlooks
+the Long Walk, a room which awakened memories: "We spent," she said,
+"our honeymoon at Windsor. This room was one of those we occupied. It
+was our private sitting-room. I remember how we sat here--two young
+innocent things--almost too shy to talk to one another."
+
+The Court moved to Windsor on the 27th, and on the following day the
+bridegroom was invested with the order of the Garter. On the 29th the
+Court returned to town, and in the evening the Queen and Prince Albert,
+and the bridal pair, went in state to Her Majesty's Theatre. The
+audience demanded the National Anthem twice before and once after the
+play, two additional verses appropriate to the occasion being added.
+Prince Frederick William led his bride to the front of the Royal box,
+and they stood to receive the acclamations of the house.
+
+On January 30 the Queen held a Drawing-room, at which there were no
+presentations, "only congratulations," and the Princess wore her wedding
+dress and train. In the evening the eight bridesmaids, with their
+respective parents, came, but though there were no young men, they all
+danced till midnight.
+
+The dreaded separation was fast approaching. Those were days in which
+people of all classes seemed to give freer play to their natural
+emotions than they do now, and the actual parting at Buckingham Palace
+may almost be described as agonising. "I think it will kill me to take
+leave of dear Papa!" were the words of the Princess to her mother. "A
+dreadful moment, and a dreadful day," wrote the Queen. "Such sickness
+came over me, real heartache, when I thought of our dearest child being
+gone, and for so long--all, all being over! It began to snow before
+Vicky went, and continued to do so without intermission all day. At
+times I could be quite cheerful, but my tears began to flow afresh
+frequently, and I could not go near Vicky's corridor."
+
+Even the less emotional but not less warm-hearted Princess Mary of
+Cambridge writes in her diary of February 2:
+
+"A very gloomy, tearful day! At eleven-thirty we drove to the palace to
+see poor dear Vicky off. It was our intention to wait downstairs; but we
+were sent for, and found dear Victoria [the Queen] surrounded by a
+number of crying relations in the Queen's Closet. It was a sad, a trying
+scene. We all accompanied her to the carriage, and, after bidding her
+adieu, Mamma and I hurried to one of the front rooms to see her drive up
+the Mall."
+
+There exists a private photograph, or rather a daguerreotype, taken of
+the Princess Royal that morning, her face unrecognisable, swollen with
+tears.
+
+It may be imagined how delighted the populace were when they saw that,
+though it was snowing hard, their Princess had chosen an open carriage
+for her drive through the London she even then loved so well and went on
+loving to the very end. The route taken was through the Mall, Fleet
+Street, Cheapside, and over London Bridge, and in spite of the terrible
+weather enormous crowds gathered to see the last of the bride. The
+stalwart draymen of Barclay and Perkins's brewery shouted out to the
+bridegroom in menacing tones, "Be kind to her or we'll have her back!"
+
+The Princess was accompanied by her father and her two elder brothers;
+and at Gravesend, where the Royal yacht, the _Victoria and Albert_, was
+waiting to take her and her bridegroom across the Channel, the scene was
+again most affecting. The Prince Consort was deeply moved but he was
+determined to appear composed, and he kept his look of serenity. Not so
+the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred; they wept openly, and their
+example was followed by many, for there was something profoundly moving
+in this departure of the Daughter of England--as Cobden had called
+her--for a country of which the great majority of Englishmen and
+Englishwomen at that time knew little or nothing.
+
+Perhaps the general feeling among the educated classes of the England of
+that day is best reflected in a leading article in the _Times_, which
+said:
+
+"We only trust and pray that the policy of England and of Prussia may
+never present any painful alternatives to the Princess now about to
+leave our shores; that she will never be called on to forget the land of
+her birth, education, and religion; and that, should the occasion ever
+occur, she may have the wisdom to render what is due both to her new and
+her old country. There is no European State but what changes and is
+still susceptible of change, nor is this change wholly by any internal
+law of development. We influence one another. England, indeed, has ever
+been jealous of foreign influence, and she would be the last to
+repudiate the honour of influencing her neighbours. For our part, we are
+confident enough of our country to think an English Princess a gain to a
+Prussian Court, but not so confident to deny that we may be mutually
+benefited, and Europe through us, by a greater cordiality and better
+acquaintance than has hitherto been between the two countries."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+EARLY MARRIED LIFE
+
+
+The bridal journey to Berlin was in the nature of a triumphal progress,
+and it was well that the Prince and Princess were both young and full of
+healthy vitality. At Brussels they were present at a great Court ball
+given in their honour, but early the next morning they were again on
+their route, and all the way there were receptions, addresses of
+congratulations, &c., to be received and answered.
+
+It was probably at Brussels that the Princess received a touching letter
+from her father, written on the day after her departure from England:--
+
+"My heart was very full when yesterday you leaned your forehead on my
+breast to give free vent to your tears. I am not of a demonstrative
+nature, and therefore you can hardly know how dear you have always been
+to me, and what a void you have left behind in my heart: yet not in my
+heart, for there assuredly you will abide henceforth, as till now you
+have done, but in my daily life, which is evermore reminding my heart of
+your absence."
+
+Three days later Prince Albert again wrote to her:
+
+"Thank God, everything apparently goes on to a wish, and you seem to
+gain 'golden opinions' in your favour; which naturally gives us extreme
+pleasure, both because we love you, and because this touches our
+parental pride. But what has given us most pleasure of all was the
+letter, so overflowing with affection, which you wrote while yet on
+board the yacht. Poor child! well did I feel the bitterness of your
+sorrow, and would so fain have soothed it. But, excepting my own sorrow,
+I had nothing to give; and that would only have had the effect of
+augmenting yours."
+
+To Stockmar, whose son, Baron Ernest Stockmar, was appointed Treasurer
+to the Princess Royal on her marriage, he wrote:
+
+"Throughout all this agitated, serious and very trying time, the good
+child has behaved quite admirably, and to the mingled admiration and
+surprise of every one. She was so natural, so childlike, so dignified
+and firm in her whole bearing and demeanour, that one might well believe
+in a higher inspiration. I shall not forget that your son has proved
+himself in all ways extremely useful, and takes and holds his ground,
+which, among the Berliners, is no easy matter."
+
+The progress to Berlin was, at any rate, by no means dull; it was marked
+by plenty of incident, sometimes not of a pleasant nature. For instance,
+when the bridal pair were entertained at a great Court banquet at
+Hanover, whether by malice, or more probably by sheer stupidity, the
+feast was spread on the very gold dinner-service which had been a
+subject of dispute between Queen Victoria and King Ernest, a dispute
+which had been decided by the English law officers of the Crown in
+favour of Hanover. The Princess Royal, who knew all about the affair,
+felt deeply hurt, but she did not allow this to be noticed except by her
+intimate entourage.
+
+In Magdeburg Cathedral the crowd became so obstreperous in their eager
+desire to see the Princess that shreds of her gown, a dress of tartan
+velvet, were actually torn off her back.
+
+Just before Potsdam was reached, the famous Field-Marshal Wrangel, who
+had played so great a part in the Revolution of 1848, jumped into the
+train. After he had complimented the Royal bride, he sat down on a seat
+on which had been placed an enormous apple-tart which had just been
+presented to the Princess at Wittenberg, a town noted for its pastry.
+Fortunately the old soldier took the accident in good part, and joined
+in the hearty laughter which accompanied the efforts of the Princess and
+her ladies to clean his uniform.
+
+The whole of the Prussian Royal family assembled at Potsdam to greet the
+bride and bridegroom, who made their State entry into Berlin on February
+8. It was a fine day, but the cold was of an intensity never before
+experienced by the Princess. Nevertheless, she and her ladies were all
+in low Court dresses, and, by her express wish, the windows of the
+State carriages were kept down, so that the eager populace might be the
+better able to see inside.
+
+The drive lasted two hours and ended at the Old Schloss, where the
+Prince and Princess found once more the whole of the Prussian Royal
+family assembled, headed by the then King and his Queen. As the Queen
+embraced the bride, she observed coldly: "Are you not frozen?" The
+Princess replied with a smile; "I have only one warm place, and that is
+my heart!"
+
+It is a curious fact that on that night of the State entry into Berlin,
+when every house, and especially every palace and embassy, was
+brilliantly illuminated, the English Legation alone remained in
+darkness. This was simply because the gas company had undertaken to do
+more than it could accomplish, for gas had never been used for public
+illumination in Berlin before that night. Still, the circumstance was
+long remembered by the more superstitious of the Berliners.
+
+The youthful bride made a very favourable impression on those who saw
+her on that first day in Berlin. Her manner was singularly quiet and
+self-possessed, and she found a kind and suitable word to say to
+everyone. Yet, even so, feeling ran so high in Prussian society, and
+especially at the Court, that Lord and Lady Bloomfield, the then English
+Minister and his wife, made a point of avoiding the Princess Royal, so
+desirous were they of giving no cause of offence to the King and Queen.
+
+Meanwhile, the loving parents in London were kept busy in reading the
+accounts, which poured in on them from every quarter, of their
+daughter's reception in their new home. Thus, Queen Victoria's sister,
+the Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, writes from Berlin on February 17:
+
+"You know of everything that is going on, and how much she [the Princess
+Royal] is admired, and deserves so to be. The enthusiasm and interest
+shown are beyond everything. Never was a Princess in this country
+received as she is. That shows where the sympathies turn to, certainly
+not towards the North Pole."
+
+This was perhaps a little too _couleur de rose_, and when Prince
+Frederick William telegraphed to his parents-in-law, "The whole Royal
+family is enchanted with my wife," Prince Albert's dry comment, in
+writing to his daughter, was that the telegraph must have been amazed at
+the message. Nor did the anxious father fail to seize the opportunity
+for a little sermon. In this same letter, dated February 11, he writes
+to the Princess:
+
+"You have now entered upon your new home, and been received and welcomed
+on all sides with the greatest friendship and cordiality. This kindly
+and trustful advance of a whole nation towards an entire stranger must
+have kindled and confirmed within you the determination to show yourself
+in every way worthy of such feelings, and to reciprocate and requite
+them by the steadfast resolution to dedicate the whole energies of your
+life to this people of your new home. And you have received from Heaven
+the happy task of effecting this object by making your husband truly
+happy, and of doing him at the same time the best service, by aiding him
+to maintain and to increase the love of his countrymen.
+
+"That you have everywhere made so favourable an impression has given
+intense happiness to me as a father. Let me express my fullest
+admiration of the way in which, possessed exclusively by the duty which
+you had to fulfil, you have kept down and overcome your own little
+personal troubles, perhaps also many feelings of sorrow not yet healed.
+This is the way to success, and the _only_ way. If you have succeeded in
+winning people's hearts by friendliness, simplicity, and courtesy, the
+secret lay in this, that you were not thinking of yourself. Hold fast
+this mystic power; it is a spark from Heaven."
+
+Admirable advice in a sense, but unfortunately too general to be of much
+service to the warm-hearted, impulsive Princess, before whom lay so many
+unsuspected pitfalls. Prince Albert believed, as he had said to his
+son-in-law, that his daughter possessed "a man's head and a child's
+heart," an allusion to the poet's words, "In wit a man, simplicity a
+child." But Prussia was not Coburg, and even from Coburg Prince Albert
+had now been away for nearly twenty years. He does not appear at all to
+have appreciated either the situation which now confronted the Princess
+Royal, or how little adapted she was by her temperament and her training
+to meet it.
+
+In the Princess of Prussia (afterwards the Empress Augusta) her English
+daughter-in-law ever had a true friend and ally, and during the forty
+years which followed, the two ladies were on far better terms than
+anyone could have expected, considering how entirely different had been
+their upbringing and outlook on life.
+
+For example, Princess Augusta had been taught as a child to _tenir
+cercle_ in the gardens of the Palace at Weimar--that is to say, she had
+to make the round of the bushes and trees, each of which represented for
+the moment a lady or gentlemen of the Court, and say something pleasant
+and suitable to each! In this curious but extremely practical fashion
+was inculcated one of the most fundamentally important duties of Royal
+personages, and it may be suggested with all respect that the future
+Empress Frederick would have benefited if she had had some similar
+training.
+
+The Princess who was to become Queen of Prussia and the first German
+Empress had been brought up at Goethe's knee. She belonged, in an
+intellectual sense, to the eighteenth rather than the nineteenth
+century. She knew French as well as she knew German--indeed, it is said
+that she often thought in French, and perhaps her chief friend, at the
+time of her son's marriage to the Princess Royal, was Monsieur de
+Bacourt, the French diplomatist to whom the Duchesse de Dino's
+diary-letters were for the most part addressed. Among her intimates were
+many Catholics, and for many years it was believed in Berlin that she
+had been secretly received into the Roman Church. As a young woman she
+was full of heart and warmth of feeling, but she soon learnt, what her
+daughter-in-law never succeeded in mastering, the wisdom of
+circumspection and the painful necessity for prudence. She early made up
+her mind to remain on the whole in shadow. While never concealing her
+point of view from those about her, she yet never took any public part
+in the affairs of State.
+
+During the Crimean War, when the whole of the Prussian Court was
+pro-Russian, the Princess of Prussia had been pro-English--a fact which
+naturally endeared her to Queen Victoria, but which had made her
+Prussian relatives very sore and angry. When the Princess Royal arrived
+in Berlin as the bride of the King of Prussia's heir-presumptive, the
+Crimean War was already being forgotten. Among the Liberals there was
+what may be called a pro-English party, and the joyous simplicity and
+youthful charm of the Princess silenced criticism, at any rate for a
+time.
+
+It must be remembered that the Princess Royal had left a young Court. At
+the time of her marriage her parents were still young people--she made
+them grandparents when they were only thirty-eight. But the Court in
+which she now became an important personage was composed of middle-aged
+men and women, with some very old people. There was still living in the
+Court circle a lady who was said to remember Frederick the Great. This
+was the Countess Pauline Neale, who had been one of Queen Louise's
+ladies-in-waiting. She could recollect with vivid intensity every detail
+and episode associated with Napoleon's treatment of the King and Queen.
+
+Of great age, too, was the gigantic Field-Marshal Wrangel, who had
+actually carried the colours of his regiment at the battle of Leipzig.
+
+Another interesting personality in the Princess Royal's new family
+circle was her husband's aunt, Princess Charles, sister of the Princess
+of Prussia, who afterwards became the grandmother of the Duchess of
+Connaught. She still bore traces of the wonderful beauty for which she
+had been famed in the 'twenties, but was, of course, no longer a young
+woman.
+
+Not long after the Princess Royal's arrival in Berlin, a German observer
+wrote to the Prince Consort: "She sees more clearly and more correctly
+than many a man of commanding intellect, because, while possessing an
+acute mind and the purest heart, she does not know the word
+'prejudice.'"
+
+Less than a month after her marriage, on February 17, the Prince Consort
+sent his daughter a letter full of wise warning:
+
+"Your festival time, if not your honeymoon, comes to an end to-day; and
+on this I take leave to congratulate you, unfeeling though it may sound,
+for I wish you the necessary time and tranquillity to digest the many
+impressions you have received, and which otherwise, like a wild revel,
+first inflame, and then stupefy, leaving a dull nerveless lassitude
+behind. Your exertions, and the demands which have been made upon you,
+have been quite immense; you have done your best, and have won the
+hearts, or what is called the hearts, of all. In the nature of things we
+may now expect a little reaction. The public, just because it was
+rapturous and enthusiastic, will now become minutely critical and take
+you to pieces anatomically. This is to be kept in view, although it need
+cause you no uneasiness, for you have only followed your natural bent,
+and have made no external demonstration which did not answer to the
+truth of your inner nature. It is only the man who presents an
+artificial demeanour to the world, who has to dread being unmasked.
+
+"Your place is that of your husband's wife, and of your mother's
+daughter. You will desire nothing else, but you will also forego
+nothing of that which you owe to your husband and to your mother.
+Ultimately your mind will, from the over-excitement, fall back to a
+little lassitude and sadness. But this will make you feel a craving for
+activity, and you have much to do, in studying your new country, its
+tendencies and its people, and in over-looking your household as a good
+housewife, with punctuality, method, and vigilant care. To success in
+the affairs of life, apportionment of time is essential, and I hope you
+will make this your _first_ care, so that you may always have some time
+over for the fulfilment of every duty."
+
+Baron Stockmar had also been watching the details of the Princess's
+reception in her new country with anxious interest. He, too, saw the
+danger of a reaction, and he wrote a letter to the Prince Consort, in
+reply to which the father, after commending the Princess's tact, said:
+
+"The enthusiasm with which she seems to have been everywhere received
+exceeds our utmost calculations and hopes, and proves that the people
+approved the idea of this alliance, and have found Vicky in herself
+answer to their expectations. It is only now, indeed, the difficulties
+of her life will begin, and after the excitement of the festivities a
+certain melancholy will come over the poor child, however happy she may
+feel with her husband. With marriage, a new life has opened for her,
+and you would have marvelled at the sudden change and development which
+even here became at once apparent.
+
+"We, that is, she and I, have, I think, remained, and I believe will
+remain, the same to one another. She continues to set great store by my
+advice and my confidence; I do not thrust them upon her, but I am always
+ready to give them. During this time of troubles she has written less to
+me, and communicated the details of her life, and what she is doing,
+more to her mother. I had arranged this with her, but I hold her promise
+to impart to me faithfully the progress of her inner life, and on the
+other hand have given her mine, to take a constantly active part in
+fostering it. You may be sure I will not fail in this, as I see in it
+merely the fulfilment of a sacred duty.
+
+"What you say about an early visit had already been running in my head,
+and I will frankly explain what we think on this subject. Victoria and I
+are both desirous to have a meeting with the young couple, somewhere or
+other in the course of the year, having moreover given them a promise
+that we would. This could only be in the autumn. A _rendezvous_ on the
+Rhine--for example at Coblentz--would probably be the right thing. This
+does not exclude a flying visit by myself alone, which, if it is to be
+of any use, must be paid earlier in the year. How and where we could see
+each other I have naturally weighed, and am myself doubtful whether
+Berlin is the appropriate place for me. I have therefore come to the
+conclusion that I might go to Coburg, and give the young people a
+_rendezvous_ there."
+
+The Princess Royal spent her first winter in Berlin in the Old Schloss.
+The castle had not been lived in for a considerable time, and to one
+accustomed to the even then high standard of English living and hygiene,
+it must have seemed almost mediæval in its lack of comfort, and of what
+the Princess had been brought up to regard as the bare necessities of
+life--light, warmth, and plenty of hot water.
+
+The young couple were allotted a suite of splendidly decorated but very
+dark and gloomy rooms; and none of the passages or staircases were
+heated. The Princess, who had always been encouraged to turn her quick
+mind to practical matters, and who delighted in creating and in making,
+found her way blocked at every turn owing to the fact that nothing could
+be done in the Old Schloss without the direct permission of the King.
+Not only was Frederick William IV in a very bad and mentally peculiar
+state of health, but to him and to his Queen any attempt to change or
+modify anything in the ancient pile of buildings where his predecessor
+had lived savoured of sacrilege. To give one instance, King Frederick
+William III had died in the very suite of rooms allotted to the Prince
+and Princess, and his children had piously preserved the
+"death-chamber," as it was still called, in exactly the same state as it
+was on the day of his death. This room was situated next to the
+Princess's boudoir, and every time she went to her bedroom or
+dressing-room she was obliged to pass through it.
+
+The Old Schloss was widely believed to be haunted, not only by the
+"White Lady" but by other ghosts, and the door between the Princess
+Royal's boudoir and the "death-chamber" would sometimes open by itself.
+One winter evening, the Princess and one of her ladies were sitting
+together in the boudoir. The lady, who was reading aloud, raised her
+eyes and suddenly saw the door of the death-chamber, which was covered,
+like the walls, with blue silk, open noiselessly, as if pushed by an
+invisible hand. She stopped reading abruptly. The Princess asked
+nervously, "What's happened? Do you see anything?" The lady answered,
+"Nothing, ma'am," and, getting up, shut the door.
+
+But it would be absurd to suppose that the Princess allowed the
+ungraciousness of the King and the material discomforts which surrounded
+her at this time to cloud the beginning of a singularly happy married
+life. She threw herself with eager zest into her husband's interests,
+and for the time she seemed completely merged in him. Having regard to
+the mental equipment and demands of the Princess, it is obvious that she
+found in her husband great intellectual gifts. The theory that the
+Prince was wholly influenced by his wife, who took the lead in all,
+cannot be maintained. He was nine years older than the Princess, who was
+little more than a child when they married, and his character and
+outlook were formed long before. His uncle, Duke Ernest, testifies on
+the contrary, to the influence which the Prince exerted over his wife.
+
+It must, however, be acknowledged that Prince Frederick William,
+especially in these early days, agreed with the Princess in regarding
+England as a perfect country with a perfect constitution. He was deeply
+grateful to her for having left an ideally happy home to become his
+wife, and his entire devotion was shown in many ways. Indeed, the only
+thing in which the Prince Frederick William of these days seems to have
+ever withstood the Princess Royal was in his refusal to give up his
+solitary evening walk in the streets of Berlin. The Princess used to go
+to bed quite early, and then the Prince would go out and walk about
+quite unattended.
+
+Years later, in reference to her domestic happiness, the Empress wrote
+feelingly to a friend: "The peace and blessed calm that I ever found in
+my home, by the side of my beloved husband, when powerful influences
+from outside were first distressing me, are blessings which I cannot
+describe."
+
+Some of the conditions of the Princess Royal's new life were undoubtedly
+very irksome to her. The tone of the Prussian Court in matters, not only
+of religion and politics, but also of etiquette, was very much narrower
+than that of the English Court. She seems to have found it impossible to
+guard her tongue, to conceal her convictions, or to hold aloof from
+political discussion. At "home," as she soon very unwisely began to call
+England, she had been used to say everything she thought from childhood
+upwards, sure of not being misunderstood, and reticence would have
+seemed to her mean, if not absolutely dishonest.
+
+But it is difficult to say when the Prussian reactionary party first
+became aware that in the bride of Prince Frederick William they had a
+determined and a brilliant opponent. It must, however, have been fairly
+early, for it is on record that during that first winter in Berlin "the
+very approach of a Tory or a reactionary seemed to freeze her up."
+
+Nor is it easy to see how much the Princess's father, watching anxiously
+from England, knew of this. She continued with unabated enthusiasm those
+historical and literary studies to which the Prince Consort had
+accustomed her, and she wrote him a weekly letter, asking his advice on
+political questions. She wrote to her mother daily, sometimes twice a
+day, but it was her father's influence which really counted with her,
+and that remained quite unimpaired. It is reasonable to suppose that he
+attributed whatever seemed to annoy and distress her in Prussian public
+life to the still paramount influence of the dying King. But he
+evidently did not at any time realise that, though factious persons
+might be ready enough to use her in their own interests, no one in
+Prussia really wanted to see a Princess dabbling in politics at all.
+Thus, we find the Prince writing to Stockmar in March 1858:
+
+"From Berlin the tenor of the news continues excellent. Vicky appears to
+go on pleasing, and being pleased. She is an extremely fortunate,
+animating, and tranquillising element in that region of conflict and
+indecision."
+
+And again:
+
+"Brunnow had reckoned upon Moustier from Berlin, whom he would have had
+in his pocket, and through him Walewski. Now he gets the Duke of
+Malakoff! He has not yet been able to realise the position, and is by
+way of being extremely confidential; it is he alone who has made Vicky's
+marriage popular in Berlin, where it was at first very unpopular, and he
+weeps tears of emotion when he speaks of her!"
+
+To the Princess herself he wrote also in March:
+
+"You seem to have taken up your position with much tact. The bandage has
+been torn from your eyes all at once as regards all the greatest
+mysteries of life, and you stand not only of a sudden before them, but
+are called upon to deal with them, and that too on the spur of the
+moment. 'Oh! It is indeed most hard to be a man,' was the constant cry
+of the old Würtemberg Minister, von Wangenheim, and he was right!"
+
+The Prince was generally philosophising, but even so the following,
+written a few days later, seems an extraordinary letter for any father
+to write to a girl not much over seventeen:
+
+"That you should sometimes be oppressed by home-sickness is most
+natural. This feeling, which I know right well, will be sure to increase
+with the sadness which the reviving spring, and the quickening of all
+nature that comes with it, always develop in the heart. It is a painful
+yearning, which may exist quite independently of, and simultaneously
+with, complete contentment and complete happiness. I explain this
+hard-to-be-comprehended mental phenomenon thus. The identity of the
+individual is, so to speak, interrupted; and a kind of Dualism springs
+up by reason of this, that the _I which has been_, with all its
+impressions, remembrances, experiences, feelings, which were also those
+of youth, is attached to a particular spot, with its local and personal
+associations, and appears to what may be called _the new I_ like a
+vestment of the soul which has been lost, from which nevertheless _the
+new I_ cannot disconnect itself, because its identity is in fact
+continuous. Hence the painful struggle, I might almost say the spasm, of
+the soul."
+
+To the faithful Stockmar the Prince confided his belief:
+
+"As to Vicky, unquestionably she will turn out a very distinguished
+character, whom Prussia will have cause to bless."
+
+The Prince's cherished scheme of a visit to Coburg began to take shape,
+and he writes:
+
+"My whole stay in Coburg can only be for six days. To see you and Fritz
+together in a quiet homely way without visits of ceremony, &c.--I dare
+not picture it to myself too strongly. Talk it over with Fritz, and let
+me know if I can count on you, but do not let the plan get wind,
+otherwise people will be paying us visits, and our meeting will lose its
+pleasant private character."
+
+Another letter, dated April 28, is interesting as showing that the
+Prince was beginning to perceive some of the difficulties in his
+daughter's path:
+
+"What you are now living through, observing, and doing, are the most
+important experiences, impressions and acts of your life, for they are
+the first of a life independent and responsible to itself. That outside
+of and in close proximity to your true and tranquillising happiness with
+dear Fritz your path of life is not wholly smooth, I regard as a most
+fortunate circumstance for you, inasmuch as it forces you to exercise
+and strengthen the powers of your mind."
+
+Nothing that concerned her but was of moment to her father:
+
+"I am delighted to see by your letter that you deliberate gravely upon
+your budget, and I shall be most happy to look through it, if you send
+it to me; this is the only way to have a clear idea to one's self of
+what one has, spends, and ought to spend. As this is a business of
+which I have had long and frequent experience, I will give you one rule
+for your guidance in it, namely, to set apart a considerable balance
+_pour l'imprévu_. This gentleman is the costliest of guests in life, and
+we shall look very blank if we have nothing to set before him."
+
+During the first summer of their married life, the Prince and Princess
+set up quite a modest establishment at the Castle of Babelsberg, and
+this made the Princess very happy.
+
+Seated on a declivity of a richly wooded hill, about three miles from
+Potsdam, and looking down upon a fine expanse of water, the little
+Castle of Babelsberg commands a charming view of the surrounding
+country. "Everything there," wrote Queen Victoria on her first visit,
+"is very small, a Gothic _bijou_, full of furniture, and flowers
+(creepers), which they arrange very prettily round screens, and lamps,
+and pictures. There are many irregular turrets and towers and steps."
+
+It was at Babelsberg that the Princess Royal began to try and see
+something of the intellectual and artistic world of Berlin. Neither the
+husband nor the wife was under the dominion of the class and caste
+prejudices which even now are so astonishing a feature of German social
+life, and which were then even more powerful and far-reaching. That the
+Prince and Princess should appear actually to enjoy the society of mere
+painters and writers and scientists, whether they occupied any official
+positions or not, seemed extraordinary and highly improper to the whole
+bureaucratic element of Berlin, and must, we can well imagine, have
+seriously offended the Prince's father.
+
+It is easy to be wise after the event. No one now can help seeing that
+it would have been the truest wisdom for the young Princess to have
+rigidly suppressed her natural tastes and intellectual interests, and to
+have led a life of the narrowly conventional character which Prussian
+princesses were expected to lead. But she was incapable of such
+self-suppression, which would have seemed to her deceitful, and the mild
+cautions and hints at prudence in her father's letters were pathetically
+inadequate to the needs of her critical position. She was herself still
+quite unaware of how closely she was being watched and criticised. "I am
+very happy," she told a guest at one of the Court receptions, "and I am
+intensely proud of belonging to this country."
+
+The more the Princess's social preferences aroused the suspicion and
+indignation of the Court world, the more popular she became with the
+"intellectuals," unfortunately not a profitable exchange for her as she
+was then situated. We become aware of this by a passage in the
+_Reminiscences_ of Professor Schellbach, who had been mathematical tutor
+to Prince Frederick William. He writes:
+
+"The first words which the Princess addressed to me with the greatest
+kindness were, 'I love mathematics, physics, and chemistry.' I was much
+pleased, for I saw that the Prince must have given her a pleasant
+account of me. Under the direction of her highly cultivated father, who
+had himself studied it, Princess Victoria had become acquainted with
+natural science, and had even received her first teaching from such
+famous men as Faraday and Hoffman. Our beloved Princess soon revealed
+her love for art and science, as well as her pleasure in setting
+problems of her own. Her Royal Highness at first tried to go on with her
+studies in physics and mathematics under my direction, but soon her
+artistic work took up the remainder of time which the requirements of
+Court life left to her."
+
+Early in June Prince Albert carried out his plan of visiting his
+daughter and son-in-law, but it was at Babelsberg, not at Coburg, as he
+had hoped. He was able to report to Queen Victoria: "The relation
+between the young people is all that can be desired. I have had long
+talks with them both, singly and together, which gave me the greatest
+satisfaction."
+
+Prince Albert was, however, shocked to find the King of Prussia in a
+terrible state:
+
+"The King looks frightfully ill; he was very cordial and friendly, and
+for the half hour he stayed with us, did not once get confused, but
+complained greatly about his state of health. He is thin and fallen
+away over his whole body, with a large stomach, his face grown quite
+small. He made many attempts at joking in the old way, but with a voice
+quite broken, and features full of pain. '_Wenn ich einmal fort bin,
+wieder fort bin_,' he said, grasping his forehead and striking it, 'then
+the Queen must pay us a visit here, it will make me so happy.' What he
+meant was, '_Wenn ich wieder wohl bin_.' 'It is so tedious,' he
+murmured; thus it is plainly to be seen that he has not quite given up
+all thought of getting better. The Prince's whole aim is to be
+serviceable to his brother. He still walks very lame, but looks well. I
+kept quietly in the house all day with Vicky, who is very sensible and
+good."
+
+The Princess had special reasons for being "sensible" at this time, for,
+to the great joy of the Prussian Royal family, she was enceinte.
+
+In August Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort paid a visit of some
+length to their daughter. The Queen herself describes the visit as
+"quite private and unofficial," although she carried in her train not
+only Lord Malmesbury, the Foreign Secretary in Lord Derby's Government
+(which had been formed in February), but also Lord Clarendon, his
+predecessor, and Lord Granville, who had been Lord President of the
+Council in Palmerston's Government.
+
+Prince Albert, at any rate, did not neglect the opportunity of studying
+the political situation. He wrote to Stockmar a letter highly approving
+the Prince of Prussia's political views, while his son-in-law he
+described as firm in his constitutional principles and despising the
+Manteuffel Ministry, the members of which he met with obvious coolness.
+
+The Berliners gave a hearty reception to Queen Victoria and Prince
+Albert, and the Queen declared to the Burgomaster of Berlin that she
+felt exceedingly happy there, because she had realised with what love
+and devotion everyone was attached to the Royal house and to her
+daughter.
+
+She was delighted with old Wrangel, whom she calls a great character.
+"He was full of Vicky and the marriage, and said she was an angel."
+There was a great deal of sight-seeing, mitigated by charming little
+_gemuthlich_ family dinners, and a grand review at Potsdam.
+
+Prince Albert's birthday occurred during the visit, and one of the
+Queen's presents to him was "a paper-weight of Balmoral granite and
+deer's teeth designed by Vicky." "Vicky gave her portrait, a small oil
+one by Hartmann, very like though not flattered, and a drawing by
+herself. There were two birthday cakes. Vicky had ordered one with as
+many lights as Albert numbered years, which is the Prussian custom."
+
+Her Majesty notes with pleasure the arrival of "our dear, excellent old
+friend Stockmar," whose presence, however, by no means gave universal
+satisfaction. Indeed, Sir Theodore Martin says frankly that, although
+his visit was due solely to his desire to meet the Queen and Prince
+Consort, it was viewed with rancorous suspicion by the aristocratic
+party, who held in abhorrence the man whom they knew to be the great
+advocate for the establishment of constitutional government in Germany.
+He was even accused of actively intriguing for the downfall of the
+Manteuffel Administration, having, it was said, "brought in his pocket,
+all cut and dry from England, the Ministry of the new era."
+
+Stockmar's views of what was needful to raise Germany to her proper
+place among the nations were unchanged, but age and infirmity had for
+some time made him a mere looker-on. Nevertheless, it is probable that
+neither the Queen nor Prince Albert in the least realised how
+inadvisable, in the interests of the Princess Royal, was the old man's
+visit.
+
+It must not, however, be thought that the Prussians were indifferent to
+the Princess Royal's singular personal charm. We have a most interesting
+glimpse of this in a long letter written to Queen Victoria by the
+beautiful and brilliant Duchess of Manchester, herself a Hanoverian by
+birth, who afterwards married the Duke of Devonshire and for many years
+held a remarkable position in English society.
+
+The Duchess relates how well the Princess Royal was looking during the
+manoeuvres on the Rhine, and how much she seemed to be beloved, not
+only by all those who knew her, but also by those who had only seen and
+heard of her.
+
+"The English could not help feeling proud of the way the Princess Royal
+was spoken of, and the high esteem she is held in. For one so young it
+is a most flattering position, and certainly, as the Princess's charm of
+manner and her kind unaffected words had in that short time won her the
+hearts of all the officers and strangers present, one was not astonished
+at the praise the Prussians themselves bestow on her Royal Highness. The
+Prussian Royal Family is so large, and their opinions politically and
+socially sometimes so different, that it must have been very difficult
+indeed at first for the Princess Royal, and people therefore cannot
+praise enough the high principles, great discretion, sound judgment, and
+cleverness her Royal Highness has invariably displayed."
+
+And the Duchess adds, on the authority of Field Marshal Wrangel, that
+the soldiers were particularly delighted to see the Princess on
+horseback and without a veil.
+
+The Royal visit to Babelsberg came to an end all too soon, and the
+leave-taking was tearful and emotional in the extreme. Queen Victoria
+wrote with natural feeling, "All would be comparatively easy, were it
+not for the one thought that I cannot be with her at the very critical
+moment when every other mother goes to her child!"
+
+In October of that first year of the Princess Royal's married life, her
+father-in-law became permanent Regent, owing to the continued mental
+incapacity of King Frederick William IV. This filled the young Princess
+with intense satisfaction, which was increased when the new Prince
+Regent declared it to be his intention strictly to adhere to the letter
+and the spirit of the Constitution of 1850. The great bulk of the nation
+rallied instantly round him, and it seemed as if the gulf between the
+House of Hohenzollern and the people of Prussia had been suddenly
+bridged. The Manteuffel Ministry fell in the following month, a general
+election produced an enormous Liberal majority, and the hopes of the
+Constitutionalists ran high. The Manteuffel Ministry was succeeded by
+one of which Prince Charles Anthony of Hohenzollern was the President.
+From this time forward Prince Frederick William regularly attended the
+meetings of the Ministry, and Privy Councillor Brunnemann was assigned
+to him as a kind of secretary and channel of communication on State
+affairs.
+
+The Princess Royal imprudently expressed to a gentleman of the Court her
+satisfaction at the change in the political situation, and her words,
+being repeated and exaggerated, gave great offence to the Conservative
+party, which was also the party of the King. The Princess's satisfaction
+was of course shared by her father, who wrote to the sympathetic
+Stockmar a letter showing no prevision of that great rock of Army
+administration on which these high hopes were destined to be wrecked:
+
+"The Regency seems now to have been secured for the Prince. We have only
+news of this at present by telegrams from our children, but are greatly
+delighted at this first step towards the reduction to order of a
+miserable chaos. Will the Prince have the courage to surround himself
+with honourable and patriotic men? That is the question, and what shape
+will the new Chamber take, and what will its influence on him be?"
+
+On November 20, 1858, Prince and Princess Frederick William moved into
+the palace in Unter den Linden which was henceforth to be their
+residence in Berlin; and on the following day, the Princess's eighteenth
+birthday, there was a kind of dedicatory service in the palace chapel,
+which was attended by all the members of the Royal House.
+
+[Illustration: HER ROYAL HIGHNESS VICTORIA, PRINCESS ROYAL 1856]
+
+This palace had been the scene of the happy life of the Prince's
+grandfather, King Frederick William III, and of Queen Louise. The
+intimate and beautiful family life that had filled these rooms was the
+best of omens for the young pair, and the Princess Royal was delighted
+with her new home. But the palace required to be brought up to modern
+standards of comfort, and it was very difficult to have the alterations
+approved by the moody and violent King. What he allowed on one day he
+took back with hasty blame on the morrow. At last Prince Frederick
+William obtained the Royal assent to those alterations which were
+absolutely urgent, together with a grant of 350,000 thalers. Among other
+improvements was added an eight-cornered "Gedenkhalle" or "Memory-Hall,"
+in which were placed the numerous wedding presents of the young pair,
+and to these, from time to time, were added other rare and beautiful
+objects.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+BIRTH OF PRINCE WILLIAM
+
+
+On January 27, 1859, Berlin was on the tip-toe of expectation. The
+custom is that 101 guns announce the birth of a Prince, and only
+twenty-one that of a Princess, and as in Prussia the Salic Law still
+obtains, it may easily be imagined with what anxiety the Berliners
+counted the successive discharges. There was indeed no need to wait for
+the whole tale of the 101 guns, for the firing of the twenty-second was
+enough to spread the glad news.
+
+The story goes that when old Field-Marshal Wrangel, "Papa Wrangel" as
+the Berliners affectionately called him, left the palace, the populace
+crowded round him and demanded to know what he could tell them.
+"Children," he answered, "all is well! It is as fine and sturdy a
+recruit as one could wish!"
+
+It soon became known, however, that all had not gone well with the young
+mother and her child. There had been one of those unfortunate mishaps,
+the exact truth of which it is always so difficult to disentangle, but
+the following account, we believe, represents what actually happened:
+
+It had been Queen Victoria's wish that the Princess should be attended
+in her confinement by Dr. Martin, her English doctor, as well as the
+German Court physicians. About eight o'clock in the morning of January
+27, one of the latter wrote to his English colleague, asking him to come
+at once to the Palace. But the servant to whom the letter was entrusted,
+instead of taking it to Dr. Martin's house, put it in the post, and it
+never reached him till the afternoon. To that fact the Princess Royal's
+friends always attributed the circumstances which resulted in the
+weakness of the infant's left arm. Be that as it may, both mother and
+baby were for a time in imminent danger. No anæsthetic was administered,
+and the Princess with characteristic courage looked up to her husband,
+who held her in his arms the whole time, and asked him to forgive her
+for being impatient. None of those about her thought her strength would
+hold out, and one of the German doctors actually said in her presence
+that he thought she would die, and her baby too. But at last her ordeal
+came to an end, and to her intense joy she was told that she had given
+birth to a fine healthy boy.
+
+The news of the birth of their first grandchild was quickly flashed to
+the anxious parents at Windsor. "A boy," ran the telegram, and Queen
+Victoria characteristically replied, "Is it a fine boy?" But it was not
+till the following day, so Prince Albert told Stockmar, that the courier
+brought "our first information of the severe suffering which poor Vicky
+had undergone, and of the great danger in which the child's life had
+hovered for a time." To King Leopold the Prince wrote, "The danger for
+the child and the sufferings for the mother were serious. Poor Fritz and
+the Prince and Princess must have undergone terrible anxiety, as they
+had no hope of the birth of a living child, and their joy over a strong,
+healthy boy is therefore all the greater."
+
+On the evening of the baby's birth, the Prince Regent, also a
+grandfather for the first time, held a reception of which we have a
+vivid description from the pen of the dramatist, Gustav zu Putlitz, then
+a member of the Prussian Landtag, and afterwards chamberlain to Princess
+Frederick William. He says:
+
+"It was like a great family festival. Everyone hurried there with
+congratulations, and when the young father, beaming with happiness,
+appeared, the rejoicings increased. This delight is shared by all
+classes of society, and is a testimony to the extent of the popularity
+of the Prince and Princess."
+
+Prince Frederick William received on January 29 the congratulations of
+the Prussian Chambers, to which he made the following reply:
+
+"I thank you very heartily for the interest you have shown in the joyful
+event, which is of such consequence to my family and to the country. If
+God should preserve my son's life, it shall be my chief endeavour to
+bring him up in the opinions and sentiments which bind me to the
+Fatherland. It is nearly a year to-day since I told you how deeply
+moved I was by the universal sympathy which was exhibited towards me, as
+a young married man, by the country as a whole. This sympathy it was
+which made the Princess, my wife, who had left her home to come to a new
+Fatherland, realise those ties of affection which have now, owing to the
+birth of this son, become unbreakable. May God therefore bless our
+efforts to bring up our son to be worthy of the love which has been thus
+early manifested towards him. The Princess, to whom I was able to
+communicate your intention, desires me to express her most sincere
+thanks."
+
+The christening was fixed for March 5, but neither of the parents of the
+Princess could be present. "I don't think I ever felt so bitterly
+disappointed," wrote the Queen to Uncle Leopold. "It almost breaks my
+heart. And then it is an occasion so gratifying to both nations and
+brings them so much together that it is peculiarly mortifying." However,
+the Queen consoled herself by doing all she could to mark the importance
+of the occasion. She sent a formal mission to represent her and the
+Prince Consort at the christening, consisting of Lord Raglan, the son of
+the victor of the Alma, Inkerman, and Balaclava, and Captain (afterwards
+Lord) de Ros, equerry to Prince Albert. They were both old friends of
+the Princess, to whom her father wrote:
+
+"I was certain that the presence of Lord Raglan and Captain de Ros would
+give you pleasure. Ours will come when they return, and we can put
+questions to them. My first will be: Has the Princess gone out and does
+she begin to enjoy the air, to which alone she can look for regaining
+strength and health? Or is she in the way to grow weak and watery by
+being baked like a bit of pastry in hot rooms? My second: Is she grown?
+I will spare you my others.
+
+"Your description of the Prince's kindness and loving sympathy for you
+makes me very happy. I love him dearly, and respect and value him, and I
+am glad too, for his sake, that in you and my little grandchild he has
+found ties of family happiness which cannot fail to give him those
+domestic tastes, in which alone in the long run life's true contentment
+is to be found."
+
+The baby Prince was duly christened on March 5, when he received the
+names of Frederick William Victor Albert, and on the following day his
+parents issued a touching expression of their gratitude for the sympathy
+and congratulations they had received from the public. In it they
+pledged themselves afresh to bring up their son, with the help of God,
+to the honour and service of the Fatherland.
+
+After the special envoys had returned from Berlin, the Prince writes to
+his daughter a letter on the duties of motherhood, which was decidedly
+candid for those rather prudish days:
+
+"Lord Raglan's and Captain de Ros's news of you have given me great
+pleasure. But I gather from them that you look rather languid and
+exhausted. Some sea air would be the right thing for you; it is what
+does all newly-made mothers the most good when their 'campaign is over.'
+I am, however, delighted to hear you have begun to get into the air. Now
+pass on as soon as possible to cold washing, shower baths, &c., so as to
+brace the system again, and to restore elasticity to the nerves and
+muscles.
+
+"You are now eighteen years old, and you will hold your own against many
+a buffet in life; still, you will encounter many for which you were not
+prepared and which you would fain have been spared. You must arm
+yourself against these, like Austria against the chance of war,
+otherwise you will break down and drop into a sickly state, which would
+be disastrous to yourself, and inflict a frightful burden upon poor
+Fritz for life; besides which, it would unfit you for fulfilling all the
+duties of your station.
+
+"In reference to having children, the French proverb says: _Le premier
+pour la santé, le second pour la beauté, le troisième gâte tout_. But
+England proves that the last part of the saying is not true, and health
+and beauty, those two great blessings, are only injured where the wife
+does not make zealous use of the intervals to repair the exhaustion,
+undoubtedly great, of the body, and to strengthen it both for what it
+has gone and what it has to go through, and where also the intervals
+are not sufficiently long to leave the body the necessary time to
+recruit."
+
+The Princess had a favourable convalescence, during which her active
+mind was troubled by an article on Freemasonry. Her father, to whom of
+course she turned for counsel, had never consented to be initiated as a
+Mason, though his sons, King Edward and the Duke of Connaught, both
+became enthusiastic members of the craft. The Princess seems to have
+been troubled by the idea that her husband's connection with the
+order--he had been appointed patron of the Masonic Lodges of Prussia and
+head of the Grand Lodge in Berlin--would in some way lessen the
+confidence between them. Prince Albert endeavours to reassure her with a
+paradox which she probably found quite unconvincing:
+
+"I will get Alice to read to me the article about Freemasons. It is not
+likely to contain the whole secret. The circumstance which provokes you
+only into finding fault with the Order, namely that husbands dare not
+communicate the secret of it to their wives, is just one of its best
+features. If _to be able to be silent_ is one of the chief virtues of
+the husband, then the test which puts him in opposition to that being
+towards whom he constantly shows the greatest weakness, is the hardest
+of all, and therefore the most compendious of virtues, and the wife
+should not only rejoice to see him capable of withstanding such a test,
+but should take occasion out of it to vie with him in virtue by taming
+the inborn curiosity which she inherits from her mother Eve. If the
+subject of the secret, moreover, be nothing more important than an
+apron, then every chance is given to virtue on both sides, without
+disturbing the confidence of marriage, which ought to be complete."
+
+The baby Prince William thrived, in spite of the defect in his left arm,
+which was shorter than the other. We have some entertaining glimpses of
+him, and of his parents' pride in him, in the correspondence of
+Priscilla Lady Westmorland. A German friend of hers, a lady of high
+rank, wrote to Lady Westmorland when the Prince was only about a week
+old:
+
+"I must tell you of my wonderful good fortune--I have actually seen this
+precious child in his father's arms! You will ask me what this child of
+so many prayers and wishes is like. They say all babies are alike: I do
+not think so: this one has a beautiful complexion, pink and white, and
+the most lovely little hand ever seen! The nose rather large; the eyes
+were shut, which was as well, as the light was so strong. His happy
+father was holding him in his arms, and himself showed traces of all he
+has gone through at the time. The child was believed to be dead, so you
+may conceive the ecstasy of everyone at his first cry."
+
+Prince Frederick William was indeed, as this lady put it, beside himself
+with joy. He delighted in showing his baby to his friends and loyal
+servants, calling him "mein Junge."
+
+In the early summer of 1859 the Princess Royal spent a happy holiday at
+Osborne, and her English relatives and friends thought her
+extraordinarily well and happy; it was also considered that she had
+become much better looking. The Queen describes her as "flourishing, and
+so well and gay," and as "a most charming companion," while Prince
+Albert tells Stockmar that "We found Vicky very well, and looking
+blooming, somewhat grown, and in excellent spirits. The short stay here
+will certainly be beneficial both to her health and spirits."
+
+While the Princess was in England, she was asked by her parents if she
+would make private inquiries as to any German princesses who might be
+suited to become Princess of Wales, but the search does not seem to have
+been successful. It was then that Sir Augustus Paget, who had been for
+two years British Minister in Copenhagen, spoke to his fiancée, the
+Princess Royal's lady-in-waiting, of Princess Alexandra. It was from
+this lady, now Walpurga Lady Paget, that Queen Victoria and the Prince
+Consort first heard of the beauty and many endearing graces of the
+Danish princess. So impressed were they by her account that it was
+arranged that the Princess Royal should meet Princess Alexandra
+informally at Strelitz, in the palace of the Grand Duchess of
+Mecklenburg.
+
+This meeting duly took place, and the Princess Royal wrote most
+enthusiastically of the result of their informal interview. It was
+directly owing to this fact that it was settled that the Prince of Wales
+and Princess Alexandra should meet, as if by chance, in the cathedral of
+Spiers with a view to making close acquaintance.
+
+The birth of Prince William brought a considerable change in the lives
+of his parents. Babelsberg had become too small to make a convenient
+summer home, and so the King granted them the use of the New Palace at
+Potsdam, which is only about half an hour's journey from Berlin.
+
+This enormous rococo building with its two hundred rooms was erected by
+Frederick the Great at the end of the Seven Years' War, in order to show
+his enemies that he had plenty of money still left with which to go to
+war again if necessary. Prince Frederick William was very fond of the
+New Palace, where he had himself been born, and which was full of
+reminders of his great namesake. Apparently the only thing he did not
+like about it was its name, for it will be remembered that during his
+brief reign he altered it to Friedrichskron.
+
+Queen Victoria, on her visit to Babelsberg in August, 1858, had gone to
+see the Palace, and she describes it in her diary as "a splendid
+building that reminded me much of Hampton Court--the same colour, same
+style, same kind of garden, with splendid orange trees which in the cool
+calm evening sent out a delicious smell. The Garten-Saal, one enormous
+hall, all in marble with incrustations of stones, opening into a
+splendid room or gallery, reminded me of the Salle des Glaces at
+Versailles. There is a theatre in the Palace, and many splendid fêtes
+have been given there. There are some rooms done in silver, like those
+at Sans Souci and Potsdam, and all in very rich Renaissance style. The
+millions it must have cost! But none of these palaces is _wohnlich_
+(liveable in). None like dear Babelsberg!"
+
+The Princess Royal was determined to make at any rate her own rooms in
+the Palace _wohnlich_. After the fashion of the period, she surrounded
+herself with portraits of her relations, and with paintings of her
+various beloved English homes. There were endless souvenirs of her
+childhood scattered about in her rooms--souvenirs of her Christmases and
+of birthdays, little gifts presented to her as a child and young girl by
+her grandmother, by her "Aunt Gloucester," and by all those who had
+surrounded her during the days of her happy youth.
+
+It is curious to reflect that, twenty years after the Princess Royal
+first took up her residence there, an English visitor was to write:
+"Without Carlyle's _Frederick the Great_, Potsdam would be a collection
+of mere dead walls enclosing a number of costly objects. Illuminated by
+the book, each room, each garden wall thrills with human interest." But
+when the Princess Royal first went there to make the New Palace her home
+for a part of each year, it might much more truly have been described
+as an arid and dusty waste, and that though it was surrounded by many
+waters. The gardens were very stiff, indeed ugly, but the Princess's
+active, creative mind saw their possibilities, and under her fostering
+hand and taste they were transformed and made to yield the utmost of
+beauty and delight.
+
+The New Palace henceforth became associated, in the minds of all those
+who were truly attached to the Princess, with all that was best and most
+peaceful in her life. It was there that she was able to set the example
+of that helpful and happy country life which she had learned to value in
+England, and it was not long before its simple domestic character became
+known far and wide, and exercised an influence the extent of which it is
+impossible to estimate.
+
+The Prince and Princess had a farm at Bornstedt, not far off, and there
+the Prince delighted to become for the time a simple farmer, managing
+himself all the details of the crops and the labourers, while the
+Princess occupied herself with the poultry and her model dairy. It may,
+indeed, be doubted whether the Prince and Princess found the farm a very
+good investment financially, but that was of small importance compared
+with the spiritual refreshment which they derived from this close
+periodical contact with the simple, natural gifts of mother earth.
+
+Among the neighbouring villagers, too, they found plenty of scope for
+the exercise of an intelligent philanthropy, in gradually modifying the
+primitive ideas then prevalent on sanitation, and in caring for the
+children and the old people. The Prince would himself sometimes teach in
+the village schools. A pretty story is told that one day, when he was
+questioning a class, he asked a little girl to what kingdom his
+watch-chain and a flower in his button-hole respectively belonged, and
+when she had answered correctly, he went on to ask, "To what kingdom do
+I belong?" and the child replied, "To the kingdom of Heaven."
+
+In June, 1859, the war between Austria and the allied French and
+Sardinian armies, culminating in the defeat of the Austrians at
+Solferino, brought natural anxieties to the Princess. The Prince Regent,
+while declaring the neutrality of Prussia, nevertheless ordered a
+mobilisation of the Army for the protection of Germany, and
+Major-General Prince Frederick William, commanding the First Infantry
+Brigade of Guards, was appointed to the command of the First Infantry
+Division of Guards. Though the Princess, thus early in her married life,
+showed by her quietude that she was a true soldier's wife, it was a
+great relief to her when the threatened danger was over and the
+mobilisation rescinded on the conclusion of the Peace of Villafranca in
+July. Prince Frederick William's promotion to command a division was
+then confirmed by his father.
+
+The political situation, however, remained difficult, and Prince Albert
+and his daughter watched it with anxious concern. The following passage
+in a letter of his dated September is no doubt in reply to some comments
+of hers on the position of Prussia and Germany in view of the rising
+agitation for unity in Italy:
+
+"I am for Prussia's hegemony; still _Germany_ is for me first in
+importance, Prussia as Prussia second. Prussia will become the chief if
+she stand at the head of Germany: if she merely seek to drag Germany
+down to herself, she will not herself ascend. She must, therefore, be
+magnanimous, act as one with the German nation in a self-sacrificing
+spirit, prove that she is not bent on aggrandisement, and then she will
+gain pre-eminence, and keep it," and he goes on to point the moral in
+the sacrifices which Sardinia had already made for the Italian idea.
+
+In November the Princess Royal paid a visit to England with her husband
+in time to celebrate the Prince of Wales's birthday on the 9th, and
+Prince Albert tells Stockmar:
+
+"We find the Princess Royal looking extremely well, and in the highest
+spirits, infinitely lively, loving, and mentally active. In knowledge of
+the world, she has made great progress." The visit lasted till December
+3, and Prince Albert wrote to the Dowager Duchess of Coburg that Prince
+Frederick William "has delighted us much. Vicky has developed greatly of
+late, and yet remains quite a child; of such indeed is the kingdom of
+Heaven."
+
+And after his daughter had gone back to Berlin, the loving father wrote
+to her:
+
+"Your dear visit has left upon us the most delightful impression; you
+were well, full of life and freshness, and withal matured. I may
+therefore yield to the feeling, sweetest of all to my heart as your
+father, that you will be lastingly happy. In this feeling I wait without
+apprehension for what fate may bring."
+
+On this visit to England the Princess did not fail to see her old friend
+and ruler, Sarah Lady Lyttelton, who records:
+
+"The dear Princess came in, habited and hatted and cockfeathered from
+her ride, looking very well though in a _very_ bad cold. She embraced me
+and received me _most_ kindly, and took me into her magnificent
+sitting-room, where I spent almost an hour with her, till she had to go
+and change her dress for luncheon. She talked much of her baby and
+inquired after everybody belonging to me and seemed as happy as ever."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ADVICE FROM ENGLAND
+
+
+The year 1860 was on the whole a happy one for the Princess Royal. It
+brought her a long visit from her parents and the birth of her eldest
+daughter, but on the other side of the account the relations between her
+two countries, England and Prussia, became perceptibly worse.
+
+For the New Year her father sent her one of his customary letters of
+sagacious counsel, in which may be detected a certain note of uneasiness
+as to the development of his daughter's powers of self-control:
+
+"You enter upon the New Year with hopes, which God will surely
+graciously suffer to be fulfilled, but you do also with good
+resolutions, whose fulfilment lies within your own hand and must
+necessarily contribute to your success, also happiness, in this
+suffering and difficult world. Hold firmly by these resolutions, and
+evermore cherish the determination, with which comes also strength, to
+exercise unlimited control over yourself, that the moral law may govern
+and the propensity obey,--the end and aim of all education and culture,
+as we long ago discovered and reasoned out together."
+
+It is remarkable that early in this year Prince Frederick William
+appears to have been for a time the centre of the hopes of the
+reactionary party. The Junkers actually planned to bring about the
+resignation of the Prince Regent, and to induce Prince Frederick William
+to assume the supreme power and govern without a constitution, which
+formed the great obstacle to their military ambitions. This scheme
+argued an extraordinary misapprehension, not only of Prince Frederick
+William's honest, straightforward character, but also of all his
+political ideals. He was, especially at this period of his life, a pure
+Constitutionalist, with a profound admiration for the free polity of
+England, and it would be difficult to imagine any form of government
+which would have seemed both to him and to his wife more immoral, as
+well as more certain to entail a counter-revolution, than a military
+dictatorship. It is perhaps not without significance that in March a
+British warship was launched at Portsmouth and was named _Frederick
+William_ by way of compliment to the husband of the Princess Royal.
+
+In June there was a parade at the Königsberg garrison, at which the
+Prince Regent said to his son, "Fritz, I appoint you to the First
+Infantry Regiment, the oldest Corps in the service," and about a month
+afterwards the young commander was promoted to the rank of
+Lieutenant-General.
+
+The Princess Royal's eldest daughter was born on July 24, and was
+christened Victoria Augusta Charlotte, being known as Princess
+Charlotte till her marriage in 1878 to the Hereditary Prince of
+Saxe-Meiningen. Queen Victoria records the news of the baby's birth in
+her usual vivid style:
+
+"Soon after we sat down to breakfast came a telegram from Fritz--Vicky
+had got a daughter at 8.10, and both were well! What joy! Children
+jumping about--everyone delighted--so thankful and relieved."
+
+Only the day before there had come a letter from the Princess Royal
+containing the intelligence that Prince Louis of Hesse was ardently
+desirous of paying his addresses to Princess Alice, the Princess Royal's
+much-loved sister and companion of her childhood. To this Prince Albert
+refers in writing to his daughter:
+
+"Only two words of hearty joy can I offer to the dear newly-made mother,
+and these come from an overflowing heart. The little daughter is a
+kindly gift from heaven, that will (as I trust) procure for you many a
+happy hour in the days to come. The telegraph speaks only of your doing
+well; may this be so in the fullest sense!
+
+"Upon the subject of your last interesting and most important letter, I
+have replied to Fritz, who will communicate to you as much of my answer
+as is good for you under present circumstances. Alice is very grateful
+for your love and kindness to her, and the young man behaves in a manner
+truly admirable."
+
+A few days later the anxious father writes to the young mother one of
+his curious medical homilies:
+
+"I hope you are very quiet, and keep this well in mind, that although
+you are well, and feel yourself well, the body has to take on a new
+conformation, and the nervous system a new life. Only rest of brain,
+heart, and body, along with good nourishment, and its assimilation by
+regular undisturbed digestion, can restore the animal forces. My
+physiological treatise should not bore you, for it is always good to
+keep the GREAT PRINCIPLES in view, in accordance with which we have to
+regulate our actions."
+
+But it was not all physiological treatise that was despatched from
+Osborne to Berlin. The Prince has an amusing reference to the busy
+importance with which the little Princess Beatrice, who was then three
+and a quarter years old, regarded the arrival of her first niece:
+
+"The little girl must be a darling. Little maidens are much prettier
+than boys. I advise her to model herself after her Aunt Beatrice. That
+excellent lady has now not a moment to spare. 'I have no time,' she
+says, when she is asked for anything, 'I must write letters to my
+niece.'
+
+"It will make you laugh, if I tell you that I have christened a black
+mare Ayah (as black nurse). I lately asked the groom what was the
+horse's name, which I had forgotten. 'Haya,' was the answer. 'What?' I
+asked. 'We spell it Hay, Why, Hay.' You should call your Westphalian
+nurse, 'Hay, Why, Hay!'"
+
+It had been arranged that the Queen and Prince Albert should pay their
+visit to their daughter and son-in-law at Coburg at the end of
+September. By a most unfortunate chance there had occurred about the
+middle of the month one of those "incidents" which are sometimes, when
+mishandled by officialdom and magnified by offended national pride,
+allowed to exercise an influence ludicrously disproportionate to their
+real triviality. The Macdonald affair, as it was called, at one moment
+threatened to bring about a serious breach between England and Prussia,
+and as it was unquestionably one of the causes of the dislike and
+suspicion with which the Princess Royal was to be regarded by a section
+of the Prussians, it is worth while to record it in some detail.
+
+A Scottish gentleman, a certain Captain Macdonald, had a dispute about a
+seat in a railway carriage at Bonn. He knew no German, was ignorant of
+Prussian law, and very likely behaved, or was considered by the
+authorities to have behaved, in an autocratic manner. However that may
+be, he was not only ejected from the carriage but was committed to
+prison, where he remained from September 12 to 18. On the 18th he was
+tried and fined twenty thalers and costs. The English residents at Bonn
+warmly espoused his cause, and Captain Macdonald seems, apart from the
+original dispute, to have had reason to complain of violence used to him
+and also of his treatment while in prison. It was also particularly
+unfortunate that at the trial the Staatsprocurator, or public
+prosecutor, should have denounced the behaviour when abroad of English
+people generally. "The English residing and travelling," he said, "are
+notorious for the rudeness, impudence, and boorish arrogance of their
+conduct."
+
+This accusation, whether well founded or not, naturally seemed to
+English lawyers and the English public a piece of gratuitous
+irrelevance, intended merely to excite prejudice against Captain
+Macdonald. It is impossible now to apportion the blame for the way in
+which the incident was allowed to embitter public opinion in both
+countries. The affair dragged on for months--indeed, it was not finally
+disposed of till the following May. There were questions in Parliament,
+Lord Palmerston was extremely angry, and an article in the _Times_
+served to pour oil on the flame.
+
+In the circumstances the incident inevitably rather dashed the joy of
+the happy family party at Coburg. The Queen conferred with Lord John
+Russell, then Foreign Secretary, whom she had brought with her, and she
+alludes in her journal to "the ejection and imprisonment (unfairly, it
+seems) of a Captain Macdonald, and the subsequent offensive behaviour of
+the authorities. It has led to ill blood, and much correspondence, but
+Lord John is very reasonable about it, and not inclined to do anything
+rash. These foreign governments are very arbitrary and violent, and our
+people apt to give offence, and to pay no regard to the laws of the
+country."
+
+The Queen and Prince Albert arrived at Coburg on September 25, and the
+Princess Royal delighted in visiting with her father the scenes of his
+boyhood. She went with the guns to a drive of wild boars, and almost
+every day there was an expedition to some interesting place in all the
+relief of _incognito_. One day Prince Albert had a narrow escape. He was
+alone in an open carriage when the horses ran away. With great presence
+of mind, he jumped out, and happily got off with nothing worse than a
+few cuts and bruises. Gustav Freytag, the distinguished German novelist
+and dramatist, was received, and the Queen records that there was much
+conversation with him after dinner. As we shall see later, Freytag was
+admitted to the confidence of the Princess Royal and her husband, and he
+repaid their kindness in strange fashion.
+
+It was on this visit that the Queen saw her eldest grandchild for the
+first time. Writing on September 25, she says:
+
+"Our darling grandchild was brought. Such a little love! He came walking
+in at Mrs. Hobbs's [his nurse's] hand, in a little white dress with
+black bows, and was so good. He is a fine, fat child, with a beautiful
+white soft skin, very fine shoulders and limbs, and a very dear face,
+like Vicky and Fritz, and also Louise of Baden. He has Fritz's eyes and
+Vicky's mouth, and very fair curly hair. We felt so happy to see him at
+last!"
+
+This was the beginning of an enduring friendship between grandmother and
+grandson, and no one with any historical imagination can help recalling
+the last scene of that friendship, when this fine little boy, grown to
+be a mighty Emperor, hastened to share the grief of the English people
+at the death-bed of their great Queen.
+
+The Queen was evidently much attracted by the already characteristic
+energy of the little Prince, for there are references to him all through
+her records of this visit:
+
+"Dear little William came to me as he does every morning. He is such a
+darling, so intelligent." "Dear little Wilhelm as usual with me before
+dinner--a darling child." "The dear little boy is so intelligent and
+pretty, so good and affectionate." "Had a last visit from dear Stockmar.
+Towards the end of his stay, dear little William came in and played
+about the room." "The darling little boy with us for nearly an hour,
+running about so dearly and merrily." "At Cologne our darling little
+William was brought into our carriage to bid good-bye. I felt the
+parting deeply."
+
+Prince Albert wrote to the Duchess of Kent: "Your great-grandson is a
+very pretty, clever child--a compound of both parents, just as it should
+be."
+
+Mrs. Georgina Hobbs, the nurse mentioned above, first went to Germany as
+a maid in the service of the Princess Royal on her marriage, and was
+afterwards promoted to be chief nurse to the Royal children. Prince
+William and his brother and sisters were devotedly attached to "Hobbsy,"
+as they called her, and it was from "Hobbsy" that they learnt English,
+for their parents always talked German to one another.
+
+The Princess Royal, perhaps naturally, preferred to have her children's
+nursery arranged and conducted on the English rather than on the German
+model, but who can doubt that in this, as in other matters of even less
+importance, she would have done better to have studied the
+susceptibilities of her adopted country? Indeed, Dr. Hinzpeter, who was
+afterwards appointed the tutor of her sons, bears witness that her
+nursery management became a great subject of gossip among the Berliners,
+and stories were even current of corporal punishment administered before
+the Court to princes with dirty faces. It is true that Dr. Hinzpeter
+describes these stories as mythical, but the fact that they were
+circulated and believed helps to account for the Princess's growing
+unpopularity.
+
+At this period Prince Albert was seriously disturbed by the attacks
+which the _Times_ was constantly making on Prussia and everything
+Prussian. In an article in the _Saturday Review_, recommended by him to
+his daughter, it was said: "The only reason the _Times_ ever gives for
+its dislike of Prussia, is that the Prussian and English Courts are
+connected by personal ties, and that British independence demands that
+everything proceeding from the Court should be watched with the most
+jealous suspicion."
+
+The Prince was honestly indifferent to the insinuations against himself
+by which these attacks were frequently pointed, but he was reasonably
+anxious about the bad effect they would have in Germany. Writing to his
+daughter on October 24, after his return to England, he refers to the
+Macdonald affair, which had already become acute:
+
+"What abominable articles the _Times_ has against Prussia! That of
+yesterday upon Warsaw and Schleinitz is positively too wicked. It is the
+Bonn story which continues to operate, and a total estrangement between
+the two countries may ensue, if a newspaper war be kept up for some time
+between the two nations. Feelings, and not arguments, constitute the
+basis for actions. An embitterment of feeling between England and
+Prussia would be a great misfortune, and yet they are content in Berlin
+to make no move in the Bonn affair."
+
+It was only too true that the Prussian Government was in no hurry to
+settle the Macdonald affair. The bitterness which it engendered did not
+die out till long after its formal termination in May of the following
+year, and undoubtedly it contributed far more than was suspected at the
+time to increase the delicacy and difficulty of the Princess Royal's
+position. It was actually thought in Germany that she inspired the
+attacks in the British Press. "This attitude of the English newspapers
+preys upon the Princess Royal's spirits and materially affects her
+position in Prussia," so wrote Lord Clarendon.
+
+This autumn and winter Prince Albert, in spite of many political and
+other anxieties and a sharp attack of illness, faithfully continued to
+instruct his daughter in the art of government.
+
+It does not seem ever to have crossed his mind that such instruction,
+though admirable in itself, was ill-advised in view of his pupil's
+position. The ideal woman in Prussia was then, and still is to a large
+extent, one who, conscious of her intellectual inferiority, contents
+herself with managing her household and children. If this view obtained
+with regard to women in private stations, much more was it considered to
+be the duty of princesses of the Royal House to abstain from any active
+interest in public affairs. But either Prince Albert did not appreciate
+this, or it is possible that he thought his daughter to be freed by her
+exceptional ability from the ordinary restrictions and limitations of
+her rank. There is yet a third possibility--that he did not altogether
+trust his son-in-law's political judgment, and was anxious to give him,
+in the troublous times that seemed impending, an help-meet who could
+influence him in the right, that is in the Coburg, direction. Whatever
+may have been the reason, the Prince certainly continued to the end of
+his life to cultivate his daughter's knowledge and grasp of public
+affairs.
+
+In December, 1860, the Prince Consort received from Berlin a memorandum
+upon the advantages of a law of Ministerial responsibility. Its object
+was to remove the apprehensions entertained in high quarters at the
+Prussian Court as to the expediency of a measure of this kind. This
+memorandum was the work of the Princess Royal, and it is easy to imagine
+what a storm of indignation would have arisen in Prussia if by any
+accident or indiscretion the knowledge that the Princess had written
+such a paper had leaked out.
+
+Still, it was undoubtedly an able piece of work. Sir Theodore Martin
+says that it would have been remarkable as the work of an experienced
+statesman; and, as the fruit of the liberal political views in which the
+Prince had been at pains to train its author, it must have filled his
+mind with the happiest auguries for her fulfilment of the great career
+which lay before her. "It would have delighted your heart to read it,"
+were his words in writing to Baron Stockmar.
+
+To his daughter he sent a long and flattering reply beginning: "It is
+remarkably clear and complete, and does you the greatest credit. I agree
+with every word of it, and feel sure it must convince everyone who is
+open to conviction from sound logic, and prepared to follow what sound
+logic dictates."
+
+This pathetic faith in the potency of logic in political affairs is hard
+to reconcile with the Prince Consort's earlier and sounder dictum that
+feelings, not arguments, constitute the basis for actions. It is evident
+from the rest of the letter that the Princess had laid it down that the
+responsibility of his advisers does not in fact impair the monarch's
+dignity and importance, but is really for him the best of safeguards.
+She had gone on to discuss the proposition that the patriarchal relation
+in which the monarchs of old were supposed to stand towards their people
+was preferable to the constitutional system which interposes the
+Minister between the sovereign and his subjects. Her father's comments
+on this would have seemed to many Prussians most heretical doctrine to
+be imparted to their future Queen.
+
+The patriarchal relation, he says, is pretty much like the idyllic life
+of the Arcadian shepherds--a figure of speech, and not much more. It was
+the fashionable phrase of an historical transition-period. Monarchy in
+the days of Attila, of Charlemagne, of the Hohenstaufen, of the Austrian
+Emperors, of Louis XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, &c., was as little like a
+patriarchal relation as anything could be. On the contrary it was
+sovereignty based upon spoliation, war, murder, oppression, and
+massacre. That relation was sedulously developed in the small German
+States, whose rulers were little more than great landed proprietors,
+during a short period in the eighteenth century, and was cherished out
+of a sentimental feeling. It then gave way before the Voltairean
+philosophy during the reigns of Frederick II, Joseph II, Louis XVI, &c.,
+was turned topsy-turvy by the French Revolution, and finally
+extinguished in the military despotism of Napoleon.
+
+The Prince went on to say that in the great war of liberation the people
+and their princes stood by one another in struggling for the
+establishment of civic freedom, first against the foreign oppressor, and
+then as citizens in their own country; and the treaties of 1815, as well
+as the appeal to the people in 1813, decreed constitutional government
+in every country. The charter was granted in France, and special
+constitutions were promised in all the States; even to Poland the
+promise of one was made, although there, as well as in Prussia and
+Austria, that promise was not kept. Then came the Holy Alliance and
+introduced reaction into Germany, France, Spain, and Italy, by dint of
+sword and Congress (in 1817-1823). Once more the patriarchal relation
+was fostered with the sentimentalism of the Kotzebue school, and the
+betrayed peoples were required to become good children, because the
+Princes styled themselves good fathers! The July Revolution, and all
+that has taken place since then, sufficiently demonstrate that the
+peoples neither will nor can play the part of children.
+
+As for the personal government of absolute Sovereigns, Prince Albert
+declared that to be a pure illusion. Nowhere does history present us
+with such cases of government by Ministers and favourites as in the most
+absolute monarchies, because nowhere can the Minister play so safe a
+game. A Court cabal is the only thing he has to fear, and he is well
+skilled in the ways by which this is to be strangled. History is full of
+examples. Recent instances have occurred where the personal discredit
+into which the Sovereign has fallen makes the maintenance of the
+monarchy, not as a form of government, but as an effective State
+machine, all but impossible. When, as in the case of the King of Naples,
+this result has arisen, all that people are able to say in defence is,
+"He was surrounded by a bad set, he was badly advised, he did not know
+the state the country was in." To what purpose, then, is personal
+government, if a man in his own person knows nothing and learns nothing?
+
+The Sovereign should give himself no trouble, said the Prince in
+conclusion, about details, but exercise a broad and general
+supervision, and see to the settlement of the principles on which action
+is to be based. This he can, nay, must do, where he has responsible
+Ministers, who are under the necessity of obtaining his sanction to the
+system which they pursue and intend to uphold in Parliament. This the
+personally ruling Sovereign cannot do, because he is smothered in
+details, does not see the wood for the trees, and has no occasion to
+come to an agreement with his Ministers about principles and systems,
+which to both him and them can only appear to be a great burden and
+superfluous nuisance.
+
+How these doctrines would have been regarded by probably the majority of
+Prussians appears from another letter which the Prince wrote a fortnight
+later. His daughter had sent him an article from the Conservative
+_Kreuz-Zeitung_, and on it he comments:
+
+"The article expresses in plain terms the view that _Monarchy_ as an
+institution has for that party a value only so long as it is based upon
+arbitrary will; and so these people arrive at precisely the same
+confession of faith as the Red democrats, by reason of which a Republic
+is certain to prove neither more nor less than an arbitrary despotism.
+Freedom and order, which are set up as political antitheses, are, on the
+contrary, in fact, synonymous, and the necessary consequences of
+_legality_. 'The majesty of the law' is an idea which upon the
+Continent is not yet comprehended, probably because people cannot
+realise to themselves a dead thing as the supreme power, and seek for
+_personal_ power in government or people. And yet virtue and morality
+are also dead things, which nevertheless have a prerogative and a
+vocation to govern living men--_divine laws_, upon which our human laws
+ought to be moulded."
+
+Christmas brought the customary exchange of loving gifts. Prince Louis
+of Hesse, now the betrothed of Princess Alice, joined the family circle
+in England, and Prince Albert writes to his daughter in Berlin:
+
+"Oh! if you, with Fritz and the children, were only with us! Louis was
+an accession. He is a very dear good fellow, who pleases us better and
+better daily. In my abstraction I call him 'Fritz.' _Your Fritz_ must
+not take it amiss, for it is only the personification of a beloved,
+newly-bestowed, full-grown son.
+
+"But to return to the dear Christmas festival! Your gifts which were
+there have caused the highest delight, and those we have yet to expect
+will be looked for with impatience. To the latter belong Wilhelm's bust,
+Fritz's boar's head--for which in the meantime I beg you will give the
+lucky huntsman my hearty thanks. Wilhelm shall be placed in the light
+you wish when he issues (I hope unbroken) from his dusty box. The album,
+which arrived yesterday morning, is very precious to us, as it enables
+us to live altogether beside you--in imagination.
+
+"Prejudice walking to and fro in flesh and blood is my horror, and,
+alas, a phenomenon so common; and people plume themselves so much upon
+their prejudices, as signs of decision of character and greatness of
+mind, nay of true patriotism; and all the while they are simply the
+product of narrowness of intellect and narrowness of heart."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+DEATH OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA
+
+
+On January 2, 1861, died the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV, and
+his brother, the Prince Regent, succeeded as William I. Prince Frederick
+William became Crown Prince of Prussia, and henceforth the Princess
+Royal was called, both in England and in Germany, the Crown Princess.
+
+In the _Letters of Queen Victoria_ there is a most impressive account,
+written by the Princess Royal, and there published for the first time,
+of the death of the King of Prussia. The event moved her the more deeply
+because, not only was she present at the death-bed, but it was really
+her first sight of death.
+
+The King had been ailing so long that those about him had ceased to be
+specially anxious. On Monday evening, December 31, the Prince and
+Princess Frederick William were sitting at tea with the Prince Regent
+and the Princess of Prussia, when there was brought bad news from San
+Souci, but still nothing to make them particularly uneasy. In the middle
+of the night, or rather early next morning, they were called up with the
+intelligence that all hope for the King had been abandoned.
+
+Without waiting for any kind of carriage, although, as the Princess
+notes, there were twelve degrees of cold Réaumur, she and Prince
+Frederick William hurried on foot to the Prince of Prussia's palace.
+From thence they went in a special train to Potsdam. There they found
+the King dying, and the members of the Royal family standing round
+watching the death struggle. The painful scene went on till five the
+next afternoon, when Prince Frederick William wisely sent the Princess
+off to bed. At one o'clock in the morning of January 2 they were again
+called, with the news that the King had not many minutes more to live.
+
+The letter in which all these facts are recorded is a remarkable
+composition, especially when it is remembered that the writer was only
+twenty. We may be sure that any thought of literary effect was far from
+her, and yet no one, reading it now after the lapse of so many years,
+can be insensible to the poignancy of this simple, unstudied, almost
+artless description of the scene in the death-chamber--the dim lamp; the
+silence broken only by the crackling of the fire and the death-rattle;
+the Queen, Elizabeth, continually wiping the perspiration from the dying
+man's forehead.
+
+But the letter also shows how really noble was the new Crown Princess's
+outlook on life. She speaks with the warmest affection of her
+parents-in-law: "May God bless and preserve them, and may theirs be a
+long and happy reign," and she goes on to describe the King as he lay
+dead, peaceful and quiet like a sleeping child. She could hardly bring
+herself to believe that this was really death, "that which I had so
+often shuddered at and felt afraid of"; there was nothing dreadful or
+appalling, only a heavenly calm and peace.
+
+The Crown Princess also speaks with deep feeling for the Queen Dowager,
+who had never really liked her, and who, as we know, had been in
+sympathy so pro-Russian all through the Crimean War. But this grief
+brought the two together as perhaps nothing else could have done, and
+the Princess says: "She was so kind to me, kinder than she has ever been
+yet, and said I was like her own child and a comfort to her."
+
+Prince Albert was evidently greatly moved by his daughter's letter. In
+his reply he reminds her that in one of the most impressive experiences
+of life she was now older than himself. "The more frequently you look
+upon the body, the stronger will be your conviction that yonder casing
+is not the _man_, yea, that it is scarcely conceivable how it can have
+been. In seeing and observing the approach of death, as you have been
+called upon to do, you have become older in experience than myself. I
+have never seen anyone die." To Stockmar the Prince wrote that "The
+Princess, now Crown Princess, has in the late trying time at Berlin
+again behaved quite admirably, and receives on all sides the most entire
+recognition."
+
+That same eventful January of 1861, the Princess lost two firm and
+loyal friends in Lord and Lady Bloomfield. She parted with them with
+great regret, and presented to Lady Bloomfield a bust of little Prince
+William done by herself.
+
+At that time it must indeed have seemed to the Crown Princess as if all
+her own and her husband's hopes and aspirations for a full and useful
+public life were about to be amply fulfilled. The new King had not only
+always been an affectionate father to his only son and heir, but he had
+also been marked among the princes of his time for his liberal opinions
+and English sympathies.
+
+The third anniversary of the Crown Princess's marriage came very soon
+after the death of the old King, and writing on that day to her mother
+she said: "Every time our dear wedding day returns I feel so happy and
+thankful--and live every moment of that blessed and
+never-to-be-forgotten day over again in thought. I love to dwell on
+every minute of the day; not a hope has been disappointed, not an
+expectation that has not been realised, and much more--that few can
+say--and I _am_ thankful as I ought to be."
+
+Soon after the accession of William I, Herr Max Duncker was formally
+attached to the Crown Prince as a channel of communication in State
+matters. Duncker had been Professor of History at the Universities of
+Halle and Tübingen, and had also obtained some practical experience of
+politics as a member of the Frankfort and Erfurt Diet, and as a Prussian
+deputy. He had indeed been chosen by Stockmar for the position of
+confidential adviser to the Prince, with whom and with the Princess he
+was already in favour; and he saw in his new post an opportunity of
+sowing seed which might one day spring up and bear fruit an
+hundred-fold.
+
+In March the death of the Duchess of Kent deprived the Crown Princess of
+a grandmother to whom she had been very warmly attached, and with whom
+was associated all the events of her happy childhood and girlhood.
+
+On receiving the unexpected news, for the Duchess of Kent had only been
+really ill a few hours, the Princess started for England, not entirely
+with the approval of her father-in-law. The Prince Consort, who in this
+matter of his daughter's relations to her father-in-law always showed
+exceptional tact, wrote and thanked the King: "Her stay here has been a
+great comfort and delight to us in our sorrow and bereavement, and we
+are truly grateful for it."
+
+The problem of the Schleswig-Holstein duchies and the unfortunate
+Macdonald affair combined to draw England and Prussia still further
+apart. It is true that the latter was formally settled in May, but the
+bad feeling it created was not appeased. Lord Palmerston said in the
+House that the conduct of the Prussian Government had been a blunder as
+well as a crime, while the Prussian Foreign Minister (Baron von
+Schleinitz), then on the eve of his retirement, retaliated with a stiff
+rejoinder.
+
+A leading article in the _Times_, backing up Palmerston's view, is
+described by Prince Albert, in a letter to Berlin, as "studiedly
+insulting." At the same time the Prince saw clearly that Schleinitz had
+made a mistake in mixing up the Macdonald affair with _la haute
+politique_. "In Germany the idea of the State in the abstract is a thing
+divine; here it means the freedom of the individual citizen." And he
+goes on to say that the feeling in England ought to teach Prussia that
+mere talk will not do.
+
+"Prussia has been always talking of being the only natural and real ally
+of England, but since 1815 she has taken no part in any European
+question. Prussia sets up a claim to stand at the head of Germany, but
+she is not German in her conduct. The Zollverein was the only really
+German action to which she can point. She leads Germany, not upon the
+path of liberty and constitutional development, which Germany (Prussia
+included) requires and desires. I can imagine that with the high
+military pretensions to which she has laid claim for the last forty-five
+years, she suffers under an oppressive consciousness that her army is
+the only one which during this long period has not been called into
+action. I repeat, however, that a large, liberal, generous policy is
+the preliminary condition for an alliance with England, for hegemony in
+Germany, and for her military renown."
+
+[Illustration: HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
+
+PRINCE FREDERICK WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA
+
+PAINTED AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE, JUNE 1857, BY WINTERHALTER]
+
+These were the views with which the Crown Princess was steadily
+indoctrinated. It is possible that she found them a little too cool and
+impartially objective for her patriotism, but if so, there is no trace
+of such disagreement in Prince Albert's correspondence.
+
+It was fortunate that Prussian opinion was at this time distracted by
+the thought of the coming coronation of the new King. The ceremony
+raised certain questions which, though nominally concerned with mere
+ceremonial, possessed in reality considerable importance from a
+constitutional point of view. The principal question was whether the
+oath of allegiance traditionally taken by the estates of the realm was
+consistent with the new constitutional law desired by the King.
+Apparently the King wished the oath to be taken, but was dissuaded by
+his Ministers, and it was decided that his Majesty should simply be
+crowned at Königsberg in the presence of the Landtag.
+
+In July, 1861, the Crown Prince, who had gone with the Crown Princess to
+pay a visit to Queen Victoria, wrote from Osborne a long and remarkable
+letter to his father, a passage in which shows how constantly he
+consulted his wife on questions of high politics.
+
+The Crown Prince begs the King not to regard the coronation with
+repugnance on account of the omission of the oath of allegiance. He
+describes the act of assuming the crown as a despotic act, and as solemn
+proof that the crown is not conferred by any earthly power, in spite of
+the prerogatives abandoned in 1848. He goes on to argue that the
+ceremony will compel the Great Powers to show deference to Prussia by
+sending ambassadors, and that therefore it ought to take place in
+Berlin. In this way it would exhibit the development of Prussia.
+Frederick I, by being crowned at Königsberg, marked the beginning of a
+new era for the State, but now a coronation at Berlin would mark the new
+future which opened out for Prussia as the defender of the united German
+territories. The Crown Prince advised that the King and Queen should go
+to Königsberg before the coronation in Berlin, either to receive the
+oath of allegiance or to hold a great reception, and then he goes on:
+
+"I have ventured, dear father, to express my opinion quite frankly,
+though you may perhaps be surprised by my strong inclination for the
+coronation ceremony. The fact is simply that I have often calmly
+discussed this with Vicky as the only desirable conclusion, when I saw
+the increasing difficulties arising in your mind with reference to the
+oath of allegiance."
+
+These opinions of the Crown Prince's, in which his wife evidently
+concurred, would hardly have been approved by Prince Albert. They show
+the future Emperor Frederick in a new light--no longer as the liberal
+constitutionalist, the firm admirer of England's free polity, but as the
+champion of the divine right of the Hohenzollerns, with a splendid
+vision of a united Germany under the military protection of Prussia. At
+the same time there is that qualifying sentence in which the Crown
+Prince refers to the plan of a coronation at Berlin almost as if he and
+his wife had been driven to recommend it as the only solution of the
+King's difficulties regarding the oath of allegiance.
+
+The whole question becomes the more interesting in the light of a
+remarkable piece of dynastic history which was revealed for the first
+time at the jubilee celebrations of the Emperor William II in June,
+1913, in an address by Professor Hintze at the Berlin University. It
+seems that his Imperial Majesty was informed, before his father's death
+in 1888, that upon that event a sealed document of high importance would
+be placed in his hands. When he read it, he found that it was the
+political testament of his great-uncle, King Frederick William IV of
+Prussia, brother of the Emperor who made united Germany.
+
+As its name implies, the paper contained King Frederick William's advice
+to his successors on the Throne of Prussia. Part at least of these
+counsels was deemed to be possibly so seductive to Sovereigns of a
+certain temperament that the Emperor William II felt it his duty to
+commit the whole paper to the flames. The Royal testator, who inherited
+from his mother, Queen Louise, an exceedingly exalted idea of the rights
+of the Crown, recommended his successors to revoke the written
+Constitution which he himself had granted his people. But he had a high
+sense of the obligations of his kingly word and of his Royal oath, and
+accordingly he advised any of them who might take the step to take it
+before he had sworn to observe the Constitution at his coronation.
+
+The Emperors William I and Frederick III seem to have been content with
+ignoring the testament. It was left for their successor, William II,
+fearful lest it might one day tempt some "young and inexperienced ruler"
+into dangerous paths, to destroy it. His apprehensions were curiously
+strong. He felt, he told Professor Hintz, as if he had a barrel of
+gunpowder in his house, and he knew no peace until he had got rid of the
+terrible document.
+
+We need not discuss here whether these apprehensions were well founded.
+What is of the highest interest is the knowledge, thus come to light
+after so many years, of this extraordinary political testament. It had
+unquestionably been read at this time, July, 1861, by the new King
+William I, and it is equally certain that it had not then been read by
+the Crown Prince and Crown Princess. Probably the knowledge of the
+document would have modified the views expressed in the Crown Prince's
+letter from Osborne. In any case, it seems so far to have influenced the
+new King that he rejected his son's advice and adhered to his decision
+in favour of a coronation at Königsberg, which duly took place there
+with all suitable pomp on October 18.
+
+Among the very few published letters of the Crown Princess is one which
+she wrote to her mother describing the ceremony. She modestly declares
+herself "a very bad hand at descriptions," but no one who reads the
+letter now would possibly agree with that. On the contrary, she shows
+the same remarkably vivid and picturesque power of narration of which we
+had an example in her account of the death-bed of King Frederick William
+IV.
+
+The fact that the day chosen for the coronation was her husband's
+birthday gave the Crown Princess great pleasure, as also that an English
+artist, Mr. George Housman Thomas, was commissioned to paint a picture
+entitled "Homage of the Princess Royal at the Coronation of the King of
+Prussia."
+
+Lord Clarendon, who was the British Special Ambassador on the occasion,
+writing to Queen Victoria on the day after the coronation, observed that
+"_the_ great feature of the ceremony was the manner in which the
+Princess Royal did homage to the King. Lord Clarendon is at a loss for
+words to describe to your Majesty the exquisite grace and the intense
+emotion with which her Royal Highness gave effect to her feelings on the
+occasion. Many an older as well as younger man than Lord Clarendon, who
+had not his interest in the Princess Royal, were quite as unable as
+himself to repress their emotion at that which was so touching, because
+so unaffected and sincere."
+
+Lord Granville also wrote to Prince Albert, "One of the most graceful
+and touching sights ever seen was the Princess's salute of the King."
+
+Lord Clarendon added in his letter to the Queen, not very prudently: "If
+his Majesty had the mind, the judgment, and the foresight of the
+Princess Royal, there would be nothing to fear, and the example and
+influence of Prussia would soon be marvellously developed. Lord
+Clarendon has had the honour to hold a very long conversation with her
+Royal Highness, and has been more than ever astonished at the
+_statesmanlike_ and comprehensive views which she takes of the policy of
+Prussia, both internal and foreign, and of the _duties_ of a
+Constitutional King."
+
+Unfortunately, Prussia was far from desiring the wife of the Heir
+Apparent to entertain any views, statesmanlike or other, on either
+domestic or foreign policy.
+
+Lord Clarendon also told the Queen that the Princess was appreciated and
+beloved by all classes. Every member of the Royal Family, he said, had
+spoken of her to him in terms of admiration, and through various
+channels he had had opportunities of learning how strong was the feeling
+of educated and enlightened people towards her.
+
+There is significance in the English statesman's reference to "educated
+and enlightened" people. He must have been aware that the majority of
+Prussians of that day were neither educated nor enlightened in his sense
+of the words, and that the Princess was really only appreciated by the
+small intellectual group who were flattered by the recognition which she
+and the Crown Prince bestowed on them. But Lord Clarendon was perhaps
+disposed to see everything _en beau_, for the Crown Princess mentions
+that the King and Queen showed a marked cordiality to him, contrasting
+with the stiff etiquette observed in their reception of the other
+Ambassadors.
+
+To return to the Crown Princess's account of the coronation. She
+contrives to give in comparatively few words an unforgettable picture of
+the _coup d'oeil_ in the chapel--the Knights of the Black Eagle in
+their red velvet cloaks, the various colours of the uniforms, and the
+diamonds and Court dresses of the ladies, all harmonised by the sun
+pouring in through the high windows. The Princess says that she herself
+was in gold with ermine and white satin, while one of her ladies wore
+blue and the other red velvet. "Dearest Fritz was in a great state of
+emotion and excitement, as we all were." The King looked so handsome
+and noble with the crown on, and the moment when he put the crown on
+the Queen's head was so touching that there was hardly a dry eye in the
+chapel.
+
+The Princess's keen sense of humour was stirred by the large assemblage
+of princes and other notables. "Half Europe is here, and one sees the
+funniest combinations in the world. It is like a happy family shut up in
+a cage!" and she mentions as an example the Italian Ambassador sitting
+close to a Cardinal. There is also a young prince of Hesse who nearly
+dies of fright and shyness among so many people; he at once excites the
+sympathy of the warm-hearted Princess, though she herself had no
+experience of the agonies of shyness.
+
+But the Princess was even more diverted by a compliment which the King
+paid her:
+
+"The King gave me a charming little locket for his hair, and only
+think--what will sound most extraordinary, absurd, and incredible to
+your ears--made me second _Chef_ of the 2nd Regiment of Hussars! I
+laughed so much, because really I thought it was a joke--it seemed so
+strange for ladies; but the Regiments like particularly having ladies
+for their _Chefs_! The Queen and the Queen Dowager have Regiments, but I
+believe I am the first Princess on whom such an honour is conferred."
+
+Possibly the Princess thought at first that she was being appointed
+honorary cook to the regiment! In any case it is curious that she
+should not have known of the custom of conferring such distinctions on
+Royal ladies, which obtains in the British Army as well as on the
+Continent.
+
+We have no means of knowing how the Crown Prince and Crown Princess
+regarded the new King's declaration at Königsberg--that declaration
+which amounted to an explicit assertion of the divine right of Kings.
+But in Queen Victoria's Letters there is a curious revelation of the
+anxiety with which Her Majesty regarded the constant attacks of the
+_Times_ on everything German, and particularly everything Prussian. She
+even wrote to Lord Palmerston about it, suggesting that he might see his
+way to remonstrate with the conductors of the journal. "Pam" did see his
+way, and he got an entertaining answer from the great Delane, then at
+the zenith of his power, which he forwarded to her Majesty. The editor
+says that he would not have intruded advice on the Prussians during the
+splendid ceremonies of the coronation "had not the King uttered those
+surprising anachronisms upon the Divine Right."
+
+We learn from a letter written by Lord Clarendon to Queen Victoria that
+the Crown Princess was much alarmed at the state of affairs in Berlin at
+this time. The King saw democracy and revolution in every symptom of
+opposition to his will. His Ministers were mere clerks, content to
+register his decrees, and there was no one from whom he sought advice,
+or indeed who was capable or would have the moral courage to give it.
+The King would never accept the consequences of representative
+government or allow it to be a reality, though at the same time he would
+always religiously keep his word and never overturn the institutions he
+had sworn to maintain. Such was this experienced statesman's diagnosis
+of the situation, arrived at after an audience of the Crown Princess.
+
+The Princess celebrated her twenty-first birthday on November 21, 1861.
+In the letter which she received from her father, almost the last which
+he was ever to write to her, one detects a pathetic note, as if the
+Prince, wearied and out of health, actually foresaw his approaching
+death and wished to give her his parting counsel and blessing:
+
+"May your life, which has begun beautifully, expand still further to the
+good of others and the contentment of your own mind! True inward
+happiness is to be sought only in the internal consciousness of effort
+systematically directed to good and useful ends. Success indeed depends
+upon the blessing which the Most High sees meet to vouchsafe to our
+endeavours. May this success not fail you, and may your outward life
+leave you unhurt by the storms, to which the sad heart so often looks
+forward with a shrinking dread! Without the basis of health it is
+impossible to rear anything stable. Therefore see that you spare
+yourself now, so that at some future time you may be able to do more."
+
+The death of Prince Albert on December 14, 1861, at the age of
+forty-two, profoundly affected the lives of both his widow, on her now
+lonely throne, and his idolized daughter in Berlin. It is evident from
+Queen Victoria's correspondence that she was quite unprepared. Her
+letters to King Leopold almost up to the last are full of the most
+pathetic hopefulness, and she certainly wrote in the same vein of cheery
+optimism to Berlin. The blow fell therefore with all the more stunning
+effect on both mother and daughter--indeed, it is hard to say which of
+the two felt more utterly crushed and broken-hearted.
+
+The Crown Princess, as we have seen, was much more her father's child
+than is usual in family life in any station. The tie between them was
+something deeper and stronger even than the natural affection of parent
+and daughter; he had sedulously formed her mind and tastes, and he had
+become the one counsellor to whom she felt she could ever turn in any
+perplexity or trouble, sure of his helpful understanding and sympathy.
+Very soon after her marriage, in a letter to the Prince of Wales, she
+dwelt on their father as the master and leader ever to be respected:
+"You don't know," she wrote, "how one longs for a word from him when one
+is distant."
+
+Nor did the Princess, like many daughters, allow her marriage to weaken
+this tie; indeed, the thought of the physical distance between them
+seemed to bring them, if possible, spiritually nearer. For her mother,
+the Princess felt the tenderest and most filial affection, writing to
+her every day, sometimes twice a day, about the little details of her
+personal life. But though she and her father only wrote to one another
+once a week, it was to him that she poured out her full self, the total
+of her varied interests in politics, literature, science, art, and
+philosophy. The citations already made in the preceding pages from the
+Prince's letters to her show, not only the many fields over which their
+correspondence ranged, but also the singular charm of their mutual
+confidence. It would be difficult to find in history a more touching and
+beautiful example of spiritual and intellectual communion between father
+and daughter.
+
+And now this great solace and stay of the Princess's life is suddenly
+withdrawn from her, practically without any warning. If only she had
+known, even suspected, that there was danger, how she would have hurried
+to him! No one with any imagination and human sympathy can think of it
+without profound pity.
+
+During the first weeks which followed the receipt of the telegram
+announcing his death the Crown Princess fell into a silent, listless
+state, only rousing herself to bursts of grief which were terrible to
+witness. The simple religious faith to which her mother turned could
+not, unfortunately, bring her the same consolation. In her extremity it
+was on her husband that she leaned. He was untiringly patient and
+tender, though it must have been most painful for him to be told that
+she felt as if her life was over and she could never be happy again.
+
+It is surely true to say that in these difficult days the Crown Prince
+revealed the essential nobility of his character quite as much as he did
+in the great spectacular moments of his life--on the stricken field and
+in the glory of conquest. Many a husband would have shown a certain
+resentment at his wife's absorption in her father, but it is clear that
+the Crown Prince, far from feeling any such petty jealousy, brought his
+wife the truest consolation by understanding and himself sharing in her
+sorrow. He knew what a really remarkable man Prince Albert was, he had
+felt the charm of his personality and of his intellectual gifts; and so
+we find him looking back on this bereavement, in a letter written some
+months later to his old tutor, M. Godet:
+
+"Our whole life is, if such a thing be possible, increasing in happiness
+daily. All the tribulation, all the bitterness, of my outside life, and
+of what I may call my practical life, I am able to leave behind me when
+I reach the door which leads to my 'home.' We had the great grief of
+losing my dear father-in-law, the most intimate and tender friend of my
+wife, and to me a true second father. It came like a clap of thunder on
+our peaceful, happy life. We are now deprived of him whom we thought
+would help to guide us during many many years, and now the British
+Sovereign is bereft of her only help, while Europe is deprived of one of
+her most brilliant and most distinguished minds."
+
+It may reasonably be doubted whether to the Crown Princess the
+prolongation of her father's life would have been of great service. We
+cannot feel at all sure that in her critical relations with Bismarck,
+for instance, his counsel would always have been of the safest kind. He
+had not brought her up to be the wife of an autocratic sovereign, still
+less that of the wife of an Heir Apparent; she was brought up as might
+have been a Prince of Wales in a constitutional country.
+
+By an unfortunate irony of fate, all those who warmly and sincerely
+sympathised with the point of view of the Prince Consort, and of herself
+and the Crown Prince, were not Prussians; they were--in the phrase then
+generally used--Coburgers. This was pre-eminently the case with
+Stockmar, and in a less degree with Bunsen and other Liberal Germans.
+The mere fact that they were not Prussians discounted any value their
+opinions might otherwise have had, both with the then King of Prussia
+and with those who surrounded him.
+
+Fortunately for the Crown Princess, the course of public events soon
+came to rouse her from her apathy and grief.
+
+Early in that same December which saw the death of the Prince Consort,
+the Prussian elections had resulted in large democratic gains, thus
+considerably weakening the Ministry. In a memorandum addressed to the
+Crown Prince just before he left for England to attend the funeral of
+his father-in-law, Duncker prophesied the fall of the Ministry, and for
+the first time suggested the plan of calling Bismarck to office. In his
+reports during the Ministerial crisis which followed, Duncker warned
+both the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess of the danger of trying to
+govern at one time with the Liberals and at another with the
+Conservatives. He advocated a Ministry composed of business rather than
+party men, who would know how to govern as Liberals on a Conservative
+basis; and he again urged that Bismarck should be utilised to strengthen
+the Ministry.
+
+The Crown Princess after her bereavement seemed to cling the more
+closely to the ties which bound her to the land of her birth and of her
+father's adoption, and this, as we shall see later, provoked a good deal
+of criticism in Berlin. She went to England as often as she could, or
+perhaps it would be truer to say as often as her father-in-law could be
+induced to give his permission.
+
+Her first visit after the Prince Consort's death was in March, 1862.
+Princess Mary of Cambridge went to Windsor especially to see her cousin.
+She says: "We found her well, and better in spirits than we expected."
+But it must have been a very sad and mournful time, for the Queen was
+"rigid as stone, the picture of desolate misery"; and everything
+reminded the Crown Princess of the father she had lost.
+
+In the following May, the Crown Prince, at the special request of Queen
+Victoria, represented his father at the Great Exhibition of 1862, but
+the Crown Princess, much to her regret, could not accompany him. He had
+served as chairman of the committee appointed to secure an adequate
+representation of German arts and industries, and had thus greatly
+promoted the success of the enterprise.
+
+The Crown Princess, however, went to England at the end of June to be
+present at the quiet wedding of her favourite sister, Princess Alice, to
+Prince Louis, afterwards Grand Duke of Hesse. It was solemnised at
+Osborne on July 1.
+
+On August 14, 1862, a second son, Prince Henry, destined to be Germany's
+Sailor Prince, was born. The choice of his name seems to have troubled
+his grandmother, Queen Augusta. She wrote to her son from Baden: "My
+dear Fritz, your first letter moved me deeply, because of your
+affectionate heart, and because of all the particulars it contained
+about our beloved Vicky. I certainly anticipated that your son would be
+called Albert, for that name, no matter whether it is more or less
+German, really ought to be handed down as a legacy from the
+never-to-be-forgotten grandfather--and I believe that Queen Victoria
+expected it too."
+
+As a matter of fact the baby was christened Albert William Henry, but
+probably what Queen Augusta meant was that he ought to have been
+generally known as Prince Albert instead of Prince Henry.
+
+It might have been expected that the birth of three healthy children,
+two of whom were boys, would have, at least in a measure, disarmed the
+hostility with which the Crown Princess was regarded by a powerful
+section in Prussia. But these people were dissatisfied because the
+arrival of the children naturally strengthened the position of the
+Princess, and they also feared that the Princes in the direct line of
+succession to the throne would be brought up under English rather than
+Prussian influence.
+
+There was, it must be admitted, a certain justification for the belief
+that the Crown Princess had never really ceased to be an Englishwoman.
+
+In 1855 there had been presented to Prince Albert a remarkable young
+Englishman who was destined to play a considerable part in the life of
+the Crown Princess. This was Robert Morier, already well and
+affectionately known to Baron Stockmar, who even styled him his "adopted
+son." It was natural that Prince Albert should take a warm interest in
+the young man who came to him with such credentials--indeed, Morier was
+quickly made to understand that the Prince wished him to prepare
+himself in every way for diplomatic work in Germany. And in January,
+1858, at the time of the Royal marriage, Prince Albert did everything in
+his power to have Morier appointed attaché to the British Embassy in
+Berlin.
+
+Morier had another good friend in the Princess of Prussia, the Princess
+Royal's mother-in-law. She had known, not only Morier but his
+distinguished father, for many years, and it was her personal wish,
+which she expressed to Lord Clarendon, that the young man should be sent
+to Berlin in order that he might be of use to her son and her
+daughter-in-law. It need hardly be said that Morier was also on intimate
+terms with Ernest von Stockmar, who at the same time was appointed
+private secretary to the Princess.
+
+Morier obtained the appointment, and it was the beginning of a lifelong
+intimacy with Prince Frederick William and the Princess Royal. He became
+and remained one of their most trusted friends and advisers, a fact
+which undoubtedly injured his diplomatic career. When, many years later,
+it was proposed that Sir Robert Morier, as he had then become, should be
+appointed Ambassador in Berlin, his name was the only one which was
+absolutely vetoed by the then all-powerful Bismarck.
+
+Probably because Morier had a remarkably strong and original
+personality, he at once aroused jealousy, dislike, and suspicion; he was
+even said to influence the then dying King, as afterwards he was
+supposed to influence King William through Queen Augusta, and the Crown
+Prince through the Crown Princess.
+
+When one now reads the very frank letters written by Morier to English
+relations and friends, one cannot help feeling an uncomfortable
+suspicion that the contents of some of them may have gone back to
+Germany, perhaps in exaggerated and distorted versions, in spite of the
+great precautions taken to keep their contents secret. One observation
+in one of his letters certainly leaked out--namely, that his long
+experience of German little statesmen had taught him that "like certain
+plain middle-aged women, they delight in nothing so much as to talk with
+pretended indignation of attacks supposed to have been made upon their
+virtue!" Such judgments, when barbed with a sufficient measure of truth,
+are apt to rankle.
+
+It must not be thought for a moment that Morier was incorrect in his
+official relations in Berlin, but his remarkable ability and strength of
+character gave importance to his known Liberal and Constitutional
+sympathies. Had he been a diplomatist of merely ordinary qualifications,
+there would have been hardly need to mention him at all, but as a matter
+of fact he was an important factor in the complex situation of the Crown
+Prince and Crown Princess at this period.
+
+A passage in Theodor von Bernhardi's diary, written in November, 1862,
+exhibits the feeling in Berlin aroused by the Crown Princess's visits to
+England:
+
+"Conversation with Frau Duncker. I showed myself very impatient and
+discontented over the repeated long visits the Crown Princess made to
+England. 'She has nothing to do there and nothing to seek,' I exclaimed.
+Frau Duncker replied: 'The Crown Princess has her own views and her own
+will; her views and resolutions are very quickly formed--but when
+formed, there is nothing to be done against them.' Further conversation
+showed me that the Crown Princess cannot distinguish between our
+Three-thaler Diets and the English Parliament; that she thinks
+everything here must be just as in England; the Government must ever be
+by majority, the Ministry always chosen by the majority--that she tries
+to force these views on her husband, and that Max Duncker fights against
+it as much as he can. Max Duncker let me see that he is ever trying to
+set this young couple by the ears; their ideas cannot be acted upon
+here."
+
+The formation in the spring of a new Prussian Cabinet composed entirely
+of Conservatives placed the Crown Prince in a considerable difficulty,
+because he had openly given his support to the late Liberal Ministry.
+Duncker's advice to him was that he should absent himself for a time,
+and that he should thereafter be present at the Ministerial councils
+without himself taking part in the discussions. This advice was
+accepted, and when the Ministry endeavoured to remove Duncker to an
+appointment at Bonn University, the Crown Prince prevented it by
+emphatically declaring that he did not wish to lose his counsellor.
+
+The events which followed,--the crisis on the subject of military
+reforms, and the accession of Bismarck to office,--were regarded by the
+Crown Prince with something like dismay, but he was disarmed by the
+King's threats of abdication. The Crown Princess's secretary, the
+younger Stockmar, in particular, strongly urged that the Crown Prince
+should not intervene, as it was essential that he should preserve his
+position removed from party strife.
+
+The Crown Prince saw the wisdom of this advice, and on October 15, 1862,
+he started with his wife on a long visit to Italy. As the guests of the
+Prince of Wales, they joined the English Royal Yacht _Osborne_ at
+Marseilles, and went to Sicily and the coast of Africa, including Tunis,
+where they visited the Bey at his castle, and the ruins of Carthage. At
+Naples the Crown Princess enjoyed herself particularly, sketching and
+taking long walks and excursions in all the delights of _incognito_.
+November 21, the Princess's twenty-second birthday, was spent by her in
+Rome, where the party made a long stay. After visiting other Italian
+cities, they returned to Berlin by way of Trieste and Vienna, having
+been away altogether rather more than three months.
+
+It was this tour which laid the foundation of the great love for Italy
+and for Italian art which henceforth was a marked characteristic of the
+Crown Princess.
+
+In the December of 1862 the Crown Prince and Princess made a short stay
+in Vienna. The American historian, Motley, was visiting Austria at the
+time, and it was characteristic of the Princess that the only person,
+outside the Imperial family, whom she desired to see was this brilliant
+writer. He gives a charming account of the interview in a letter to his
+mother:
+
+"She is rather _petite_, has a fresh young face with pretty features,
+fine teeth, and a frank and agreeable smile and an interested, earnest
+and intelligent manner. Nothing could be simpler or more natural than
+her style, which I should say was the perfection of good breeding."
+
+The Crown Princess told Mr. Motley that she had been reading Froude with
+great admiration, and she was surprised to find that, though Motley
+admired Froude and had a high opinion of him as an historian, he had
+been by no means converted to Froude's view of Henry VIII. The Princess
+was evidently disposed to admire that polygamous party, and was also a
+great admirer of Queen Elizabeth. The Princess also spoke of Carlyle's
+_Frederick the Great_, which she had just read, but we are not told
+whether she agreed with Motley's view that Carlyle was a most immoral
+writer, owing to his exaggerated reverence for brute force, so often
+confounded by him with wisdom and genius.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+FIRST RELATIONS WITH BISMARCK
+
+
+After the death of Prince Albert, the relations between the Crown
+Princess and Bismarck become of absorbing interest to the student both
+of politics and of human nature.
+
+Bismarck seems to have first met Prince Albert in the summer of 1855,
+when Queen Victoria and the Prince paid their state visit to Paris. In
+his _Reminiscences_, Bismarck says that in the Prince's manner to him
+there was a kind of "malevolent curiosity," and he convinced
+himself--not so much at the time as from subsequent events--that the
+Prince regarded him as a reactionary party man, who took up sides for
+Russia in order to further an Absolutist and "Junker" policy. Bismarck
+goes on to say that it was not to be wondered at that this view of the
+Prince's and of the then partisans of the Duke of Coburg descended to
+the Prince's daughter.
+
+"Even soon after her arrival in Germany, in February, 1858, I became
+convinced, through members of the Royal House and from my own
+observations, that the Princess was prejudiced against me personally.
+The fact did not surprise me so much as the form in which her prejudice
+against me had been expressed in the narrow family circle--'she did not
+trust me.' I was prepared for antipathy on account of my alleged
+anti-English feelings and by reason of my refusal to obey English
+influences; but, from a conversation which I had with the Princess after
+the war of 1866, while sitting next to her at table, I was obliged to
+conclude that she had subsequently allowed herself to be influenced in
+her judgment of my character by further-reaching calumnies.
+
+"I was ambitious, she said, in a half-jesting tone, to be a king or at
+least president of a republic. I replied in the same semi-jocular tone
+that I was personally spoilt for a Republican; that I had grown up in
+the Royalist traditions of the family, and had need of a monarchical
+institution for my earthly well-being: I thanked God, however, I was not
+destined to live like a king, constantly on show, but to be until death
+the king's faithful subject. I added that no guarantee could, however,
+be given that this conviction of mine would be universally inherited,
+and this not because Royalists would give out, but because perhaps kings
+might. 'Pour faire un civet, il faut un liévre, et pour faire une
+monarchie, il faut un roi.' I could not answer for it that, for want of
+such, the next generation might not be Republican. I further remarked
+that, in thus expressing myself, I was not free from anxiety at the idea
+of a change in the occupancy of the throne without a transference of the
+monarchical traditions to the successor. But the Princess avoided every
+serious turn and kept up the jocular tone, as amiable and entertaining
+as ever; she rather gave me the impression that she wished to tease a
+political opponent.
+
+"During the first years of my Ministry, I frequently remarked in the
+course of similar conversation that the Princess took pleasure in
+provoking my patriotic susceptibility by playful criticism of persons
+and matters."
+
+In this passage we have evidently a perfectly frank expression of
+Bismarck's real feeling, and it gives an extraordinarily vivid picture
+of these two remarkable personalities, facing one another with watchful,
+guarded, measuring glance, like two duellists awaiting the signal for
+combat.
+
+That Bismarck to a great extent misunderstood the Princess is plain
+enough, and indeed it would have been extraordinary if he had understood
+her, so different was she from any normal type of German lady. But there
+is abundant evidence that he did not underrate her intellectual ability,
+though it must have been a perpetual astonishment to him to find such
+mental powers in a woman, and there were even moments when the aims of
+the two, generally so wide apart, seemed actually to converge. It is
+curious to speculate how different the course of history might have been
+if the Princess had added to her other qualities that tact, prudence,
+and power of judging human character, which were surely alone wanting
+to make her one of the most remarkable women who have ever held her
+exalted rank.
+
+The greatest injustice which Bismarck did the Princess lay in his
+suspicion--to use a mild term--of her German patriotism. The Prince
+Consort had consistently pursued the ideal of a union of the German
+States under the leadership of Prussia as the champion of German
+Liberalism. Such a new-born Germany might, or might not, have become the
+ally of England, but the Prince Consort must certainly be acquitted of
+any Machiavellian designs for the benefit of his adopted country; the
+supreme end he had in view was undoubtedly the happiness and greatness
+of Germany, and both his wife and his daughter knew and shared his aims.
+
+From 1858 to 1861 the Prince Consort's influence in Prussian politics
+may almost be described as paramount; but the happy relations between
+England and Prussia were broken, partly by the inability of King William
+to share the liberalism of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, which
+seemed to him positively anti-monarchical, partly by anti-Prussian
+feeling in England, and partly by the claim of the Prussian Liberals to
+dictate to the Crown on the question of army reorganisation.
+
+Prince Albert did not live to see how completely his hopes had been
+shattered, and his premature death deprived his daughter of his counsel
+at the very moment when Bismarck came into office in the full tide of
+Russophil reaction and Anglophobia.
+
+It is difficult to realise, in view of later events, how strong was the
+distrust which Bismarck inspired at the beginning of his accession to
+power. It was known that he desired an alliance with Napoleon III, and
+it was even believed that he would be capable of ceding German territory
+to France.
+
+The trend of popular opinion was significantly shown on March 17, 1863,
+when the fiftieth anniversary of the Proclamation "To my People" was
+celebrated, and the foundation-stone of a memorial to Frederick William
+III was laid in Berlin.
+
+Nothing that the authorities could do to give distinction to the
+occasion was omitted. The Crown Prince, who had just been appointed to a
+high post on the staff, commanded the military parade, and was present
+with his father at the festivities in honour of the survivors of the War
+of Liberation and the Knights of the Iron Cross. The citizens of Berlin,
+however, were conspicuous by their absence, and the popular feeling was
+expressed by the great writer, Freytag, who said in an article in a
+Liberal newspaper: "All good Prussians will pass this day quietly,
+seriously, and will consider the means by which they may best preserve
+the illustrious House of Hohenzollern for the future welfare of the
+State."
+
+The first real efforts made by Bismarck to alienate the King from the
+Crown Prince and Princess date from the year 1863, just when the
+Princess was beginning to recover her spirits and normal state of mental
+health.
+
+"Every kind of calumny was spread," wrote Morier, "respecting the
+persons supposed to be the Prince's friends. Spies were placed over him
+in the shape of aides-de-camp and chamberlains; conversations were
+distorted and imagined, till the Dantzig episode brought matters to a
+climax, and very nearly led to the transfer of the Prince to a
+fortress."
+
+This episode, a speech delivered by the Crown Prince at Dantzig,
+possessed all the importance that Morier attributes to it, and it must
+be admitted that it was in the circumstances a highly imprudent
+utterance, for it dragged the differences between the Crown Prince and
+his father into the light of day.
+
+The speech was delivered to the municipality of Dantzig on June 5, 1863.
+In it the Crown Prince referred to the variance which had occurred
+between the Government and the people, by which he meant a new ordinance
+restricting the freedom of the Press. This variance, he said, had
+occasioned him no small degree of surprise; and he added:
+
+"Of the proceedings which have brought it about I know nothing. I was
+absent. I have had no part in the deliberations which have produced this
+result."
+
+Although the Crown Prince went on to pay tribute to the noble and
+fatherly intentions and magnanimous sentiments of the King, nevertheless
+the speech naturally created a great sensation, not only in Germany, but
+in other countries too. A correspondence followed between the Prince and
+his father, in which the former, while asking pardon for his action,
+offered to resign all his offices. Bismarck professes to have himself
+succeeded in making peace between the two, quoting to the King the text:
+"Deal tenderly with the boy Absalom," and urging that it was not
+advisable to make his Heir Apparent a martyr.
+
+Bismarck's own account of the circumstances which led up to the speech
+is significant for its emphasis on the dates. He says that the Royal
+ordinance on the subject of the Press appeared on June 1; that on June 2
+the Crown Princess followed the Prince to Graudenz; and that on June 4
+the Prince wrote to the King expressing disapproval of the decree,
+complaining that he had not been summoned to the councils in which the
+step had been discussed, and enlarging on his view of his position as
+Heir Apparent. This obviously suggests, without exactly saying so in
+plain words, that the Crown Prince's speech on June 5 was inspired by
+his wife. But behind both the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess,
+Bismarck thought that he detected the hand of Morier. And yet it is on
+record that Morier had not seen the Crown Prince or had any kind of
+communication with him at the time, before, or after, the Dantzig
+episode; in fact, it is quite clear, from letters Morier wrote to Ernest
+von Stockmar, that both he and his German correspondent sincerely
+regretted the Crown Prince's action.
+
+The Crown Princess, however, seemed doomed to be associated with this
+unlucky speech. Not long after the affair was apparently settled, a
+remarkable and obviously inspired statement appeared in the _Times_ to
+the following effect:
+
+"While travelling on military duty the Prince allowed himself to assume
+an attitude antagonistic to the policy of the Sovereign, and to call in
+question his measures. The least that he could do to atone for this
+grave offence was to retract his statements. This the King demanded of
+him by letter, adding that, if he refused, he would be deprived of his
+honours and offices. The Prince, in concert, it is said, with her Royal
+Highness the Princess, met this demand with a firm answer. He refused to
+retract anything, offered to resign his honours and commands, and craved
+leave to withdraw with his wife and family to some place where he would
+be free from suspicion of the least connection with the affairs of
+State.
+
+"This letter is described as a remarkable performance, and it is added
+that the Prince is to be congratulated on having a consort who not only
+shares his liberal views, but is also able to render him so much
+assistance in a momentous and critical juncture. It is not easy to
+conceive a more difficult position than that of the princely pair
+placed, without a single adviser, between a self-willed Sovereign and a
+mischievous Cabinet on the one hand, and an incensed people on the
+other."
+
+Naturally this version of the affair, with its open reference to the
+influence of the Crown Princess, aroused fresh excitement. Ernest von
+Stockmar, the private secretary of the Crown Princess, was said to have
+communicated the substance of the statement to the _Times_. Who really
+did so has never been revealed.
+
+The unfortunate Stockmar, in any case, knew nothing of the matter; he
+would have given much to find out who was responsible. Indeed, this new
+complication to an already painful and suspicious affair so distressed
+Stockmar that he fell ill, and had to resign his position as secretary
+to the Crown Princess. This was for her a real misfortune, as even the
+most spiteful and prejudiced of her critics could not accuse the old
+Baron's son and pupil of being anything but a sound and patriotic
+German.
+
+Bismarck was good enough to accept the Crown Prince's assertion that the
+statement was inserted in the _Times_ entirely without his cognizance,
+and he thought it was inspired by Geffcken; in fact, he attributed it to
+the same quarter to which, as he believed, the Crown Prince owed the
+bent of his political views, namely, the school of writers who extolled
+the English constitution as a model to be imitated by other nations,
+without thoroughly comprehending it.
+
+What wonder, then, observed Bismarck, that the Crown Princess and her
+mother overlooked that peculiar character of the Prussian State which
+renders its administration by means of shifting Parliamentary groups a
+sheer impossibility? The party of progress were then daily anticipating
+victory in their struggle with prerogative, and naturally took every
+opportunity to place the situation "in the light best calculated to
+influence female minds."
+
+In the following August, Bismarck says, the Crown Prince visited him at
+Gastein, and there, "less under the sway of English influences," "used
+the unreserved language of one who sees that he has done wrong and seeks
+to excuse himself on the score of the influences under which he had
+lain."
+
+This attitude, however, if it was ever really adopted, was certainly
+short-lived. A fresh difference broke out between the Crown Prince and
+the King on the subject of the former's attendance at Cabinet Councils,
+and on this point the Crown Prince undoubtedly held firm. Bismarck
+prints his marginal notes on a memorandum sent by the Crown Prince to
+his father. In these notes the whole constitutional position of the
+Crown Prince is discussed, but we are here only concerned with the
+following references to the Crown Princess:
+
+"Especially necessary is it that the intermediary advisers, with whose
+aid alone his Royal Highness can be authorised to busy himself with the
+consideration of pending affairs of State, should be adherents, not of
+the Opposition, but of the Government, or at least impartial critics
+without intimate relations with the Opposition in the Diet or the Press.
+The question of discretion is that which presents most difficulty,
+especially in regard to our foreign relations, and must continue to do
+so until his Royal Highness, and her Royal Highness the Crown Princess,
+have fully realised that in ruling Houses the nearest of kin may yet be
+aliens, and of necessity, and as in duty bound, represent other
+interests than the Prussian. It is hard that a frontier line should also
+be the line of demarcation between the interests of mother and daughter,
+of brother and sister; but to forget the fact is always perilous to the
+State."
+
+In the autumn of 1863 Queen Victoria was staying at Coburg. She sent for
+Morier and had a long talk with him on the growing difficulties which
+seemed to encompass the Crown Prince and Princess. The fact that Morier
+ventured to hint that any appearance of interference on the part of
+England would be very prejudicial to the interests of their Royal
+Highnesses, and that a suspicion that the Crown Prince was being
+prompted from over the water would materially diminish in the eyes of
+the Liberal party the value of his opposition, shows that there was
+something, even then, to be said for the feeling which Bismarck so
+sedulously fostered.
+
+During the summer of 1863, the Crown Princess accompanied her husband on
+a long tour of military inspections in the provinces of Prussia and
+Pomerania, and her Royal Highness performed the ceremony of naming a
+warship, the _Vineta_, at Dantzig.
+
+This tour caused a good deal of discomfort to the Crown Prince and
+Princess, for in most of the towns they visited the municipal
+authorities ostentatiously refrained from celebrating the occasion; on
+the other hand, the populace as a rule received the Royal pair with
+abundant loyalty.
+
+We have a curious glimpse of the sort of impression made in East Prussia
+by the Crown Princess in a private letter written by a member of the
+Progressive party, who afterwards became a confidential friend of the
+Crown Prince. This gentleman says that everyone was pleased with the
+Crown Princess, for she showed that she had a mind of her own. She
+informed a certain official that she read the _Volkszeitung_, the
+_National-zeitung_, and the _Times_ every day, and that she agreed
+entirely with those newspapers--in the circumstances an amazingly
+imprudent statement. It was, indeed, such a shock to the official that
+it reduced him to blank silence.
+
+The breach between the Crown and Parliament was not the only question
+with which Prussia was troubled at this time. The summer of 1863 was
+also marked by the attempt of Austria to take the solution of the German
+question into her own hands by initiating a scheme for reforming the
+Federal Constitution.
+
+The Emperor Francis Joseph invited the Princes and the free cities of
+Germany to a conference at Frankfort to discuss the reorganisation of
+the Germanic Confederation. King William was inclined to accept this
+proposal, but Bismarck held other views; and a further invitation from
+the Emperor that the King should send the Crown Prince to the Congress
+of Princes, was also declined.
+
+Nevertheless the Congress was held, and there was also held a sort of
+family gathering of what Bismarck would have designated "the Coburgers"
+at Coburg. Queen Victoria was there, and in August the Crown Princess
+joined her, quickly followed by the Crown Prince.
+
+Lord Granville, who was a close observer of the complicated intrigues of
+the Congress, wrote to Lord Stanley of Alderley: "The Princess Royal is
+very Prussian on this Confederation question."
+
+The Crown Prince's views on the subject were expressed in a letter which
+he sent to his wife's uncle, Duke Ernest, early in September. From this
+letter it seems clear that, whereas at first he had been inclined to
+favour the Austrian move, he altered his views when Austria showed her
+hand by demanding from the Congress a simple vote of assent or dissent
+to her project of reform. He mentioned that he had asked the King for
+permission to be absent from the meetings of the Cabinet, and indeed he
+paid with his family a long visit to Italy.
+
+From Italy the Crown Prince and Princess proceeded to England, and that,
+with visits to Brussels and Karlsruhe, took up the rest of the year.
+
+It must not, however, be thought that during this absence from Germany
+the Crown Prince and Princess ceased to take an interest in politics; on
+the contrary, they followed with the closest attention, what was indeed
+a serious constitutional crisis in the autumn of 1863.
+
+In October, after they had started for Italy, the Crown Prince wrote to
+Bismarck:
+
+"I hope that, to use your own words, your efforts in the present
+difficult position of the constitutional life of our country may be
+successful, and may accomplish that which you yourself describe as the
+urgent and essential understanding with the national representatives. I
+am following the course of events with the deepest interest."
+
+The constitutional crisis turned on the rejection, by the Upper House
+and the Crown, of the Budget which had been adopted by the Lower House.
+The King, as advised by Bismarck, was for governing without a
+constitution, but the Crown Prince, with his strong predisposition in
+favour of the English constitutional system, which had by this time
+been developed by Queen Victoria, could not help regarding his father's
+attitude as jeopardising the security of the Crown.
+
+The Crown Prince's position was particularly difficult because he was
+appealed to by all parties--by the Liberals, who looked forward to the
+day when he would be King of Prussia as perhaps not very far distant;
+and by the Conservatives, who adjured him to support the Government on
+dynastic grounds.
+
+Of the two parties, the Liberals appeared to have the best of it, for
+the prolonged absence of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess was
+naturally interpreted in Germany as indicating, if not their sympathy
+with the Liberal party, at any rate their dislike of the existing
+Government.
+
+But events were shaping themselves in such a way that the Dantzig
+affair, with all that had led up to it and had followed it, was soon to
+be forgotten in a crisis of much greater moment, and one which brought
+to the Crown Prince his baptism of fire.
+
+It was during the visit of the Crown Prince and his family to England
+that King Frederick VII of Denmark, the last of his dynasty, died, and
+the question of the succession to the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein
+immediately became acute.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE WAR OF THE DUCHIES
+
+
+Palmerston is reported to have said on one occasion, that there had been
+only three men in Europe who really understood the Schleswig-Holstein
+question. One of them was himself--and he had forgotten it; the second
+man was dead; and the third was in a mad-house.
+
+But the members of the Royal Houses of England, Prussia, and Denmark
+considered that, without being either jurists or diplomatists by
+profession, they understood the question quite well enough to take
+different sides with ardent enthusiasm. The question came, in fact, like
+a dividing sword, and not for the first time it brought war in its train
+between Prussia and Denmark. The British Royal family was placed by its
+intimate ties with both combatants--the Prince of Wales had married
+Princess Alexandra of Denmark in March, 1863--in a position of peculiar
+delicacy, which was not rendered easier by the fact that public opinion
+in England warmly espoused the cause of Denmark.
+
+If it was not easy for Queen Victoria and her advisers to steer a
+prudent course, the position of the Crown Princess in Berlin was even
+more difficult. She met the crisis with her customary courage, and she
+applied to its solution the teachings of that constitutional liberalism
+which she had imbibed from her father.
+
+The Princess felt very strongly that the honour as well as the interest
+of Prussia--or perhaps one should say her interest as well as her
+honour--required the nation to play an unselfish part, and to seek
+indemnity in the moral prestige to be derived from the settlement of
+this ancient racial feud. As future Queen of Prussia, the Princess
+wished to see the interests of the Crown identified with the
+constitutional rights of the people; she desired to see the inhabitants
+of the duchies once more contented, loyal subjects of Duke Frederick of
+Schleswig-Holstein. It was not her fault, nor was it within her
+knowledge, that the solution which Bismarck even then contemplated, and
+which he was ultimately able to carry out, belonged to a wholly
+different order of ideas.
+
+It is necessary, in a brief retrospect, to show how this question of the
+duchies had become like an open sore, poisoning the relations between
+Denmark and Prussia. Perhaps the most fertile cause of trouble lay in
+the fact that Schleswig and Holstein, though grouped together by
+historical circumstances, were each very different in the character of
+its population and their real or supposed rights.
+
+We need not go back further than 1846, when King Christian of Denmark
+declared the right of the Crown to Schleswig-Holstein. His son and
+successor, Frederick VII, on his accession in January, 1848, proclaimed
+a new constitution uniting the duchies more closely with Denmark. This
+step caused an insurrection and the foundation of a provisional
+government. Prussia thereupon came to the help of the duchies and
+defeated the Danes near Dannawerke. After a fruitless attempt at
+intervention by the Powers, hostilities were renewed, and in April,
+1849, the Danes were victorious over the Holsteiners and Germans. There
+was further fighting and further diplomacy, until in July, 1850, the
+integrity of Denmark was guaranteed by England, France, Prussia, and
+Sweden. This was quickly followed by the defeat of the
+Schleswig-Holsteiners by the Danes at the battle of Idstedt. Early in
+the following year the Stadholders of Schleswig-Holstein issued a
+proclamation placing the rights of the country under the protection of
+the Germanic Confederation.
+
+This led to the Treaty of London of 1852, by which the possession of the
+duchies was assured to Denmark conditionally on the preservation of
+their independence and the rights of the German population in them. Now,
+Holstein belonged to the Germanic Confederation, but the treaty
+stipulated that Schleswig was not to be separated from Holstein, though
+it was a point of honour with Denmark not to give up Schleswig.
+
+The natural successor of King Frederick VII in the duchies was his
+kinsman, Duke Christian of Sonderburg-Augustenburg, who, in May, 1852,
+resigned his hereditary claim in return for a sum of two and a half
+million thalers. This settlement might have been excellent but for two
+facts--first that it had not received the assent of the Germanic
+Confederation; and secondly, that Duke Christian's two sons violently
+objected to it--indeed, the elder son, the Hereditary Prince Frederick,
+made a formal declaration of his rights of succession. Moreover, it must
+be admitted that Denmark showed a cynical disregard of the conditions in
+the Treaty of London respecting the independence of the duchies and the
+rights of their German population. The Schleswig Assembly complained and
+protested, and even petitioned the Prussian Chamber of Deputies, who
+actually promised aid to the duchies.
+
+At last the crisis came in March, 1863, when the King of Denmark granted
+to Holstein a new and independent constitution, but annexed Schleswig
+which did not belong to the Germanic Confederation. Thereupon the
+Confederation invited Denmark to withdraw this constitution. So far from
+doing so, however, the Danish Parliament proceeded to ratify it only two
+days before the death of King Frederick VII, whose successor, King
+Christian IX, was forced on his accession, owing to a menacing uprising
+of popular feeling in Denmark, to sign the new constitution annexing
+Schleswig.
+
+[Illustration: HER ROYAL HIGHNESS
+
+PRINCESS FREDERICK WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA
+
+MARRIED JANUARY 25, 1858]
+
+The glove was thus thrown down for Germany to pick up; the Hereditary
+Prince Frederick assumed by proclamation the government of the duchies,
+and appealed to the Germanic Confederation for the support of his
+rights. The majority of the German Governments sided with him,
+especially the Grand Duke Frederick of Baden, brother-in-law of the
+Crown Prince; while the Lower House in Prussia declared by a large
+majority that the honour and interest of Germany demanded the
+recognition and active support of the Hereditary Prince. It will be
+evident from what has been said above that Prussia had plausible and
+even sound reasons for her intervention, the chief of which was the
+popular feeling prevailing in Schleswig.
+
+Now, it so happened that the Crown Prince and Princess had a strong
+personal as well as political interest in the question of duchies. The
+Crown Prince and the Hereditary Prince Frederick were old friends. They
+had first met as fellow-students at the University of Bonn. The
+Hereditary Prince had afterwards served in the First Regiment of the
+Prussian Guards, he had been often at the Prussian Court, and the Crown
+Prince was the godfather of one of his children. Naturally, therefore,
+the Crown Prince and Princess were favourable to his claims.
+
+There is now no doubt that Bismarck had some time before resolved in
+principle on the annexation of the duchies, but of course he did not
+show his hand until it suited him, and above all he studiously concealed
+his plans from the Crown Prince. Indeed, the Crown Prince's personal
+relations with Bismarck were at this time practically suspended, if only
+because he happened at the time to be in England, where, however, the
+prevailing sympathy with Denmark did not influence him or the Crown
+Princess. In a letter written to Duncker from Windsor in December the
+Prince says that he has "daily defended the cause of my dear friend Duke
+Frederick, well backed up by my wife, who exhibits warm and absolutely
+German feelings in a most moving degree."
+
+The Crown Prince and Princess would certainly have recoiled with horror
+from Bismarck's secret design of annexing the duchies. How little they
+understood the Minister's plans is curiously shown in the letter of the
+Crown Prince just referred to. He took the view that Prussia ought at
+once to occupy the duchies in order to establish the Hereditary Prince
+there. Bismarck, he says, hated the Augustenburg family and considered
+the national aspirations of Germany as revolutionary, desiring on the
+contrary to maintain the Treaty of London and strengthen Denmark. The
+Crown Prince in fact thought that Bismarck had been too late, and that
+his policy was opposed to the proper assertion of Prussia's position.
+
+Events now moved fast. The troops of the Germanic Confederation
+expelled the Danish troops from Holstein, and the Hereditary Prince was
+proclaimed throughout the duchy. The Augustenburg party, who were aware
+of the hostility of Bismarck to their candidate, endeavoured to win over
+the King of Prussia through the medium of the Crown Prince; but
+ultimately, aided no doubt by certain imprudences on the part of the
+Hereditary Prince, Bismarck had his way. Both Austria and Prussia
+separated from the majority of the Diet, demanding that the King of
+Denmark should annul the new constitution annexing Schleswig, already
+mentioned, and announced that they would jointly manage the affairs of
+the two duchies.
+
+In January, 1864, Austria and Prussia issued an ultimatum to Denmark,
+and in February began the war, which was somewhat euphemistically
+described as "undertaken by Austria and Prussia to protect the ancient
+rights of the German province of Schleswig-Holstein, in danger of
+extinction from Denmark."
+
+It was considered essential in Berlin that a Prussian officer should be
+in command of the allied troops, and this could only be effected by
+calling on the venerable Field-Marshal von Wrangel, as he alone was of
+superior rank to the officer at the head of the Austrian forces.
+
+Von Wrangel, therefore, although he was much too old and eccentric for
+such responsibility, took the supreme command in right of his rank, but
+the Crown Prince was attached to his staff, with the understanding that
+he was to prevent the aged Field-Marshal from coming to any unfortunate
+decisions. Events showed that this was extremely necessary--indeed,
+nothing could have been more useful than the Crown Prince's tact in
+dealing with the rivalries among the divisional commanders, and also in
+altering the extraordinary, and sometimes positively insane, orders
+given by von Wrangel himself. As a rule the Crown Prince was able to
+persuade the old man to make the necessary alterations, but there were
+occasions on which he was compelled, on his own responsibility, either
+to suppress an order altogether or in some other way to prevent it from
+being carried out.
+
+The English Royal family were deeply divided in their sympathies in this
+war, but the Crown Princess, as her husband had written to Duncker, was
+wholly German in her feelings. She wrote to her uncle in Coburn: "For
+the first time in my life I regret not being a young man and not to be
+able to take the field against the Danes," and there is reason to
+believe that it was her influence which decided Queen Victoria to
+restrain the bellicose Palmerston, who would have liked England to
+support Denmark by force of arms.
+
+In these circumstances it seems all the more monstrous that Bismarck's
+friends actually charged the Crown Princess with betraying the secrets
+of the Prussian Government to the English Ministers. Her complaints to
+the King only received as answer that the whole thing was nonsense, and
+that she should not treat it seriously. But the fact that the slanderers
+were never punished caused these calumnies to be long repeated, and even
+in part believed.
+
+By the side of the Crown Prince and Princess there stood, in Bismarck's
+estimation, Queen Augusta, who had ever been the energetic champion of
+the Coburg doctrine of a liberated and united Germany under the
+leadership of Prussia. In his profound disbelief in Liberalism, Bismarck
+played the obvious game of raising the cry of foreign dictation. By
+means of his instruments in the Press and elsewhere, he set himself to
+exhibit England as at all times seeking to influence Germany for her own
+ends and often against German interests, for promoting her own security
+and the extension of her power, "lately through women, daughters and
+friends of Queen Victoria."
+
+This campaign was only too successful, and it must soon have become
+obvious, both to Queen Victoria and to her daughter, that the
+unification of Germany by means of Prussian Liberalism was not in the
+range of practical politics. At the same time Bismarck risked a great
+deal. Nothing would have more completely upset his plans than a war with
+England over the duchies, and, as we have said, he was saved from that
+danger largely owing to the fact that Queen Victoria was influenced by
+the Crown Princess to withstand the chauvinism of her Ministers.
+
+Throughout the campaign of 1864, the Crown Prince won the deep affection
+of the troops, not only by himself sharing their hardships, but also by
+his constant kindness and care for their comfort. Though he showed
+himself a true soldier and even a strategist of no small ability, the
+Crown Prince had no illusions about the horrors of war, which he now saw
+for the first time. He was deeply moved by the terrible sights he
+witnessed on the field of battle and in the hospitals. After the victory
+at Düppel in April, he would have been glad if an armistice had been
+concluded, and he wrote to Duncker: "You will understand how heavily my
+long absence weighs on me, for you know what a happy home I have waiting
+for me."
+
+He had not long to wait, however, for on May 18 the supreme command was
+transferred from Field-Marshal von Wrangel to Prince Frederick Charles,
+the "Red Prince," and so the Crown Prince's mission came to an end. He
+joined the Crown Princess at Hamburg. She had originally meant to
+proceed as far as Schleswig in order to do what she could for the
+wounded in the hospitals, but, in obedience to urgent advice, she did
+not go further than Hamburg. The Crown Prince's journey thither, covered
+with all the laurels of successful warfare, was a triumphal progress.
+
+As this campaign was the Crown Prince's baptism of fire, so to the Crown
+Princess it was a revelation and a call to action. On the occasion of
+the King of Prussia's birthday in March, the Crown Prince and Princess
+had presented him with a sum of money as the nucleus of a fund for
+helping the families of soldiers who had fallen or been disabled in war,
+and on the eve of the battle of Düppel the Crown Prince drew up an
+appeal on behalf of this institution, which afterwards bore his name.
+
+But the war with Denmark revealed an even greater need than that of the
+care of the soldiers' wives and families. The Crown Princess saw with
+surprise and horror that the medical service of the troops in the field
+was practically non-existent. She remembered the achievements of
+Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War, and, though she was at the time
+herself more or less disabled, she undertook the heavy task of
+organising some sort of an army nursing corps. For this work, so
+appropriate for a soldier's wife, she was admirably fitted. Indeed, the
+War of the Duchies gave the Princess for the first time real scope for
+the exercise of her remarkable powers of organisation.
+
+The Crown Princess, however, does not seem to have grown more prudent as
+time went on. There is a curious revelation in Bernhardi's diary in May,
+1864, of her unfortunate habit of praising England to the disadvantage
+of Prussia. Says Bernhardi:
+
+"After dinner conversation with the Crown Princess. She asked after
+England; supposed that I had enjoyed England very much; once there, one
+always longed to go back. I said: 'Yes, life is full in England.' She
+said with a very peculiar expression: 'Yes, one misses that here.' I
+thought to myself, however, that only the material interests are greater
+and more far-reaching than with us; in many ways life is richer here
+than there."
+
+Fighting, with intervals of diplomatic action, went on after the Crown
+Prince's return from the front, until peace was signed at Vienna on
+October 30. By this instrument the King of Denmark surrendered the
+duchies to the allies, and agreed to a rectification of the frontier and
+the payment of a considerable war indemnity. It was understood that
+Schleswig and Holstein were to be made independent, but differences of
+opinion arose between Austria and Prussia on this point, which led
+ultimately to the dissolution of the Germanic Confederation and the
+Austro-Prussian war of 1866.
+
+Delightful glimpses of the family life led in the summer of 1864 by the
+Crown Prince and Princess, and of her musical, literary, and artistic
+tastes, are given in letters written by Gustav Putlitz, the dramatist,
+to his wife. Putlitz was at this time chamberlain to the Crown Princess.
+His letters are too long and detailed to be quoted in full, but the
+following extracts will give a good idea of how deeply impressed this
+distinguished writer was with the vivid, eager personality of the
+Princess:
+
+"_June 26._--I passed a most delightful hour yesterday in this way. As I
+was going through the drawing-room, I found the Crown Princess with
+Countess Hedwig Brühl, the former looking for the words of a song of
+Goethe's, which she remembered in part, while Hedwig played the air. I
+found the song in Goethe for them. Thereupon we had a most interesting
+conversation about books. The Crown Princess is wonderfully well read;
+she has absolutely read everything, and knows it all more or less by
+heart. She showed us a reproduction of a drawing she had done in aid of
+the Crown Prince's Fund. It is a memorial of the victory at Düppel, and
+represents four soldiers, each belonging to a different arm of the
+service. The first is shown before the attack in the morning; the second
+is waving the flag at noon; the third, wounded, is listening to a hymn
+in the afternoon; while the fourth, victorious with a laurel wreath,
+stands in the evening at an open grave. The last is extremely natural
+and impressive, without any sentimentality. The conception shows real
+genius, and it is carried out most artistically. This youthful princess
+is more cultivated than any other woman I know of her age, and she has
+such charming manners, which put people entirely at their ease in spite
+of etiquette. She is not allowed to ride, and so she is accustomed to
+drive out daily for several hours, and practises pistol-shooting. In
+fact she possesses a wonderful mental and physical energy."
+
+"_June 27_ (after dinner).--This morning the Crown Princess sent for me
+in the garden. I do not know what she is not devoted to--art, music,
+literature, the army, the navy, hunting, riding. On leaving she went
+down the mountain on foot, and I went with her through woods soaked with
+rain. She took out of her pocket the last issue of the _Grenzboten_, and
+gave it to me. It is amazing that she remembers everything she reads,
+and she debates history like a historian, with admirable judgment and
+firmness. After dinner she sang English and Spanish songs with a
+charming voice and correct expression."
+
+"_June 29._--After breakfast we went for a four hours' drive. The Crown
+Princess wanted every variety of wild flower we could find, and she knew
+the Latin, English, and German names of each kind. Every time we stopped
+she got out of the carriage and picked a flower which her sharp eye had
+detected, and which was not in the bouquet."
+
+The party moved to Stettin, and Putlitz describes how the Crown Princess
+beguiled the journey with a constant stream of brilliant conversation on
+politics, literature, and art, as well as on more frivolous subjects.
+
+When they arrived at headquarters and found the Crown Prince, she saw
+that everything was in disorder, and immediately, with characteristic
+energy, she began directing the rearrangement of furniture and the
+hanging of pictures. She herself was going on to Potsdam, but she was
+determined that her husband should be as comfortable as possible at
+Stettin. Says Putlitz:
+
+"Furniture was put in its place, pictures were hung, wall-paper
+selected--all the things having been brought from Berlin. Afterwards we
+went all over the house with the architect, and the Crown Princess
+issued her orders in the most practical and business-like way. Then we
+drove out and bought more furniture, and the things required for the
+Prince's washstand and writing-table. All the things were suitable, and
+chosen with care. We had an interesting conversation about English
+literature and drama. I am kept in perpetual astonishment by her natural
+behaviour, so many-sided, and full of judgment and sense."
+
+When they arrived at the New Palace, Putlitz happened to say that he had
+never seen more of it than the room where people wrote their names in
+the visitors' book. At once the Princess showed him all over it.
+
+He draws a charming picture of a tea-party at the Palace. The young
+mistress, wearing a simple black woollen dress, sat at a spinning-wheel,
+and as she span she sang snatches of all kinds of songs, accompanied by
+one of her ladies. Not far off, a chamberlain was reading poems by
+Geibel, or prompting others by Goethe and Heine which were recited by
+the Princess.
+
+Putlitz cannot help recalling historical memories of the palace which
+was built by Frederick the Great in ridicule of Austria and France;
+which had seen the curious entertainments of his successor; had been
+decorated by Frederick William III in the stiff fashion of his day; had
+been opened by Frederick William IV to an intellectual and artistic
+audience at representations of _Antigone_ and _A Midsummer Night's
+Dream_; "and was now the home of modern cultivation freed from
+formality."
+
+The Princess, indeed, wanted a sort of history of the New Palace to be
+written, and she consulted Putlitz about it. A few days later they
+discussed Frederick William III and Queen Louise, how the latter was
+always idealised, and how the former had become popular in spite of his
+roughness.
+
+In his delightful book, _My Reminiscences_, Lord Ronald Gower gives a
+most interesting account of a visit which he paid in this summer of 1864
+to the Crown Prince and Princess, "two of the kindest and most amiable
+of Royalties," as he calls them. They met Lord Ronald and his mother at
+the station, in defiance of Royal etiquette, and took them off to the
+New Palace:
+
+"We dined at two P. M. and we had to dress in our evening things for
+this repast. It took place upstairs in a corner room, with the walls of
+blue silk, fringed with gold lace. The Princess very smart, in a
+magenta-coloured gown with pearls and lace. The Crown Prince in his
+plain uniform, with only a star or two, which he always wears. 'It is a
+custom,' he said, 'and looks so very officered.' After dinner we went to
+the Crown Princess's sitting-room; the furniture there is covered with
+Gobelins tapestry--a gift of the Empress Eugénie."
+
+Here Lord Ronald found some of the Princess's own paintings, including
+those lately finished, representing Prussian soldiers, his account of
+which it may be interesting to compare with that of Putlitz:
+
+"One of these paintings was of a warrior holding a flag, inscribed _Es
+lebe der König_. The second a soldier looking upward. He has been
+wounded, and he wears a bandage across his brow; a sunset sky for a
+background. This is inscribed _Nun danket alle Gott_. The third is
+another soldier looking down on a newly-made grave. Of these three I
+thought the second by far the best. There was another painting, also by
+the Princess, representing the Entombment."
+
+The visitors were taken out driving: "We could judge of the popularity
+of our hosts, for everyone that we passed stopped to bow to them, and
+those who were in carriages stood up in them to salute as the Prince and
+Princess passed by."
+
+The arrangements about meals seem extraordinary to modern taste. Lord
+Ronald says:
+
+"Tea was served at ten in the evening in one of the rooms on the ground
+floor of the Palace. They call it the Apollo Room, I believe. It was a
+curious meal, beginning with tea and cake, followed by meat, veal, and
+jellies, and two plates of sour cream. For this repast one was not
+expected to don one's evening apparel a second time."
+
+The visitors breakfasted upstairs with the Crown Prince and Princess and
+their children, in a room lined with pale blue silk framed in
+silver--not, perhaps, the best possible background for "the Princess in
+her favourite pink-coloured dress." Then, "the Princess showed us her
+private garden, and here she picked a clove, which she gave me with her
+own little hand."
+
+Lord Ronald mentions the children with approval, but Putlitz, whose
+visit was much longer, got to know them really well:
+
+"_July 2._--The Royal children are very charming and well trained. The
+Crown Princess is strict with them, which is very praiseworthy in so
+young a mother, who is relieved by her rank of the duty of taking an
+active part in their education, for which she has not the time. People
+will indeed be surprised at this talented and cultured nature, when once
+her will has full scope."
+
+The children on their side seem to have taken to Putlitz with
+enthusiasm. He gave the boys rides on his head, and he records with
+pride that "they came running from quite a long way off when they
+caught sight of me." He also records an accident--little Prince William
+being thrown from his pony--which must have reminded the mother of that
+day at Windsor when she was so distressed at a similar though more
+dangerous mishap to her brother, the Prince of Wales.
+
+One morning after breakfast, says Putlitz, he met the Crown Prince and
+Princess on the terrace, "both full of almost infantile gaiety." Soon
+afterwards the children appeared. Prince William was riding his pony,
+when his hat fell off and hit the pony between its ears; the animal
+reared, and the Prince was thrown off on his back. Both parents remained
+quite calm, and apparently took no notice; whereupon the Prince mounted
+again and went on riding. It is not difficult to imagine the mother's
+pang of terror beneath that outward calmness. Well may Putlitz praise
+the sensible upbringing of the children, which made them perfectly
+natural, well-behaved, and obedient.
+
+But it is the remarkable personality of the Crown Princess which chiefly
+interests this literary man turned courtier. One moment she is
+instructing him to write to a poet and thank him for a copy of verses;
+at another she is arranging a picnic party in her own little garden near
+the Palace. Someone, generally Putlitz himself, reads aloud after tea,
+and if the poem or story is pathetic the Crown Princess is moved to
+tears. At other times they have music, generally glees, followed by good
+talk on literature or on contemporary politics and personages, about
+whom both the Crown Prince and the Princess speak with a candour which
+astonishes Putlitz. He cannot praise enough this delightfully informal,
+unaffected, and yet exquisitely cultivated and intellectual family life:
+
+"Here one feels absolutely secure from intrigue, and only meets with
+frankness and clear intelligence. All evil designs must necessarily fail
+in the end before such qualities."
+
+The dramatist felt also the great charm of the Crown Prince's
+personality. He says that the two natures of husband and wife are each a
+perfect complement of the other, and each exercises on the other an
+unmistakably happy influence. It is at the same time significant that,
+while emphasizing the perfect harmony of the marriage, he does not
+hesitate to say that the Crown Prince, notwithstanding the more
+brilliant qualities of the Princess, still preserves his simple and
+natural attitude and his undeniable influence.
+
+And when the time comes to say good-bye, Putlitz sums up his experiences
+to his wife: "I have been entertained by a most highly dowered Princess
+and a most marvellous woman, full of intellect, energy, culture,
+kindness, and benevolence."
+
+On September 11, 1864, a third son was born, Prince Sigismund. This
+little Prince was destined to have but a brief life. He was born the
+child of peace, the Emperor Francis Joseph becoming his godfather, but
+he died almost on the very day that Prussia drew the sword against
+Austria in the war of 1866.
+
+That same autumn the Crown Princess paid her first visit to Darmstadt,
+to stay with her best loved sister, Princess Alice. The latter wrote to
+Queen Victoria a charming account of the visit, in which she said: "I
+always admire Vicky's understanding and brightness each time I see her
+again. She is so well, and in such good looks as I have not seen her for
+long. The baby is a love and is very pretty."
+
+In October the Crown Prince and Princess, with their four children,
+started for La Farraz, in Switzerland. They left immediately after the
+birthday of the Crown Prince, which day was also that of the baptism of
+Prince Sigismund. The Prince wrote just before leaving Potsdam to an
+intimate friend:
+
+"The older I grow, the more I come to know of human beings, the more I
+thank God for having given me a wife like mine. What happiness it is to
+leave behind one all one's anxieties and all the troubles of this life,
+to be alone with those we love! I trust that God will preserve our peace
+and domestic happiness. I ask for nothing else."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+HOME LIFE AND RELIGION
+
+
+The successful campaign against Denmark had drawn all German hearts
+together. Neither the Crown Prince nor the Crown Princess had ever been
+unpopular with the army, who felt really honoured by that honorary
+colonelcy which had so much amused the Princess. The Danish War greatly
+increased their popularity, and the year that followed was probably one
+of the happiest of their lives. They adored their children, who were
+being thoroughly well brought up, and, with the one paramount exception
+of the Prince Consort's death, no great bereavement had cast its shadow
+over their family circle.
+
+The Crown Princess had early determined in her social life to consider
+neither party spirit nor high official position; she preferred to gather
+round her a remarkable society of interesting and distinguished
+people,--scholars, theologians, archæologists and explorers, artists,
+and men of letters. She was always passionately fond of music, and many
+a young performer owed his or her first introduction to the public at
+the winter concerts which she organised, while no British painter or
+writer of eminence ever came to Berlin without receiving an invitation
+to the New Palace.
+
+One of the most striking testimonies to the Crown Princess's
+intellectual interests is to be found in a letter written to Charles
+Darwin, in January, 1865, by Sir Charles Lyell. The great geologist says
+that he had had,
+
+"An animated conversation on Darwinism with the Princess Royal, who is a
+worthy daughter of her father, in the reading of good books and thinking
+of what she reads. She was very much _au fait_ at the _Origin_ and
+Huxley's book, the _Antiquity_, &c. &c., and with the Pfahlbauten
+Museums which she lately saw in Switzerland. She said that, after twice
+reading you, she could not see her way as to the origin of four things;
+namely, the world, species, man, or the black and white races. Did one
+of the latter come from the other, or both from some common stock? And
+she asked me what I was doing, and I explained that, in re-casting the
+_Principles_, I had to give up the independent creation of each species.
+She said she fully understood my difficulty, for after your book 'the
+old opinions had received a shake from which they never would recover.'"
+
+It may seem an intrusion on what should be sacred ground to touch on the
+religious belief of the Crown Princess, but it is a subject on which
+there have been a certain number of misstatements, and it may therefore
+be well to set forth plainly the material facts.
+
+The present generation perhaps hardly realises what a period of
+intellectual ferment had set in just at the time when the Princess's
+mind was most eagerly absorbing all that she could read and hear on the
+subject of religion and philosophy. She was twenty when _Essays and
+Reviews_ appeared: she was twenty-two when Colenso published his book on
+the Pentateuch: twenty-three when Renan's _Vie de Jésu_ appeared:
+twenty-four when Strauss's shorter _Leben Jesu_ was published: and in
+one year from the time in her life at which we have now arrived _Ecce
+Homo_ was to appear. Most important of all, Darwin had published his
+_Origin of Species_ in 1859, when the Princess was nineteen, and it is
+evident from Sir Charles Lyell's letter that she had not only read but
+understood that epoch-making book. Of all the giants of those days
+Darwin alone remains a giant; the lapse of time, as well as the work of
+other scholars and thinkers, has reduced the intellectual stature of
+those other writers whose work seemed of such crucial importance when
+the Princess was a young woman.
+
+It was indeed a period when many thought that the old sound, even
+impregnable, position of Christianity had been not only undermined but
+overthrown. Strauss, for example, honestly believed that he had entirely
+destroyed the historical credibility of the four Gospels. The Princess
+herself came to Germany at a moment when the Tübingen schools were the
+intellectual leaders, and Strauss was their prophet, and the training
+which she had undergone under the superintendence of her father had
+prepared her to sympathise rather with the attack than with the defence.
+It is easy now to see that orthodoxy was not then very fortunate in its
+champions, and that the overwhelming weight of the scholarship and
+intellectual strength of the time belonged to the advanced thinkers.
+Moreover, it must be remembered that much of the religion of that day
+was mere lip-service, a conventional orthodoxy which, while it resisted
+investigation and inquiry on the one hand, failed to bear practical
+fruit in conduct and life.
+
+Only a few months after the Princess had arrived in Prussia as a bride,
+the then Prince Regent, her father-in-law, made a speech which attracted
+great attention, not only in Germany but in Europe generally. In it he
+said it could not be denied that in the Lutheran Church, the established
+church of Prussia, an orthodoxy had grown up which was not consistent
+with the basic principles of the church, and the church, in consequence,
+had dissemblers among its adherents. All hypocrisy, the Prince
+continued--and he defined hypocrisy as ecclesiastical matters which are
+utilised for selfish purposes--ought to be exposed wherever possible. It
+was in the whole conduct of the individual that real religion was
+exhibited, and that must always be distinguished from external religious
+appearance and show.
+
+When such language could be used from the very steps of the throne, it
+may be imagined how great was the intellectual ferment in which everyone
+who thought and read at all was necessarily involved. Naturally the
+eager, impulsive Princess, with the intellectual courage and sincerity
+which her father had implanted in her, could not stand aloof. But if, at
+this time of her life, she seemed to abandon the old orthodox positions,
+it is not less true to say, that, while paying the penalty at the time
+in unhappiness and spiritual disquiet, she ultimately reaped the reward
+of an even firmer faith. She came to see, indeed, that the deepest
+religious convictions are not the fruit of philosophical speculation or
+of textual criticism, but of experience.
+
+In the years that followed, the Princess was destined to be a near
+spectator of great events--of the progress and ultimate triumph of
+Bismarck's policy of blood and iron; while in her own home she suffered
+the bitter pain of the death of her children, of sister, of brother.
+Even what seemed surely the crowning tragedy of her husband's brief
+reign and swift end was not all. That cruel malady, the origin of which
+still defies research, and which often, as in her case, kills slowly
+with lingering torture, seized upon her in her stricken widowhood.
+
+Yet the successive ordeals through which she passed seemed but to
+strengthen her grasp upon the realities of life, and the Christian
+faith took on for her a new meaning and became the rock to which alone
+she clung. She left a most striking expression of her religious belief,
+written in the summer of 1884, at a time when she had no prevision of
+the fiery trials which were still in store for her. Long as the passage
+is, it is worth quoting in full:
+
+"When people are puzzled with Christianity (or their acceptance of it),
+I am reminded of a discussion between an Englishman and an advanced
+radical of the Continent (a politician). The latter said, 'England will
+become a republic as time advances.' The Englishman answered, 'I do not
+see why she should. We enjoy all the advantages a republic could give us
+(and a few more), and none of its disadvantages.' Does not this
+conversation supply us with a fit comparison when one hears, The days of
+creeds are gone by, &c? I say 'No.' You can be a good Christian and a
+Philosopher and a Sage, &c. The eternal truths on which Christianity
+rests are true for ever and for all; the forms they take are endless;
+their modes of expression vary. It is so living a thing that it will
+grow and expand and unfold its depths to those who know how to seek for
+them.
+
+"To the thinking, the hoard of traditions, of legends and doctrines,
+which have gathered around it in the course of centuries remain precious
+and sacred, to be loved and venerated as garbs in which the vivifying,
+underlying truths were clad, and beyond which many an eye has never
+been able to penetrate. It would be wrong, and cruel, and dangerous to
+disturb them; but meanwhile the number of men who soar above the
+earth-born smallness of outward things continues to increase, and the
+words in which they clothe their souls' conception of Christianity are
+valuable to mankind; they are in advance of the rest of human beings,
+and can be teachers and leaders by their goodness and their wisdom. So
+were the Prophets and the Apostles in their day, and so are all great
+writers, poets, and thinkers. That the Church of England should now
+possess so many of these men is a blessing for the nation, and the best
+proof that the mission of the Church on earth has not come to an end."
+
+Side by side with this we may quote some lines which brought the Empress
+Frederick comfort in her last hours of suffering:
+
+ "All are stairs
+ Of the illimitable House of God.
+... And men as men
+ Can reach no higher than the Son of God.
+ The perfect Head and Pattern of Mankind.
+ The time is short, and this sufficeth us
+ To live and die by; and in Him again
+ We see the same first starry attribute,
+ 'Perfect through suffering,' our salvation's seal,
+ Set in the front of His humanity.
+ For God has other words for other worlds,
+ But for this world the word of God is Christ."
+
+We must now take up again the thread of the Crown Princess's life, when,
+unshadowed by any sense of impending doom, she was absorbed in her
+husband and children and in her intellectual and artistic pursuits.
+
+Early in the year 1865 the Crown Princess had the joy of welcoming her
+sister, Princess Alice, on a visit to Berlin. Princess Alice wrote to
+the Queen: "Vicky is so dear, so loving! I feel it does me good. There
+is the reflection of Papa's great mind in her. He loved her so much and
+was so proud of her;" and she adds a vivid little picture of the baby:
+"Sigismund is the greatest darling I have ever seen--so wonderfully
+strong and advanced for his age--with such fine colour, always laughing,
+and so lively he nearly jumps out of our arms."
+
+It was a great pleasure to the Crown Princess when her husband was
+appointed to the curious office of Protector of Public Museums.
+Thenceforward they both took a very active part in the management of
+these institutions, and it was owing to their efforts that the Old
+Museum has but few rivals in Europe in completeness and arrangement.
+
+Prussia was then very backward in the practical application of art to
+industry, but the Crown Princess, who had seen how much her father had
+achieved in this direction in England, was determined to do all she
+could to secure a similar improvement in her adopted country. Early in
+1865 she caused a memorandum to be drawn up setting forth the necessity
+of founding a School of Applied Art on the model of similar institutions
+in England. The movement thus started by the Crown Princess led
+eventually to the foundation of the Museum of Industrial Art at Berlin,
+which is connected with the School of Applied Art.
+
+It was largely due to the active support and interest of the Crown
+Prince and Princess that applied art not only found a home in Prussia,
+but in the course of time reached so high a pitch of excellence that
+other countries are now fain to learn from Germany. The Crown Prince and
+Princess, also, both suggested and themselves supervised the collection
+and arrangement of an exhibition of artistic objects in the Royal
+Armoury at Berlin. This, by showing Prussian craftsmen what had already
+been done, greatly promoted the development of applied art.
+
+But all was not sunshine during this peaceful, happy year, for during
+its course the Crown Princess lost the constant support and loyal help
+of Robert Morier. Although the whole of his diplomatic career had been
+given up to Germany, although he had devoted himself entirely to the
+study of the political, social, and commercial conditions, and of the
+relations between Prussia and England, it was arranged that he should be
+transferred to Athens.
+
+Morier parted with the Crown Prince and Princess on December 15, and it
+is on record that the Princess wept bitterly on saying good-bye to him.
+Bismarck and his followers were proportionately delighted at getting rid
+of him. But their joy was premature, for the Athens appointment fell
+through, and Morier was finally transferred to Darmstadt as Chargé
+d'Affaires, a change due to the personal intervention of Queen Victoria.
+
+It must be remembered that Bismarck generally looked at things from a
+personal point of view. He had found by experience the value of secret
+agents, of whom he made constant use, and so he believed that every one
+whom he disliked, whom he feared, whom he wished to conciliate, made use
+of them too. To his mind Robert Morier was a secret agent, and it was
+his great desire to isolate the Crown Prince and Princess from everyone
+who did not belong directly to his own party.
+
+While at Darmstadt Morier remained in touch with the Crown Prince and
+Princess, and it was he who advised the selection of Dr. Hinzpeter as
+tutor to their eldest son, afterwards the Emperor William II. Dr.
+Hinzpeter, who had been a friend of Morier for some time, was an
+authority on national economy and social reform, as well as a man of the
+highest personal character.
+
+In the summer of 1865 Frau Putlitz and her husband were the guests of
+the Crown Prince and Princess at Potsdam. This time it is the wife who
+records her impressions in a series of letters to her sister. She was
+quite as fervent an admirer of the Crown Princess as Putlitz was, and
+her letters really supplement and complete his letters, for they supply
+the feminine point of view.
+
+Frau Putlitz was perhaps most impressed by the Crown Princess's
+versatility--the ease with which she could turn from a gay and smiling
+talk about bulbs, for instance, to the serious discussion of the
+profoundest subjects of philosophy. Naturally, this feminine observer
+notes the Princess's style of dressing, which she greatly admires as
+being both simple and perfect. "There is," she says, "a charm about her
+whole presence which it is impossible to describe." Her way of speaking,
+too, was fascinating, and though she declared that her German had an
+English accent, Frau Putlitz found it delightfully soft. Shakespeare the
+Princess frequently quoted, and one morning she read long passages with
+an expression which was warmly approved by the dramatist, Putlitz
+himself, who might be allowed to be a good judge. Frau Putlitz thought
+that the special charm of the Princess consisted in her entire
+simplicity and naturalness, which was exemplified in her never uttering
+banal, used-up phrases.
+
+Of the children we have some glimpses; they are described as perfectly
+charming and very lively. The Princess told Frau Putlitz how anxious she
+was to have Prince William educated away from home with other boys of
+his own age, and this intention, as we know, she afterwards carried out
+in the case of both Prince William and Prince Henry. Little Prince
+Sigismund is pronounced to be really a delightful child. The Princess
+spoke with deep feeling of her father, whom she scarcely mentioned
+without tears, and she brought out all her souvenirs of him which she
+kept with loving care.
+
+We are also shown the Princess among her books and pictures, the
+Princess singing old Scottish ballads and English hymns, the Princess
+painting flower-pieces, and above all the Princess as a gardener. Frau
+Putlitz compares the neatness of the Princess's own little garden, laid
+out by herself, to that of a little jewel-box. Enormous strawberries
+grew on beds of white moss under the beech hedges, and a gigantic lily
+brought by the Crown Prince from Hamburg was exhibited with pride. Frau
+Putlitz was surprised at the Princess's practical knowledge of
+horticulture, and the thoroughness with which she set about it.
+
+These are not, to be sure, matters of great importance in themselves,
+but it is interesting to see how completely the charm of the Princess's
+personality fascinated both husband and wife, who were by no means
+ordinary observers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE AUSTRIAN WAR: WORK IN THE HOSPITALS
+
+
+We come now to the outbreak of the war with Austria, which arose
+directly out of the war with Denmark, and which, as we now look back
+upon it, seems to fall naturally into its place as part of Bismarck's
+_politique de longue haleine_ for the unification of Germany.
+
+The Royal personages of his time were to Bismarck only pawns in the
+great game on which he was ever engaged. It is impossible to read his
+life and other literary remains without being struck by the contempt
+which he entertained for at any rate the great majority of those
+belonging to the Royal caste, though the management of them sometimes
+tried all his powers. It is significant that at one moment Bismarck had
+practically made up his mind to espouse the cause of the Prince whom he
+habitually called "the Augustenburger" in the Elbe duchies, and it was
+only after a prolonged interview with the Prince himself that he changed
+his mind, finding him to be, from his point of view, quite
+impracticable.
+
+As a rule, however, those Royal personages whom Bismarck looked upon as
+pawns were actually not only content but proud of the position; the
+capital exceptions were of course the Crown Prince and Princess, who
+steadily resented and fought--sometimes successfully--against Bismarck's
+efforts to relegate them to a position in which they would not count at
+all.
+
+It is curious to observe how Bismarck always managed to turn to account
+even circumstances which seemed at first sight most prejudicial to his
+designs. Thus in June 1865 the Budget, which included the payment of the
+bill for the Danish War, was rejected by the Liberal Deputies in the
+Chamber, but it was this which enabled Bismarck to take the plunge and
+govern without the constitution.
+
+This rejection of the Budget was followed by the Convention of Gastein
+in August, by which Austria was to have the temporary government of
+Holstein, and Prussia that of Schleswig. Such an arrangement contained
+no element of permanence, and was indeed an obvious step on the way
+towards annexation. To the hereditary claims of "the Augustenburger,"
+which the Crown Prince had most loyally continued to support, it dealt a
+fatal blow, and it is particularly interesting to note that Bismarck
+implored the King to keep the negotiations which led up to the
+Convention absolutely secret from the Crown Prince. He frankly told his
+sovereign that if a hint should reach Queen Victoria, the suspicions of
+the Emperor Francis Joseph would be aroused, and the whole negotiations
+would fail, and he added, "Behind such failure there lies an inevitable
+war with Austria."
+
+The secret was duly kept from the Crown Prince; he received the news of
+the Convention with amazement, and it served to increase--if that was
+possible--his detestation of Bismarck's policy.
+
+The year 1866 therefore began with the gloomiest prospects from the
+point of view held by the Crown Prince and Princess. The Chambers were
+opened, but quickly prorogued, and Prussia openly prepared for war.
+Bismarck saw that the moment was most favourable, for Austria was in
+want of money, and was also beset with domestic difficulties in Hungary,
+while he himself had already practically arranged for the support of
+Italy. Austria was thus driven to demand the demobilisation of Prussia,
+and this was supported in the Federal Diet by Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover,
+Hesse-Cassel, and other States. Thereupon, on June 14, Prussia declared
+the Germanic Confederation dissolved, and war began on the 18th.
+
+We have become so much accustomed to the conception of a united Germany
+that it seems now extraordinary that in this war Prussia, with the
+Northern States, should have been ranged against, not only Austria, but
+Hanover and Hesse-Cassel, with Saxony and Bavaria.
+
+It thus fell out that the Crown Princess and her sister, Princess Alice,
+were on opposite sides--a singular penalty which Royal personages are
+liable to pay for the privileges of their rank. The circumstance
+naturally increased the maternal anxiety of Queen Victoria. There is no
+doubt that she believed that Austria would win, and when the result
+proved that she was wrong, her distrust of Bismarck was increased, not
+by his success, but by the use which he made of it.
+
+Princess Alice's correspondence with her mother reveals how much she was
+affected by the prospect of this civil war, as she calls it. There are
+constant references to "poor Vicky and Fritz." On the eve of the
+outbreak she told her mother that her husband, Prince Louis of Hesse,
+intended to go to Berlin for a day just to see Fritz and explain how
+circumstances now forced him to draw his sword against the Prussians in
+the service of his own country.
+
+We have already noted the extent to which the Crown Prince was excluded
+at this time from State policy, but as far as he possibly could, even up
+to the eleventh hour, he continued to oppose the idea of war. The
+moment, however, that the die was cast and war was declared, he became
+the simple soldier, intent only on his military duties and ardently
+desiring a victory for Prussia.
+
+The Crown Princess's second daughter was born on April 12, and was
+christened Frederica Amelia Wilhelmina Victoria.
+
+In May, the Prussian Army was divided into three Corps, of which the
+second was placed under the command of the Crown Prince, who was also
+appointed Military Governor of Silesia during the mobilisation.
+
+Immediately after the christening of the little Princess, the Crown
+Prince joined his staff at Breslau. But he left under the most mournful
+auspices. Just before his departure the baby Prince Sigismund, whom
+Princess Alice had described as "that beautiful boy, the joy and pride
+of his parents," fell suddenly ill, and, what seemed particularly cruel
+and unnecessary, even the doctor in attendance on the sick child had to
+leave for the front.
+
+There is a very sad reference to the illness of her little nephew in a
+letter written by Princess Alice on June 15: "The serious illness of
+poor little Sigismund in the midst of all these troubles is really
+dreadful for poor Vicky and Fritz, they are so fond of that merry little
+child."
+
+Prince Sigismund's disease was at first difficult to diagnose. As a
+matter of fact it was meningitis, and very soon it became clear that
+there was no hope. On June 19 the child died, at the very moment when
+his father was addressing his troops at Niesse, and the Crown Princess
+found herself alone, without anyone near or dear to her to share her
+bitter grief in this, the second great loss of her life.
+
+Queen Augusta journeyed to the front to tell her son of his bereavement.
+He, however, more fortunate than the Crown Princess, had much to absorb
+every moment of his time and thoughts. But after the war was over, in a
+speech made to the Municipality of Berlin, the Crown Prince alluded
+briefly to his loss. "It was a heavy trial to be separated from my wife
+and my dying boy. It was a sacrifice which I offered to my country."
+
+In the _Reminiscences of Diplomatic Life_ published by Lady Macdonell,
+widow of Sir Hugh Macdonell, a fact is revealed which shows how the
+mother's heart must have hungered for Prince Sigismund.
+
+Lady Macdonell became on terms of considerable intimacy with the Crown
+Princess, who was evidently impressed by her sympathetic nature. One
+day, when they were going down a corridor in the New Palace, the
+Princess suddenly unlocked a door, and in the room to which the locked
+door gave access was preserved surely one of the strangest and most
+pathetic forms of consolation to which a bereaved mother ever had
+recourse. Lady Macdonell writes:
+
+"I saw a cradle, and in it a baby boy, beautiful to look upon, but it
+was only the waxen image of the former occupant, the little Prince
+Wenceslau [a mistake for Sigismund], who had died when the Crown Prince
+went to the war of 1866. How pathetic it was to note the silver rattle
+and ball lying as though flung aside by the little hand, the toys which
+had amused his baby mind arranged all about the cradle, his little
+shoes waiting, always waiting--at the side."
+
+When, five years later, Prince and Princess Charles of Roumania lost
+their only child, Princess Marie, at the age of three and a half, the
+Crown Prince wrote a letter of condolence to Prince Charles, who was
+Prince Sigismund's godfather, in which he said:
+
+"May the grace of God give you strength to bear the hopeless grief, the
+weight of which we know from our own knowledge! In imagination I place
+myself in your attitude of mind, and realise that you must both be
+benumbed with sorrow at seeing your sweet child dead before you, knowing
+that you can never again see a light in her dear eyes, never again a
+smile on her face! Certainly it is hard to say: 'Thy will be done!' I
+put this text on the tomb of my son Sigismund, your god-child, because I
+know of no other consolation; and yet I cannot overcome that pain
+to-day, though many years have already gone by, and though God has given
+me a large family. Time does undoubtedly blunt the keenest edge of a
+parent's anguish, but it does not take away the weight of sorrow which
+goes with one for the rest of one's life. That my wife is united with me
+in these sympathetic thoughts you know."
+
+The course of the war of 1866 is well known, and there is no need to
+trace it in detail. The operations of the Crown Prince with the Second,
+or Silesian, Army exercised a crucial influence on the whole campaign.
+Field-Marshal Count von Blumenthal, who, as Chief of the Staff, saw the
+whole of the operations, bears testimony to the brilliant strategic
+dispositions of the Crown Prince, which were particularly exhibited in
+the defeat of the Austrians at Nachod and the subsequent engagements.
+Von Blumenthal notes that the Crown Prince possessed, not only an
+extraordinary power of self-control and coolness, but also, what is not
+always found even in the greatest military leaders an instinctive
+perception of how much he could leave to subordinates, while himself
+keeping a firm hand on the general course of action. The soldiers
+themselves adored him, for he always managed to find time to visit the
+wounded in the field hospitals, as well as to encourage by his inspiring
+utterances the troops in line.
+
+The manner in which the Crown Prince effected a junction with Prince
+Frederick Charles and the First Army was most masterly; he came up
+exactly at the right moment and at the right place. Unfortunately, as
+generally happens, politics intervened, and the Crown Prince was
+prevented from following up the victories with as much energy as he
+desired--indeed, it seemed to him that there was a conspiracy to tie his
+hands and control his movements. He even dropped a hint in the
+sympathetic ear of von Blumenthal that if this treatment continued he
+would ask the King to relieve him of his command. Happily this was not
+necessary. The King himself assumed the supreme command on July 1, and
+two days later there came the crowning mercy of Königgrätz, or Sadowa,
+when the Austrians, under Benedek, were totally defeated. It was for his
+services at this great battle that the Crown Prince was decorated with
+the Order "Pour le Mérite."
+
+Of Bismarck's exertions in this war, an English observer who was with
+the Prussian Army has left the following striking picture:
+
+"Bismarck believes in himself and fully so. He believes he was called on
+to do a certain work, and that he is quite able to accomplish it. His
+power of endurance is very great. He often sits up night after night
+working hard. During this campaign he has never slept more than three
+hours out of the twenty-four: this is less than the great Napoleon, who
+under similar circumstances took four hours' sleep. But constantly
+continued work has had an effect upon him: his face is seamed all over,
+he has dark lines under his eyes, and the eyes themselves are bloodshot.
+He looks like a man who is knocked up by overwork, and yet he is gay and
+jovial, pleasant and cheery. What surprised me most was his thorough
+openness in conversation. Without the least reserve he spoke of his
+intentions, of the future of Prussia and of Germany. For an hour and a
+half he thus went on. His resolve is indomitable, and he also feels
+certain of going through the work before him. The King is of course a
+mere tool in his hands; but it shows his great skill and dexterity in
+turning such an instrument to serve his purpose. I do not think him
+Liberal in the sense that you or I are Liberal. There is no doubt but
+what he thinks best he will enforce, and that what he does is, he
+believes, for the good and glory of Prussia."
+
+[Illustration: H.R.H. THE PRINCESS FREDERICK WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA PRINCESS
+ROYAL OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND AND THE INFANT PRINCE FREDERICK
+WILLIAM VICTOR ALBERT, MAY 1859]
+
+Further Prussian victories followed, and the negotiations for peace
+exhibited a curious rearrangement of the three personalities concerned.
+
+Bismarck was strongly in favour of concluding peace very much on the
+terms offered by Austria, partly because he feared French intervention,
+and partly because he saw the imprudence of pressing home her defeat so
+deeply upon Austria as to leave her with a burning desire for revenge.
+He wanted to look forward, in the diplomacy of the future, to a friendly
+Austria. The King, however, could not bear to sacrifice, as it seemed to
+him, the result of the expenditure of so much blood and treasure, and he
+wished to follow up the Prussian victories, without having any very
+clear idea of what further gains could thereby be made.
+
+In these circumstances it was the Crown Prince who came forward as the
+mediator between the King and his Minister; it was the Crown Prince who
+supported Bismarck against his father. What really clinched the matter
+with the King was Bismarck's threat to resign. At the critical Council
+of War there was a dramatic scene. The King turned to the Crown Prince
+and said, "You speak, in the name of the future;" and when he found that
+his son agreed with Bismarck he gave in, and consented, as he himself
+described it, to bite into the sour apple.
+
+Nevertheless, the terms of peace were not at all bad for Prussia. Her
+great object, namely, the dissolution of the Germanic Confederation, was
+secured; she obtained a considerable accession of territory, including
+Schleswig and Holstein, Hanover, the Electorate of Hesse, and other
+territories, which covered more than 1300 square miles, with a
+population of over four millions. Moreover, in August, 1866, on the
+invitation of the King of Prussia, the Northern States of Germany
+concluded a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive. Thus was
+established the North-German Confederation, which was joined by Saxony
+in the following October, and formed an important step on the way to a
+united German Empire. Altogether the Confederation consisted of
+twenty-two States, and the first meeting of the Deputies was held at
+Berlin on February 24, 1867.
+
+It was suggested that the Crown Prince should become Governor-General of
+Hanover, thus newly annexed to Prussia. It was thought that this plan
+would to a great extent console Hanover for losing her status as a
+kingdom, especially as the Crown Princess was closely related to the
+dispossessed monarch, King George V. The Crown Prince, however,
+insisted on arrangements which would have made Hanover altogether too
+independent to be agreeable to Bismarck, and so the idea was not carried
+out.
+
+On the close of the war of 1866, the Crown Prince and Princess proceeded
+to Haringsdorf, a little village on the shores of the Baltic, to which
+the Princess and her children had been sent on account of the cholera,
+which was then very prevalent in Potsdam.
+
+While there the Princess still busied herself with plans for the care of
+the wounded in the war. She had already assigned a great part of the
+palace at Potsdam for the nursing of wounded officers, and a little
+later on she proceeded with her husband on a long visit to Silesia.
+There they greatly improved the organisation of the war hospital at
+Hirschberg. Everything was under their personal supervision, and, thanks
+to their energy and kindly encouragement, the work was undoubtedly much
+more efficiently done than it would otherwise have been.
+
+The Crown Prince had ridden with his father over the stricken field of
+Königgrätz, doing what they could to succour the wounded and the dying.
+How deeply the horrors of war had been impressed on the Prince's mind is
+shown by the words he wrote in his diary on the night of the battle: "He
+who causes war with a stroke of the pen knows not what he is calling up
+from Hades."
+
+As for the Crown Princess, though she had been spared the sight of the
+worst horrors, she had nevertheless seen enough to enable her, with her
+eager, imaginative sympathy, to share in the fullest degree her
+husband's intense feeling. She never felt she could do enough to
+mitigate the sufferings of the soldiers, both on the battlefield and
+afterwards in the weary months of convalescence in hospital. This autumn
+she organised an enormous bazaar at the New Palace in aid of the
+wounded, to which contributions came from all over the world. The Crown
+Prince himself went round collecting money for the soldiers, and the
+whole enterprise brought in a large sum for the fund.
+
+The years that followed up to the outbreak of the war with France were
+not very eventful.
+
+At the beginning of 1867, the Crown Prince and Princess stayed a while
+at Dover, where they met Princess Alice and her husband, who went back
+with them to stay for a few weeks in Berlin. They afterwards went
+together to Paris, at the invitation of the Emperor and Empress of the
+French, in order to visit the great International Exhibition then being
+held there. The Crown Prince had served as president of the Prussian
+Committee for the Exhibition. Their stay in France gave great pleasure
+to the Crown Princess; the two sisters visited many philanthropic
+centres, and made an exhaustive survey of French art. It was on this
+visit to Paris that the Crown Princess first conceived the idea of the
+School of Design in Berlin which now bears her name, for she was greatly
+impressed by the imaginative fertility of the Parisian craftsmen, and by
+the perfection of their work.
+
+The Crown Princess left Paris before her husband. Princess Alice wrote
+to her mother on June 9: "Dear Vicky is gone. She was so low the last
+days, and dislikes going to parties so much just now, that she was
+longing to get home. The King [of Prussia] wished them both to stop, but
+only Fritz remained. How sad these days will be for her, poor love! She
+was in such good looks; every one here is charmed with her."
+
+The Crown Prince had induced his father to visit the Exhibition, and the
+King, who brought Bismarck with him, had a magnificent reception from
+the Imperial Court. The Crown Prince and Princess did not abate their
+interest in politics, and they certainly shared Bismarck's view at this
+time that an arrangement with France was in every way desirable in order
+to avert war and to consolidate the gains of 1866.
+
+In the autumn a terrible scarcity, almost amounting to famine, in East
+Prussia afforded a fresh opportunity for the practical sympathy of the
+Crown Prince and Princess. Together they organised a relief fund and
+relief works by which the sufferings of the population were much
+mitigated.
+
+It was on February 10, 1868, the anniversary of Queen Victoria's
+wedding, and of the Crown Princess's christening, that another son was
+born, who seemed sent to fill the terrible gap which the death of Prince
+Sigismund had made two years before. The child was christened on the
+King of Prussia's seventy-first birthday, at Berlin, receiving the names
+of Joachim Frederick Ernest Waldemar. The Princess's fourth son was a
+beautiful and clever child, and his death, which was to follow when he
+was only eleven years old, was perhaps the deepest grief that fell on
+his parents. It is significant that when the Emperor Frederick chose his
+last resting-place, he desired to lie by the side of this child.
+
+In the spring of 1868 the Crown Prince paid a visit to Italy in return
+for the visit paid to Berlin by Prince Humbert the year before. The
+Crown Princess did not go with him, but she followed with deep interest
+and pleasure the accounts of his reception, which were remarkably
+enthusiastic, and also politically useful, for it prevented the
+accession to power of a Ministry hostile to Prussia.
+
+In 1869 the Crown Princess received a long visit from Princess Alice at
+Potsdam, and the two sisters spent their mother's birthday, May 24,
+together. Princess Alice spoke in a letter to Queen Victoria of the
+delightful life "with dear Vicky, so quiet and pleasant, which reminds
+me in many things of our life in England in former happy days, and so
+much that we had Vicky has copied for her children. Yet we both always
+say to each other that no children were so happy, and so spoiled with
+all the enjoyments and comforts children can wish for, as we were."
+Again, on June 19, "Vicky was very low yesterday; she has been so for
+the last week, and she told me much of what an awful time she went
+through in 1866 when dear Siggie [Sigismund] died. The little chapel is
+very peaceful and cheerful and full of flowers. We go there _en passant_
+nearly daily, and it seems to give dear Vicky pleasure to go there."
+
+The two sisters spent a happy time together at Cannes in the late autumn
+of 1869, while their respective husbands were abroad. The Crown Prince,
+with Prince Louis of Hesse, visited Vienna, Athens, Constantinople, and
+the Holy Land, and went on thence to Port Said for the opening of the
+Suez Canal. In Jerusalem the Crown Prince took formal possession in the
+name of his father of the ruined convent of St. John, ceded by the
+Sultan for the erection of a German Protestant Church. The two Princes
+joined their wives at Cannes shortly before Christmas.
+
+On their way home the Crown Prince and Princess spent a week in Paris,
+staying at an hotel. The Crown Princess was surprised to see how changed
+the Emperor Napoleon was since they had seen him last. She thought him
+ailing and dejected. In the course of conversation, the Emperor
+mentioned that he had a new Minister, a certain M. Ollivier.
+
+The Crown Prince and Princess returned to Berlin on the morning of the
+New Year, 1870. The next time the Crown Prince met Napoleon III was on
+the morning after the capitulation of Sedan.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR
+
+
+The year 1870 opened with no premonition of the tremendous events it was
+to bring forth.
+
+Princess Victoria had been born on the eve of the Austrian War in 1866,
+and now, on the eve of this yet greater struggle, on June 14, 1870, the
+Crown Princess gave birth to her third daughter, Princess Sophia
+Dorothea Ulrica Alice, who was destined to become Queen of the Hellenes.
+The candidature of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen for the
+throne of Spain was announced on July 4, and after fruitless attempts at
+intervention by the Crown Princess's old friend, Lord Granville, then
+the British Foreign Minister, war was declared between France and
+Prussia on July 15.
+
+At the time of the little Princess's christening, which took place at
+the New Palace on July 25, there were few present at the ceremony who
+were not under orders for the front, and most of the men were already in
+their campaigning uniform. Emotion, anxiety, and excitement made the
+even then old King William feel unequal to the task of holding his
+little granddaughter at the baptismal font according to his wont, and
+this duty was performed for him by Queen Augusta. The fact that the
+Kings of Würtemberg and Bavaria were the child's godfathers marked the
+decision of those States, with Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt, to throw in
+their lot with Prussia in the war, as the deputies of the North-German
+Confederation had also done.
+
+The christening was one of special splendour and solemnity, the two
+outstanding figures in the congregation being Bismarck, in his uniform
+of major of dragoons, and Field-Marshal Wrangel, now in his eighty-ninth
+year. Among the guests at the christening were Lord Ronald Gower and
+"Billy" Russell, the famous war correspondent. Two or three days before,
+they had been received by the Crown Princess at the New Palace, and Lord
+Ronald writes: "The Princess expressed almost terror at the idea of the
+war, and was deeply affected at the sufferings it must bring with it.
+She feared the brutality of Bazaine and his soldiers, should they invade
+Germany."
+
+After the christening, King William and Queen Augusta held a kind of
+informal court in the curious hall known as the Hall of the Shells, full
+of memories of Frederick the Great. Early the next morning the Crown
+Prince slipped away out of the palace to spare his wife the agony of
+parting.
+
+Even at such a moment as this, the Crown Princess's private and personal
+anxieties were embittered by circumstances which she was unable to
+modify or affect. Although England was not only ignorant, but was to
+remain, like the rest of the world, in ignorance for many years, of the
+falsification of the famous Ems telegram, sympathy with Germany as the
+supposed injured party in the quarrel was by no means universal.
+
+It is true that on the morrow of the declaration of war the _Times_
+described it as "unjust but pre-meditated--the greatest national crime
+that we have had the pain of recording since the days of the first
+French Revolution." Nevertheless, France by no means, lacked
+sympathisers in England--indeed the Crown Princess was much distressed
+at the way in which her native country interpreted the obligation of
+neutrality. The Prussian Government considered that the exportation of
+coal and arms to France was a breach of neutrality; and the attitude of
+England during the Danish War was still remembered and resented in
+Germany.
+
+Bismarck, with what Europe has now become aware was gross hypocrisy,
+observed to Lord Augustus Loftus, the British Ambassador in Berlin, that
+"Great Britain should have forbidden France to enter on war. She was in
+a position to do so, and her interests and those of Europe demanded it
+of her," a sufficiently cynical observation on the part of a man who, as
+we now know, had himself forced on the conflict at the eleventh hour.
+
+To Queen Victoria the Crown Princess confided her troubles: "The English
+are more hated at this moment than the French, and Lord Granville more
+than Benedetti. Of course, _cela a rejailli_ on my poor innocent head. I
+have fought many a battle about Lord Granville, indignant at hearing my
+old friend so attacked, but all parties agree in making him out
+_French_. I picked a quarrel about it on the day of the christening,
+tired and miserable as I was. I sent for Bismarck up into my room on
+purpose to say my say about Lord Granville, but he would not believe me,
+and said with a smile, '_But his acts prove it_.' Many other people have
+told me the same. Lord A. Loftus knows it quite well. Fritz, of course,
+does not believe it, but I think the King and Queen do."
+
+Meanwhile, France was complaining bitterly of Lord Granville's "cold,
+very cold" attitude. Then suddenly, on July 25, the _Times_ published a
+draft secret treaty which had been proposed by the Emperor Napoleon to
+Prussia in 1866. The terms were--(1) that the Emperor should recognise
+Prussia's acquisitions in the late war; (2) the King of Prussia should
+promise to facilitate the acquisition of Luxemberg by France; (3) the
+Emperor should not oppose a federal union of the Northern and Southern
+German States, excluding Austria; (4) the King of Prussia, in case the
+Emperor should enter and conquer Belgium, should support him in arms
+against any opposing Power; and (5) France and Prussia should enter into
+an offensive and defensive alliance.
+
+This disclosure caused an enormous sensation, and Queen Victoria was
+much shocked at the apparent revelation of French greed and duplicity.
+Writing to the Queen, the Crown Princess observed: "Count Bismarck may
+say the wildest things, but he never acts in a foolish way,"--an
+interesting pronouncement when one remembers how keen had been and was
+to be the struggle between these two powerful and determined natures.
+
+As a matter of fact, Bismarck did not hesitate to admit that the
+document was authentic, but he insisted that he had never seriously
+entertained the proposal, which came entirely from the Emperor. Not long
+afterwards, on the day of the battle of Wörth, the game of "revelations"
+was taken up by General Turr, who disclosed proposals made by Bismarck
+in 1866 and 1867 for the annexation of Luxemberg and Belgium by France.
+
+But already all such recriminations and discussions seemed merely of
+academic interest; already everything was swept from the mind of the
+Crown Princess save the necessity for hard work and intelligent
+organisation. With an ardour natural to her generous and sympathetic
+temperament she threw herself into everything that could mitigate the
+sufferings and promote the welfare of both combatants and
+non-combatants. Prussia's two former wars had given her an amount of
+experience which she was now able to turn to the best account.
+Spontaneously, without any advice or prompting from others, she wrote
+the following letter to the whole German world, her desire being to
+touch the hearts, not only of those Germans at home, but also of those
+who had settled overseas, in America and elsewhere:
+
+ "Once more has Germany called her sons to take arms for her most
+ sacred possessions, her honour, and her independence. A foe, whom
+ we have not molested, begrudges us the fruits of our victories, the
+ development of our national industries by our peaceful labour.
+ Insulted and injured in all that is most dear to them, our German
+ people--for they it is who are our army--have grasped their
+ well-tried arms, and have gone forth to protect hearth, and home,
+ and family. For months past, thousands of women and children have
+ been deprived of their bread-winners. We cannot cure the sickness
+ of their hearts, but at least we can try to preserve them from
+ bodily want. During the last war, which was brought to so speedy,
+ and so fortunate, a conclusion, Germans in every quarter of the
+ globe responded nobly when called upon to prove their love of
+ Fatherland by helping to relieve the suffering. Let us join hands
+ once more, and prove that we are able and willing to succour the
+ families of those brave men who are ready to sacrifice life and
+ limb for us! Let us give freely, promptly, that the men who are
+ fighting for our sacred rights may go into battle with the
+ comforting assurance that at least the destinies of those who are
+ dearest to them are confided to faithful hands.
+
+ "VICTORIA CROWN PRINCESS."
+
+This eloquent appeal met with the splendid response which it deserved,
+and although practically every German Princess of the time took a more
+or less active part in the care of the wounded and of the families of
+the soldiers, it was soon realised that the Crown Princess was the
+master mind to whom all must look for their orders.
+
+Queen Augusta supervised the ambulance and hospital services in Berlin,
+while the Crown Princess moved to Homburg and started on the
+organisation of a series of field-lazareths, being most efficiently
+helped in her labours by her sister, Princess Alice, who herself
+organised and actively supervised four field hospitals in Darmstadt
+itself.
+
+The Crown Princess began by turning the old military barracks at Homburg
+into a hospital, the existing hospital being set aside for the use of
+wounded French prisoners. She also built at her own expense two
+magnificent wards, and they--doubtless partly because they were new
+buildings--showed far more satisfactory results in lower death-rate and
+shorter convalescence than did the wards in any other of the German
+military hospitals.
+
+The Victoria Barrack, as the new wards were called, was built of wood on
+a brick foundation. In addition to the wards, the building contained a
+good store-room, lined with glass cupboards, in which was kept a
+quantity of old linen which Queen Victoria had sent for the wounded.
+Each ward contained twenty-four beds. A feature which the German
+doctors and nurses regarded with decidedly mixed feelings was a system
+of ventilation which enabled the whole building to be opened from end to
+end when required.
+
+By the Crown Princess's orders, the very simplest and plainest
+appliances compatible with health and comfort were used. Thus the
+necessary furniture was all of varnished deal. By her wish, too, a great
+effort was made to give a bright and homelike appearance to each ward,
+and this, like the special ventilation, was quite a new idea to both
+German patients and German doctors. In the corners of each ward stood
+large evergreen shrubs, and on every table were placed cut flowers in
+glasses. Whenever the Crown Princess received a personal gift of
+flowers, she immediately sent it off to the hospital, often bringing a
+bouquet and arranging it herself. Nothing in the Victoria Barrack was
+used which could conceal any dirt; for instance, the crockery was white
+and the glass plain.
+
+The Crown Princess attended the military hospitals daily. She went
+through every ward, and spoke to every patient; and she was quite as
+regular in her attendance on the wards containing the French prisoners
+as she was on those where the German soldiers lay. In this way she came
+into personal association with ordinary people of a class of whom
+Princesses see as a rule little or nothing. With many of the soldiers
+who were then tended under her supervision and care she kept in touch
+long after the war was ended--indeed, she was always eager to help in
+after life any of those whom she had known at Homburg, or who had fought
+under her husband's orders.
+
+But the Crown Princess did far more than the work associated with her
+name at Homburg. It was owing to her promptness and her energy that a
+long line of military hospitals was rapidly organised along the whole of
+the Rhine Valley.
+
+At the end of the campaign of 1866 the Crown Prince and Princess had
+founded the National Institution for Disabled Soldiers, and by the
+special order of the King it was given the name of the Victoria
+Institution, because the Crown Princess had suggested and instigated its
+creation. At the close of 1871, this Institution, again at her
+suggestion, was placed upon a wider footing, and applied to the whole of
+Germany instead of only to Prussia.
+
+There is no need here to describe the course of the war itself. A vast
+literature, both technical and general, has grown up round it, and there
+are many people by no means yet old who remember vividly that immense
+and sanguinary struggle. To the Crown Prince was assigned the command of
+the Third Army, in which nearly every State of both North and South
+Germany was represented, including the Bavarian Corps and the Divisions
+of Würtemberg and Baden. Once more the Prince proved his fitness for
+high command, perhaps most notably at the battle of Wörth, when his
+admirable dispositions and his unhesitating resolve that even the last
+man must if necessary be staked were the main causes of the victory. Yet
+the Crown Prince said to the great German writer, Freytag, who was with
+him in this early part of the war:
+
+"I hate this slaughter. I have never desired the honours of war, and
+would gladly have left such glory to others. Nevertheless, it is my hard
+fate to go from battlefield to battlefield, from one war to another,
+before ascending the throne of my ancestors."
+
+Much as he hated war, the Crown Prince never hesitated, as weak
+commanders have always done, to pay the necessary price of victory in
+human lives. Among the troops, "Unser Fritz," as they called him,
+quickly became extraordinarily popular--indeed, their devotion to their
+leader formed a strong and politically useful link between men who had
+actually fought against one another so recently as the Austrian War.
+
+Throughout the campaign, the Crown Prince and Princess corresponded
+daily. The siege of Paris had begun on September 15, and the Crown
+Prince was at Versailles on his birthday, on October 18, almost the
+first birthday he had spent away from his wife since their marriage.
+When he woke in the morning he found on his table a small pocket-pistol,
+and a housewife, filled with articles for daily use, from the Crown
+Princess.
+
+There is a very interesting glimpse of the Crown Princess in December
+1870, that is, during the middle of the war, in Prince Hohenlohe's
+Memoirs. He was asked to lunch with her, and they had a long talk about
+public affairs. The Princess was very dissatisfied concerning the
+proposed Convention with Bavaria, and it seemed to the statesman that
+both she and Princess Alice were enthusiastic for the idea of a united
+Empire without any exception, and that neither sister liked the proposal
+of federation. The Crown Princess listened attentively, however, to
+Hohenlohe's defence of the special nature and justification of the
+Bavarian claims, but it is evident that she agreed with her husband on
+the question of coercing the Bavarians, if it should be necessary.
+
+The two sisters were together as much as was possible during those
+terrible months of hard work and anxiety. Princess Alice spent half of
+the December of 1870 in Berlin, and wrote to her mother: "It is a great
+comfort to be with dear Vicky. We spend the evenings alone together,
+talking or writing our letters. It is nearly five months since Louis
+left, and we lead such single existences that a sister is inexpressibly
+dear when all closer intercourse is so wanting!"
+
+On Christmas Eve there arrived at the house at Versailles where the
+Crown Prince was then living a huge chest, and he asked his hostess and
+her family to share his Christmas cake, "for," said he, "this cake was
+baked by my wife, and you will much oblige me by tasting it." He then
+chatted to them about the Christmas festival in his own happy household,
+and translated the letters of the Crown Princess and of his two elder
+children. Long afterwards this lady wrote to a friend a letter which has
+since been published:
+
+"In those fateful days we learnt to know the good and open heart of the
+late Emperor. We were fortunate indeed to be under the protection of
+that stately and friendly gentleman, who appeared to us, as we now think
+of him, to have been a good genius who warded off mischief from our
+household."
+
+The Crown Princess was accused of having interfered to prevent the
+bombardment of Paris. Thus Busch writes on December 24, 1870:
+
+"Bucher told us at lunch he had heard from Berlin that the Queen and the
+Crown Princess had become very unpopular, owing to their intervention on
+behalf of Paris; and that the Princess, in the course of a conversation
+with Putbus, struck the table and exclaimed: 'For all that, Paris shall
+not be bombarded!'"
+
+As a matter of fact, though both Moltke and the Crown Prince considered
+that the right tactics would be to starve out Paris by a strict
+investment, the bombardment, which was urged by Bismarck for political
+reasons, was delayed, not by any slackness on the part of the Third
+Army, but simply by insufficient preparation of the siege-train in
+Berlin. The Crown Princess suffered bitterly from Bismarck. She knew
+well that he was indispensable, the man of the hour, but he would never
+trust her. He often held back important political news from the Crown
+Prince for fear it should leak out through the Crown Princess to
+England. In this he did her an injustice so gross that it could not be
+atoned for by his own tardy acknowledgment of the fact in _Thoughts and
+Remembrances_.
+
+On January 25, 1871, we learn from Busch that Bismarck said of the
+English who wanted to send a gunboat up the Seine to remove the English
+families there:
+
+"They merely want to ascertain if we have laid down torpedoes and then
+to let the French ships follow them. What swine! They are full of
+vexation and envy because we have fought great battles here--and won
+them. They cannot bear to think that shabby little Prussia should
+prosper so. The Prussians are a people who should merely exist in order
+to carry on war for them in their pay. This is the view taken by all the
+upper classes in England. They have never been well disposed towards us,
+and have always done their utmost to immure us. The Crown Princess
+herself is an incarnation of this way of thinking. She is full of her
+own great condescension in marrying into our country. I remember her
+once telling me that two or three merchant families in Liverpool had
+more silver-plate than the entire Prussian nobility. 'Yes,' I replied,
+'that is possibly true, your Royal Highness, but we value ourselves for
+other things besides silver.'"
+
+After the capitulation of Sedan, the Crown Prince issued from Rheims an
+appeal for the wounded soldiers and the relatives of the killed and
+wounded. In it he spoke of his happiness in commanding in the field an
+army in which Prussians fought side by side with Bavarians,
+Würtembergers, and men of Baden, and declared that the war had created
+one German Army and had also unified the nation.
+
+Later on, when the German armies sat down before Paris, the Crown Prince
+allotted some of the large rooms of the Palace of Versailles for a
+hospital, and himself supervised the arrangements. All through the war,
+indeed, he showed the keenest interest in the hospital service, and was
+constant in his visits to the wounded soldiers. Here we may trace the
+influence of his wife, who eagerly awaited all that he could tell her in
+his letters about poor men to whom her woman's heart went out with such
+ardent sympathy. The Crown Prince took pains to supply the patients with
+interesting reading, and at his suggestion the editor of a Berlin
+Liberal paper sent many hundreds of copies of it daily to the military
+hospitals. This, however, was not approved at headquarters, and an order
+was actually issued by von Roon, forbidding the distribution of the
+paper.
+
+Such incidents illustrate the difficulties with which both the Crown
+Prince and the Princess had to contend. The presence at Versailles, not
+only of the King and Bismarck, but of a cohort of German princes with
+their retinues, as well as numerous diplomatists, Ministers, and other
+official personages, did not make the Crown Prince's position easier. He
+had been raised after the fall of Metz to the highest rank in the army,
+that of General Field-Marshal, the promotion being communicated to him
+in a letter from his father bearing grateful testimony to his brilliant
+successes in the field, notably the strategic advance by which he
+covered the left of the main army and enabled it to overcome Bazaine's
+forces. But this elevation in rank does not appear to have been of much
+practical value to him.
+
+Naturally both the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess took the keenest
+interest in the question of the Imperial title.
+
+By the end of November, 1870, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Würtemberg, and
+Bavaria had all joined the North-German Confederation by treaty. Early
+in December, the King of Bavaria, in a letter to the King of Saxony
+which was really written by Bismarck, nominated the King of Prussia as
+Emperor of Germany, and the North-German Parliament, after voting large
+supplies for the continuance of the war, adopted by an overwhelming
+majority an address requesting the King to become Emperor. His brother
+and predecessor had refused the Imperial crown proffered him by the
+Frankfort Parliament, on the ground that the legal title was
+insufficient, but now that the dignity was tendered by the Sovereigns
+and the people of Germany, it was not possible for the King to refuse.
+
+Neither the King himself, however, nor the older Prussian nobility liked
+the change, which, it was feared, might transform the almost
+parsimonious austerity of the Prussian Court into something like the
+pomp and extravagance with which other sovereigns had surrounded
+themselves. Bismarck, who considered all such matters as titles and
+heraldic pomp to be only important because they influence men's minds,
+was disposed to agree with his Sovereign's feelings, but it was the
+corner-stone of his policy to conciliate the South German States.
+
+To the Crown Prince, on the other hand, with his strongly idealistic
+nature and his highly developed historical imagination, the conception
+of the Empire won by the sword made an irresistible appeal. He was ready
+to see in it a revival of the old Empire, by which the King of Prussia
+should be, not first among his peers, but the overlord of all Germany.
+
+It is significant, however, that King William was proclaimed, in the
+Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, not Emperor of Germany, but German
+Emperor. This was on January 18, 1871, the anniversary of the day on
+which the first King of Prussia had crowned himself at Königsberg. The
+Crown Prince supervised all the arrangements for the ceremony, and it
+was his idea to form a kind of trophy of the colours of the regiments
+which had won glory at Wörth and Weissenburg, Mars-la-Tour, Gravelotte,
+and Sedan. Before this trophy the King pronounced the establishment of
+the German Empire. On the same day by Imperial rescript the new Emperor
+conferred on the Crown Prince and on his successors as heir apparent the
+title of Imperial Highness.
+
+The preliminaries of peace were not signed till February 26, and we
+have, in a letter written two days later by his friend, Herr Abeken, an
+interesting glimpse of the feelings with which the Crown Prince regarded
+these great events, and also the reliance which he placed on the aid of
+his wife. The Crown Prince told Abeken that he was fully conscious of
+the tremendous responsibility now incumbent on him. It was thrice as
+great as that which lay on him as Crown Prince of Prussia, but he did
+not shrink from it. God had already given him a blessed help and support
+in his wife, by whose assistance he hoped to fulfil his great work.
+
+The Crown Prince had the satisfaction of leaving behind him in France as
+friendly feelings towards him personally as could well be entertained by
+the vanquished for a victorious foe. He had distinguished himself among
+the German leaders by his moderation in victory, by his stern repression
+of excesses, and by his chivalrous tributes to the bravery of his
+enemies.
+
+The Crown Princess, absorbed in her labours among the suffering
+soldiers, was scarcely aware at the time of the venomous feelings still
+cherished against her in Prussia, and it was with an exultant heart--as
+"German" as her most captious and suspicious critics could have
+wished--that she welcomed the conclusion of the great conflict.
+
+Berlin was reached on March 17, 1871, though no official reception then
+took place, the Royal carriage in which the new Emperor and the Crown
+Prince were to be seen side by side, could only proceed at foot's pace
+through the dense masses who crowded the streets.
+
+Later, in response to the call of the great crowd who thronged about his
+palace, a window opened, and the Crown Prince was seen in the midst of
+his family beside the Crown Princess, with his youngest child, the
+little Princess who had been born at the beginning of the war in his
+arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ACTIVITIES
+
+
+When the great struggle was over at last and peace was declared, the
+Crown Princess had a pleasant opportunity of exercising the generosity
+and delicacy which formed perhaps the most notable part of her
+many-sided and impulsive character.
+
+M. Thiers had sent to Berlin as French Ambassador the Comte de Gontaut
+Biron. Although allied by birth to several great German families, M. de
+Gontaut, as he was generally styled, found his position in Berlin a very
+painful one. France lay in the dust at the feet of the only real
+conqueror she had ever known. The whole of the huge war indemnity had
+not yet been paid off, and French territory was not yet free from the
+foot of the invader. There were also all kinds of comparatively
+unimportant, yet vexatious and annoying, outstanding points which still
+awaited settlement, and till these were arranged Germany refused to give
+up certain prisoners confined in German fortresses.
+
+Moreover, Bismarck, though outwardly conciliatory and courteous, did not
+seek to spare the French Ambassador as a more generous and sensitive foe
+would have done. M. de Gontaut was actually expected to be present at
+each of the splendid Court and military fêtes which were then being
+given to celebrate the foundation of the new German Empire for the
+victorious return of the Prussian Army to the capital.
+
+From the very beginning of his difficult task, the Ambassador found firm
+and kind friends in the Crown Prince and Princess. On the occasion of
+his first audience the Crown Princess came forward with kindly, eager
+words, telling him that she and her husband had just read with the
+greatest pleasure the memoirs of his grandmother, that Duchess de
+Gontaut who, as Gouvernante of the Royal children, played so great a
+part in the Revolution, and later, in the Restoration. The Princess went
+on to speak of her intense satisfaction and relief at the declaration of
+peace and she concluded with the words: "We know that you have made a
+great sacrifice in coming to Berlin; and we will do everything in our
+power to make your task less painful."
+
+When M. de Gontaut was later joined by his daughter, the Crown Princess
+did all she could to make the daily life of this young French lady as
+agreeable as was possible in the circumstances, and in this she had the
+warm sympathy and assistance of the Empress Augusta, who, as we know,
+had many old and affectionate links with the Legitimist world to which
+the Ambassador belonged.
+
+The Crown Princess's youngest child, who afterwards married Prince
+Frederick Charles of Hesse, was born on April 22, 1872, and was
+christened Margaret Beatrice Feodora--Margaret after the Queen of Italy,
+whom the child's parents both regarded with warm affection.
+
+Queen Margherita came to Berlin for the ceremony, and a great fête was
+given at the New Palace. It was more like an English garden party than
+anything previously known at the Prussian Court, but the Crown Princess
+had a way of making her own precedents. She caused invitations to be
+sent, not only to the nobility and the hosts of officials who had a
+prescriptive right to be present at such a function, but also to persons
+who were merely distinguished for their literary, artistic, or
+scientific achievements.
+
+The months which followed ushered in a peaceful period of happiness and
+rest for the Princess. Her magnificent work during the war had won her
+warm friends and admirers in every class, but of more moment to her than
+her own personal popularity was that enjoyed by the Crown Prince, whose
+relations with the military party now became much pleasanter in
+consequence of his achievements in the field and the enthusiastic
+devotion felt for him throughout the army.
+
+Unfortunately for the Crown Prince and Princess, Bismarck's position had
+been even more radically transformed by the war, and the Minister's
+domination over his already aging sovereign grew more and more obvious.
+It was an open secret that the Emperor and his heir differed on many
+important questions, and the gulf between them was sedulously widened by
+Bismarck's jealous prejudice against the Crown Prince. Incidents that
+would have been in ordinary circumstances too slight to mention now
+revealed, even to strangers, the friction which was symptomatic of
+deeper disagreement.
+
+The Crown Prince, as we have seen, set much store by the new Imperial
+honours which the war had brought to his House, and he was always very
+punctilious in speaking of his father as "Emperor" and of his mother as
+"Empress." The Emperor, however, habitually still spoke of himself as
+"King" and of the Empress as "Queen." The story goes that on one
+occasion the Emperor, addressing some lady in the presence of his son,
+observed that it was extraordinarily mild for the time of year, and that
+"the Queen" had brought him some spring flowers which she had picked out
+of doors that morning. The Crown Prince answered, "Yes, so the Empress
+told me." "I did not know you had already seen the Queen to-day,"
+remarked his father.
+
+The experiences she had just gone through had shown the Crown Princess
+the inadequacy of the existing hospital organisation in Germany. From
+her point of view, and from that of the English ladies who had rendered
+her such great assistance in creating--it was nothing less--the Army
+Nursing Service, a more scientific training for nurses was evidently
+the first necessity; and in securing this she was particularly helped by
+Miss Lees, afterwards Mrs. Dacre Craven, who had been a friend and
+associate of Miss Nightingale.
+
+In 1867 the Crown Princess had drawn up a memorandum in which she laid
+it down that the best nurses would prove to be those who would combine
+the obedience of the Catholic Sisterhoods with a more scientific and
+comprehensive training. The Kaiserwerth Institution, where Florence
+Nightingale had gained valuable experience, did not give a sufficiently
+scientific education, and she came to the conclusion that a nursing
+school must be established in Berlin, where ladies, who should be given
+a distinguishing dress and badge, should be trained. The outbreak of the
+war of 1870 interrupted this scheme, but now that the pressing emergency
+was over, the Princess returned to her old scheme, the fundamental
+principle of which was that it should be carried out by educated and
+refined gentlewomen, preferably orphans. They were to have a three
+years' theoretical and practical course, followed by a course of monthly
+nursing, and were to pass an examination to test their proficiency.
+
+In the face of strong opposition, both on the part of the medical
+profession and of the middle classes in Germany, the Princess organised
+this society of trained lady nurses, who tended the sick poor in their
+own homes. The society began in a very quiet, humble way, but now you
+could not find a German, man or woman, who would not admit that this was
+a splendid addition to the philanthropic institutions of the country.
+The Princess also founded a society for sending the sick children of
+poor parents out of the larger towns into the country or to the seaside.
+
+It need hardly be pointed out that in each of these cases the Crown
+Princess copied peculiarly British institutions, and this no doubt was
+partly why they aroused such indignant opposition.
+
+All through her life one of the Princess's mental peculiarities was that
+of thinking it impossible that any reasoning human being could object to
+anything that was obviously in itself a good and wise measure. To oppose
+a scheme simply because the idea of it had first originated in England
+or in France was something that she could not understand, so far removed
+was she from certain littlenesses of human nature, as well as from the
+dominion of national and racial prejudice.
+
+The Crown Princess, and in this also she was warmly supported by her
+husband's approval and sympathy, wished the new Empire to bestow more
+recognition on those Germans who had attained distinction in the arts of
+peace rather than of war. Encouraged by the knowledge that her work
+during the country's wars had at last won a measure of national
+understanding and gratitude, she again did every thing in her power to
+break down the old Prussian Court barrier between the "born" and the
+"not born." But, as might have been predicted, the Princess's efforts
+were fairly successful as regards the latter, though not as regards the
+former.
+
+To German women of all classes, the Princess's interest in science
+seemed both eccentric and unfeminine. She had attended, when still a
+very young woman, some lectures given in Berlin by the great chemist,
+Hoffmann, who dedicated to her, in later years, his book, _Remembrances
+of Past Friends_--a compliment which pleased and touched her very much.
+
+Her practical love of art was also regarded as uncalled for in a Royal
+lady and indeed unnatural in the mother of a large young family. She had
+a studio built in the palace, where she worked under the teaching of
+Professor Hagen, and she also studied under von Angeli. She was fond of
+visiting the studios of Berlin painters, particularly of the two Begas,
+of Oscar the painter, and Reinhold the sculptor, where she sometimes
+made studies as a student, and where she sometimes was herself the
+study. She and her husband were always great friends of the various
+artists. Among the names that recur constantly in this connection are
+those of Anton von Werner, to one of whose children the Crown Prince was
+godfather, and Georg Bleibtreu.
+
+The New Palace in Berlin was nicknamed "The Palace of the Medicis,"
+because of the enthusiastic encouragement which its owners always gave
+to what they believed to be genius, or even talent. The Crown Princess
+not only entertained persons of distinction in art and literature, but,
+what was less easily forgiven her, any foreign scientists and artists of
+eminence who came to Berlin, were eagerly invited by her, generally to
+informal tea-parties.
+
+But in time even the Princess realised that it was hopeless to try to
+blend the two elements. Unfortunately, she never took the trouble to
+hide her preference for people who interested and amused her to those
+who were merely "hoffahige." The Prussian nobility were amazed and
+affronted that a Prussian princess should esteem so lightly the
+possession of numerous quarterings, and it was a bitter grievance that
+their future sovereign and his consort actually preferred the society of
+painters and musicians and similar persons whom they regarded as
+nobodies.
+
+At the same time, she was always on cordial and pleasant terms with
+diplomatists, who as a rule combine the advantages of good birth with
+intelligence and culture and the most delightful of professions. For
+many years of her life her greatest personal friends were Lord Ampthill
+(at the time Lord Odo Russell) and his wife, a daughter of that Lord
+Clarendon who had expressed so high an admiration of the Princess
+Royal's mental gifts.
+
+But perhaps the Crown Princess most surprised and offended her
+husband's future subjects by her pro-Jewish attitude. In this she showed
+extraordinary courage and breadth of view. For example, she accepted the
+patronage of the Auerbach schools for the education of Jewish orphans,
+and that at a time when the whole of Berlin, from the great official
+world to the humblest tradesman, was taking part in the Judenhetze.
+
+The Crown Princess was indeed, as we have seen, extremely broad-minded
+in matters of religion. She heartily despised the type of mind which
+attacks Jews as Jews, or Catholics as Catholics. She showed this in
+March, 1873, when she spoke strongly to Prince Hohenlohe about the
+hostile policy the Prussian Government was then pursuing towards his
+church. She observed that in her opinion those called upon to govern
+should influence the education of the people, as that of itself would
+make them independent of the hierarchy, and she added: "I count upon the
+intelligence of the people; that is the great power." But Hohenlohe
+drily answered: "A much greater power is human stupidity, of which we
+must take account in our calculations before everything."
+
+What we should call the middle classes were incensed by certain other
+activities of the future Empress. From the very first the Crown Princess
+had been ardently desirous of improving the position of the women of her
+adopted country. But the German woman of that day was quite content
+with the place she then held, both in the public esteem and in the
+consideration of her menfolk; the fact that in youth she was surrounded
+with an atmosphere of sentimental adoration made up, in her opinion, for
+the way she was treated in old age and in middle age.
+
+Even so, the efforts made by the Crown Princess in time bore fruit. They
+comprised the Victoria Lyceum, founded in June, 1869, but placed--and
+here one reluctantly perceives a certain want of tact on the part of the
+foundress--under the direction of an English lady. There were also,
+under the special patronage of the Crown Princess, Fraulein Letze's
+school for girls of the upper classes, and the Letteverein. Other
+educational establishments which owed much to her sympathy and direct
+encouragement were the Victoria and Frederick William Institute, and the
+Pestalozzi-Froebel House, and these are only a few of the educational
+establishments in which she took an active and personal interest.
+Perhaps the most admirable of them all was the Victoria
+Fortbildung-schule, which gave girls the means of continuing their
+education after they had left school.
+
+In another matter concerning the education of women the Crown Princess
+was violently opposed to German public opinion. She was a firm believer
+in the value of gymnastic exercises and outdoor games for girls, and
+that at a time when they were practically unknown in Prussia. The first
+lawn-tennis net ever seen in Germany was put up in the grounds of the
+New Palace at Potsdam, and she was unceasing in her efforts to introduce
+gymnasiums into girls' schools.
+
+In the winter of 1872, the Crown Prince fell ill of an internal
+inflammation, and though the critical period was soon over, he took a
+long time to recover his strength. Margaretha von Poschinger reproduces
+in her life of him an extraordinary utterance said by the _Rheinische
+Kurier_ to have been made by the Crown Prince to his wife at this time:
+
+"The doctors say that my illness is dangerous. As my father is old, and
+Prince William is still a minor, you may not improbably be called upon
+to act temporarily as Regent. You must promise me to do nothing without
+Prince Bismarck, whose policy has lifted our House to a power and
+greatness of which we could not have dreamed."
+
+The interest of this is considerable if we could be sure that it was
+authentic, and not simply what the newspaper wished the public to
+believe that the Crown Prince had said. It may well be that Bismarck,
+who was in the habit of providing for every contingency, was alarmed by
+the Crown Prince's illness, and desired to consolidate his own position
+in the event of the Crown Princess becoming Regent.
+
+After a long convalescence at Wiesbaden the Crown Prince returned with
+his wife to Berlin in the spring of 1873. In the summer they went to
+Vienna for the International Exhibition, and while there they called,
+quite without ceremony, on von Angeli, the painter. The Crown Princess
+invited him to come to Potsdam to paint her husband's portrait; he
+accepted the commission, and it was the beginning of a long friendship.
+
+Von Angeli speaks with enthusiasm of the simple and charming home life
+of the Crown Prince and Princess, who often entertained him. He notes
+that, while there was much talk of a literary, artistic, and scientific
+kind, politics and military matters were never referred to. For the
+Crown Princess the painter had the highest admiration--indeed, he says
+she was gifted with every adornment of mind and heart. She made such
+progress in painting that von Angeli declares himself proud to call
+himself her instructor. The Crown Prince took a keen interest in his
+wife's success, and was himself encouraged to begin working, both in
+charcoal and in colour.
+
+As regarded the relations between England and Germany, the Crown
+Princess had an increasingly difficult part to play during the years
+that immediately succeeded the war. France and Germany--the former with
+far more reason--both considered that they had been badly treated by
+Great Britain during the conflict. Prince Bismarck either was, or
+pretended to be, watchful and apprehensive of the state of feeling in
+France, and Moltke, following his lead, spoke at a State banquet as if
+war might again be forced on Germany by France.
+
+Urged, as Bismarck and his friends believed, by the Crown Princess, but
+really by the advice of Lord Granville, Queen Victoria, in 1874, made a
+personal appeal to the German Emperor. In her letter, after observing
+that England's sympathies would be with Germany in any difference with
+France, she added the significant qualification, "unless there was an
+appearance on the part of Germany of an intention to avail herself of
+her greatly superior force to crush a beaten foe."
+
+In reviewing the life of the Empress Frederick as a whole, it must never
+be forgotten that the Emperor William was not expected to reach, as in
+fact he did, an extraordinary old age. After the Franco-Prussian War,
+everyone of any intelligence, from Bismarck downwards, attached great
+importance to the Crown Princess's views and feelings; they believed
+that she had established a commanding influence over her husband, and
+that the moment he succeeded to the throne she would be the real ruler.
+Accordingly, the further intervention of Queen Victoria in 1875, when a
+German attack on France appeared imminent, was the crowning offence of
+the "British petticoats."
+
+Queen Victoria, as is well known, wrote a personal letter to the Tsar,
+who responded by going himself to Berlin. The "British petticoats," it
+is true, had resented what appeared to be the act of aggression of
+France before the falsification of the Ems despatch had been revealed,
+but they were angered by Bismarck's conspiracy with Russia in denouncing
+the Black Sea Treaty; and his opposition to a law of Ministerial
+responsibility, which might have given the new Empire a constitutional
+basis, showed the impossibility of any real political sympathy between
+the Minister and the Princess who had been trained in the school of
+Prince Albert.
+
+The consequence of Queen Victoria's successful intervention was indeed
+far-reaching. The ten years which followed were probably the most
+anxious of Bismarck's whole life. France, by the prompt payment of the
+Indemnity and in other ways, had shown a most disquieting power of
+revival after the war. In addition, the understanding with Russia, which
+was the pivot of Bismarck's foreign policy, having been broken in his
+hands, he was obliged to recast his policy from the foundations; and,
+though he succeeded in his immediate aims of separating England and
+France on the one hand, and France and Russia on the other, his
+resentment against the Crown Princess and her mother as the origin of
+all his troubles burned all the more fiercely.
+
+[Illustration: FREDERICK WILLIAM
+
+CROWN PRINCE OF PRUSSIA
+
+AFTER THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR]
+
+After each quarrel--for quarrels there were--between the all-powerful
+Minister and his future sovereign, a peace, or rather a truce, was
+generally patched up, and Bismarck would be invited to some kind of
+festivity at the Crown Prince's palace. A shrewd observer has recorded
+that on such occasions his manner to the Crown Princess was always
+courteous, but to the Crown Prince he was often curt to the verge of
+insolence.
+
+So intense was the feeling aroused among Bismarck and his followers,
+that the Crown Prince and Princess found life in Berlin almost
+intolerable, and they began spending a considerable portion of each year
+abroad.
+
+The many philanthropic, social, and political interests of the Crown
+Princess were never allowed to interfere with her family life and
+duties. Very soon after the war, both she and the Crown Prince began to
+give much anxious thought to the education and training of their eldest
+son. We have a significant glimpse of how the question moved the
+conscientious father in a passage in the Crown Prince's diary written on
+January 27, 1871, while he was still in the field:
+
+"To-day is my son William's thirteenth birthday. It is enough to
+frighten one to think what hopes already fill the head of this boy, and
+how we are responsible for the direction which we may give to his
+education; this education encounters so many difficulties owing to
+family considerations and the circumstances of the Berlin Court."
+
+The Crown Princess was the victim of much malevolent and ignorant
+criticism when it was realised that the old traditions were to be
+broken in some important particulars. The civil element was to be at
+least of equal importance as the military in the training of Prince
+William, and he and Prince Henry were sent to the ordinary "gymnasium,"
+or public school as we should call it, at Cassel, a little town in the
+old Duchy of Hesse, which the parents deliberately chose because it was
+some distance from Berlin. The sanction of the Emperor William had to be
+obtained for this plan, and though he gave it there can be little doubt
+that he really disapproved.
+
+This "magnanimous resolve, heretofore unexampled in the annals of our
+reigning families," was indeed regarded with mixed feelings by the
+country generally. It was not, as was supposed by many, an English idea
+to send their heir to the throne to an ordinary school. The Prince of
+Wales had not been educated at all on those lines, and there was
+certainly no precedent in the Royal House of Prussia. The plan was not
+without risks, but on the whole it succeeded admirably. By the special
+wish of the parents, the two princes were treated just like other boys;
+they were addressed as "you," and were called "Prince William" and
+"Prince Henry." "No one," said an English newspaper correspondent,
+"seeing these two simple, kindly-looking lads in their plain military
+frocks, sitting on a form at the Cassel Gymnasium among the other
+pupils, would have guessed that they were the two young Imperial
+Princes."
+
+The Princes had one privilege accorded them; they lived with their
+tutor, Dr. Hinzpeter, but this circumstance certainly did nothing to
+reconcile Bismarck to the plan.
+
+Bismarck gives a significant account of his meeting with Hinzpeter at a
+time when public opinion was busy with the Polish question, and the
+Alvensleben Convention aroused the indignation of the Liberals in the
+Diet. Hinzpeter was introduced to Bismarck at a gathering at the Crown
+Prince's. "As he was in daily communication with the Royalties, and gave
+himself out to be a man of Conservative opinions, I ventured upon a
+conversation with him, in which I set forth my views of the Polish
+question, in the expectation that he would now and again find
+opportunity of giving expression to it." Some days later Hinzpeter wrote
+to Bismarck that the Crown Princess had asked to know the subject of
+their long conversation. He had recounted it all to her, and had then
+reduced it to writing, and he sent Bismarck the memorandum with the
+request that he would examine it, and make any needful corrections. This
+was really courting a snub, which Bismarck hastened to administer,
+flatly refusing Hinzpeter's request.
+
+The Princess's English ideas prevailed in the physical education of her
+children, and in her care to occupy them with such innocent pursuits as
+gardening. But the mother's desire that her eldest son should not be too
+much under the glamour of military glory was defeated, partly by the
+boy's own firmness of character, partly by the events of history. The
+three great wars which culminated in the foundation of the German
+Empire--the Danish, the Austrian, and the French--covered the period of
+his boyhood, and his earliest recollections of his father were of a
+great soldier going forth to win the laurels of victory over the
+successive enemies of his country. The young prince in fact spent most
+of his impressionable years in the full influence of that hero-worship
+for Frederick the Great which formed the strongest link between the
+father and the son, though it is plain that each admired his great
+forebear for different reasons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE CROWN PRINCE'S REGENCY
+
+
+In the January of 1874 the Crown Princess went to Russia to be present
+at the marriage of her brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, with the Grand
+Duchess Marie Alexandrovna. Unlike most Royal personages, many of whom
+regard such functions as weddings as duties to be endured, the Crown
+Princess thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The Emperor Alexander was
+charmed with her cleverness and enthusiasm, and gave her a ruby
+bracelet, which she was fond of wearing to the end of her life.
+
+The Princess had the pleasure of entertaining the Prince and Princess of
+Wales on their way home from St. Petersburg. It was the first time the
+Princess of Wales had appeared at the Prussian Court since the War of
+the Duchies, and her wonderful beauty and charm of manner greatly
+impressed all those who were brought in contact with her.
+
+The Crown Princess gave a splendid fancy dress ball at the New Palace in
+February, 1874. To some who were present it recalled the costume ball
+given by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Buckingham Palace nearly
+thirty years before. The Crown Princess, who was devoted to Italy and
+to Italian art, decided that the entertainment should be known as the
+Venetian Fête. She herself wore a replica of the dress in which Leonora
+Conzaga was painted by Titian. Later there was painted by von Angeli a
+portrait of the Crown Princess in this dress.
+
+The Crown Prince and Princess spent the spring of 1875 in Italy,
+including a long stay in Venice. There they entertained the painter
+Anton von Werner, who has left an enthusiastic account of their visit.
+
+He records that the Princess drew and painted with real industry, now
+sketching the unequalled treasures of the past, now studying the effects
+of light or shade on the canals or in the square of St. Mark's. The
+painter was astonished, not only at the Princess's powers of technique,
+but also at her artistic sympathy and feeling. She seemed to know
+intuitively what would make a fine sketch. On the evening of her
+departure, he says, this artist Princess carried away with her an
+unforgettable picture. The Grand Canal was covered with a fleet of
+gondolas, each lighted with torches, while the full moon shed her
+radiance over the noble palaces and the Rialto Bridge.
+
+Von Werner adds that the Princess, in spite of the many claims on her
+time, had since that time persevered in all her artistic studies, and he
+particularly mentions von Angeli, Wilberg, Lutteroth and Albert Hertel,
+as painters who helped and inspired her. She did life-sized portraits
+of her children, Prince William and the Hereditary Princess of
+Saxe-Meiningen, in addition to numerous pencil and water-colour sketches
+of really remarkable artistic merit.
+
+In the October of that year the Crown Prince, in a long letter to his
+old friend, Prince Charles of Roumania, mentions that the Princess is
+more industrious and successful than ever in painting and drawing, and
+does marvels in the way of portraits. He also describes how his wife led
+her Hussar regiment past the King. She did it, he says, magnificently,
+and looked extremely well in her simple yet becoming uniform.
+
+The Crown Princess was of great assistance to her husband in his scheme
+of adding a Royal Mausoleum to the Berlin Cathedral, which should be a
+kind of Pantheon of the House of Hohenzollern. There were to be statues
+of all the Electoral Princes and Kings, with inscriptions relating the
+history and exploits of each. This involved a great deal of historical
+research, of which the Princess took her share, as also in the
+composition of the more detailed historical memoirs or character
+sketches of his ancestors to which the Crown Prince also devoted
+himself.
+
+A visit to Scheveningen in 1876 enabled the Crown Princess to study,
+much to her delight, the historical and artistic treasures of the old
+cities of Holland.
+
+It will be remembered that the Crown Princess, many years before, had
+had scruples about her husband's association with Freemasonry. She was
+perhaps reassured by a speech which he delivered in July, 1876, when
+Prince Frederick of the Netherlands celebrated his sixtieth anniversary
+as Grand Master. Freemasonry, he declared, aimed at love, freedom, and
+tolerance, without regard to national divisions, and he hoped it might
+be victorious in the struggle for intellect and liberty. This speech is
+particularly interesting because, only two years before, the Crown
+Prince had resigned his office in Grand Lodge in Berlin owing to the
+opposition he encountered in striving to carry out certain reforms in
+the craft.
+
+1877 was an eventful year in the Prussian Imperial family. In February,
+Prince William received his commission in the Foot Guards; Princess
+Charlotte was betrothed to the Hereditary Prince Bernhard of
+Saxe-Meiningen; and Prince Henry made his formal entry into the Navy.
+
+In April of this year it became known that Bismarck had made one of his
+not infrequent threats to resign, and Bucher wrote to Busch to tell him
+the news: "It is not a question of leave of absence," he said, "but a
+peremptory demand to be allowed to retire. The reason: Augusta, who
+influences her aging consort, and conspires with Victoria (the Crown
+Princess)."
+
+The year 1878 opened brightly for the Crown Princess, for in February
+her eldest daughter, Princess Charlotte, was married to Prince Bernhard
+of Saxe-Meiningen. Prince Bismarck, however, excused himself from
+appearing at the ceremony on the pretext of ill-health.
+
+It was at this marriage, the first of the Crown Princess's family
+weddings, that her brother, the Duke of Connaught, made the acquaintance
+of his future wife.
+
+In the month of May came the attempted assassination of the Emperor by a
+youth called Hodel. The Emperor then had a marvellous escape, but on
+June 2, which happened to be a Sunday, the aged Sovereign was driving
+down Unter den Linden when, from an upper window of an inn called "The
+Three Ravens," Nobeling, a Socialist, fired two charges of buckshot into
+the Emperor's head and shoulders. Violent hæmorrhage set in, and for
+some hours it was said, first, that he was dead, and secondly, that if
+not dead he could not survive the day.
+
+The Crown Prince and Princess were then in England, and the news reached
+them at Hatfield, where they were staying with Lord and Lady Salisbury.
+Within a very short time of the receipt of the telegram, they started
+for Berlin, finding on their arrival that the Emperor had recovered
+sufficiently to sign an order conferring the Regency on the Crown
+Prince.
+
+The Regency was hardly more than titular, for the old Emperor stipulated
+that his son was only to "represent" him, and that the government was to
+be carried on as before in accordance with the Emperor's known views. As
+to that, Bismarck had his own ideas, and he succeeded in overcoming the
+Crown Prince's natural hesitation at accepting such a position.
+
+Nevertheless, it was an extraordinarily sudden and dramatic change in
+the whole position of the Crown Prince and Princess. In the first place
+it absolutely put an end to the plan, which had been seriously discussed
+and on the whole approved by Bismarck, that the Crown Prince should
+become Governor-General or Lieutenant-Governor of Alsace-Lorraine.
+Obviously this scheme was no longer practical. The Emperor was old and
+his wound was serious; the accession of his son seemed imminent.
+
+It is curious to recall that, so far back as January, 1862, Queen
+Augusta, speaking to Prince Hohenlohe, had observed: "The King and I are
+old people: we can hardly hope to do more than work for the future. But
+I wish we could look forward to a happier state of things for our son."
+She was destined to live thirty years longer, and to survive the son to
+whom she ever proved herself a loyal and devoted mother, while her
+husband, whom even then she described as old, was destined to live more
+than another quarter of a century--almost as long, in fact, as the son
+who succeeded him for so tragically brief a reign.
+
+But now, in 1878, it seemed as if the Crown Prince, even in the unlikely
+event of his father's recovery from his wound, must become virtual ruler
+of the German Empire.
+
+A very few days, however, made it clear that Bismarck was determined to
+allow the new Regent as little authority as possible beyond that
+conferred by the signing of State documents, and that he was to have no
+practical influence on foreign politics. But fortune, then as always,
+seemed to single out Bismarck for special favour, for in the
+all-important matter of Russo-German relations the Crown Prince was far
+easier to manage, in so far as any management of him was necessary, than
+the old Emperor, who was fondly attached to his nephew, the Tsar
+Alexander II.
+
+Those months, during which the Crown Prince exercised in theory a power
+which he certainly did not possess in reality, were among the most
+trying of all the trying months the Crown Princess ever passed through,
+the more so that the Berlin Congress, which she and the Prince had gone
+to England to avoid, opened on June 13. Among those who sojourned in
+Berlin during those eventful days, and whose presence must have been a
+pleasure to the Princess, were Lord and Lady Salisbury.
+
+But during the Congress the Crown Prince and Princess kept rigidly apart
+from even its social functions, the only exception being that the Crown
+Prince gave an official dinner in the King's name to the
+plenipotentiaries. The Crown Princess stayed out at Potsdam, while the
+Empress refused to appear in any official way; she treated her son
+entirely as if he were already Emperor.
+
+Most serious was the sharp division caused between the father and son by
+the decisions of the Congress. The Crown Prince, who had a life long
+dislike and suspicion of Russia and of Russian state-craft, was supposed
+to have favoured England, and the old Emperor, to the very end of his
+life, considered that Germany had not done as well at the Congress as
+she should have done. He ascribed the fact--probably most unfairly--to
+the Crown Prince instead of to Bismarck.
+
+Meanwhile, all kinds of gossip were rife as to the Crown Princess's
+efforts to influence her husband, for by the public at large the Regent
+was regarded as all-powerful.
+
+To give an example of how the Princess was misunderstood and misjudged;
+when Hodel attacked the Emperor, the latter declared that he did not
+wish the full severity of the law to be exercised. But when Nobeling's
+far more serious attempt at assassination followed, public opinion
+demanded that Hodel should be condemned to death. The Crown Prince, as
+Regent, had to sign the death warrant, and it became known that he had
+told a personal friend how very painful it was to him to sign it. It
+was widely believed that this over-scrupulousness, for so the good
+Berliners considered it, was due to the influence of the Crown Princess;
+yet as a matter of fact she had been, from the first, of opinion that
+Hodel, who had certainly meant to kill his Sovereign, should be
+executed.
+
+In spite, however, of Bismarck's determination to make him a cypher, the
+Crown Prince did not allow himself to be put wholly in the background.
+To the Minister's great annoyance, he opened a personal correspondence
+with the new Pope, Leo XIII, in the hope of putting an end to the
+Kulturkampf. Though at the time it did not seem as though the Prince had
+succeeded, it laid the foundations for the ultimate solution of the
+problem.
+
+The Regent also appointed a certain Dr. Friedberg, a distinguished
+Jewish jurist, who belonged to the Liberal party, to a very high
+judicial post. Curiously enough, this was the only appointment the Crown
+Prince made which was not afterwards revoked. The Emperor William I
+retained Friedberg, but refused to bestow on him the Black Eagle even
+after he had served for nine years in office. Ten years later, when the
+Emperor Frederick was on his way home from San Remo after his father's
+death, he received a Ministerial delegation at Leipzig, and, on seeing
+Friedberg, he took the Black Eagle from his own neck and placed it about
+that of his old friend.
+
+By the end of the year, the Emperor was quite himself again. On a
+certain memorable evening in December, he appeared at the Opera and was
+the object of an extraordinary popular demonstration. The next day he
+wrote an open letter to the Crown Prince, thanking him in the warmest
+terms for the way in which he had fulfilled his duties as Regent.
+
+It was rumoured at the time--it is difficult to know with what
+truth--that the Crown Princess would have liked, after the recovery of
+her father-in-law, that a special post should be created for her
+husband. But, on his side, the Crown Prince said to an English friend
+that he had no wish to find himself the fifth wheel of the coach, and
+that he hated having only a semblance of authority.
+
+During that visit to England which was so suddenly interrupted by
+Nobeling's attempt on the Emperor, Mr. Goschen, the statesman whom Lord
+Randolph Churchill afterwards "forgot" at the time of his dramatic
+resignation, was asked to arrange a meeting between the Crown Prince and
+Princess and George Eliot. The novelist thus describes the party in a
+letter to a friend:
+
+"The Royalties did themselves much credit. The Crown Prince is really a
+grand-looking man, whose name you would ask for with expectation if you
+imagined him no royalty. He is like a grand antique bust--cordial and
+simple in manners withal, shaking hands, and insisting that I should let
+him know when next we came to Berlin, just as if he had been a
+Professor Gruppe, living _au troisième_. _She_ is equally good-natured
+and unpretending, liking best to talk of nursing soldiers, and of what
+her father's estate was in literature. We had a picked party to
+dinner--the Dean of Westminster, the Bishop of Peterborough, Lord and
+Lady Ripon, Dr. Lyon Playfair, Kinglake, Froude, Mrs. Ponsonby (Lord
+Grey's granddaughter), and two or three more 'illustrations'; then a
+small detachment coming in after dinner. It was really an interesting
+occasion."
+
+This was the kind of party which the Crown Princess thoroughly enjoyed,
+though even then her shyness always struck those who met her for the
+first time. On this occasion she opened her conversation with George
+Eliot by saying, "You know my sister Louise?"--and George Eliot's
+comment is "just as any other slightly embarrassed mortal might have
+done."
+
+On December 14, the anniversary of the Prince Consort's death, the Crown
+Princess suffered another, and a hardly less terrible bereavement.
+
+Her beloved sister, Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse, after losing
+one child from diphtheria and devotedly nursing her husband and her
+other children, herself fell a victim to the malady, the treatment of
+which was not then so well understood as it is now. The sisters had been
+fondly attached to one another from childhood, and after Princess
+Alice's marriage the tie was drawn even closer. They had been
+inseparable during the Franco-Prussian War, and for many years the
+happiest days spent each year by the Crown Princess were those when she
+was able to pay a flying visit to the Grand Duchess, or when the Grand
+Duchess was able to spend a few days at Berlin or Potsdam.
+
+But there was yet another and an even more bitter sorrow in store for
+the Crown Princess. In March, 1879, her third son, Prince Waldemar, died
+in his eleventh year. He was a clever, affectionate, merry-hearted boy,
+and would have been his mother's favourite child, if she had allowed
+herself to make differences between her children. Like the Princess
+herself, he had been intellectually far in advance of his years, and he
+had had as tutor a distinguished professor, Herr Delbrück, who succeeded
+Treitschke in the Chair of History at the Berlin University, and
+afterwards played a considerable part in German thought and even in
+German politics.
+
+It is shocking to have to record an example of the prejudice which was
+even then still felt in certain circles in Germany against the bereaved
+Crown Princess. A minister of the sect who called themselves the
+Orthodox Protestants, when he heard of the death of the young Prince,
+observed that he hoped it was a trial sent by God to humiliate her hard
+heart. This monstrous utterance must have found its way into print, or
+to the ears of some singularly ill-advised human being, for the
+Princess came to know of it, and in her then state of anguish it gave
+her more pain than perhaps even the minister himself would have wished
+to inflict.
+
+It was natural that the mother's heart should at this moment turn with
+keen anxiety to her son, Prince Henry, who was then serving abroad in a
+German warship. She imagined him in the midst of all sorts of perils,
+and she begged the Emperor to allow him to return home at once. But the
+Sovereign, though expressing kindly sympathy, was obliged, in view of
+the rigid rules of the service, to refuse her petition, and the Princess
+had to bear as best she could this addition to her burden.
+
+At this time the Crown Princess's relations with Bismarck had undergone
+some improvement. On February 23, 1879, Bismarck gave to Busch a most
+unflattering picture of the old Emperor, but he described the Crown
+Princess as unaffected and sincere, like her husband, "which her
+mother-in-law is not." He observed that it was only family
+considerations (the Coburger and the Augustenburger more than the uncle
+in Hanover) that made the Crown Princess troublesome, formerly more so
+than at present. "But she is honourable and has no pretensions."
+
+It was thought that the Crown Princess was sadly in need of mental
+change and refreshment after the two terrible blows which had deprived
+her of her child and of her sister. She, therefore, went to stay in
+Rome _incognito_ during the April of 1880, being only attended by a
+lady-in-waiting and her "chambellan." To those of her English friends
+whom she happened to meet she spoke constantly of her dead son, saying
+that he had been the most promising of her children, and that she felt
+as if she could never be resigned to her loss. In answer to a kindly
+suggestion that she had so many duties to perform that she would soon be
+taken out of herself, she said: "Ah, yes, there is much to do and one
+cannot sit down with one's sorrow, but the mother who has lost her child
+carries a heavy heart all her life."
+
+During her stay in Rome, the Princess spent almost the whole of each day
+in the picture galleries, and in the evening she generally dined with
+some of her English friends and members of the diplomatic corps. As was
+always her wont, she managed to see all the more interesting strangers
+who were just then in Rome, many being asked to meet her at the British
+Embassy. One night, when Lady Paget asked her whom she would like to
+meet, she answered instantly: "Cardinal Howard and Mr. Story" (the
+American sculptor). The Princess, however, could not stay as long in
+Rome as she would have liked, for she had to hurry back to be present at
+the Emperor's golden wedding festivities.
+
+Fortunately for the Crown Princess, there came other thoughts to
+distract her from her grief. She welcomed her first grandchild, the
+Hereditary Princess of Saxe-Meiningen giving birth to a daughter, and in
+April, 1880, her eldest son Prince William was betrothed to Princess
+Victoria of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Augustenburg, an alliance
+entirely approved by his parents. The Crown Prince, in a letter to
+Prince Charles of Roumania, said that it was really a love-match, and
+that the young Princess possessed remarkable gifts of heart, mind, and
+character, as well as a certain gracious dignity. It was also felt that
+the marriage would be a sort of compensation to the Augustenburg family
+for the loss of the Elbe Duchies.
+
+In September, 1880, the Crown Princess had the joy of welcoming back
+Prince Henry from his voyage round the world, and the marriage of Prince
+William took place in February, 1881, amid universal rejoicings.
+
+The Crown Princess's influence on the artistic life of Germany was shown
+by a little incident connected with her eldest son's marriage. On the
+occasion of the wedding the town of Berlin decorated the streets in a
+particularly original and beautiful way, and other Prussian towns gave
+the young people as a wedding present a really artistic table service.
+The Crown Prince exclaimed: "And whom have we to thank that such things
+can be done by us in Germany to-day? Not least my wife!"
+
+In the following March, when the Crown Prince was in Russia attending
+the funeral of Alexander II, who had been assassinated by Nihilists, the
+Princess received an anonymous threatening letter, informing her that
+her husband would also fall a victim to the Nihilists in the next few
+hours. She was in a dreadful state of agitation until reassuring
+telegrams arrived.
+
+A son was born to Prince and Princess William on May 6, 1882, and the
+old Emperor William telegraphed to the Crown Prince: "Praise and thanks
+to God! Four generations of Kings living! What a rare event! May God
+shield the mother and child!"
+
+In November of the same year, the Crown Princess had a curious
+conversation with Prince Hohenlohe, who thus records it:
+
+"It may be that Christian consolation does not suffice one, but it is
+better to keep this to oneself and think it over. Plato's dialogues and
+the ancient tragedies she finds very consolatory. Much that she said was
+true. But she is too incautious and hasty in her verdicts upon things
+which are, after all, worthy of reverence."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+SILVER WEDDING: THE CROWN PRINCE'S ILLNESS
+
+
+The Crown Prince and Princess now looked forward to celebrating their
+silver wedding on January 25, 1883.
+
+The festivities were rather dashed by the sudden death, only four days
+before, of Prince Charles of Prussia, the Emperor's brother. The old
+Prince had never liked his English niece, and it was whispered in the
+diplomatic world that he had much preferred to die before rather than
+after the celebrations in which she was to be so conspicuous a figure!
+
+Preparations for commemorating the anniversary with due honour had been
+made for fully a year before, and money was being collected for various
+presentations, when it was intimated that the Crown Prince and Princess
+wished the subscriptions to be devoted to public and philanthropic
+objects. This made a great impression, and the central committee raised
+the large sum of £42,000, mostly in quite small contributions. It was
+presented to the Prince and Princess on February 16, with the request
+that it should be used for charitable purposes chosen by their Imperial
+Highnesses.
+
+The money was accordingly distributed among the various charities with
+which the Crown Prince and Princess were connected, and some of which
+they had themselves founded--such as the workmen's colonies for
+reclaiming the unemployed and finding temporary occupation for them;
+institutions for the technical and practical education of working men in
+their leisure hours; the promotion of health in the home; the Victoria
+School for the training of nurses; and the Victoria Foundation for the
+training of young girls in domestic and industrial work. The city of
+Berlin had a separate fund, which reached the round sum of £10,000, and
+of this £5900 was spent on building a nursing institute.
+
+The death of Prince Charles caused the postponement of the festivities
+to the end of February, when they were held in what we should call "full
+State." The Prince of Wales represented Queen Victoria, and the Emperor
+Francis Joseph also sent his heir apparent.
+
+The principal ceremony was both impressive and artistic, and there we
+can trace the influence of the Crown Princess. It consisted in a
+representation of the Court of Queen Elizabeth, arranged by the artists
+of Berlin. The Crown Prince, in the uniform of the Queen's Cuirassiers,
+and the Crown Princess in white satin and silver lace, led the
+magnificent procession, in which all the Royal personages took part.
+After the Crown Prince and Princess had taken their seats between the
+Emperor and Empress, a dramatic representation of the Court of Charles
+the Bold, of Burgundy, with its picturesque troubadours, was given,
+followed by the Elizabethan Pageant. Then came what was perhaps the most
+interesting scene of all--a large assemblage dressed to represent the
+great painters of the Renaissance in Italy, Germany, and the
+Netherlands, who advanced, one by one, and did obeisance to the Crown
+Prince and Princess as patrons of the arts.
+
+In May, 1883, the Princess paid a private visit to Paris. She only
+stayed three days, but during those three days undertook more
+intelligent sight-seeing than most women of her then age would have
+found possible. She was entertained at luncheon by Lord Lyons, and at
+dinner at Saint Germain by Prince Hohenlohe, who in his diary rather
+ungraciously observes: "Royal excursions with Royal personages are not
+exactly among the pleasant things of life."
+
+During this visit the Princess said to a French friend that one of the
+lives she would have liked to lead would have been that of a little
+bourgeoise of the Rue Saint Denis, going on high-days and holidays to
+the Théâtre Français.
+
+The Crown Princess was now able to carry out her cherished project of
+building an English church dedicated to St. George in Berlin, largely
+with the £5700 which was contributed in England for the silver wedding
+celebrations. The wisdom of this employment of the money subscribed may
+perhaps be doubted, for it can only have confirmed the idea prevailing
+in some quarters that the Princess remained, and would always remain, an
+Englishwoman in all her feelings and sympathies. However, the laying of
+the foundation-stone, which the Crown Princess performed herself in the
+spring of 1884, was carried out with considerable ceremony.
+
+The Crown Prince made a speech on the occasion, in which he recalled
+that King Frederick William IV had assigned one of the rooms in the
+palace of Monbijou to the use of the English congregation, and that the
+King's brother, the then Emperor, actuated by the same feelings, had
+granted the land on which the church was to be built. The Crown Princess
+took the keenest interest in the building, and followed the carrying out
+of the architect's plans in every detail.
+
+After the death of Field-Marshal Baron von Manteuffel, Stadhalter of
+Alsace-Lorraine, it was suggested that the Crown Prince might be his
+successor, but the old Emperor refused to consider the notion, while
+being willing to consider the appointment of the young Prince William.
+It is said that the Crown Princess herself went to her father-in-law and
+begged him not to put so great an affront on her husband. The post was,
+therefore, conferred on Prince Hohenlohe.
+
+In the November of 1885, Matthew Arnold paid a visit to Germany in order
+to obtain information as to the German system of education. The Crown
+Princess was keenly interested in the inquiries he was making. With her
+usual energy, she went to considerable personal trouble in order to help
+him, and she arranged, among other things, that Mr. Arnold should make a
+short stay on Count Redern's property, in the Mark of Brandenburg.
+
+In one of his letters Arnold gives a charming account of a soirée at the
+New Palace: "The Crown Princess came round the circle, and I kissed her
+hand, as everyone here does when she holds it out. She talked to me a
+long time, and said I must come and see her quietly, comfortably." A few
+days later he dined at the palace, the only other guest being Hoffmann,
+the great chemist. Arnold sat next the Crown Princess, who "talked I may
+say all dinner. She is very able and well-informed."
+
+A day or two later came a message asking him to tea with the Crown
+Princess: "She was full of the Eastern question, as all of them here
+are; it is of so much importance to them. She talked, too, about
+Bismarck, Lord Ampthill, the Emperor, the Empress, the Queen, the
+Church, English politics, the German nation, everything and everybody
+indeed, except the Crown Prince and herself."
+
+Mr. Arnold was very anxious to meet "the great Reichs-Kanzler" himself,
+but this was not easy, as the great man was reputed to be almost
+inaccessible: but the Crown Princess herself wrote and asked Bismarck
+to receive her compatriot.
+
+Matthew Arnold was struck by the lack in Berlin of what certainly exists
+in London and Paris, namely, an agreeable, cultivated society consisting
+mainly of upper middle-class elements. He observed that in Berlin there
+was, in addition to the Court, only groups of functionaries, of
+soldiers, and of professors.
+
+As may be gathered from much that has already appeared in this volume,
+the Crown Princess was ever pathetically anxious that England and
+Germany should be on the most friendly terms of confidence and
+affection. Consequently she went through some days of considerable
+anxiety, in the spring and early summer of 1884, over the "inciden" of
+Angra Pequena. When Lord Granville decided to recognise German
+sovereignty in this territory, the Crown Princess was quite as pleased
+in her way as Bismarck was. Lord Ampthill, in a letter to Lord
+Granville, observes: "The Crown Princess, who dined with us last night,
+was beyond measure happy at the general contentment and altered tone of
+the Press."
+
+This Lord Ampthill, the Lord Odo Russell of former days, was a valued
+friend of the Crown Princess. She was always, naturally, on terms of
+friendship with her mother's representative in Berlin, but Lord
+Ampthill's appointment had given her special satisfaction. The
+Ambassador's premature death in 1884 was a great grief to the Princess,
+and the day after his death the Crown Prince himself came to the villa,
+where Lord and Lady Ampthill had lived near Sans Souci, to lay a wreath
+on the coffin.
+
+The health of the old Emperor now began to give occasion for anxiety. He
+had been born on March 22, 1797, and when he reached his eighty-seventh
+birthday in 1884, it seemed as if his course was almost run. In the
+circumstances the Crown Prince and Princess could scarcely help
+anticipating the time when, as it then seemed, the great powers and
+responsibilities of the throne would be theirs. But it is certainly true
+to say that the feeling of duty was paramount in their minds, and that
+nothing was further from their thoughts than to covet the Imperial
+purple for its own sake. They regarded it as the symbol of all that they
+were determined to do for the welfare and happiness of the people.
+
+Even if they had been blind to the apparently immediate consequences of
+the old Emperor's failing health, they would have been enlightened by
+the altered demeanour of Prince Bismarck. He showed clear signs of a
+desire to cultivate better relations with the Heir Apparent and his
+family, and he even attended an evening party given by the Crown
+Princess on the occasion of her birthday.
+
+Not long afterwards, early in 1885, the Crown Prince sounded Bismarck
+as to whether, in the event of the Emperor's death, he would remain in
+office. The astute Chancellor said that he would, subject to two
+conditions, namely, that there should be no foreign influences in State
+policy, and that there should be no Parliamentary government; it is said
+that the Crown Prince assented with an eloquent gesture.
+
+The real tragedy of the Crown Princess's life surely lies in these years
+of waiting. She could not--assuredly she did not--for a moment wish that
+the old Emperor should die. She had nursed him devotedly during the long
+illness caused by Nobeling's attempted assassination, and it is a
+significant fact that she alone had been able to persuade the stern old
+soldier to leave his hard camp bed for a soft invalid couch. She knew as
+well as anyone the Emperor's noble qualities, and she cherished for him
+a warm and filial affection.
+
+Yet it was patent, especially to all those who shared the strong
+political and constitutional opinions of the Crown Princess, that the
+aged Sovereign had outlived his usefulness to his country. She could not
+help being conscious that in her husband, and in herself, too, there
+lay, capacities of national service of which William I and his consort
+had never dreamed.
+
+If the word "disappointment" is used of the Crown Princess's
+long-deferred hopes, it was in no sense the baulking of any commonplace
+ambition. The tragedy lay in the failure of the pure and single-hearted
+dedication of her husband and herself to bettering the lot of those
+vast, silent millions on whose pains and toil the pomp of thrones and
+empires, the exquisite refinements of civilisation, the discoveries of
+science, and the delights of art and literature, seemed to her to be all
+ultimately based.
+
+The sympathies of one of the most warm-hearted women who ever lived were
+thus continually torn and divided, for, while it seemed to her loyal
+nature an act of treachery to look forward to the old Emperor's death,
+she was continually being reminded, by the demeanour of those about her,
+that that event, which would so entirely transform her position, was
+expected almost daily.
+
+In the midst of this subtle mental and spiritual conflict, the Crown
+Princess was struck by yet another arrow from the quiver of fate,
+inflicting an anguish of anxiety which even her bitterest enemies would
+surely have wished her to be spared.
+
+In April, 1886, the Crown Prince suffered from a severe attack of
+measles, which probably left him in a weakened state, as this disease is
+apt to do when it attacks a man over fifty. However, he was thought to
+have recovered sufficiently to visit the King and Queen of Italy on the
+Riviera in the autumn, and it was there, while out driving, that the
+Prince caught a severe cold, which brought on an affection of the
+throat.
+
+The Princess herself undertook, with great efficiency, the chief
+responsibility of nursing the patient. But the throat affection did not
+yield to treatment, and the terrible suspicion that it might never so
+yield must often have assailed the Princess, even in these early months
+of her husband's illness. But she did not betray the anxiety gnawing at
+her heart; on the contrary, she showed throughout a gallant optimism
+which, as we now look back on it, seems intensely pathetic.
+
+It was the more necessary that the Princess should never for a moment
+relax her cheerfulness, because the patient himself soon began to suffer
+from periods of deep depression. To one friend he even said that his
+time had already passed away, and the future belonged to his son; to
+another he declared that he had become an old man and stood with one
+foot in the grave.
+
+On the Emperor William's ninetieth birthday, March 22, 1887, the sailor
+son of the Crown Princess, Prince Henry of Prussia, was formally
+betrothed to his cousin, his mother's favourite niece, Princess Irene of
+Hesse.
+
+During the festivities given in honour of the event, it began to be
+whispered among the guests that the Crown Prince's throat affection was
+more serious than had as yet been acknowledged. But it is said that the
+word "cancer" was only first mentioned in connection with the case when,
+in deference to the highest medical advice of Berlin, he was sent to
+Ems to be treated for "a bad cold with bronchial complications following
+on measles."
+
+The Crown Prince and Princess, with their family, went to Ems in the
+middle of April and spent a month there. Not only did this bring no
+improvement, but the patient became perceptibly worse. He was brought
+back to Berlin, and a consultation of the most eminent medical experts,
+including Bergmann, Gerhardt, and Wagener, was held, as the result of
+which a growth in the throat of a malignant character was diagnosed.
+
+Bismarck in his _Reminiscences_ contradicts two curious stories which
+are worth notice, if only for the reason that they have obtained a
+certain amount of currency, and one of them is even to be found in an
+English work on the Emperor William II.
+
+The first of these stories is that, after his return from Ems, the Crown
+Prince signed a document in which, in the event of his surviving his
+father, he renounced his succession to the throne in favour of his
+eldest son. There is not, says Bismarck, a shadow of truth in this
+story.
+
+The other statement is that any heir to the Prussian throne who suffers
+from an incurable physical complaint is, by the Hohenzollern family law,
+excluded from the succession. The importance of this provision, if it
+really existed, is obvious; and, at the period we have now reached, when
+the physical state of the Crown Prince became a subject of intense
+public interest, it obtained wide currency and no small amount of
+credit. If, on a strict interpretation of such a rule, the Crown Prince
+was excluded from the succession, it might have been argued that his
+eldest son was also incapable of succeeding, owing to the weakened state
+of his arm. But Bismarck declares categorically that the Hohenzollern
+family law contains no provision on the matter at all, any more than
+does the text of the Prussian constitution.
+
+Bismarck goes on to say that the doctors who were treating the Crown
+Prince resolved at the end of May to carry out the removal of the larynx
+under an anæsthetic without having informed the Prince of their
+intention. The Chancellor, however, immediately raised objections;
+required that they should not proceed without the consent of the Prince;
+and, further, that as they were dealing with the successor to the
+throne, the consent of the head of the dynasty should also be obtained.
+The old Emperor, therefore, after being informed of the circumstances by
+Bismarck, forbade the doctors to carry out the operation without the
+consent of the Crown Prince.
+
+It must be remembered, in considering the diagnosis of the German
+experts, that laryngology was at that time almost in its infancy, and it
+was natural that the Crown Princess should have clung desperately to the
+belief that a mistake had been made. Indeed, it is said that Professor
+Bergmann himself advised that the opinion of some other eminent throat
+specialist should be obtained before it was decided to have recourse to
+surgical interference.
+
+This was the position when the eminent English throat specialist, Dr.
+(afterwards Sir) Morell Mackenzie was summoned. There is no need here to
+go over in detail the painful controversy which was engendered by this
+step, and which was embittered, not only by thorny questions of
+professional etiquette, but also by irrelevant political passions. Our
+purpose is rather to state the principal facts, and leave the reader to
+form his own conclusions.
+
+The Crown Princess was widely believed to have insisted that the English
+specialist should be called in simply because of her English prejudices,
+and this was considered an affront to the medical profession in Germany.
+As a matter of fact a list of the most eminent throat specialists in
+Europe was drawn up. One was a Frenchman, another a Viennese, and the
+third was Morell Mackenzie. The Frenchman was discarded for political
+reasons, the Viennese for other reasons, and it was a consensus of
+political and medical opinion which led to the choice of the English
+specialist.
+
+On May 20, 1887, Dr. Morell Mackenzie arrived in Berlin. The German
+physicians informed him that they believed they had to deal with a
+cancer, but they desired his diagnosis. Mackenzie performed more than
+one small operation to serve as a basis for a microscopic examination,
+which was entrusted to Professor Virchow, probably the greatest
+physiologist then living. It was Virchow who reported, to the exultant
+relief and joy of the Crown Princess, that, while he found a certain
+thickening of the membrane, he had "discovered nothing to excite
+suspicions of a wider and graver disease."
+
+Henceforth there was a party in Berlin who were convinced that the
+growth, if growth it was, in the Crown Prince's throat was benign. But
+it may serve as an illustration of the passions which the whole affair
+aroused when it is stated that there were many who asserted that Virchow
+had been deliberately deceived, and that the English specialist had
+refrained from submitting to him those portions of the membrane which
+would have clearly shown the presence of malignant disease. It was this
+monstrous accusation which chiefly served to inflame the controversy on
+both sides.
+
+Virchow's report greatly relieved the anxieties of the Crown Prince and
+Princess at the time, and, relying on it implicitly, they went to
+England with their daughters in the middle of June for three months.
+They stayed at first on the healthy heights of Norwood, in the south of
+London, going later to Scotland and the Isle of Wight.
+
+While at Norwood they saw many distinguished English people, though even
+then the Prince was prohibited from uttering a word above his breath.
+Those who met the Prince at this time were painfully struck by his
+appearance. He was much thinner, but the Princess, who, being always
+with him, did not notice the gradual change which had come over him, was
+full of hope. Indeed, she found time to continue her interest in social
+work. She was present at a gathering held in Drapers' Hall to promote
+the training of women teachers, and her old friend Lord Granville made a
+charming little speech about her youth.
+
+The Crown Prince was present with his wife at Queen Victoria's Golden
+Jubilee, and it is still remembered how great an impression was made on
+the London populace by his knightly figure in his white Cuirassier
+uniform. His was the central and by far the most magnificent presence,
+like some paladin of mediæval chivalry, in the mounted escort of princes
+which surrounded the venerable Sovereign on her way to and from
+Westminster Abbey.
+
+During their stay in Scotland, the Crown Prince was asked by a gentleman
+to name his steam launch. He chose the name _The White Heather_, showing
+how his thoughts travelled back to the day, nearly thirty years before,
+when he had gathered on a Scotch mountain the symbolic sprig of white
+heather to give to the Princess Royal.
+
+The Crown Prince and Princess returned to Germany in the middle of
+September, and proceeded to Toblach, in the Tyrol. But the climate there
+was considered too chilly, and the patient was moved to Venice at the
+end of the month. It was from Venice that the Prince wrote to an old
+friend a pathetic letter full of hope, in which he said that the real
+trouble was now overcome, and that it was only necessary to avoid
+speaking and catching cold. Early in October the Prince was again moved
+to Baveno, on Lake Maggiore, and at the beginning of November to the
+Villa Zirio, at San Remo. From San Remo the Princess telegraphed for Dr.
+Morell Mackenzie, who arrived on November 5.
+
+The Villa Zirio was a comfortable house standing in its own grounds. The
+first floor, which consisted of two suites of large rooms, was occupied
+by the Crown Prince and Princess. On this floor were also the rooms of
+the Princess's lady-in-waiting, Countess von Bruschl. The second floor
+was assigned to the three young princesses and the rest of the suite.
+
+Unfortunately, owing to the great curiosity and anxiety felt all over
+Europe as to the progress of the Crown Prince's illness, the little
+Italian town was filled with newspaper representatives, their
+headquarters being a large hotel opposite the Villa Zirio. In fact,
+during the winter of 1887-8, all the world was watching the race between
+the two lives--that of the ninety-year-old Emperor, and that of his son,
+already stricken with a mortal disease, on whom so many fair hopes
+rested.
+
+The Crown Prince and Princess owed a great deal, at this troubled
+period of their lives, to the devotion and vigilant loyalty of their
+friend and servant, Count Theodor Seckendorff, whose official position
+in the Crown Princess's Household was that of "chambellan."
+
+Seckendorff was once well described by an English friend as "the
+Baldassare Castiglione of the present day." He was, indeed, "the perfect
+courtier." His father, a distinguished diplomatist, had been attached to
+the Prussian Legation in London, and so the Count knew England and the
+English intimately. Indeed, he had obtained leave to accompany Lord
+Napier of Magdala on the Abyssinian campaign, and he was also with that
+distinguished commander on the North-West frontier of India. Afterwards
+he was on the staff of the Crown Prince in the Franco-German War, and
+was chosen by the latter to be one of the officers to escort Napoleon
+III to Wilhelmshöhe. Thereafter the Count's relationship with the Crown
+Prince and Princess became even closer.
+
+A man of fine literary and artistic taste, and a really good artist,
+Count Seckendorff spoke English, Italian, and French with ease and
+distinction, and he retained--what few men and women seem able to retain
+in the world of Courts--a great simplicity of manner and absolute
+sincerity of nature. While patriotically devoted to his own country, he
+was also a true lover of England, and he always did everything that lay
+in his power to ease the often strained relations between the two
+nations. After the death of the Empress Frederick, Count Seckendorff
+continued in faithful and kindly touch with her native country. He
+organised the Loan Exhibition of British Art in Berlin as late as 1908,
+and his premature death, two years later, caused much sorrow to a large
+circle of attached friends in both London and Berlin.
+
+To return to the life at San Remo; in a letter written about this time
+the Crown Princess says:
+
+"We are passing through a time of heavy trial, but the knowledge that
+the nation has not forgotten us, and that it hopes and sympathises with
+us, is a perpetual source of comfort. If it be God's will, this
+confidence will remain the Crown Prince's most valued future possession,
+and be the greatest help to him in achieving his noble ideals. Who can
+tell how many days may yet be granted to him? But when we see him so
+virile and fresh, we can only trust to the strength of his constitution
+and believe that his health will not fail him in carrying out his
+duties, though even in the happiest circumstances he will have to
+economise his strength and use his voice as little as possible."
+
+From San Remo, too, the Crown Prince wrote to his beloved French tutor a
+touching letter, in which occurs the following passage:
+
+"As to the life we are leading here, it could not be more intimate and
+more _gemütlich_. First of all, my wife nurses me as might a true Sister
+of Charity, with a calm and knowledge truly admirable. Our daughters
+surround us with their loving tenderness, and the Riviera is a
+delightful climate and does us much good."
+
+Even then, the Crown Princess had not given up hope. Her husband still
+looked in good health; he slept well, and his appetite was excellent.
+
+On December 1, the Princess herself wrote to M. Godet:
+
+"We are profoundly touched by the many proofs of sympathy which reach us
+from all sides. I cannot help feeling that it must make you very happy
+to know that all the care you took, in old days, in developing that pure
+and noble soul, has now brought to him these universal tributes of
+respect and confidence."
+
+Alas, even then the Prince had heard from the physicians his sentence of
+death, which he received with the same stoicism he had shown on the
+field of battle.
+
+Christmas came, and was celebrated with characteristic kindliness by the
+Prince, who arranged magnificent gifts for his wife and the little
+circle of intimate friends at San Remo. But his health steadily
+declined, and a sudden operation had to be performed early in January.
+
+Meanwhile the aged Emperor had caught a chill in the severe Berlin
+winter. His magnificent constitution was already enfeebled by age, and
+to his physical weakness were now added the distress and anxiety caused
+by the news from San Remo, which became continually more and more
+disquieting. The end soon came, and the stout old soldier sank and died
+on March 9, 1888, less than a fortnight before his ninety-second
+birthday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE HUNDRED DAYS' REIGN
+
+
+On the morning of March 9, 1888, the Crown Prince was walking in the
+gardens of the Villa Zirio, when a telegram was brought to him. He took
+it up with languid interest, but when he read the address, "To His
+Imperial Majesty the Emperor Frederick William," there was no need to
+open the envelope, and it is said that his habitual self-control
+deserted him, and he burst into tears.
+
+A pathetic, and yet in its way a magnificent, scene followed in the
+great drawing-room on the ground floor of the villa. The Households of
+the new Emperor and Empress had assembled there and stood in a circle
+waiting....
+
+Suddenly the Emperor appeared, and we have the following striking
+description from one who claims to have been a witness of what occurred:
+
+"He had become handsome again, as in the radiant days of his youth. His
+beard, with a few silver streaks, glowed in the brilliant light cast by
+the chandelier. Tall and well built, he dominated the entire company.
+His blue eyes were slightly misty. His delicate complexion, now
+heightened with a little colour, seemed to show the real tranquillity
+which had taken possession of his soul; and his mouth with the red lips
+had now that fascinating smile which characterised him. With a firm step
+he walked straight to a small table in the middle of the drawing-room
+and wrote--for the tube in his throat prevented him from speaking--a few
+lines, which he signed. An officer read out the paper aloud--it was the
+announcement of the death of the Emperor William I and of his own
+accession as Frederick III. The Emperor then walked towards the Empress,
+made a long and reverent bow, paying full homage to his wife's devotion,
+and with a grave and tender gesture passed round her neck the Ribbon of
+the Black Eagle."
+
+It is also recorded that the Emperor walked up to Dr. Morell Mackenzie
+and, after shaking him warmly by the hand, wrote for him the following
+words: "I thank you for having made me live long enough to recompense
+the valiant courage of my wife."
+
+The Emperor Frederick, with the Empress and their daughters, set out for
+Berlin on March 10, making what was then the swiftest journey in the
+records of Continental travel. The only interruption, and that was very
+short, was to enable the Emperor to receive the greetings of his old
+friend, King Humbert of Italy, who had himself travelled by forced
+marches for the purpose.
+
+Amid a terrible storm of sleet and snow, on the night of March 11, the
+Imperial party entered Berlin.
+
+Those who then saw the Emperor, whatever their political predilections,
+were amazed at his look of health and strength. For months past a thick
+veil of secrecy had been drawn over the life at the Villa Zirio.
+Naturally, therefore, rumour had had it all her own way, and in Germany
+the general pessimism was undoubtedly fostered by the medical
+profession. They had persuaded themselves that the Emperor was already
+_in articula mortis_, and the Empress was openly censured for bringing
+him back at all. It was even believed by many that he might very well
+die on the journey owing to the sudden transition from the warm, equable
+climate of San Remo to the biting cold of Berlin.
+
+The one certain fact which had been published was that he had undergone
+the operation of tracheotomy, and that he could not speak owing to the
+tube in his throat. But, apart from that, to the general astonishment,
+the Emperor was, or seemed to be, not very different from his normal
+condition. At once he took up the reins of power, granting audiences,
+and dealing for many hours every day with State affairs.
+
+Though the joy with which the friends of the new Emperor and Empress
+hailed their accession was dashed by the thought of how brief must be
+the new reign, yet it is abundantly evident that no such idea occurred
+to the Empress herself, and that very fact seems to enhance the
+poignancy of the whole tragedy.
+
+At the beginning of the Emperor Frederick's reign, a distinguished
+German wrote to a friend: "The Empress, as you have rightly judged, is
+making her way among the people. However brief her tenure of power will
+be, the more will the public at large perceive the truly astounding
+richness and resource, the practised leadership, and the affectionate
+disposition of that rare creature. She is indefatigable, and gives a
+fresh indication of the grand aims she has in view each day."
+
+It is significant to note how all those who knew the Empress even
+slightly welcomed the fact of the Emperor's accession. Thus Mrs.
+Augustus Craven: "Somehow I hope the present Emperor will live. Anyhow I
+am thankful that he is still alive, and that _she_ is Empress of
+Germany, also that perhaps after all the very great deal there is in her
+is not to be lost for Germany and for Europe."
+
+The feeling in the Court and political world is clearly shown in the
+_memoirs_ of Prince Hohenlohe. He was received by the Empress a week
+after her return to Berlin, and he says that he found her unchanged;
+"her frank and cheerful manner filled me with astonishment."
+
+Three days later Prince Hohenlohe noted in his diary that already
+officials were complaining of the interference of the Empress in public
+business.
+
+[Illustration: THE LATE EMPRESS FREDERICK]
+
+Bötticher told him that she had induced the Emperor to refuse his
+signature to the Anti-Socialist Bill, and that he had only given way
+after Bismarck had explained the matter to the Empress. The Minister
+added that the Emperor had little power of resistance to the influence
+of the Empress, and that she, again, was under the influence of "certain
+advanced ladies." If the Emperor's illness, he went on, was of long
+duration, all kinds of things might happen, but if the Emperor were
+well, or should become so, the influence of the Empress would diminish.
+
+A few days later Prince Hohenlohe was himself able to judge how far this
+was true about the Empress, for he went out to call on his Sovereign at
+Charlottenburg, and found him with his wife. The Empress excused her
+presence by pleading the necessity of supporting the Emperor during the
+audience. The whole of the conversation had to be carried on, so far as
+the Emperor was concerned, by means of writing-tablets. Hohenlohe
+observed that the Emperor would benefit by the amount of work he had to
+do, at which the Sovereign nodded approvingly. At the end of the
+interview:
+
+"The Emperor placed his hand on my shoulder and smiled sadly, so that I
+could hardly restrain my tears. He gave me the impression of a martyr;
+and, indeed, no martyrdom in the world is comparable with this slow
+death. Everyone who comes near him is full of admiration for his
+courageous and quiet resignation to a fate which is inevitable, and
+which he fully realises."
+
+But it is plain that the Empress had not yet resigned herself to
+consider his death as in any way imminent. Later in the same month,
+Hohenlohe had an audience of the Empress, and during their conversation
+she said something which made it clear to her old friend that she still
+entertained illusions as to her husband's real condition--indeed, he was
+himself so shaken by what she said that he wrote in his diary: "It is
+perhaps possible that the illness will be of long duration. The
+expectation of a speedy end has not yet been confirmed."
+
+There can be no doubt that the accession of the Emperor Frederick was
+expected in not a few quarters to mean the almost immediate fall of
+Bismarck, but this expectation left out of account various important
+factors of the situation. Both the new Emperor and his Empress, though,
+as we have seen, they profoundly disapproved of Bismarck's policy as a
+whole, nevertheless fully realised the Chancellor's patriotism and the
+unparalleled services which he had been able to render to the German
+people. Bismarck, in his own account of his relations with the Emperor,
+recalls that they began as far back as 1848, when Prince Frederick
+William was only seventeen, and he had since received from him various
+proofs of personal confidence, notably on the occasion of the Dantzig
+episode in 1863. This confidence was, Bismarck declares, quite
+independent of political principles and differences of opinion, and
+though many attempts to shake it were made from interested quarters,
+they had no permanent success.
+
+Later Bismarck also asserted roundly that the Emperor Frederick made it
+easy for him, by his amiability and confidence, to transfer to him the
+affection he had cherished for his father. He was both more open than
+his father had been to the constitutional idea of Ministerial
+responsibility, and also less hampered by family traditions in adjusting
+himself to political necessities. And Bismarck goes on to state that
+"all assertions of lasting discord in our relations are unfounded."
+
+On the subject of the Crown Princess's influence Bismarck said:
+
+"I could not assume that his wife had the same kindly feeling for me;
+her natural innate sympathy for her home had, from the beginning, shown
+itself in the attempt to turn the weight of Prusso-German influence in
+the groupings of European power into the scale of her native land; and
+she never ceased to regard England as her country. In the differences of
+interest between the two Asiatic Powers, England and Russia, she wished
+to see the German power applied in the interests of England if it came
+to a breach. This difference of opinion, which rested on the difference
+of nationality, caused many a discussion between her Royal Highness and
+me on the Eastern question, including the Battenberg question. Her
+influence on her husband was at all times great, and it increased with
+years, to culminate at the time when he was Emperor. She also, however,
+shared with him the conviction that in the interests of the dynasty it
+was necessary that I should be maintained in office at the change of
+reign."
+
+It is interesting here to recall that on August 31, 1870, after the
+battle of Beaumont, Busch obtained from Bismarck the following opinion
+of the then Crown Prince:
+
+"He will be reasonable later on, and allow his Ministers to govern more,
+and not put himself too much forward, and in general he will get rid of
+many bad habits that render old gentlemen of his trade sometimes rather
+troublesome. [It is to be feared that this uncomplimentary allusion is
+to the old Emperor.] For the rest, he is unaffected and straightforward;
+but he does not care to work much, and is quite happy if he has plenty
+of money and amusements, and if the newspapers praise him."
+
+A very superficial judgment of the Emperor Frederick, and the suggestion
+that he was too fond of money is particularly gratuitous. As a matter of
+fact, only the year before his accession, in 1887, a certain Frenchman,
+Ballardin by name, died, leaving the whole of his fortune, valued at
+several million francs, to the then Crown Prince. M. Ballardin appeared
+to have been so embittered by disputes with the French authorities that
+he determined to show his hatred and contempt for his native country by
+the novel method of bequeathing his property to the German Crown Prince,
+who, however, absolutely refused to accept even the smallest portion of
+the legacy. That is certainly not the action of a man who could be
+accused of a love of money.
+
+It may here be stated, on this subject of money, that when the Emperor
+Frederick succeeded to the throne, there was in the hands of Baron Kohn,
+the private banker of the old Emperor William, a sum of fifty-four
+million marks (£2,700,000), which was bequeathed to the Emperor
+Frederick as a kind of family treasure, to be controlled by the head of
+the House of Hohenzollern for the time being. When the Emperor Frederick
+died, however, it was found that the great bulk of this money had been
+invested abroad by his orders in the name of his widow; her uncle, the
+Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and her cousin, King Leopold of Belgium,
+being the trustees. It is even asserted that the late Prince Stolberg
+resigned at the time his office of Minister of the Imperial Household in
+consequence of what he considered the diversion of this sum of money
+from the Hohenzollern family. According to another version, however,
+only a portion of this money became the absolute property of the
+Empress, the remainder being hers for life, with power of appointment
+among her younger children.
+
+To return to Busch; he also obtained from Bismarck a curious anecdote of
+the Empress:
+
+"I took the liberty to ask further what sort of woman the Crown Princess
+was, and whether she had much influence over her husband. 'I think not,'
+the Count said; 'and as to her intelligence, she is a clever woman;
+clever in a womanly way. She is not able to disguise her feelings, or at
+least not always. I have cost her many tears, and she could not conceal
+how angry she was with me after the annexations (that is to say of
+Schleswig and Hanover). She could hardly bear the sight of me, but that
+feeling has now somewhat subsided. She once asked me to bring her a
+glass of water, and as I handed it to her she said to a lady-in-waiting
+who sat near and whose name I forget, 'He has cost me as many tears as
+there is water in this glass.' But that is all over now."
+
+This incident about the glass of water evidently much impressed
+Bismarck, for he told it to Busch again some months later, when he said
+of the Crown Princess, "She is in general a very clever person, and
+really agreeable in her way, but she should not interfere in politics."
+
+The Empress's relations with Bismarck after her husband's accession were
+more pleasant than they had ever been before. The Emperor naturally
+leaned upon his wife, and her influence perhaps appeared greater than it
+was. But, whatever its precise extent, Bismarck, with his intensely
+practical mind, saw that it was at any rate a factor in the situation,
+and he made use of it accordingly. It was, indeed, as natural for him to
+cultivate her good will now, as it was for him a little later to heap
+contumely and insult on her head. Such conduct was utterly
+incomprehensible to the Empress, with her upright, loyal nature; she
+would have suffered less from the Chancellor had she been able to find
+the key to both his greatness and his littleness.
+
+But, even at this time, when Bismarck had the strongest reasons for
+conciliating the Empress, there was one question, that of the Battenberg
+marriage, on which he felt compelled to do battle with her, and in which
+he vanquished her in fair fight.
+
+The Empress, different as she was in many respects from her mother, was
+absolutely at one with Queen Victoria in her views of everything which
+should regulate family life. Thus, she was as firm a believer in the
+importance of securing happy marriages for her sons and daughters as the
+Queen had proved herself to be. That the union of two human beings
+should be guided by State considerations was to her abhorrent. She had
+welcomed with eager delight her niece, Princess Irene of Hesse, as a
+daughter-in-law; she knew that the latter's sister, Princess Victoria,
+had formed a happy marriage with Prince Louis of Battenberg. Now it was
+Prince Louis's brother, Alexander of Bulgaria, who had been from boyhood
+a favourite with her sister, Princess Alice, whom the Empress desired to
+see married to her second daughter, Princess Victoria. The alliance had
+been mooted some four years before, but was then considered, by Bismarck
+especially, as quite out of the question, if only because the hero of
+Slivnitza had earned the intense hostility of the Tsar Alexander.
+
+In July, 1885, Bismarck told Hohenlohe that, whereas the Emperor and the
+Crown Prince were in favour of the marriage of Princess Victoria with
+the King of Portugal, the Crown Princess and the young Princess herself
+preferred the Prince of Bulgaria, and that there was "great skirmishing"
+going on over the business.
+
+More than a year later, in October, 1886, the old Emperor himself spoke
+to Hohenlohe of the matter, and with some bitterness, declaring that the
+Crown Princess and Princess Victoria still entertained the idea of this
+alliance. He said he had questioned the Crown Prince, who had denied it,
+and he further observed that in politics his son was ruled by his wife.
+
+In 1888 the Empress still desired the marriage because she believed that
+the affections of her daughter were seriously engaged. But, changed as
+were all the conditions of her own and the new Emperor's life, she at
+once found arrayed against her the same powerful influences as before,
+with the addition of that of her eldest son, the new Crown Prince. The
+difference of opinion in the Imperial family became known to the whole
+of Europe, and was very frankly discussed in the English and Continental
+Press. Matters seemed at a deadlock. On the one side were ranged the
+Empress and all those Royal personages who by kinship or marriage were
+connected with the Battenberg family; on the other were the Crown
+Prince, Bismarck, and, it was whispered, the Emperor Frederick himself,
+who had a great dislike to any marriage that savoured of a
+_mésalliance_.
+
+This was the position when Queen Victoria arrived at Charlottenburg to
+visit her stricken son-in-law. Bismarck, with his usual unerring eye for
+the potentialities of a situation, seized the opportunity. He sought an
+audience of the Queen, and succeeded in convincing her by his arguments
+that the Battenberg alliance was really extremely inadvisable. Not until
+she found her mother ranged among the opponents of the marriage did the
+Empress yield, and consent, to use her own phrase, "to sacrifice her
+daughter's happiness on the altar of the Fatherland."
+
+We have a slightly different, and probably less accurate, account of the
+termination of the affair in Hohenlohe's journal of May 17, 1888:
+
+"The Empress had said that in the end it would be no misfortune if
+Bismarck did retire. This was at once retailed to him, whereupon the
+newspaper war. Malet reported to Queen Victoria at Florence that it was
+very disadvantageous for English interests that the Queen should appear
+to interest herself in the Battenberg match. It would be well, more
+particularly in view of her impending visit to Berlin, to prevent people
+from thinking she favoured the marriage. The English Ministry also
+concurred in this. Thereupon Queen Victoria wrote a severe letter to her
+daughter, the Empress; and during her stay also she expounded her views
+in an energetic fashion, which produced unhappy and tearful scenes. The
+relations between Queen Victoria and the Imperial Chancellor have shaped
+very well. They were enchanted with each other."
+
+The Empress's belief that she had been fighting for her daughter's
+happiness added a special bitterness to her defeat at the hands of
+Bismarck. It may, however, be stated that the day came when the Empress
+Frederick acknowledged that she had been mistaken, at least to some
+extent, in the qualities which she had attributed to Alexander of
+Battenberg, and she lived to see her daughter make a happier marriage
+than the Battenberg alliance would probably have ever been.
+
+Not the least pathetic feature of the Hundred Day's reign was the
+gallant persistence of the Empress in fulfilling the duties of her new
+station. She only held one Court, and one who was present has left a
+vivid description of the strange scene:
+
+"The Empress was dressed in the deepest mourning, indeed wrapped in
+black from head to foot, her face hidden by a crape veil, while a long
+procession of women likewise veiled in crape filed past the throne,
+their black gowns high in the neck and skirts banded with crape a
+quarter of a yard wide, while long folds of double crape fell upon the
+floor in guise of Court trains."
+
+On May 24, the marriage of Prince Henry, the second son of the Emperor
+and Empress, to his cousin, Princess Irene of Hesse, was celebrated at
+Charlottenburg. It was a bright and happy day in the midst of sadness,
+and everything was done to surround the ceremony with brilliance.
+
+Death was now drawing very near to the doomed Emperor. On June 1 he was
+conveyed by boat from Charlottenburg to the New Palace, where he had
+been born, where he had spent the happiest days of his married life, and
+the name of which he now changed to "Friedrichskron." But he was not
+allowed to die in peace; his last days were disturbed by what is known
+as the Puttkamer incident.
+
+Puttkamer, a typical Bismarckian, had been Minister of the Interior for
+seven years. In his official announcement of the old Emperor's death, he
+had actually made no allusion to the new Emperor; the latter in
+consequence insisted on the Minister's retirement as the condition of
+his signing the Bill prolonging the life of the Reichstag to five
+years. Puttkamer's resignation was gazetted on June 11, and on the same
+evening Prince Bismarck gave a dinner at which the fallen Minister was
+the guest of honour.
+
+The Emperor Frederick died at Friedrichskron on June 15. The first
+message written by the widowed Empress was to the aged Empress Augusta:
+
+"She whose one pride and happiness it was to be the wife of your son
+grieves with you, afflicted mother. No mother ever had so good a son. Be
+proud and strong in your sorrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+EARLY WIDOWHOOD: THE FALL OF BISMARCK
+
+
+It is said that one of the last acts of the dying Emperor was to place
+Bismarck's hand in that of the Empress as a token of reconciliation. But
+there was no reconciliation. On the contrary, the Emperor Frederick was
+no sooner dead, than Bismarck once more became all-powerful, and
+ruthlessly he used his power.
+
+The accession of the young Emperor William was followed by an astounding
+outburst of violence against the Empress Frederick on the part of
+Bismarck's tools, his agents in the Press and elsewhere--indeed, the
+Empress once told an intimate friend that no humiliation and pain which
+could be inflicted on her had been spared her.
+
+The first humiliation took a strange and terrible form; a cordon of
+soldiers was drawn round the New Palace, when the Emperor Frederick was
+known to be dying, in order that no secret documents might be removed
+without the knowledge of the new Emperor.
+
+The Empress, aware that this was the work of Bismarck, requested an
+interview with him, but Bismarck replied that he had no time, as he was
+so fully occupied with his master, the new Emperor. As a matter of
+fact, everything at the New Palace which the late Emperor or the Empress
+Frederick considered to be important had been placed out of Bismarck's
+reach. For a considerable time these private papers were entrusted to
+the care of a person in the Empress's confidence, who resided outside
+the country, ultimately they were sent back to Germany.
+
+Unfortunately not all the late Emperor's papers had been so carefully
+guarded, and, to the anguish of his widow, his memory became involved in
+acute, and it may even be said degrading, controversy.
+
+In the well-known review, the _Deutsche Rundschau_, Dr. Geffcken, a
+Liberal publicist who had been honoured by the Emperor Frederick's
+friendship, published extracts from the diary of the late Sovereign.
+They were designed to defend his memory against his traducers, and in
+particular to prove that it was he who suggested the united German
+Empire. It seems that the diaries were found locked up at the Villa
+Zirio, and it was stated that they were given, or at least shown, by the
+Emperor Frederick to Baron von Roggenbach, the Baden statesman.
+
+Bismarck at first affected to believe, and apparently he succeeded in
+persuading the Emperor William, that the published extracts were
+forgeries. The offending number of the review was accordingly
+suppressed, and Geffcken was arrested on September 29 on a charge of
+high treason. He was acquitted of criminal intention in the following
+January, and in the interval the _Cologne Gazette_ charged Sir Robert
+Morier, then British Ambassador in St. Petersburg, with having given
+information to Marshal Bazaine of the movements of the Prussian forces
+in 1870. Fortunately Morier was able to produce convincing documentary
+evidence of his innocence, but it was generally felt that this monstrous
+attack on the Empress Frederick's old friend was really directed against
+the Empress herself.
+
+The Empress behaved with the greatest dignity and self-restraint during
+this time of bitter persecution, and in the many diaries and memoirs of
+the period we can find but one reference which reveals how she really
+felt. This reference is in Sir Horace Rumbold's _Recollections_. He
+tells of the deep feeling with which the Empress spoke of the suffering
+she had passed through and the wrongs she had endured. "She spoke of
+them with an exceeding bitterness, emphasising what she said with
+clenched hands and betraying an emotion which suddenly gained me, and
+more than explained the Queen's well-known reference to her as her 'dear
+persecuted daughter.'"
+
+It may be asked why the young Emperor William did not intervene to
+protect his mother from the hostility of his Chancellor. Unfortunately
+there is no doubt that at this time there was an estrangement between
+mother and son. Years before, Bismarck had taken precautions to prevent
+the heir presumptive to the throne from imbibing the liberal principles
+of both his parents, and had caused him to spend the impressionable
+years of early manhood entirely under the influence of his grandfather,
+the old Emperor, and the military glories of the new Empire. Bismarck no
+doubt thought that he had obtained a complete ascendancy over his new
+master. It was significant that whereas on his accession the Emperor
+Frederick had addressed his first message to the nation at large through
+the Chancellor, the Emperor William addressed his first messages to the
+Army and Navy, the civilians having to wait a day or two for their
+recognition. Another indication of the character of the new régime was
+afforded by the Emperor William's reversal of his father's decision to
+name the New Palace, Friedrichskron.
+
+These and other incidents show how the Emperor began his reign under the
+domination of Bismarck, but it is pleasant to record that the
+estrangement from his mother, which the old Chancellor undoubtedly
+fostered, was not of long duration.
+
+It is curious how seldom, among the many studies, criticisms, and
+estimates of the Emperor William II, we find his extraordinary
+versatility attributed to the influence of heredity; and yet it is easy
+to see now that the Empress Frederick ought to have enjoyed much greater
+popularity in Germany than she did as a matter of fact enjoy at any
+time, if only because she was the mother of such a son.
+
+We can best perhaps realise the remarkable qualities which the Empress
+brought into the House of Hohenzollern by comparing her eldest son with
+his predecessors on the throne. King Frederick William IV had a mind
+which appeared incapable of appreciating matters of greater importance
+than the etiquette of Courts and the prescriptions of mediæval heraldry.
+As we know, during the last years of his life his intellect was clouded
+much in the same way as was that of King George III of England. King
+Frederick's brother and successor, the old Emperor William, possessed
+remarkable strength of character combined with little capacity or
+intellect, as Bismarck very frankly explained, both to his creature,
+Busch, and in other recorded expressions of opinion. As for the Emperor
+William's father, the ill-fated Frederick, it was no doubt from him that
+the son derived that dash of romantic idealism characteristic of both
+monarchs.
+
+But undoubtedly William II was always much more the son of his mother
+than of his father, which seems, indeed, to be the rule in families of
+less exalted rank. We have seen how the Empress really received from her
+father the training of a man, and, it may be added, of an extremely
+versatile man. If fate had compelled her eldest son to earn his own
+living in a private station, it is extraordinary to think of the number
+of professions in any one of which he could have attained a competence,
+if not indeed high distinction. From his mother, rather than from his
+father, he inherited a great appetite for work and an extraordinary
+aptitude for detail; and he showed himself at different times to have
+had in him the making, not only of a soldier and a sailor, but of a
+musician, a poet, an artist, a preacher, and an orator.
+
+Compare this with his grandfather, the old Emperor, who, if he had not
+been born in the purple, could only have been a soldier, and not, it
+must be added, one who could have held very high commands. Compare him
+again with his father; the Emperor Frederick, if he had not been born in
+the purple, though he certainly showed greater military capacity than
+the old Emperor, nevertheless would probably not have been happy or
+successful in any private station other than that of a great moral
+teacher.
+
+The Emperor William's affinity to his mother in character, temperament,
+and accomplishments becomes the more striking the more it is
+investigated. He shared with her a certain impulsiveness, a deficiency
+in what is ordinarily called tact, which really amounts to a
+constitutional inability to appreciate the effect which a particular
+word or action will necessarily have on other people. This, which seems
+a negative quality, is really a positive one, interwoven with a high
+courage and a contempt for the mean little dictates of conventional
+prudence, which have always commanded the admiration of generous minds.
+This remarkable similarity between mother and son assuredly furnishes
+the key to the somewhat complex question of their relationships at
+different periods. They were in fact too much alike for their relations
+to be always harmonious.
+
+The widowed Empress did not owe all her unhappiness to Bismarck alone.
+In 1889 Gustav Freytag published a volume of Reminiscences of the
+Emperor Frederick which attracted a great amount of attention, more
+perhaps than they intrinsically deserved. But Freytag's position among
+German writers as novelist, poet, dramatist, and historian, was so great
+that everything he wrote had its importance, and in addition to that it
+was known that he had at one time been admitted to the confidence of the
+then Crown Prince, whose political Liberalism he appeared to share.
+
+Freytag was a Silesian by birth, and this no doubt did him no harm with
+the Emperor Frederick, who was warmly attached to Silesia, and delighted
+in the graphic pictures of life in that province which Freytag drew in
+his novels. The Empress made Freytag's acquaintance in the early years
+of her married life--indeed, the first German novel which she read with
+her husband was Freytag's _Soll und Haben_. The novelist had been
+presented to the Prince Consort by his patron, Duke Ernest of
+Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and it was natural in all the circumstances that the
+Crown Princess and her husband should have shown the great writer marked
+signs of favour.
+
+It is all the more extraordinary, therefore, that in his Reminiscences
+Freytag should have drawn such a picture of the Emperor Frederick as
+must have deeply distressed his then newly-made widow. It was a picture
+which she herself knew to be inaccurate, and which indeed could only
+gratify the personal hostility of Bismarck and his adherents. There is
+no need to linger long over this picture, but it demands some notice
+because it, so to speak, gathers together in a convenient form the
+principal features of what may be called the Bismarckian view of both
+the Empress and her husband.
+
+It has been said that Freytag apparently shared the Crown Prince's
+Liberalism, but he was also steeped in Prussian particularism, and it
+was this that brought him to his almost blind admiration of Bismarck,
+and rendered him incapable of appreciating the political conceptions of
+the Emperor Frederick. Freytag, indeed, was a bad judge of character,
+the presentation of which was his weak point as a novelist.
+
+Allusion has already been made to the fact that the Crown Prince invited
+Freytag to accompany him with the Third Army in the Franco-German War,
+and the Reminiscences terminate soon after the battle of Sedan. After
+1870 the Crown Prince hardly ever saw Freytag, and never with any real
+intimacy; yet on this slender foundation of knowledge the novelist
+revived, under the specious cloak of affection, some of the worst
+charges of the Reptile Press, and of the insulting commentary which
+Bismarck published on the late Emperor's diary.
+
+The principal charge for our purposes here is that the Crown Prince was
+subjected to foreign influence, and was entirely dominated by his wife.
+In effect Freytag suggests that through the Crown Princess, Princess
+Alice, and other members of the English Royal family, important secrets
+of German military movements reached the French commanders. "Both the
+Empress Frederick and Princess Alice," he says, "wrote to their august
+mother and the family in London, and what crossed the North Sea could be
+sent to France again in letters a few hours later. It is therefore not
+unnatural that the French learned by way of England a variety of news
+about our army which with greater propriety would have remained
+concealed."
+
+Such a charge is incapable of complete disproof, but at any rate it is
+obvious that Freytag could know nothing of the contents, either of the
+Crown Prince's letters to his wife, who was at that time working day and
+night in the German hospitals, or of the letters of the Crown Princess
+and her sister to their relations in England. Yet he describes Princess
+Alice as "at heart during the whole of the war a brave German woman,"
+which is a plain insinuation that the Crown Princess had not her whole
+heart in the success of the German arms. The whole plan of _dénigrement_
+is the more subtle, for Freytag professes the most ardent admiration for
+the ability of the Crown Princess, her rich natural gifts, and her keen
+soaring intellect. At the same time he says:
+
+"The Crown Prince's love for her was the highest and holiest passion of
+his life, and filled his whole existence; she was the lady of his youth,
+the _confidante_ of all his thoughts, his trusted counsellor whenever
+she was so inclined. Arrangements of the garden, decorations of the
+house, education of the children, judgments of men and things, were in
+every respect regulated by him in accordance with her thoughts and
+wishes. It is perfectly intelligible that so complete an ascendancy of
+the wife over the husband, who was destined to be the future ruler of
+Prussia, threatened to occasion difficulties and conflicts, which,
+perhaps, would be greater for the woman than the man--greater for the
+wife who led and inspired the husband whose guidance she ought to have
+accepted."
+
+Here again we see the limitations of Freytag's undoubtedly great
+intellect, as well as his instinctive German middle-class conception of
+woman's sphere. To the North-German the idea of woman as a comrade, as
+being even approximately on a level with her husband, was then, and is
+still to a great extent, inconceivable. In that view of matrimony the
+wife is really a chattel, or at best a respected housekeeper.
+
+It may be asked, how could Freytag have supposed that the Emperor
+Frederick would have submitted to such domination on the part of his
+wife? The answer is that Freytag's conception of the emperor's character
+was hopelessly erroneous. He is obliged to confirm his title to be
+considered the originator of the idea of a German Empire, but he
+attributes it to a mere love of pomp and ceremony, a passion for Court
+millinery. The plain truth is that few monarchs have been simpler in
+their personal tastes than the Emperor Frederick; the etiquette, the
+monotony, and the restraint of Court life bored him, and he was never so
+happy as when he could escape to the congenial society of savants,
+artists, and writers. It is certainly true that his imaginative and
+poetical gifts induced him to try to infuse some elements of dignity and
+meaning into the routine of Court ceremonial, but that he cared for such
+ceremonial in itself, or attached to it any greater value than that of
+symbolism, is frankly absurd.
+
+Freytag even accuses the Crown Prince of having been ready to risk civil
+war in order that he might secure the creation of the Imperial dignity
+after the Franco-German War. This is based on a misapprehension of the
+Prince's discussions with Bismarck at Versailles. The Crown Prince
+believed that force would be unnecessary, and that the South German
+States would accept the Constitution proclaimed by the majority of the
+Princes assembled at Versailles. It is possible that he would have
+advocated compulsion if Bavaria and Würtemberg had thrown themselves
+into the arms of Austria, but he well knew that that contingency was in
+the last degree improbable.
+
+Early in 1889 the Empress Frederick suffered another bereavement which,
+though not of course to be compared with many which she had endured,
+nevertheless added perceptibly to her state of melancholy and
+depression. This was the death of the venerable Empress Augusta, which
+broke a much valued link with the happy past. From those days in the
+early fifties when that highly-bred and highly-cultivated Princess had
+become "Aunt Prussia" to the Royal children at Windsor, and even more
+after the marriage of the Princess Royal, she had remained a loyal and
+most kindly and affectionate friend to her daughter-in-law. The two
+Royal ladies looked upon life from widely different angles, and the
+elder must often have disapproved of the way in which the younger
+interpreted her duty. But the Empress Augusta never faltered in her
+admiration and affection for one who was so entirely unlike herself, and
+in these latter days the death of the Emperor Frederick had brought
+them, if possible, even more closely together.
+
+The dramatic fall of Bismarck--the "Dropping the Pilot" of Sir John
+Tenniel's memorable cartoon in _Punch_--occurred in March, 1890. It
+could hardly have been regretted by the Empress Frederick, but she was
+far too magnanimous, and we may add too well aware of Bismarck's
+incomparable services to the Empire, to regard the event as in any sense
+a personal triumph for herself.
+
+What is truly astonishing, in view of all that had passed, is that the
+fallen Minister should have turned to her for sympathy, and should even,
+according to some authorities, have begged her to exert on his behalf
+her now growing influence with her son. It is said that she then
+reminded him that his past treatment of her had deprived her of any
+power of helping him now, but such an answer does not accord with what
+we know of the Empress's whole character. She was surely incapable at
+such a moment of adding anything to the humiliation of her old enemy.
+Besides, Professor Nippold speaks of Bismarck's having himself written:
+"Her influence over her husband was very great at any time, and became
+greater with the years, to culminate at the time when he was Emperor.
+But also in her was the conviction that my position close to the throne
+was in the interest of the dynasty."
+
+There are, indeed, different versions of what took place in the now
+famous interview between Bismarck and the Empress Frederick. It is quite
+possible that she regarded the Minister's dismissal from office as an
+imprudent and even dangerous step. However that may be, Prince Hohenlohe
+declares that Bismarck did not entreat the Empress to intercede for him
+with the Emperor; he merely said, when the Empress asked if she could do
+anything for him, "I ask only for sympathy." But he certainly did ask to
+be received by her in audience, although he must have vividly remembered
+the insolent message which he had sent her immediately after the Emperor
+Frederick's death, when she had requested him to come to her.
+
+A year later, at Homburg, Prince Hohenlohe and the Empress Frederick had
+a long conversation over the Bismarck affair. She said she was not at
+all surprised at his dismissal, that "Bismarck was of a combative nature
+and would never cease to fight. He could do nothing else." She talked of
+previous incidents, of Bismarck's groundless distrust of her, and of the
+Empress Augusta, and expressed the opinion "that we had only to thank
+the old Emperor's quiet gentleness for any success of Bismarck's. He was
+a very dangerous opponent, but not a Republican. He was too Prussian for
+that. But the Brandenburg-Prussian noble was determined to rule, though
+it were with the King."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE PLANNING OF FRIEDRICHSHOF: VISIT TO PARIS
+
+
+The Empress's relations with her son improved after the fall of
+Bismarck. She was particularly touched by the many tributes which he
+paid to his father's memory, and she now felt encouraged to try and
+build up again the fragments of her tragically broken life.
+
+The Emperor William had placed at his mother's disposal the palace in
+Unter den Linden in Berlin where the Emperor and Empress Frederick lived
+while they were Crown Prince and Princess, as well as the Charlottenhof
+at Potsdam, and the Schloss at Homburg.
+
+Charlottenhof is in the Royal grounds at Potsdam, at some distance from
+the New Palace. It was built by Frederick William IV in 1826, in
+imitation of a Pompeian villa, and in the grounds are fountains,
+statues, and bronzes which were brought from Herculaneum and Pompeii.
+
+As to Homburg, the Empress had always been very fond of the place; she
+had often spent part of the summer at the old Schloss, and she valued
+its associations with the daughter of another British Sovereign, for the
+delightful gardens to which Thackeray refers in _The Four Georges_ were
+laid out by the Landgravine Elizabeth, daughter of George III.
+
+When the Empress Frederick decided to build a house after her own heart,
+it was to the neighbourhood of Homburg that her thoughts naturally
+turned. Perhaps another reason which governed the choice of that
+neighbourhood was the fact that the widowed Empress's beloved brother,
+King Edward, was so fond of the place, and for many years went there
+each year.
+
+Some account of Friedrichshof will be not only interesting but really
+necessary for our purpose, for this noble castle and estate at Cronberg
+in the Taunus mountains were so entirely the creation of the Empress's
+own mind and taste that they throw a strong light on her personality and
+character.
+
+Her Majesty was able to build Friedrichshof out of the large sum,
+estimated at nearly a quarter of a million, which she had inherited from
+an intimate friend, the Duchess of Galliera, within a few months of the
+Emperor's death.
+
+In the days when as Crown Princess she was living at the old castle at
+Homburg, the Empress had once visited Cronberg.
+
+After the tragic events of 1888 her Majesty longed to have a place of
+her own where she could occupy her mind in building and improving. The
+Empress remembered the visit to Cronberg, and as the inquiries she
+caused to be made as to its climate, soil, and so on, proved
+satisfactory, she decided on the purchase without delay. The owner was
+one Dr. Steibel, son-in-law of Mr. Reiss, a Manchester manufacturer who
+built the short line of railway connecting Frankfort with Cronberg. The
+property consisted of a villa and a few acres, but, as some neighbouring
+properties were bought up, the estate was enlarged to some 250 acres.
+Fortunately the pine forests surrounding the estate were communal
+property.
+
+The Empress resolved that Friedrichshof should be primarily a memorial
+to her husband, a sort of model _domus regalis_, as was shown by the
+pathetic inscription on the porch, "Friderici Memoriæ."
+
+The first thing to do was to make roads, and this, with draining,
+building, and planting, occupied fully four years, from 1889 to 1893.
+
+The villa of Dr. Steibel was practically demolished, and in its place
+rose a stately mansion in the style of the early sixteenth century.
+There are many examples of this style, which marks the period of
+transition from Gothic to Renaissance, to be found along the Rhine and
+throughout Hesse and Nassau. The schloss itself and the stables, which
+are in the style of a Rhenish or Hessian farmhouse, as well as the
+out-buildings, were all designed by Herr Ihne, a famous Berlin
+architect; but the Empress herself personally superintended the carrying
+out of all his plans.
+
+The Empress's first idea was to call the place Friedrichsruh, but it was
+pointed out that name might cause confusion with Prince Bismarck's
+estate in the north of Prussia. The name Friedrichshof was then
+suggested by Princess Victoria, and finally adopted.
+
+The improved relations between the Emperor William and his mother were
+exhibited early in 1891. He was desirous of testing the real feeling of
+the Paris populace towards Germany, and so with his sanction, possibly
+even at his direct request, the Empress Frederick went to Paris.
+
+If her visit had been a success, there is no doubt that the Emperor
+would have next proposed to visit Paris himself, as he had long been
+keenly desirous of doing. But the memories of the Franco-Prussian War
+were more lasting than the Emperor imagined, and his mother's mission,
+so far as it was intended to improve Franco-German relations, was a
+failure.
+
+It was on February 19, 1891, that the Empress Frederick arrived in
+Paris. Her visit, though not technically of an official character, could
+not be called _incognito_, as she and her daughter, Princess Margaret,
+attended by a considerable suite, stayed at the German Embassy.
+
+The general surprise in Paris was so marked that a _communiqué_ was
+issued to the French Press. In this it was pointed out that the Empress,
+having consented to accept the position of patroness of an art
+exhibition about to be opened in Berlin, had asked some notable French
+artists to contribute paintings. A number of these, notably M.
+Bouguereau and M. Detaille, had accepted, and she had felt bound to come
+to Paris and thank them personally.
+
+It was erroneously said, not only in the French but also in the German
+papers, that this was the first visit the Empress had paid to Paris
+since the Franco-Prussian War. This was not the case. She had been there
+three times, but on the previous occasions she had stayed at the Hotel
+Bristol, and had travelled in real _incognito_.
+
+The first three or four days of her stay, whatever the public thought of
+the reason assigned for it, passed off well. The Empress visited a
+considerable number of studios and picture galleries, and she also made
+large purchases in some of the curiosity-shops for which Paris has
+always been famous. The German Ambassador gave a dinner party each
+evening in honour of his august guest, and many members of the
+Diplomatic Corps, notably Lord and Lady Lytton, were asked to meet her.
+
+Meanwhile, the German Press, which had been kept beforehand completely
+in the dark as to the visit, was now devoting to it a great deal of not
+very kindly attention. It was hinted that the young Emperor wished to
+effect a thorough reconciliation with France, and with this idea in view
+had asked his mother to _tâter le terrain_. These hints aroused the
+susceptibilities of the Boulangist party. Much ill-feeling had been
+awakened by the arbitrary suppression of the Ligue des Patriotes, and
+long before the Empress's visit a huge protest meeting had been
+arranged. The meeting was held, and inflammatory speeches were delivered
+in favour of "la Revanche," but no insult of any sort was levelled at
+the Imperial visitor. In fact the Empress later testified to the perfect
+courtesy which she had received from every class of Frenchman and
+Frenchwoman.
+
+It suddenly became known that twice--once alone with the German
+ambassador, and then, on another day, attended by a large suite--the
+Empress had driven out from Paris to view the ruins of the Palace of
+Saint Cloud, believed by the French to have been wantonly destroyed by
+the Prussians in 1870. The Empress also visited Versailles and the
+neighbouring battlefields.
+
+The news of these excursions aroused very bitter feelings among many
+otherwise sober and sensible Parisians, to whom the memories of l'Année
+Terrible, and especially of the Prussian occupation of Versailles, were
+still painfully vivid. Their indignation was intensified when it became
+known that some ill-advised Government official had directed that a
+laurel wreath placed at the foot of the monument to Henri Regnault, the
+greatest French painter of his generation, who was killed at Buzenval,
+in the last desperate sortie from Paris, should be removed on the
+occasion of the visit of the Empress to the Ministry of Fine Arts.
+
+This was indeed pouring oil on the fire! It was rumoured that this
+special act of tactless stupidity would be the subject of an
+interpellation in the Chamber. The depth of feeling aroused is
+illustrated by one fact, which did not, however, find its way into the
+Press. All those painters who had accepted the Empress's invitation to
+exhibit at Berlin received each morning, till their acceptances were
+withdrawn, the following _macabre_ visiting-card:
+
+ "HENRI REGNAULT,
+ "69e battalion de marche, 4e campagnie,
+ "BUZENVAL."
+
+Meanwhile, the less responsible section of the Paris Press had also
+added fuel to the flame by such headings as "Insultes aux
+Français"--"Visites Impériales à Saint Cloud et à Versailles," &c.
+
+The French Government reluctantly informed the German Ambassador that it
+would be advisable that the Empress, who had already prolonged her visit
+for several days longer than had at first been arranged, should leave
+Paris. On February 26 the following note was sent to the Press: "The
+Empress Frederick will leave Paris to-morrow morning for London at 11:30
+_via_ Calais." As a matter of fact, the Imperial party left for London
+the next day by the ten o'clock express _via_ Boulogne.
+
+But the "incident" was by no means over. The French artists who had
+accepted the invitation to exhibit their works at Berlin all withdrew
+their acceptances, and as a result the German Press burst forth into
+most violent and coarse abuse of France and of the French. Indeed, it
+looked at one moment as if nothing could prevent the two nations from
+rushing at each other's throats.
+
+The Empress was greatly distressed, and it is on record that she wrote
+to her son a long private letter, pointing out that she had been
+personally very well received, and indeed most courteously treated,
+during her stay in Paris.
+
+It is clear that in France all parties, and even those members of the
+Diplomatic Corps who were personally attached to the Empress, regretted,
+if they did not blame, her imprudence, for what had finally lighted the
+tinder was the expedition to Versailles. With all her love of French Art
+and her sympathy with the French "intellectuals"--her great admiration
+for Renan was well known--the Empress Frederick had always taken on the
+whole what may be called the German view of the French character--that
+is, she regarded the French as gay, frivolous, and lacking in ballast
+and in the deeper qualities of humanity. If they had been what their
+Imperial guest believed them to be, the nation as a whole would have
+shrugged its shoulders and diplomatically remained silent, however
+_froissée_ it might have been at such lack of tact on the part of a
+great personage.
+
+Some months later the Empress spoke of the matter to English friends
+with deep regret, but still with a curious lack of understanding. She
+even mentioned the subject to the then French Ambassador in London, M.
+Waddington, eagerly telling him that she had experienced nothing but
+respect and even sympathy during the first part of her visit, and
+expressing her astonishment and distress at the feeling her visit to
+Versailles and the battlefields round Paris had provoked. She had
+brought herself by then to share Queen Victoria's view, namely, that the
+whole thing had been a more or less histrionic demonstration against the
+French Government.
+
+It showed, however, the Empress's largeness of mind that during this
+same visit to England which followed her hasty departure from France she
+spoke with the warmest admiration of the verse of Paul Déroulède, the
+great chauvinist leader of the Revanche party.
+
+This was the last intervention of the Empress Frederick in public
+affairs.
+
+In the following year the Empress had the grief of losing a very old
+friend in the person of Lord Arthur Russell. Of these three gifted
+brothers, who were at once so alike and so different, she said
+pathetically: "The chief charm of the two others to me used to be that
+they were Lord Odo's brothers, until I came to know them well and to
+appreciate each other for his own sake."
+
+There burst forth, late in the year 1892, a most extraordinary scandal,
+in which the Empress Frederick, although the affair was almost
+ostentatiously unconnected with her, could not but be deeply interested.
+
+Various members of the Imperial family, as well as members of their
+Households, began to be assailed with scurrilous anonymous letters,
+which not only contained shrewd and well-aimed abuse of each individual,
+but which also revealed all sorts of shameful secrets to those from whom
+they had been sedulously hidden. Long-buried family skeletons were
+dragged out into the light of day, and no one was spared. Indeed, the
+greatest sufferers were those most closely clustered round about the
+throne. There was, however, one exception. The widowed Empress was
+neither attacked nor even mentioned, and the attempt was evidently made,
+by the writer or writers of these extraordinary communications, to
+respect, as far as was possible, the feelings and prejudices of the
+Emperor's mother.
+
+Nothing was left undone to discover the perpetrators of this most evil
+and incomprehensible practical joke, if practical joke it was. At first
+it was supposed that the letters emanated from two people, presumed to
+be husband and wife, but soon it became clear to thoughtful
+investigators, and these comprised all the more intelligent members of
+the Berlin Court world, that many more than two or even three persons
+must be implicated in the conspiracy. Indeed, the Empress Frederick is
+said to have observed to a friend that she felt sure that many of those
+who had at first been victims had now become aggressors, and that
+practically everybody was taking the opportunity of slinging mud by way
+of revenge for real or fancied injuries.
+
+This is not the place to deal with the long and complicated story of
+what came to be known as the anonymous letter scandal. No really
+satisfactory conclusion was ever attained. Even now German opinion,
+notably among those chiefly concerned with the exhaustive investigation
+which took place by the Emperor's command, is hopelessly divided. The
+affair ended in the imprisonment--unjust as it turned out--of a high
+Court official, in a fatal duel, and in many tragi-comedies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+LIFE AT FRIEDRICHSHOF
+
+
+For many interesting details and anecdotes in the following chapter, we
+are indebted to a valuable pamphlet entitled, "Reminiscences of Victoria
+Empress Frederick," by Professor G. A. Leinhaas, her honorary librarian.
+
+During the building of Friedrichshof the Empress took up her residence
+at Homburg and drove over every day, being on the friendliest terms, not
+only with the architect and builder, but also with the masons and the
+other workmen. One might say that she watched the laying of nearly every
+stone, and she must have felt sorry when the work was done. Still, there
+was plenty of occupation left for her, when the building was finished,
+in superintending the furnishing and other arrangements. At this time
+she showed not the least sign of failing health or strength--indeed, for
+her age she was remarkably strong and even robust.
+
+There is no need to enlarge upon the details of the drawing-rooms and
+other apartments of the castle, but some of the pictures and sculpture
+were of particular interest. For instance, there were many curious
+portraits of members of the House of Hanover; a sketch, by Titian, of
+the Emperor Charles V of Germany; a fine portrait of Frederick the
+Great; and many busts and statues of the Empress's relatives, including
+a beautiful marble bust of her son, little Prince Waldemar.
+
+The fireplace in the library deserves mention, being of Istrian stone in
+the Venetian style--indeed, all through the castle the fireplaces were
+of remarkable artistic beauty. Thus, that in the great dining-room was
+of marble supported on columns, and surmounted by a bust of the Emperor
+Frederick.
+
+In the library was placed a replica of the altarpiece in Cologne
+Cathedral, representing the Adorations of the Magi. The bookcases,
+running nearly all round the room, contained the Empress's collection of
+some thirty years. One case was devoted entirely to books dedicated to
+her, and the authors of many of them had been admitted to her personal
+friendship. Another section contained all the books written on the
+subject of the English Royal family, and many of these were gifts with
+inscriptions in Queen Victoria's large, clear handwriting.
+
+Every book in the library had been examined by the Empress, and many of
+them had been read and re-read. This was notably the case in the section
+devoted to political economy, a subject in which she was intensely
+interested. Here were to be seen all the works of Jeremy Bentham, a gift
+from Dean Stanley; here, too, were kept the Empress's marvellous
+collection of autographs, begun when she was twelve years old, and
+containing the handwriting, not only of practically all the Royal
+personages of Europe, but also of statesmen, artists, and literary and
+scientific men, who had all made their mark in their several callings.
+
+The Empress was indeed a collector. Her possessions afforded her intense
+pleasure; to use her own expressive phrase: "One loves one's own things
+so much; one strokes them with one's eyes."
+
+There was arranged in glass cases her collection of coins and medals,
+which contained some particularly fine and rare examples from the
+Brandenburg-Prussian, English, French, and Vatican mints. One case was
+devoted to a numismatic portrait-gallery of her own relations.
+
+Her collection of photographs, each properly titled, took up 300
+portfolios. When going over these the Empress would wax enthusiastic
+over the views of the places where she had herself stayed, particularly
+those in Italy, such as Rapallo, S. Margherita, Baveno, and Portofino. A
+favourite city of hers was Triest, of which she seemed to know every
+stock and stone.
+
+In the library, too, there was much to recall the Emperor Frederick.
+Every word that her husband had ever written, however trivial, the
+Empress carefully preserved. All his marginal notes were treated with
+fixative, and one of her chief cares when sending any books to
+institutions was to make sure that there was nothing written in her
+husband's own hand in them.
+
+[Illustration: THE LATE EMPRESS FREDERICK]
+
+The Empress was fond of collecting curiosities,--bits of old oak, old
+sculpture, and silver--and she amused herself from time to time in
+bargaining for these things in cottages and dealers' shops. Nor was she
+superior to the familiar pride of the collector in displaying her
+treasures afterwards and explaining what bargains she had secured. The
+Empress, especially as a young woman, did not care very much for
+reading, though she was fond of being read aloud to, as are most Royal
+personages. She was, however, passionately interested in books, and it
+is recorded that in her tenth year she spent all her pocket-money on
+them. As she grew older, she read more, but she read in order to
+instruct herself rather than for pleasure. As a matter of course she
+always read all those books published in her native country which made
+any stir, whether they were memoirs, books of exploration, essays, or
+novels.
+
+At half-past ten every morning (Sundays excepted) the Empress went into
+her library to work. She was an extremely rapid reader, and if her
+intellectual interests--science, theology, philosophy, history,
+literature, archæology, art, economics, hygiene--may have seemed too
+discursive there is abundant evidence to acquit her of dilettanteism.
+She possessed in all these different branches a solid foundation of
+knowledge, which enabled her to understand and appreciate the
+discussions of experts. Like her brother, King Edward, she possessed in
+a high degree the truly Royal gift of assimilating knowledge from
+conversation, and she had been so well "grounded," so to speak, that
+whenever she talked with a specialist in any subject she knew just what
+questions to ask.
+
+When reading a book, the Empress almost always made notes in the margin.
+This is interesting as showing how restlessly alive, and in a sense
+over-stimulated, her brain must always have been. It is perhaps a
+fortunate thing during her long illness, for even then she never felt
+any wish to be idle, or to sit alone and think of herself.
+
+In the grounds of Friedrichshof her Majesty was able to indulge to the
+full her love of gardening. Not only did she know the Latin names of
+every plant and flower, but she was a really practical gardener, able to
+design landscape schemes.
+
+The rosery, for instance, was her creation. About half an acre in
+extent, it resembled the rosery at Birkhall, on the Balmoral estate. It
+sloped gently upwards, divided into numerous little terraces, bearing
+double rows of half-standard roses, and it was bounded partly by a
+creeper-clad wall, and partly by trelliswork over which roses were
+trained. In the flower-beds of her ordinary garden her Majesty showed
+her strong preference for old-fashioned English flowers--indeed,
+throughout she evidently aimed at reproducing the mingled beauty and
+repose so characteristic of English gardens. All kinds of trees, too,
+she planted, and many have the added interest of an iron tablet
+recording that it was planted by some Royal or distinguished visitor.
+
+The Empress certainly had no lack of occupation and interest at
+Cronberg. She had always been fascinated by restoration and excavation
+work, and fortunately Cronberg possessed both an old castle and an old
+church, which she eagerly set herself to preserve for future
+generations. At the old Burg she found many ancient remains, such as
+arrowheads, keys, &c., and, most important of all, several Gothic iron
+"Ofenplatten." She was interested in every detail. Once she spent a long
+time hunting for a passage-way which she knew must be there because of
+the "pechnaze," or slit in the wall through which boiling lead used to
+be poured in mediæval sieges. When out riding she always kept a keen
+look-out for survivals of the past. Thus she was much interested in the
+iron crosses to be found in the Taunus, and she proposed to draw all the
+different kinds and publish a book about them.
+
+To the restoration of Cronberg Church the Empress devoted an immense
+amount of personal trouble. Two Ministers and some important officials
+had to be approached before the order from the Cabinet was obtained
+granting the necessary financial help. When it was at last issued, the
+Empress herself brought it to Cronberg, and, arriving there in the
+evening, carried it the first thing in the morning to the pastor. Hardly
+a nail was put in the church without her knowledge. She studied and
+re-studied for months the details of windows, doors, hinges, &c. Her
+delight was great when under the whitewash she discovered some frescoes
+of the fifteenth century.
+
+A tablet was put up in the choir setting forth what the Empress had done
+for the restoration of the church, but here the truly modest nature of
+the woman showed itself. She had the tablet removed from the choir, and
+refixed in a place high up where it is practically unseen.
+
+It is pleasant to look back on these comparatively happy years at
+Friedrichshof. The Empress as a rule dressed very simply in black. Her
+only jewellery were two gold rings, one with a sapphire and two
+diamonds, and the other a smooth ruby, while a miniature of the Emperor
+Frederick hung round her neck. She was up early every morning. She liked
+to see everything bright and gleaming in the Castle, and not a speck of
+dust was allowed. At eight o'clock it was her habit to go out riding for
+two hours. She was an excellent horsewoman and full of daring; even when
+nearing sixty she still jumped difficult ditches and obstacles, and she
+always rode young and spirited animals. Once she was pushed against a
+wall by a frisky horse, and later she had the more serious accident
+which some think brought about her final illness. But even in the worst
+weather she never gave up her morning ride.
+
+During her widowhood the Empress had at last the joy of knowing that she
+was really loved and understood by her neighbours, both gentle and
+simple. She was regarded at Cronberg much as Queen Victoria was regarded
+in the neighbourhood of Balmoral. She made herself acquainted with
+practically the whole population, not only with the poor, on whom she
+was able to shower intelligent gifts and much practical good advice, but
+also with that difficult intermediate class who, all the world over,
+generally remain out of touch with the great house of the village.
+
+People of this class dwelt in little châlets which began to spring up
+over that healthy and beautiful neighbourhood, but even their thorny
+pride was not proof against the Empress's friendliness, in which there
+was never any touch of condescension or patronage. There were not a few
+artists living in the neighbourhood, and with some of these the Empress
+was on specially intimate terms. She was fond of dropping in and finding
+them at work. The Empress was full of quaint conceits and ideas; thus,
+when she was going to see an artist or anyone in whom she took a special
+interest, she liked to choose his birthday for the visit. Her energy was
+extraordinary. One observer who saw a great deal of her in her widowhood
+declares that she used to go upstairs and downstairs like a young girl,
+and when she greeted the company assembled at table every compulsion of
+etiquette seemed to be instantly removed.
+
+Naturally Cronberg benefited by her great knowledge of hygiene. To the
+elaborately equipped hospital which she founded there, she gave the most
+punctilious care. She often cut her roses herself and took them to the
+sick. The Empress also built a poorhouse, a Victoria school, and a
+library for the people, and she arranged the Victoria and Kaiser
+Friedrich public park. She hated leaving Cronberg every autumn: "The
+departure is dreadful to me," she said on one occasion: "when I am
+travelling I feel like a mussel without its shell."
+
+Professor Nippold, in his book on the first two German Emperors, has
+drawn a very sympathetic and understanding picture of the Empress
+Frederick.
+
+She had, he says, a most cheerful temperament, and a rapid eye for the
+humorous, in spite of so many terrible blows of fate. She always saw
+everything from the good side and quickly forgave people their faults;
+no one was allowed to speak ill of anyone in her presence. She was often
+misunderstood and unjustly accused, and when she saw things written
+against her in the papers she was terribly wounded. For instance, it was
+said that she had prevented the building of a tower on the "Altkönig"
+for the public to enjoy the view, but the fact was that she had never
+heard anything about the proposal. Sometimes she could hardly be
+restrained from answering some of these base accusations. She was also
+accused of parsimony, and her income was enormously exaggerated. The
+claims on her purse were innumerable. She had forty-two philanthropic
+institutions which she had to help, and in one year there were
+thirty-seven bazaars, to each of which she had to send gifts. Altogether
+her expenses were enormously heavy.
+
+When the Empress is blamed for being a thorough Englishwoman, let it be
+said at once, exclaims Professor Nippold, that everything good and
+praiseworthy in England she tried to introduce into her own adopted
+country. She was always vexed and pained when things were said against
+England, more especially in the case of England's colonies. "The
+English," she would say, "arrange everything in the Colonies most
+beautifully,--roads, railways, post, telegraphs, hospitals, schools, and
+police, and then everyone, to whichever nation he belongs, can trade
+undisturbed. And I cannot think that for that England should be thanked
+in such an evil way!" Many people regarded it as an injustice to Germany
+that she should have had such warm sympathies with England. She was
+through and through an Englishwoman, if not by descent, yet by every
+impression received in childhood and by education.
+
+The professor goes on to express the opinion that no Englishman or
+Englishwoman, of whatever age, ever gives up his or her nationality and
+love of country, in whatever circumstances they may find themselves, "a
+contrast to so many Germans, who are far less faithful to their
+nationality. The Empress Frederick, as eldest child of Queen Victoria of
+England, had the title of Princess Royal, and she could not help feeling
+herself the first princess of a wonderful Empire of very old culture,
+and this proud feeling never left her."
+
+This estimate and defence of the Empress is particularly valuable as
+coming from a man of shrewd intelligence and observation, who was
+himself a German.
+
+On another occasion Nippold wrote of the Empress with clear insight:
+"One thing this distinguished woman never understood--to hide her
+feelings. She never posed; everything was sincere in her in the true
+sense of the word."
+
+In her will the Empress left Professor Nippold a letter-weight, which
+she had used every day, as a souvenir of a conversation they had had one
+evening in her study. This letter-weight, which always lay on her table,
+was composed of an old Roman bronze--a broken Sphinx figure--on a marble
+slab. A ring bound this figure to the slab, and the inscription engraved
+was: "This stone was picked up by H.R.H. Princess Elizabeth on the walk
+of Frogmore, 1808."
+
+Professor Nippold goes on to say that while the Empress was talking to
+him one evening a telegram arrived which obviously had to do with the
+crisis which led to the Greco-Turkish War. As Nippold saw that she was
+much preoccupied with the telegram and had to think of the answer, and
+yet did not want to send him away, he delicately asked to be allowed to
+wait and look at the pictures. When the Empress resumed the
+conversation, the professor asked about a picture which hung in the
+study. She named the different figures in the group, among them being
+that young Princess Elizabeth who had found the stone.
+
+That she should have left Nippold the letter-weight showed, as he truly
+says, the wonderful memory and kindly attention in which consists _la
+politesse des Princes_.
+
+The Princess Elizabeth married one of the last Counts of Hesse-Homburg.
+Since then a monument to that Royal house has been erected in Homburg,
+and in the Emperor's speech at the unveiling on August 17, 1906,
+occurred these words: "I commemorate the Landgräfin Elizabeth, a
+daughter of George III of England. She was a real mother to this country
+and worked and cared for her adopted fatherland. The Homburgers to this
+day think of her with real thankfulness and reverence."
+
+Professor Nippold gives a characteristic letter which he received from
+the Empress, evidently on the subject of those historical studies of
+the House of Hohenzollern to which, as we have already mentioned, the
+Emperor Frederick at one time devoted himself with ardour. The letter is
+so interesting, especially in the views which it expresses on the
+subject of royal biography, that to quote it in full needs no apology:
+
+ "DEAR PROFESSOR,--Many thanks for sending the separate pages from
+ the _Deutsche Revue_ of February, and for your excellent report,
+ which has so much in it that does my heart good. You mean well and
+ truly, not only as regards history, but also with the noble men who
+ now lie in their graves, and whose deeds and influence should be
+ properly appreciated in wide circles and through the proper medium.
+
+ "The work grows, however, even as you work upon it; the subject
+ becomes more and more important, and one should ask oneself whether
+ the time has come thus to lift the veil. Would it not be wiser and
+ more cautious to close these papers for the _Revue_, and then to
+ continue your labours, so that later a book could appear for which
+ we could utilise this material, but not lightly or too soon? The
+ letter of which you send me a copy--from our Kaiser Friedrich
+ Wilhelm IV--should not, for instance, appear without the letter
+ from my father, but that would arouse a fearful storm of
+ discussion. In the political world there is so much tinder ready
+ that one must do all one can to avoid bringing in anything
+ exciting.
+
+ "As long as Bismarck is alive, it is very difficult! Also these
+ things affect my mother, so that I should like very much to have a
+ serious talk with you before the publication continues in the
+ _Deutsche Revue_. Professor Ranke has handled the life of Friedrich
+ Wilhelm IV as the Court here wished it to be treated. Similar books
+ have now appeared, with authorisation, with regard to the Kaiser
+ Wilhelm, and in Weimar, I believe, someone is writing a book on the
+ Kaiserin Augusta. All these writers, however, are strictly
+ conservative and orthodox in religion (therefore one-sided), and of
+ all those currents which flowed into the lives of the dead, no word
+ is spoken, in the sense that I mean. It is impossible thus to omit
+ and yet give the public a true picture of the persons, of their
+ time, and of the parts they played. You will see for yourself the
+ consequences of such publication. You have more experience than I,
+ and perhaps you can reassure me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+LAST YEARS
+
+
+During the last years of her life, the Empress Frederick paid repeated
+visits to England, where she had many attached friends.
+
+She much enjoyed a visit to the Bishop of Ripon in 1895, when she was
+able to study the wood carving in the cathedral, as well as Fountains
+Abbey and other places of historical interest. It was characteristic of
+her that only a few moments before she left Ripon, while she was
+actually waiting for the carriage to take her to the station, she
+exclaimed, "How much I should like to paint this view!" Drawing
+materials and a paint-box were brought her; she sat down, and in a few
+minutes produced a charming sketch of the cathedral amid fields and
+trees.
+
+As an artist the Empress was undoubtedly far more than a mere amateur,
+especially in sculpture. It is said that on one occasion, having given a
+commission to the famous German sculptor, Uphues, for a colossal statue
+of the Emperor Frederick, she visited his studio one day when he was at
+work on the clay model. This did not seem to her to promise a good
+likeness, and she thereupon set to work on the clay herself, and in
+about half an hour she quite transformed the model, so that when it was
+carried out in marble it became universally recognised as the best
+presentment in existence of the Emperor's features. Uphues also made a
+bust of the Empress herself, which was set up in 1902 on the Kaiser
+Friedrich Promenade at Homburg.
+
+The Empress had first met the Boyd Carpenters in 1866, soon after the
+death of Prince Sigismund. She happened to hear a sermon from the then
+Canon Boyd Carpenter which brought her much comfort, and the
+acquaintance then begun developed into warm friendship.
+
+The Bishop had a great admiration for the Empress's sympathetic alacrity
+of mind. "She had wide range," he writes, "and quick intellectual
+sympathies; she understood a passing allusion; she followed the track of
+thought; there were no irritating delays; there were no vacant
+incoherences in an observation, which show that the thread has been
+lost. She had read; she had thought; she had travelled; she had
+observed; she had mixed with many of the foremost minds of the time; she
+had taken practical part in many great and humane enterprises.
+Consequently her range was large, and her mental equipment was well
+furnished and ready for use. Conversation with her could never become
+insipid."
+
+The Empress always did everything she could to improve Anglo-German
+relations, and the feeling aroused by the famous telegram which her son
+sent to President Kruger in January, 1896, keenly distressed her. She
+wrote to her old friend Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff:
+
+"But even this most sad episode between our two countries has not shaken
+my faith in our old opinions that there are many, many higher interests
+in common, why we should get on together and be of use to each other in
+helping on civilisation and progress. I trust that a good understanding
+will outlive hatred and jealousy."
+
+And again: "When I think of my father and of all his friends and of our
+friends, it appears to me almost ludicrous that Germany and England
+should be enemies."
+
+In 1897 the Empress Frederick took part in the Diamond Jubilee, driving
+in the procession with Princess Henry of Battenberg. The sight of the
+two widowed sisters, who had put aside their grief to join in that great
+day of national rejoicing, deeply touched many of the spectators. The
+Empress herself wrote of this occasion in which she "gladly and
+thankfully joined with proud heart":
+
+"The weight of lonely, hidden grief often feels heaviest when all
+surroundings are in such contrast. And yet the heart of man is so made
+that many feelings find room in it together; so gratitude and
+thankfulness mingle with memories so sad that they can never lose their
+bitterness."
+
+Madame Waddington, the wife of that old Rugby and Cambridge man who
+filled with such distinction the post of French Ambassador in London,
+has left a record of a conversation she had with the Empress in August,
+1897. Madame Waddington, who was an American by birth, was struck by a
+question the Empress asked her, namely, whether she did not find it
+difficult to settle down in France after having lived ten years in
+London--"the great centre of the world." Madame Waddington replied that
+she was not at all to be pitied for living in Paris, that her son was a
+Frenchman, and all his interests were in France. She adds: "Au fond,
+notwithstanding all the years she has lived in Germany, the Empress is
+absolutely English still in her heart."
+
+They had some talk about Wagner, and Madame Waddington informed the
+Empress that there was a difficulty as to the performance of _Die
+Meistersinger_ at the Grand Opera owing to the fact that Frau Wagner
+considered the choruses too difficult to translate or to sing with the
+true spirit in any language but German. The Empress replied:
+
+"She is quite right; it is one of the most difficult of Wagner's operas,
+and essentially German in plot and structure. It scarcely bears
+translation in English, and in French would be impossible;--neither is
+the music in my mind at all suited to the French character. The mythical
+legends of the Cycle would appeal more to the French, I think, than the
+ordinary German life."
+
+The Empress was a real connoisseur in music, of which she had a wide
+knowledge, though her skill as a performer was considered to be inferior
+to that of Queen Victoria.
+
+Like her mother, the Empress Frederick was a great letter-writer. She
+wrote in a mixture of German and English, choosing the most telling
+expressions, and she was in constant communication with various
+distinguished Englishmen for years. To them she sent long and very frank
+letters about everything that interested her, especially foreign
+politics.
+
+As has been already indicated in this book, the Empress was in the habit
+of showing far more clearly than most Royal personages allow themselves
+to do, exactly what she felt about those whom she met even for the first
+or second time. This found either an answering antagonism or a
+reciprocal liking in those with whom she was brought in contact.
+
+Many of the distinguished men whom she heartily admired speak of her,
+and that in their most secret letters and diaries, with an admiration
+approaching enthusiasm. But now and again comes a discordant note. Such
+may be found in Mr. G. W. Smalley's _Anglo-American Memories_.
+
+The old journalist describes her in a way which gives a far from
+pleasant impression of the Empress towards the end of her life. He was
+presented to her by the then Prince of Wales at Homburg, and the first
+thing he noticed was that, though she was very like Queen Victoria, her
+manner was less simple and therefore had less authority. He also
+criticises her dress, and observes that both the late Queen and her
+eldest daughter "showed an indifference to the art of personal
+adornment."
+
+Mr. Smalley admits that the Empress has a much greater vivacity than the
+Queen, but he thinks that this vivacity becomes restless, and that her
+mind can never be in repose. He says drily that, from her marriage and
+down to the day of the Emperor Frederick's death, she had lived in a
+dream-world of her own creation, her belief being so strong, her
+conviction that she knew what was best for those about her so complete,
+that the facts had to adjust themselves as best they could to that
+belief and that conviction.
+
+As was the Empress's way when a stranger, and especially a foreigner,
+was presented to her, she at once began to talk of Mr. Smalley's country
+and of what she supposed would interest him. Instead of allowing him to
+say what he thought, she plunged directly into American topics,
+especially commenting on what she supposed to be the position of women
+in the United States. It soon became clear, or so he thought, that she
+had a correspondent in Chicago from whom she had derived her
+impressions. "She talked with clearness, with energy and almost
+apostolic fervour, the voice penetrating rather than melodious."
+
+Mr. Smalley said to himself that all that she asserted might be true of
+Chicago, but of what else was it true? And he was evidently much nettled
+that she generalised from the "Windy City" to the rest of the United
+States.
+
+Instead of seeing, as probably most women would have seen, that she was
+speaking to an auditor who was fast becoming prejudiced, the Empress
+continued to unburden herself in the frankest, freest way to this
+journalist whom she had never met before. She even seems to have touched
+on politics, on Anglo-German relations, on the internal affairs of
+Germany:
+
+"Never for a moment did this dreamer's talk stop or grow sluggish.
+Carlyle summed up Macaulay in the phrase 'Flow on, thou shining river';
+he might in a sardonic mood have done the same to this Princess."
+
+It was an illuminating interview, declares Mr. Smalley, throwing light
+on events to come as well as on those of the past, and he goes on to
+explain that multitudes of Germans shared Bismarck's distrust of the
+Crown Princess, and believed that she wanted to Anglicise Germany. He
+reiterates what has so often been said--that she told all-comers that
+what Germany needed was Parliamentary government as it was understood
+and practised in England. In little things as in great she made no
+secret for her preference for what was English over what was German:
+
+"Judgment was not her strong point, nor was tact; if I am to say what
+was her strong point, I suppose it would be sincerity. Her gifts of mind
+were dazzling rather than sound; impulse was not always under control.
+Her animosities once roused never slept, as Prince Bismarck well knew."
+
+Seldom has a more prejudiced view of the Empress been given to the
+world, but it is interesting as showing how she sometimes impressed
+those who had been fascinated by the Bismarck legend when they were
+brought into passing contact with her eager, enthusiastic mind.
+
+To a fall from her horse at Cronberg in the autumn of 1898 may be traced
+the beginning of that merciless disease which ultimately killed her.
+
+It was a bad accident. The horse reared and the Empress fell on the
+wrong side on her head with her feet under the horse and her habit still
+clinging to the saddle. Her head was much bruised, and her right hand
+was injured and trodden on by the horse. She was not at all frightened,
+indeed she took it very calmly, observing:
+
+"I have ridden for fifty years, and it is natural that an accident must
+come sooner or later. But I shall ride to-morrow. I'm going to try and
+paint and write some letters in spite of my hand."
+
+But her injuries did not yield to treatment, and very soon began the
+long martyrdom of pain which she bore for more than two years with the
+same stoic fortitude which the Emperor Frederick had shown. The disease
+was undoubtedly cancer, and it is suggested that it had been gathering
+force for quite a number of years. However that may be, it was certainly
+known in 1900 that a cure was impossible.
+
+The most terrible feature of these last months was the severe pain which
+seized her at intervals. It was characteristic, both of her courage and
+of her kindly nature, that during these attacks she would not see even
+the members of her family, to whom the sight of her sufferings would
+have been so distressing. But in the intervals she occupied herself with
+conversation, or one of her ladies would read aloud to her, and she even
+painted a little. Her son, the Emperor, was constant in his attentions,
+coming over almost daily from Homburg, but even he was only allowed to
+remain with her a few minutes at a time.
+
+Physically the patient had suffered a great change. Her cheeks, which
+had been round and apparently in the bloom of health, gradually became
+thin and sunken, and her face assumed that curious transparent paleness
+which is the unmistakable sign of approaching death.
+
+It is said that when the Empress received the news of Queen Victoria's
+death, in January, 1901, she said to those about her: "I wish I were
+dead too." But for more than six months longer she bore with
+extraordinary fortitude the chronic suffering which the most able
+physicians were unable to relieve. Her consideration for those around
+her was constant. On one occasion, in a spasm of agony, she cried out
+loudly and seized the nurse's hand; then at once apologised: "I am so
+sorry, I am afraid I hurt you." The nurse said afterwards, "I have only
+been with the Empress for a week, but already she has filled me with
+higher ideals, and I am going back resolved to be a better nurse than
+ever."
+
+As long as it was possible, the Empress continued her painting and
+drawing; and to the very end she was especially happy when she was able
+to work with some practical object in view, such as the laying out of a
+new rose-garden or suggesting alterations in architectural plans. Her
+greatest pleasure--and she was intensely susceptible to happiness even
+during the last six sad months--was a visit from her eldest brother.
+When she was expecting King Edward, she supervised closely every little
+arrangement made for his comfort and convenience, and while doing so she
+would be wheeled in her bath-chair about the rooms he was to occupy.
+
+She felt most deeply the attacks which were then being made in Germany
+on England, and even on King Edward, at the time of the Boer War. An
+article in the _Vossische Zeitung_, which observed that such attacks on
+a constitutional Sovereign were unworthy of a great nation, gave her
+much satisfaction.
+
+King Edward paid his last visit to his sister at Cronberg in February,
+1901. A contemporary chronicler notes that everything was arranged to
+show that the visit was meant for the Empress Frederick and not for her
+son. This was doubtless by the wish of the Emperor himself, for, though
+he did all due honour to his uncle, meeting him at Frankfort and
+conducting him across the lovely Taunus Valley, to the very door of
+Friedrichshof, he took leave of King Edward at the threshold, so that
+the brother and sister might be alone at their first meeting.
+
+Among the last English visitors received by the Empress at Friedrichshof
+were her old friends, the Boyd Carpenters. This was in May, 1901.
+
+They found her on their arrival lying on a couch in her beautiful
+garden, and the Bishop was struck by her likeness to Queen Victoria--a
+likeness enhanced by the black dress and by the form of hat which she
+wore. The Empress rejoiced in the spring and in the colour which was
+spreading everywhere through her garden. She still took a practical
+interest in everything concerning the beautiful home she had created.
+The Bishop gives one instance: the great blue face of the clock, the
+tower of which dominated Friedrichshof, needed re-painting. Before she
+decided what exact tint should be used, she caused slips of paper giving
+different shades of blue to be held up against the face of the clock.
+Then she made up her mind.
+
+Once, as they passed through the flower garden together, she quoted to
+the Bishop the words, "The effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth
+much." Another time, looking round at the beauty of the trees she had
+planted, she said, "I feel like Moses on Pisgah, looking at the land of
+promise which I must not enter."
+
+When parting from Mrs. Boyd Carpenter, for whom she had a great regard,
+the Empress gave her a bracelet of her own, one she had often worn and
+with which she had affectionate associations.
+
+To the Bishop she gave a seal which had belonged to Queen Victoria, and
+which had been in the room when the Queen died. It commemorated a picnic
+in Scotland, in which the Queen, the Prince Consort, and Princess Alice
+had shared. The seal, mounted in silver and set in Aberdeen granite, was
+a cairngorm found by Prince Albert and Princess Alice on that day.
+
+The Bishop remained with her a moment at the very last, and she said to
+him, "When I am gone I want you to read the English Burial Service over
+me." And then she characteristically explained to him exactly what would
+have to be done to make this possible. When the end came three months
+later, thanks to the prompt acquiescence of the Emperor, his mother's
+wishes were carried out.
+
+The Empress became much worse at the beginning of August, and, by the
+wish of her son, Canon Teignmouth-Shore was telegraphed for. He arrived
+at Friedrichshof on August 5, and in the presence of the Emperor and the
+Empress's daughters the Canon knelt down and offered some prayers from
+the Office for the Visitation of the Sick. The whole sad scene, he says,
+was quite over-powering and far too sacred for him to describe. "The
+dying Empress was at first slightly conscious, and I could see a gentle
+movement of her lips as we said the Lord's Prayer."
+
+Towards six o'clock in the evening the Canon was again summoned to the
+sick-room. "The sweet noble soul was just passing away. I said a few
+prayers at the bedside, concluding with the first two verses of that
+exquisite poem, 'Now the labourer's task is o'er.'"
+
+A butterfly flew into the room and hovered for awhile over the dying
+Empress, and when she had breathed her last it spread its wings and flew
+out into the free air again.
+
+The Emperor desired Canon Teignmouth-Shore to arrange with Dr. Boyd
+Carpenter for a private funeral service to be held at Friedrichshof.
+
+On the following Sunday the Canon preached a funeral sermon in the
+English church at Homburg. In it he made a statement with regard to her
+Majesty's religious views which deserves quotation:
+
+"The religious conceptions which inspired and guided this life, alike in
+its humblest and in its loftiest spheres of action, were, as I believe,
+neither crude nor complex nor dogmatic; they were clear and simple and
+broad--an absolute faith in the Fatherhood of God, and in the
+Brotherhood and redeeming love of Him who died that we might live."
+
+The Lutheran funeral service, which was held in the parish church of
+Cronberg, was most impressive in its simplicity. At one point of the
+service the Crown Prince and three of his young brothers rose from their
+seats, and, having put on their helmets, drew their swords and took
+their places at each corner of the coffin of their grandmother, where
+they remained until the end of the service.
+
+This old church, which, as we know, the Empress had herself restored,
+dates back to the middle of the fifteenth century. On the organ, which
+is of exquisite tone, Mendelssohn often played when he visited the
+Taunus.
+
+Perhaps the most touching of all the hundreds of wreaths sent for the
+funeral was one of simple heather which had been made by the Emperor's
+younger children. Attached to it was a sheet of black-edged paper on
+which they had all written their names in large childish characters.
+
+The Empress was buried beside her husband and her son Waldemar in the
+Friedenskirche at Potsdam, and the sarcophagus over her tomb is by her
+artist friend, Begas.
+
+Of memorials to her, there is the bust at Homburg already mentioned. In
+the English church at Homburg, where she attended divine service for
+the first time after the death of her husband, is a memorial consisting
+of four reliefs, placed in the spandrels of the arches in the aisle,
+representing the four Evangelists. A striking statue of the Empress in
+coronation robes by Gerth was unveiled by the Emperor William in
+October, 1903. It is opposite the statue of her husband in the open
+space outside the Brandenburg gate at Berlin.
+
+So lived, and so died, this most gifted and generous lady, who was
+rendered illustrious, not by the symbols of her Imperial station, but by
+her many winning qualities of heart and intellect.
+
+We cannot do better than quote in conclusion from the remarkable
+tributes which were paid to her memory by the late Lord Salisbury and
+the late Lord Spencer.
+
+Lord Salisbury, who was then Prime Minister, in moving an address of
+condolence with King Edward in the House of Lords, summed up in masterly
+fashion both the beauty and the tragedy of the Empress's life:
+
+"When the then Princess Royal left these shores, there was no person,
+either of contemporary experience or in history, before whom a brighter
+prospect extended itself in life, and all that could make it desirable
+spread itself before her. She had a devoted husband, himself one of the
+noblest characters of his generation, who probably centred in himself
+more admiration than any man in his rank or in any rank. She had every
+prospect of becoming the Consort of the Emperor--an absolute
+emperor--of the greatest of the Continental Powers. She had every hope
+that she would share fully in his illustrious position, and in no small
+degree in the powers that he wielded. This was before her for nearly
+thirty years, and in that time she had all the enjoyments which were
+derived from her own great abilities, her own splendid artistic talents,
+and from the powers which she exercised over the artistic, æsthetic, and
+intellectual life of Germany. She occupied an unexampled position. Then
+suddenly came the blow, first on her husband and then on herself. By
+that fell disease--which probably is the most formidable of all to which
+flesh is heir--her dream of happiness, of usefulness, and glory was
+suddenly cut short. The blow, in striking her husband, struck herself in
+even greater degree; and she felt--she could not but feel--how deeply
+she shared in all the disappointments, all the sufferings, that attached
+themselves to his history. When he had been Emperor only a few weeks, he
+died, and then she spent her life in retirement. Her health failed, and
+she, too, fell under the same blow, passing through years of suffering,
+with the sympathy of all connected with her and all those who knew her.
+She was deeply valued in this country by those who knew her, and they
+were very many. She had an artistic and intellectual charm of no common
+order; she spread her power over all who came within her reach; and her
+gradual disappearance from the scene was watched with the deepest
+sorrow and sympathy by numbers in her own country and in this."
+
+The motion was seconded on behalf of the Opposition by Lord Spencer,
+who, it will be remembered, was a near kinsman of that Lady Lyttelton to
+whom was entrusted the charge of the Empress's early childhood:
+
+"Her Imperial Majesty had no ordinary character. Brought up with the
+greatest care and solicitude by her Royal and devoted parents, she early
+and ever afterwards showed the highest accomplishments, not only in art
+but in literature. She was herself an artist of no small merit, and her
+power of criticism and influence in art was even of a higher order. In
+this age, which had been so remarkable for the enormous number of
+persons who have joined in endeavours to alleviate the sufferings of the
+human race, whether in peace or in war, I venture to think that no one
+stands in a higher position than the Empress Frederick of Germany.
+During those wars, in which her illustrious husband played such a
+splendid part, she exerted herself to do all she could to alleviate the
+sufferings of the wounded, and she had ever in peace used her endeavours
+to promote the same objects among the suffering poor of her country. No
+one, I am sure, will be remembered in the future with more affection and
+devotion on this account than her Majesty. She was always sympathetic
+and energetic with regard to other matters. There was nothing which
+stirred her sympathies or energies more than the education and
+improvement of her own sex. She did much in this respect in her adopted
+country; but we cannot consider her life without remembering the
+beautiful simplicity and earnestness of it. She was devoted to duty, and
+although she suffered intensely during her life when her noble husband
+was afflicted with the terrible disease which took him off, and during
+the sad years in which the same malady afflicted her, she always showed
+a patient endurance which will remain an example for all mankind. I
+cannot but refer to her great charm in private as well as in public
+life. It so happened that very early in my life, before she was married,
+she honoured me with her acquaintance. It was only on rare occasions I
+had the privilege of continuing that acquaintance, but I have from time
+to time within the last few years seen her Majesty, and I shall always
+recall, as one of the most delightful recollections of my life, the
+charm and influence of her conversation."
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Abeken, Herr, 243
+
+Aberdeen, Lord, 48
+
+Adelaide, Queen Dowager, 3, 28
+
+Albert, Prince, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9;
+ his children's affection, 11, 12, 209;
+ Exhibition of 1851, 16, 17;
+ view of German politics, 26, 27, 37, 38, 46, 47, 53, 113, 122, 124-131, 136, 138, 139, 162, 165, 166;
+ training of the Princess Royal, 32-35;
+ her betrothal, 36-38, 41, 45-50;
+ and marriage, 60-68;
+ letters to his daughter, 71, 72, 74-76, 80, 81, 87-89, 103, 105-107, 113, 114, 115, 117, 118, 124, 127-132, 135, 138, 148;
+ visits to his daughter, 119, 122;
+ acquaintance with Morier, 155;
+ first meeting with Bismarck, 162;
+ theory of monarchy, 127-130;
+ narrow escape, 120;
+ death, 149-151, 153
+
+Alcott, Miss, 14
+
+Alexander of Bulgaria, Prince, 310, 313
+
+Alexander I, the Tsar; Alexander II, 22, 263, 267, 278
+
+Alexandra, Queen, 108, 109, 177, 263
+
+Alice, Princess (Grand Duchess of Hesse), 4, 6, 11, 12, 48, 60, 62, 106, 116, 131;
+ wedding, 154, 197, 205, 212, 214, 222, 223, 233, 236, 237;
+ death, 273, 323, 324
+
+Althorp, Lord, 6, 8
+
+Ampthill, Lord and Lady, 252, 284, 285, 286, 338
+
+Anderson, Mrs., 50
+
+Angeli, Von, 251, 256, 264
+
+Arnold, Matthew, 281-284
+
+Augusta, German Empress, 17, 19, 25, 27, 39, 60, 77, 78, 154, 156, 157, 185, 214, 228, 230, 233, 246, 267, 305;
+ death, 326, 327, 328, 353
+
+Augustenburg, Duke Christian of Sonderburg-, 179
+
+Augustenburg, Hereditary Prince Frederick of Sonderburg-, 180-183, 210, 211, 275
+
+Austria, Emperor Francis Joseph, 174, 197, 211, 280
+
+
+Babelsberg, 90, 92, 96, 109, 110
+
+Bacourt, Monsieur de, 78
+
+Baden, Prince Regent of, 38
+
+Ballardin, M., 306
+
+Barclay & Perkins's draymen, 68
+
+Battenberg marriage, the, 306, 309, 312
+
+Bavaria, King of, 228, 241
+
+Bazaine, Marshal, 228, 241, 317
+
+Beatrice, Princess (Princess Henry of Battenberg), 118, 356
+
+Begas, 251
+
+Benedek, 218
+
+Benedetti, 230
+
+Bergmann, Prof., 289
+
+Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen, Prince, 266, 267
+
+Bernhardi, Theodor von, 157, 188
+
+Bismarck, Prince, opinion of the English marriage, 39;
+ relations with Crown Princess, 152, 153, 162-167, 256, 258, 275, 285, 286;
+ relations with Morier, 157, 207;
+ accession to office, 159, 166;
+ Dantzig incident, 168, 169;
+ relations with Crown Prince, 175, 285, 286;
+ policy on Scheswig-Holstein question, 182, 185, 210-211;
+ attitude to royal personages, 210;
+ Austrian war, 210-212, 217-221;
+ visit to Paris, 223;
+ at a royal christening, 228;
+ Franco-German war, 228-230, 239-240, 245, 248;
+ the Imperial Dignity, 241, 242, 255;
+ "British petticoats," 256-258;
+ and Hinzpeter, 261, 267;
+ and the Regency of the Crown Prince, 267-271, 283, 284;
+ and the Crown Prince's illness, 289, 290;
+ relations with the Emperor and Empress Frederick, 302-307, 308-312, 313-319, 321-326, 353, 360, 361;
+ fall, 327, 328
+
+Bleibtreu, 251
+
+Bloomfield, Lady, 39,
+ and Lord, 74, 136
+
+Blumenthal, Field-Marshal, 217
+
+Bornstedt, country life at, 111
+
+Bötticher, 303
+
+Bouguereau, M., 333
+
+Boyd Carpenter, Bishop, 66, 353, 354, 364, 365
+
+Brühl, Countess Hedwig, 189
+
+Brunnemann, Privy Councillor, 97
+
+Brunnow, 87
+
+Buccleuch, Duke of, 66
+
+Buchanan, Mr., 45
+
+Bucher, 238, 266
+
+Bunsen, Baron, 27, 152
+
+Bunsen, Mme., 25
+
+Busch, 238, 266, 275, 306, 308, 319
+
+
+Canning, Lord, 47
+
+Carlyle, 110, 160, 360
+
+Charles Anthony of Hohenzollern, Prince, 97
+
+Charles of Prussia, Prince, 279, 280
+
+Charles of Prussia, Princess, 79
+
+Charles of Roumania, Prince and Princess, 214, 265, 277
+
+Charlier, Mme., 10
+
+Charlotte, Princess, 1
+
+Charlotte, Princess (daughter of the Empress), 117, 265-267, 277
+
+Christian IX of Denmark, King, 180, 188
+
+Churchill, Lord Randolph, 272
+
+Clarendon, Lord, 30, 34, 42, 93, 125, 143, 144, 145, 147, 156, 252
+
+Cobden, 45, 69
+
+Coburgers, the, 174, 185
+
+Colenso, Bishop, 200
+
+Connaught, Duke of, 106, 267
+
+Consort, Prince. _See_ Albert, Prince
+
+"Court Circular," official, 8
+
+Craven, Mrs. Augustus, 302
+
+Craven, Mrs. Dacre, 249
+
+
+Dantzig incident, the, 167-170
+
+Darwin, Charles, 199
+
+Delane, John, 147
+
+Delbrück, Prof., 274
+
+De Ros, Captan, 103
+
+Déroulède, Paul, 337
+
+Detaille, M., 333
+
+_Deutsche Revue_, 352
+
+_Deutsche Rundschau_, 316
+
+Devonshire, Louise Duchess of, 95
+
+Dino, Duchesse de, 78
+
+Droysen, J. G., 34
+
+Duff, Sir M. E. Grant, 356
+
+Duncker, Frau, 158
+
+Duncker, Herr Max, 136, 153, 158, 182, 184, 186
+
+
+Edinburgh, Duke of, 63, 64, 69, 263
+
+Edward VII, King, 6, 12, 14, 19, 20, 62-64, 69, 106, 109, 149, 159, 177, 260, 263, 280, 330, 344, 358, 363, 364
+
+Eliot, George, 273
+
+Elizabeth, Landgravine, the, 329, 351
+
+Elizabeth of Prussia, Queen, 134, 135
+
+Ernest of Hanover, King, 73
+
+Ernest of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke, 3, 38, 41, 85, 174, 307, 322
+
+Eugénie, Empress, 19, 20, 43, 44, 193, 222
+
+Exhibition, of 1851, 15, 16, 17;
+ of 1862, 154;
+ of 1867 (Paris), 222
+
+
+Faraday, 92
+
+Faucit, Helen, 61
+
+Fitzmayer, Colonel, 45
+
+Frankfort Congress, 174
+
+Frederick Charles of Hesse, Prince, 247
+
+Frederick Charles of Prussia, Prince, 186, 217
+
+Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden, 181
+
+Frederick, Prince of Netherlands, 266
+
+Frederick, the Emperor--
+ As Prince Frederick William of Prussia--
+ First visit to England, 15-18, 25;
+ betrothal, 29-32, 39, 43;
+ visits England again, 51;
+ marriage, 61-70;
+ admiration of England, 85;
+ pride in his eldest son, 102, 103, 107, 108;
+ New Palace at Potsdam, 109-111;
+ country life at Bornstedt, 111, 112;
+ military promotions, 112, 116, 166;
+ hope of the Junkers, 116
+ As Crown Prince--
+ Death of King Frederick William IV, 133-135;
+ his father's coronation, 139-146;
+ death of his father-in-law, 149-152;
+ visits to England, 154, 175, 292, 293;
+ to Italy, 159, 224, 287;
+ to the East, 225;
+ to Paris, 225;
+ the Dantzig incident, 167-169;
+ relations with Bismarck, 167, 173, 175, 182, 210, 211, 219-222, 239, 248, 268-272, 285, 286;
+ admiration of England, 171;
+ Schleswig-Holstein question, 180-183;
+ in the Danish War, 184-188;
+ hatred of war, 186, 221, 236;
+ work for soldiers and their families, 186, 222, 235, 240;
+ family life, 188-197, 207-209, 256;
+ the Austrian War, 213-215, 217-221;
+ freemasonry, 106, 266;
+ the Franco-German War, 229, 235-240;
+ the Imperial Dignity, 242, 243;
+ regency, 267-271;
+ illnesses, 255, 287-298;
+ silver wedding, 279-282
+ As Emperor--
+ Accession, 299, 300;
+ journey to Berlin, 300;
+ State business, 301-302;
+ relations with Bismarck, 302-305, 309-314;
+ monetary position, 306-308;
+ death, 314;
+ Freytag's reminiscences, 321-325
+
+Frederick, the Empress, Physical descriptions of, 58, 59, 160, 161, 362
+ As Princess Royal--
+ Birth, 1, 2;
+ christening, 3, 4;
+ education and childhood, 6-20;
+ first meeting with her husband, 15-19;
+ visit to Paris, 19, 20;
+ betrothal, 29-31;
+ training by her father, 33-35;
+ confirmation, 47-49;
+ an accident, 50;
+ marriage, 58-70;
+ arrival in Berlin, 74;
+ reception, 75-83;
+ the Old Schloss, 83, 84;
+ influence of and on her husband, 85;
+ conditions at the Prussian Court, 86;
+ Babelsberg, 90;
+ social preferences, 91, 92;
+ visits of her parents, 92-97;
+ new residence in Berlin, 98-99;
+ birth of Prince William, 100-114;
+ New Palace at Potsdam, 109-111;
+ country life at Bornstedt, 111, 112;
+ birth of Princess Charlotte, 116, 117;
+ interest in politics, 86, 87, 98;
+ paper on ministerial responsibility, 126, 127;
+ nursery management, 123
+ As Crown Princess--
+ Description of death of King of Prussia, 133-135;
+ anniversary of marriage, 136;
+ coronation of her father-in-law, description, 139-147;
+ colonel of Hussar Regiment, 146, 198, 265;
+ political views, 148, 157, 158, 175, 185, 187, 223, 284;
+ death of her father 149-153;
+ relations with Bismarck, 152, 162-165, 166, 169-172, 184, 185, 211, 212, 238, 239, 266, 267, 275, 285, 286;
+ love of England, 188;
+ visits to England, 153, 154, 158, 175, 267, 272, 273, 292, 293;
+ love of France, 245, 246;
+ birth of Prince Henry, 155;
+ position in Prussia, 155, 156;
+ relations with her husband, 157-159, 168, 169-172, 196, 197, 258, 270;
+ visits to Italy, 159, 275, 276;
+ favourite newspapers, 173;
+ patriotism, 165, 175, 184, 185, 238, 239, 244, 267;
+ popularity, 173, 198, 247;
+ Schleswig-Holstein question, 178-182;
+ work for army and other nursing, 187, 233-235, 248, 249;
+ family life, 188-197, 207-209, 224, 225, 255, 256;
+ artistic tastes, 188-190, 192, 193, 251, 252, 256, 264, 277, 278, 280;
+ musical tastes, 189, 190, 191, 192, 195, 198;
+ literary tastes, 189, 190, 192, 195, 199;
+ as botanist, 190;
+ interest in science, 251;
+ pistol-shooting, 190;
+ education of children, 194, 195, 208, 209, 259-261;
+ social preferences, 198, 199, 251, 252, 253, 273;
+ religious position, 199, 204, 253, 278;
+ art and industry, 205, 206, 223;
+ bereavements, 214, 216, 273, 274, 275;
+ work for soldiers and their families, 222, 231, 233, 234, 235;
+ visits to Paris, 226, 281;
+ work for education, 253-255, 280, 283, 293;
+ visit to Russia, 263;
+ affection for the old Emperor, 286;
+ her husband's last illness, 287-298
+ As Empress, 299-314;
+ relations with Bismarck, 303-305;
+ influence over her husband, 303, 307, 308, 309-313;
+ the Battenberg marriage, 309-313;
+ her first and last Court, 313;
+ death of the Emperor, 314
+ As Dowager Empress--
+ Relations with Bismarck, 315-318, 322, 323, 353, 361;
+ relations with her son, the Emperor William II, 315-318, 329, 332;
+ comparison with him, 318-321;
+ planning of Frederickshof, 329-332;
+ life there, 340-366;
+ patriotism, 323, 324, 356, 357;
+ visit to Paris, 332-337;
+ death of Empress Augusta, 326, 327, 332;
+ the anonymous letter scandal, 338, 339;
+ collections, 341-343;
+ reading, 343, 344;
+ gardening, 344, 345;
+ restoration work, 345, 346;
+ personal tastes, 346-348;
+ philanthropy, 348;
+ character sketches, 348-350, 354, 358-361;
+ views on royal biography, 352, 353;
+ visits to England, 354;
+ artistic tastes, 354, 355;
+ musical tastes, 357, 358;
+ religious position, 352, 353, 366, 367;
+ last illness, 361-365;
+ death and funeral, 366-368;
+ tributes in the House of Lords, 368-371
+
+Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, 79, 109, 110, 192, 228, 262, 341
+
+Frederick VII of Denmark, King, 176, 179
+
+Frederick William III, King of Prussia, 57, 83, 98, 166, 192
+
+Frederick William IV, King of Prussia, 18, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 36, 38, 55, 74, 83, 92, 93, 97, 98;
+ death, 133-135;
+ political testament, 141-143, 157, 192, 282, 319, 329, 352
+
+Freemasonry, 106, 266
+
+Freytag, 121, 166, 236, 321, 325
+
+Friedberg, Dr., 271
+
+Froude, 160, 273
+
+
+Galliera, Duchess of, 330
+
+Garter, Order of the, 67
+
+Geffcken, Dr., 170, 316
+
+Geibel, 192
+
+George of Hanover, King, 220, 221
+
+Gerhardt, 289
+
+Gerlach, General, 28, 29, 39
+
+Germany in 1858, 53-57
+
+Gerth, sculptor, 368
+
+Gloucester, Duchess of, 3, 110
+
+Godet, Pastor, 51, 151, 297
+
+Goethe, 77, 189, 192
+
+Gontaut Biron, M. de, 245, 246
+
+Gontaut, Duchesse de, 246
+
+Goschen, Mr. (afterwards Lord), 272
+
+Gotha, Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and, 4, 52, 113
+
+Gower, Lord Ronald, 192, 193, 228
+
+Granville, Lord, 22, 47, 93, 144, 174, 227, 230, 257, 285, 293
+
+_Grenzboten_, 190
+
+
+Hardenburg, 55
+
+Hagen, Prof., 251
+
+Heine, 192
+
+Henry of Prussia, Prince, 156, 209, 259, 260, 261, 266, 275, 277, 288, 313
+
+Hertel, painter, 264
+
+Hildyard, Miss, 50
+
+Hintze, Prof., 141, 142
+
+Hinzpeter, Dr., 123, 207, 261
+
+Hobbs, Mrs., nurse, 121, 122
+
+Hodel, 267, 270
+
+Hoffmann, 92, 251, 283
+
+Hohenlohe, Prince, 237, 253, 268, 278, 281, 282, 302, 304, 310, 311, 328
+
+Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Princess of, 60, 75
+
+Howard, Cardinal, 276
+
+Humbert, Prince (afterwards King of Italy), 224, 287, 300
+
+Huxley, 199
+
+
+Ihne, Herr, 331
+
+Irene of Hesse, Princess, 288, 309, 313
+
+
+Keeley, Mr. and Mrs., 61
+
+Kent, Duchess of, 4, 20, 52, 63, 122;
+ death of, 137
+
+Kinglake, 273
+
+Kohn, Baron, 307
+
+_Kreutz Zeitung_, 130
+
+Kruger, President, 356
+
+
+Lees, Miss, 249
+
+Leiningen, Prince, 52
+
+Leo XIII, Pope, 271
+
+Leopold I, King of the Belgians, 3, 30, 43, 47, 48, 49, 60, 63, 64, 102, 103, 149, 307
+
+Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, 227
+
+Letze, Fraulein, 254
+
+Loftus, Lord Augustus, 229, 230
+
+Louis, Prince (Grand Duke of Hesse), 117, 131, 154, 213, 222, 225, 237
+
+Louis of Battenberg, Prince, 310
+
+Louise, Queen of Prussia, 38, 62, 74, 98, 142, 192
+
+Louise of Prussia, Princess (Grand Duchess of Baden), 15, 16, 38, 39, 122
+
+Lutteroth, painter, 264
+
+Lyell, Sir Charles, 199, 200
+
+Lyons, Lord, 281
+
+Lyttelton, Sarah, Lady, 6-14, 17, 65, 114, 370
+
+Lytton, Lord and Lady, 333
+
+
+Macaulay, 360
+
+Macdonald incident, the, 119-121, 124, 137, 138
+
+Macdonell, Lady, 215
+
+Mackenzie, Sir Morell, 291, 294, 300
+
+Magdeburg Cathedral, 73
+
+Malakoff, Duke of, 87
+
+Malet, Sir Edward, 312
+
+Malmesbury, Lord, 93
+
+Manchester, Duchess of (Louise), 95
+
+Manteuffel, Baron, 54, 56, 94, 97, 282
+
+Margaret, Princess (daughter of the Empress), 247, 332
+
+Margherita, Queen of Italy, 247, 287
+
+Marie of Roumania, Princess, 216
+
+Martin, Dr., 100
+
+Martin, Sir Theodore, 26, 46, 94, 126
+
+Mary of Cambridge, Princess (Duchess of Teck), 48, 68, 153
+
+Mecklenburg, Grand Duchess of, 108
+
+Melbourne, Lord, 3, 7, 23
+
+Millet, J. F., 14
+
+Monarchy in England, 2
+
+Moltke, 43, 51, 238, 256
+
+Morier, Sir Robert, 155, 156, 157, 167, 168, 172, 206, 207, 317
+
+Motley, J. L., 160, 161
+
+Moustier, 87
+
+
+Napier of Magdala, Lord, 295
+
+Napoleon, Emperor of the French, 19, 31, 42, 166, 222, 225, 230, 231, 295
+
+_National-zeitung_, 173
+
+Neale, Countess Pauline, 79
+
+Nightingale, Florence, 19, 187, 249
+
+Nippold, Prof., 327, 348-353
+
+Nobeling, 267, 270, 272
+
+
+"Old" Royal Family, the, 1, 23, 63
+
+Ollivier, M., 226
+
+Oscar, painter, 251
+
+
+Paget, Sir Augustus, 58, 108
+
+Paget, Walpurga Lady, 58, 108, 276
+
+Palmerston, Lord, 30, 47, 63, 120, 137, 147, 177, 184
+
+Perry, Mr., 18, 32
+
+Phelps, the actor, 61
+
+Playfair, Dr. Lyon, 273
+
+Ponsonby, Mrs., 273
+
+Poschinger, Margaretha von, 255
+
+Putbus, Prince, 238
+
+Putlitz, Frau, 207-209
+
+Putlitz, Gustav, 102, 188, 196
+
+Puttkamer incident, the, 313
+
+
+Radziwill, Princess Elise, 16
+
+Raglan, Lord, 103-105
+
+Ranke, Prof., 353
+
+Redern, Count, 283
+
+Regnault, Henri, 334, 335
+
+Reinhold, sculptor, 251
+
+Reiss, Mr., 331
+
+Renan, 200, 336
+
+Ripon, Lord and Lady, 273
+
+Roggenbach, Baron, 316
+
+Roon, Von, 240
+
+Rumbold, Sir Horace, 317
+
+Russell, Lord Arthur, 337
+
+Russell, Lord John, 3, 120
+
+Russell, Lord Odo. _See_ Ampthill
+
+Russell, Sir. W. H., 228
+
+
+Salisbury, Lord and Lady, 267, 269, 368
+
+_Saturday Review_, 124
+
+Saxe-Meiningen, Hereditary Princess of, 117
+
+Saxony, King of, 241
+
+Schellbach, Prof., 91
+
+Schleinitz, Baron, 124, 138
+
+Schleswig-Holstein Duchies, 137;
+ history of, 177-181;
+ the war, 183-188
+
+Seckendorff, Count, 295
+
+Sigismund, Prince (Son of the Emperor Frederick), 196, 205, 209, 214-216, 224, 225, 355
+
+Smalley, G. W., journalist, 358, 360, 361
+
+Sophia, Princess (afterwards Queen of the Hellenes), 227, 228, 245
+
+Spencer, Lord, 370
+
+Stanley, Dean, 341
+
+Stanley of Alderley, Lord, 174
+
+Steibel, Dr., 331
+
+Stein, 55, 56
+
+Stockmar, Baron, 1, 10, 30, 32, 33, 72, 81-82, 88, 94, 95, 97, 101, 108, 113, 122, 126, 135, 137, 152, 156
+
+Stockmar, Baron Ernest, 72, 156, 159, 169, 170
+
+Stolberg, Prince, 307
+
+Story, Mr., 276
+
+Strauss, 200
+
+Sumner, Archbishop, 47
+
+Sussex, Duke of, 3
+
+
+Teignmouth-Shore, Canon, 365, 366
+
+Tenniel, Sir John, 327
+
+_Times, The_, 36, 69, 70, 123, 124, 138, 147, 169, 170, 173, 230
+
+Titian, 264
+
+Thiers, 245
+
+Thomas, G. H., 143
+
+Thürr, General, 231
+
+
+Uphues, sculptor, 354, 355
+
+
+Victoria of Hesse, Princess, 309
+
+Victoria, Princess, daughter of Empress Frederick, 213, 214, 309-312, 332
+
+Victoria, Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Augustenburg, 277
+
+Victoria, Queen, 1, 2, 3;
+ education of her children, 4-6, 8, 10;
+ Exhibition of 1851, 16, 17;
+ marriages of her children, 24, 25;
+ Princess Royal's betrothal, 29-31, 36, 37, 39, 42-44, 46-49;
+ a caricature, 28;
+ birth of first grandchild, 100-103;
+ sees him for first time, 121-123;
+ description of the New Palace, 109;
+ birth of Princess Charlotte, 116, 117;
+ death of Prince Consort, 149-151;
+ relations with Morier, 172, 207;
+ relations with Bismarck, 184, 185, 311, 312;
+ attitude in Danish War, 177, 184, 185;
+ Austrian War, 213;
+ Franco-German War, 229, 230, 231;
+ intervention on behalf of France, 256, 257;
+ visit to the Emperor Frederick, 311, 312;
+ the Battenberg marriage, 310, 311;
+ death, 362
+
+Virchow, Prof., 292
+
+_Volkszeitung_, 173
+
+_Vossische Zeitung_, 363
+
+
+Wace, poet, 12
+
+Waddington, M., 337, 356, 357
+
+Waddington, Mme., 356, 357
+
+Wagener, 289
+
+Wagner, 357
+
+Waldemar, Prince (son of Empress Frederick), 224, 274, 341
+
+Walewski, 87
+
+Wangenheim, von, 87
+
+Wellington, Duke of, 3
+
+Werner, Anton von, painter, 251, 264
+
+Westmorland, Priscilla Lady, 107
+
+Wilberforce, Bishop, 47
+
+Wilberg, painter, 264
+
+William I, German Emperor; as Prince of Prussia, 16, 17, 25, 26, 37, 39, 60, 65, 93;
+ regency, 97, 98, 102, 115, 116, 201;
+ succession as King William I, 133, 134, 137;
+ coronation, 139-141, 143, 147, 148, 157, 165, 166-169, 171, 172, 182, 183, 211, 218-220, 223;
+ Emperor, 227, 228, 230, 234, 235, 241-243, 256, 257;
+ attempted assassinations, 267-272;
+ failing health, 285-288, 294;
+ death, 297, 298, 306, 307;
+ character, 319, 320, 353
+
+William II, German Emperor, birth and christening, 100-107;
+ and Queen Victoria, 121-123, 141, 142, 194, 195, 207, 208, 209;
+ education, 259-262, 265, 266;
+ betrothal and marriage, 277;
+ accession, 315-318;
+ comparison with his mother, 318-321;
+ relations with his mother, 329, 332, 356, 364, 365
+
+Wittenberg, 73
+
+Wodehouse, Lady, 22
+
+Wrangel, Field-Marshal von, 73, 79, 94, 96, 100, 183, 228
+
+Würtemberg, King of, 228
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
+
+two shy to talk=> too shy to talk {pg 66}
+
+indeed Crown Princess was much distressed=> indeed the Crown Princess
+was much distressed {pg 229}
+
+au troisiéme=> au troisième {pg 273}
+
+Kaiser Freidrich Wilhelm IV=> Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm IV {pg 352}
+
+life of Freidrich Wilhelm IV=> life of Friedrich Wilhelm IV {pg 353}
+
+Mendelsshon often played=> Mendelssohn often played {pg 367}
+
+coronation of her fatther-in-law, description, 139-147;=> coronation of
+her father-in-law, description, 139-147; {pg 375}
+
+Redern, Count, 383=> Redern, Count, 283
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Empress Frederick; a memoir, by Anonymous
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43407 ***
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