A hundred years ago
Germany is in the way of ill-fortune. At two o'clock on Sunday afternoon, the Emperor was driving down the Linden in an open carriage, when he was twice fired at, from rifles loaded with swan-shot, thirty of which penetrated his face, leg and wrist. The shots had been fired from a restaurant by a man named Nobiling, a gentleman of a good military family, cultivated, and well-off, who belongs to one of the darker Socialist sects. He was immediately arrested, but not till he had fired two bullets at his own head, which have not killed him, but have partially deprived him of consciousness.
The Emperor will, it is believed, recover. The shock has been very great, and any degree of haemorrhage is dangerous to so old a man; but all the bullets have been extracted except two in the wrist, which are too near the artery to be touched. No fever has supervened, and the Emperor has had rest. The vast crowds which a':.sembled in front of the palace having, with touching loyalty, maintained a dead silence, lest he should be disturbed. As the Emperor cannot write, from the swollen state of his arm, the Crown Prince has been authorised to exercise his powers, but he has not been appointed Regent in form, nor is there any idea of an abdication.
Spectator, 8 June 1878
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