"MY EARLY LIFE"

By the EX-GERMAN EMPEROR

(Full Copyright reserved . by the Spectator.) '[For the next two weeks we shall publish each week a free supplement to the SPECTATOR continuing this autobiography Of the C-German Emperor. The serves, containing the most interesting and important portions of "My Early Life," is appearing in Great Britain only in the SPECTATOR. Later in the year the book will be published in full by Messrs.

Methuen.]

MY next visit to Russian soil took place in 1886. In February used at all.

berg, a man for whom Prince Bismarck had a high esteem.

lie told us something of conditions in Warsaw. At Barano- vitchi, which it was then believed would develop into a The bleak and dreary countryside was several feet deep but for them, the traveller could not find his way after dark, when the ground is covered with snow.

THE CASTLE OF NIESWIECZ.

Nieswieez is a huge old castle surrounded by a bastion of earth. In the yard I was received by the commanding and

other officers of the Dragoon Regiment garrisoned there, of which the Landgrave of Hesse was honorary colonel. The Prince took me over the castle and showed me a great gallery of portraits of his ancestors. They were martial-looking men, nearly all of them carrying a golden club in one hand and mostly attired in long fur-trimmed garments. I could not help saying that I did not think very much of these pictures as works of art. The jovial Prince declared with a laugh that lie was entirely of my opinion, and would give me the history of the pictures. _ His uncle, -General Leon Radziwill, once got a painter from France to, come and restore the pictures. When he iirived Raciziwill took him into the hall and indicated what he wanted him to do. The artist turned pale, Crying desperately : " Monseigneur, je crams un malentendu, une confusion, car je ne suis point portraitiste, mais un peintre d'animaux." The owner of the castle calmly replied : "Mon cher, cela ne fait rien du tout.. Ces gens li,regardez-les

bien, etaient tous-plus- au moms des RHiMaUX."* In a cellar were a number of cannon from the time of John Sobieski, of the most singular shape I have ever seen. Most of them were cast in the form of Corinthian er Ionic pillars, including the capitals ; others resembled trees with the branches lopped off. I told the Prince that the cannon must

be pretty valuable, not only for their bronze content, but as examples of the art of the foUndry such as hardly existed in " Sir, I am afraid there bits been someimistake. I am not a Portrait painter, but a painter of animals." "-Oh, my dear fellow, that doesn't matter. If .you look at these People, they were all pretty much animals."

This, so the Prince explained later, was the famous " Lord.

CHAPTER XIX (continued). street," drawn once by Tsar Nicholas I with his ruler as

a direct route between Moscow and Warsaw. It touched DIPLOMACY AND SPORT IN RUSSIA few towns and hardly any villages, and, therefore, was hardly eyes and great surrounding mass of fair hair and beard, had a well and strongly built ; their dress consisted of a shirt, open at the neck and free about the arms, and skirt reaching half way down the calf ; shoes and stockings seemed to be unknown "Anyone weakly that cannot stand this life goes under.

anything."

THE BEAR HUNT : ELABORATE PRECAUTIONS.

We arrived in the evening at Radziwill-Monte, where cosy quarters awaited us. Then, on the afternoon of the next day, we reached the Deniskovicz hunting lodge, in the Pripet Marshes. We found there a small hunting party, consisting of a General a la suite whose name I have forgotten, Prince Matthias Radziwill, the Czar's Gentleman in Waiting, and Prince William Radziwill, the Prince's brother. Deniskovicz, surrounded by underwood, was a simple wooden- house with modest but comfortable rooms. I had a bedroom to myself, the others shared a big common bedroom ; one room served as both drawing and dining room. A gigantic forester, born in Upper Silesia, called Biernatzki, reported that there were several lairs. Our hopes, therefore, were high. The Prince introduced Herr Ablamovitch, his estate manager, and the Polish hunters who would drive the bears under Biernatzki's direction : they looked intelligent and businesslike.

Next morning the weather was glorious and we set off in sleighs. These sleighs were constructed out of washing baskets, filled with straw, fitted with a board seat and swung on runners. The driver sat almost on his fare's knees—each sleigh took one passenger only—and drove a little Galician -nag with a bell round its neck. Sitting low down on the snow, one ran no danger from a fall or an upset. When that happened, the driver picked up passenger and basket without turning a hair, knocking off the snow, with the great Russian word that is always forthcoming in any contretemps by way of comfort—" Nitehevo." (It doesn't matter.) At the rendezvous, Biernatski and his huntsmen met us with the news that the bear was fast. The huntsmen wore neat grey fur-lined jackets, black fur caps, long stockings and high fur boots. They were equipped with rifles and hunting knives and carried large horns, fitted with mouthpieces to give the " bear signal " with as soon as the bear got loose. The preserve in which the bear had been scented was surrounded by between 400 and 500 beaters, standing so close that they could often touch hands. They were a parti-coloured and quaint-looking crowd : one saw every kind and colour of furs and cloaks. Some had great staves in their hands, others had shot-guns of every period, some even being booty taken from Charles XII of Sweden.

How I SHOT MY FIRST BEAR.

We now dispersed to our butts. Ablamovitch placed me by a huge and venerable fir tree. From this, his autumn lair, it was said the bear had moved into his winter quarters on the first fall of snow ; it was thought that when disturbed he intended to move back again. I was instructed to let him get as near as possible and not to fire until I had a clear sight with no branches to divert the bullet. To my right, at some fifty paces distant, Ablamovitch posted himself ; on my left a huge old bear-hunter who grasped my stoutest spear in his enormous fists. Close behind me stood my faithful loader Rolfing, with a reserve double-barrel, my first being cocked ready in my hand. Behind Rolling again was the good chief of the gendarmerie, with another spare rifle and cartridges, and behind him a captain of gendarmerie with some of his men as grand reserve for the great fight.

Accustomed as I was to go out shooting with one forester as a guide, alone with Rolfing, this display of armed might against one bear seemed excessive. Ablamovitch, however, said that a bear once shot at became uncontrollable, and would attack everything he saw. For that reason, even if the animal fell, I must not cease shooting till he became immobile ; therefore, too, he had advised me not to omit to take a revolver for close fighting. My range commanded about some 150 yards ; the view had an interesting outline owing to the fact that several mighty pines had been thrown across each other by the wind.

The huntsmen were busy with the dogs, using little pointers first to scent him out, while the big boarhounds would be loosed on him when he came out and then harry him until he came within the firing lines. Suddenly the profound silence of the lovely sunny day was rent by a howl from the horns mingled with the furious baying of dogs. Every nerve was taut. The hunter on my left with the spear nodded con- tentedly at me and pointed to the thicket where the bear would break loose. As soon as the boarhounds got the bear to the beaters they—in not unnatural anxiety—raised a loud shout and tired in the air so that he was driven back again.

All at once the huntsman to my left went rigid as a pillar of salt, his eyes sparkled obliquely and he whispered in his deep bass " Medwjed " (the bear), while Rolfing murmured to me, " The bear is coming across from the left, about 120 yards off." I pointed my gun—directly after a wheezing and snorting was audible : another instant, and a great round dark ball of fur, a huge muff-like object, was rolling through the snow, driving waves of snow before it like a ship in swift [notion.

As soon as the bear came out into the open I fired, aiming about a yard before what I thought might be the head. To my immense surprise the bear, without a sign, doubled like a hare. Hard hit as he was, he tried to drag himself along by his front paws until he lay prone, paws hanging over a fallen lir tree. Blood, pouring copiously on to the snow, showed that the shot had been mortal. Since the bear's head was still erect, I gave him two more shots ; whereupon my " armed power " felt it their duty to open fire. When it had, with some difficulty, been silenced, my bearhtmter signed to me to go up and stepped out with his spear. I followed, my loaded revolver ready. The bear, however, was already done for. My first shot had injured his spine, while the other two had gone through the heart. There was general rejoicing and congratulations rained in on me from all sides. I returned home full of pride, to inform my wife, my parents and my grandfather of my first bear. The event was properly cele- brated at dinner that night.

THE Two ORPHANS OF POTSDAM.

During the next few days I shot two more bears, of which one was a female, who left two ettbs behind. According to

Russian custom, whoever shoots a female bear must take care of her young. I therefore took the two little bears away with me and had them brought up in the Palace at Potsdam, where for years to come they provided my children with amusement, and themselves with entertainment, by nibbling off all the buttons they could possibly reach.

My loader, Rolfing, told me much of what he had seen in the village, including the primitive log houses in which the people lived, with the smaller domestic animals and the poultry, in a single room almost entirely without furniture. It is noteworthy that in the peasants' houses there often hung, in addition to the usual pictures of saints, colour-prints repre- senting Alexander I, Nicholas I, Frederick William III, and my grandfather. In the year 1888, that is to say, there still lingered in the remote Pripet Marshes memories of the Wars of Liberation and of Vie Holy- Alliance I myself visited such a house and convinced myself of the fact.

Another incident also gave evidence that the former intimate relations between Russia and Prussia were not forgotten. Late one afternoon I noticed a frequent and excited coming and going on the part of Ablamovitch and Biernatski, who looked very perturbed and had frequent talks with Prince Anton ; at table, too, the Prince and Ablamovitch seemed to me to be very preoccupied. It was only on the evening of the next day of the shooting, after three bears had been shot, that the Prince explained matters to me. The beaters, besides their regular pay for beating, received in addition a sum for every bear shot. As four had now been killed, they were now in possession of a respectable amount of money, and they therefore announced their intention of not doing any beating next day, which they proposed to spend in converting their earnings into vodka. All efforts at persuasion were fruitless. At last the Prince was begged to speak to the people himself, which he did. When he, too, met with oppo- sition, he was driven—to use his own expression—to his " last resource." He explained to the beaters that his guest was the grandson of the Emperor William I, the brother-in-law of the former Tsar Nicholas I. What would the King say if his grandson were to tell him, in answer to the question of how many bears he had shot, that he could have shot many more if the beaters had not refused to beat ? That would be an eternal disgrace to them. Thereupon the people had met together for a short consultation, the result of which was that they decided to beat on the following day after all. He said that, during the night, ski-runners (all the peasants in those parts run on skis) had been sent out to the villages in the neigh- bourhood, and that, instead of the 500 beaters asked for, 800 had turned up. I begged the Prince to thank the blond giants for their excellent beating, and said that I would duly report it to my grandfather.

On February 21st we started on our return journey in the same fashion and by the same road, accompanied by my two little bears. When I got home I had, of course, to give a full account of my adventures. My grandfather was par- ticularly interested in what I told him about the bear hunting, and the incident of the beaters ; for he was always delighted when the good old memories of Russo-German friendship were kept alive.

CHAPTER X.X.

THE BATTENBERG AFFAIR AND ITS SEQUEL

AT this point the sequence of my recollections of Russia makes it necessary for me, however unwillingly, to deal with the unpleasant Battenberg affair. • For obvious reasons, I will do this only so far and with such details as the cir- cumstances demand.

On 22nd April, 1879, the Bulgarian National Assembly at Tirnova elected as their Prince the son of Prince Alexander of Hesse, Prince Alexander of Battenberg, a nephew of the Tsar Alexander II, who had proposed him as candidate. He was a Prussian officer, had been attached to the Russian headquarters during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, and had then been transferred to the Gardes du Corps. Hero he was a second lieutenant when the news of his election reached him. My grandfather at once promoted him, and he took part as a staff officer in the spring parade at Potsdam before setting out for his new country. At the age of 22 he was an uncommonly handsome and sympathetic man of tall and stately figure.

THE BREACH BETWEEN THE TSAR AND PRINCE ALEXANDER.

The relations between the Tsar Alexander Hi and the young Prince, which were at first cordial, suffered an irre- parable breach when in Bulgaria and- Eastern Rumelia the efforts directed towards the union of the two territories grew 'more and more persistent. Since it was impossible for Prince Alexander to oppose these- efforts, the-Russians devised a plan for deposing him.nnd bringing the country under their immediate rule ; the Congress of Berlin had assigned it to 'them as a sphere of influence. In view of these tendencies, 'which were presently quite clear, in September, 1883, Prince Alexander dismissed the Russian Generals and Ministers- Katdbars, Skobelev and others---with whom he had hitherto ruled. The Bulgaro-Eastern Rumelian efforts resulted, on lath September, 1885, in the proclamation of the union • of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia, with which, however the Prince had, of course, nothing to do. Russia thought it impossible to consent to this in any circumstances, and so the tension was yet further increased between the Empire of the Tsars and the young State which It regarded as its vassal. Added to this there was a threat of European complications, when King Milan of Serbia, in view of Bulgaria's increase of territory, demanded compensations and declared war on Bulgaria. Contrary to Bismarck's wish, he was not prevented from taking this course by Austria-Hungary, which had been in alliance with Serbia since 1881. The Tsar now caused the name of his renegade cousin to be erased from the Army List ; the Serbians suffered a severe defeat at Slivnitza and were only saved from annihilation by the intervention of Austria- Hungary. This called Russia into the arena and there arose a serious danger of an Austro-Russian war, which for a long time assumed very threatening forms ; it seemed impossible 'to prevent the outbreak of a war between Russia on the one side and Austria-Hungary and the German Empire, which Was allied with the Danube Monarchy, on the other, and into this war France would inevitably have been drawn. Prince Alexander, then, who was forced to see that a reconciliation with the Tsar was outside the range of possibility, turned away from Russia and approached Turkey. Thus, in April, 1886; the union between Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia raffle about, the Sultan conferring the governor-generalship of Eastern Rumelia upon the Prince, though only for five years and without mentioning his name.

Russia now set all levers to work to recover her lost influence in Bulgaria and to get rid of Prince Alexander. Russian agents travelled about the country stirring the people up :against the Prince. This led in the end, on the night of the 20th-21st August, 1886, to a mutiny of some of the troops and a coup d'etat against the Prince, who was surprised while in bed and deported to Russian territory. He succeeded, however, in escaping into Galicia.

Meanwhile all the garrisons had declared for him, and a Provisional Regency had re-elected him Prince, and only eight days after his escape he was able to return to Sofia amid the rejoicings of the people. At this moment, in an effort to restore good relations with Russia, he made the mistake of declaring that he was prepared to give back his crown into the hands of the Russian Sovereign, since it was from him that he had received it. This speculation was in every respect unsuccessful. The Tsar replied that he disapproved of Alexander's return, and the Prince left the country for ever, after handing over the regency to Stambulov.

So much for the historical events. I have now only to add a short account of the effect they had at our Court and in our family life.

PRINCE ALEXANDER'S ROMANCE.

Prince Alexander visited Berlin .first in June, 1882, and came again in the following June. On this.occasion my sister Victoria fell deeply in love with the handsome Prince, a feeling which was obviously reciprocated. This projected marriage now became for years the source of violent differences inside the family and in the domain of high politics. The marriage was supported by the Crown Princess and by Queen Victoria, whose daughter Beatrice had married Prince Alexander's younger brother, as also by the Prince of Wales and by My sister Charlotte. The Emperor and Empress, on the other hand, absolutely refused their consent to it, Prince. Bismarck having represented to them that it would bring us into conflict with Russia. Between the two contending parties my father, who would gladly have followed the dictates of his own noble heart, was in a position of great difficulty.

Like my grandparents, I took very decidedly the, view of Bismarck and fought all tendencies in the opposite direction with all my strength. It was a great grief to me that this cast a heavy shadow over my relations with my mother, and I also took the personal fate of my sister very much to heart. But as the well-being of the Fatherland was at stake, all personal desires had to be silenced.

The affair ended, in the first instance, by my grandfather declaring to the Prince, in an audience in May, 1881,, that he had no interest in Bulgaria, and by Bismarck telling him roundly that; so long as he was Chancellor, the marriage would never take place. Then, in March of the following year, my grandfather addressed a Sharp letter to the Prince,. in which he spoke strongly against the marriage, ana Alexander thereupon wrote my grandfather a letter in which he renounced the project. This was not revived (luring my grandfather's lifetime.

THE MuETINC OF TIIE EMPERORS AT GASTEIN IN 1886.

In the summer of the year 1886 I underwent a two-months' cure at Reichenhall in consequence of the trouble in my ear. Here, at the beginning of August, I received my grandfather's command to join him at Gastein, in order to be at his disposal during his meeting with the Emperor Francis Joseph, which had been fixed for the 8th and 9th.

It was several days before the appointed time that I joined my grandfather, who was just then not in very good health, so that I had an opportunity of observing the life at Gastein. The most .notable personality among the visitors was the Empress Elisabeth, who was also doing a cure ; she often yisited my grandfather, in order to have long talks with him. Besides numerous members of the Austro-Hungarian nobility, there were many North Germans present, among them Prince and Princess Bismarck, Count Herbert Bismarck, General Count Waldersee, our Ambassador in Vienna, Prince Reuss, the Military, Attaché, Count Wedel, Minister of State von Boetticher and his wife, the old Count of Dohna- Schlobitten with his son Richard, and others. At midday and in the evening. a few German and foreign guests were always invited to my grandfather's table, and with these he conversed in the most amiable fashion and quite without any restraint or ceremony. Every afternoon I accompanied the gentlemen of his suite to a little country inn called " Zur sehwarzen Lics'1," which lay. above Gastein, where we played skittles.

The Emperor Francis. Joseph, who came accompanied by his Master of the Ceremonies and A.D.C., Prince Constantine Hohenlohe, arrived at midday on 8th August, and was received by all of us ; the mutual greeting of the two Sovereigns was exceedingly hearty. Count Kfilnoky, the Austro- Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, with his secretary, Count Aehrenthal, arrived in the evening. During this and the following day the Monarchs and their responsible Ministers were occupied with political discussions, which were concerned above all with the threatening situation created by the revolt in Rumelia. To the best of my knowledge, Bismarck tried at Gastein to bind Austria-Hungary more closely and firmly to Germany, both economically and from the military point of view, but in any case he did not succeed in doing so. Since the Prince, after the Russian disillusionment at the Congress of Berlin and the rising of the tide of Pan-Slavism in Russia, had always been haunted by the fear of a Franco-Russian alliance, while, as I assume, his plans with regard to Austria- Hungary had now broken down, he must have decided to bring about a new rapprochement with Russia, and for this purpose to guarantee the Tsar a free hand in the Balkans and the Straits. This was probably the reason for my mission, on which I touched briefly in my former book ; it was intended primarily to advertise abroad the continued existence of th Alliance. of the Three Emperors. . . After the close of the political conversations, on 9th August, my grandfather commanded me to his presence and informed me of his intention to send me on a mission to the Tsar. This was a violent_ shock to me, as it meant that my father was to be passed over, and I:ventured, with all reverence, to point this out. I received the answer that Prince Bismarck was firmly opposed to sending my father, as the Crown Prince was anti-Russian and pro-English, and was, moreover, a friend of the Prince of Battcnberg, whom the Tsar hated. There- upon my grandfather sent me to Prince Bismarck. .

That was a hard path for me ! I told myself that my father would be very deeply hurt, and that he would be bound to assume that I had tried by an intrigue to set myself in his place. I resolved, therefore, to beg the Prince to set me aside and to turn to my father. The Chancellor, however, cut all my arguments short by pointing out that the Emperor had issued his commands, and that it was for me to obey. The formal responsibility for this step, he said, was borne by His Majesty, and morally neither he, the Chancellor, nor I, even as regards my father, had any responsibility whatever. So, whether I liked it or not, I had to undertake the ticklish commission.

AN ANXIOUS JOURNEY.

At noon of the following day my grandfather left for Salzburg, en route for Potsdam, and I accompanied him for the first stage of the journey. Our travelling costume was black frock-coat and silk hat—in the fearful summer heat ! For the leave-taking the Emperor Francis Joseph and a large number of German and Austrian guests had assembled on the steps of the hotel in Gastein. It was the last time that the two Emperors met.

We drove down to Lend along a dusty road and under a scorching sun. My grandfather soon fell asleep. His Masseur therefore handed me an open umbrella, which. I held over the sleeper during the whole drive. When we entered the railway- carriage we were met by a terrible wave of heat, for the train had been standing the whole day under the burning sun.; At the station of Salzburg my grandfather already had great difficulty in alighting ; he had, none the less, a few gracious words for each of the high Austrian officials who were in attendance, and for the Austrian ladies who presented him with' flowers. In the hotel opposite the station very steep stairs had to be mounted, during which, by .Leuthold'S direction, the Emperor was supported by a ehasseur.. Much to the distress of the anxious physician, the actress Frau Kahle-Kessler presented my grandfather with another. bouquet, which led him into a conversation, while numerous hotel guests crowded round. To cap all, at the top of the stairs stood the Grand Duchess Sophie of Saxe-Weimar and her daughter, with whom my grandfather also chatted for a while, until at last Leuthold and the Masseur got him into his bedroom. While we were waiting anxiously in the ante-chamber Leuthold appeared again with a serious face and announced that my grandfather had had a bad fainting fit.

We were, as may be imagined, greatly depressed. As the recovery of the Emperor was very slow, General von Albedyll and I decided to keep watch all night. We took our seats on a bench at the edge of the grounds, opposite my grand-. father's windows, and there spent the greater part of the warm summer night under glorious moonlight. We .talked long and intimately, summoning up many mental pictures of the past ; during these hours, too, we adjusted our differences arising out of the fight about the Union Club, and were once. more reconciled. Albedyll adMitted that my standpoint had been right, and that in this matter he had done me injustice. I pressed the general's hand in silence, and so vanished the estrangement between us which had lasted for months,.. while with anxious hearts we looked up at the Emperor's windows..

Fortunately, my grandfather had so far recovered in the. course of the next day that he was able in the evening to continue his journey. I, myself, first returned to Reichenhall.. Thence, on the 19th August, I went with Philip Eulenburg and the Duke and Duchess Karl Theodor of Bavaria to Bayreuth,- where I spent some time at " Wahnfried," laid a .wreath on Wagner's grave, and, as already mentioned, attended the, festival plays at the theatre.

Returned to Potsdam, I once more took up lily military- duties. A visit to the New Palace confirmed my fears only too well. My father was to the highest degree indignant and showed himself deeply offended, The political commission: assigned to me had, as I had foreseen, introduced bitter feelings into the house of my parents. . • • - - - - • . - MY MISSION TO RUSSIA. CONVERSATIONS WITH THE TSAR AT BREST-LITOVSK.

While my grandfather and father left to attend the Imperial manoeuvresinAlsace, I myself, in fulfilment of the mission entrusted to me at -Gastein, ,set out on the evening of Sep- tember 8th for Brest-Litovsk, where the Tsar was attending grand siege exercises. After breaking the journey for a brief time at Warsaw I arrived at Brest-Litovsk at', eight o'clock in the evening of September-1.0th, the weather being intensely hot. I was received at the station by the Emperor, the Tsarevitch, together with the Grand Dukes George, Vladimir, Nicholas the Elder, and Michael Nicholaievitch. We drove from the station through impenetrable dust for four for five kilometres to the citadel, where there was a great display of military activity. The Tsaritsa welcomed me in the most friendly way, as the Tsar, too, had done in remembrance of my mission to St. Petersburg two years before.

After dinner there was a great practice in arming positions by night, which we watched from a canvas-roofed stand erected on the main wall.

In the course of the following morning I was shown the

huge stores of provisions and munitions, as well as the military carrier-pigeon station. In the afternoon we drove out to visit the troops assembled in a great camp. On the way their Majesties were greeted with great jubilation by the men engaged on the fortress works, who offered them bread and salt. On our return hundreds of officers, waving their caps and cheering, ran behind the carriage, to the evident delight of the Imperial pair. Of the afternoon tea, which was taken in the intimate circle of the Imperial family, I still remember that, owing to the great heat, the milk was sour. As sour milk was a dish which Professor von Leyden had prescribed for the Tsar as an antidote to arteriosclerosis, the Emperor Alexander took it in large quantities, which was likely enough to cause considerable inconvenience to other mortals. In the evening, in honour of the Tsar's birthday, there was a great tattoo in the Citadel, which was accompanied by the thunder of all the.guns in the fortress.

ltreanwhile, I found the opportunity in private conversations with the Tsar of explaining to him the mission with which I was charged. His final answer was that if he wished to have Constantinople he would take it, and that for this he hid no need of the permission or the consent of Prince Bismarck. He declared, however, that he desired to hold firmly to the Alliance of the Three Emperors and thus to continue to safeguard the peace of Europe. He charged me, too, with the most cordial messages to my grandfather, and in generaf his personal attitude was very friendly. The political observa- tions and the general temper towards Germany I have already set down in my first book. I left Brest-Litovsk with two answers to Prince Bismarck's overture, one the Tsar's : " I do not need the Prince's permission " ; the other, that of the fortress : " We are prepared ! " What a change from the atmosphere in Moscow in 1884 !

On the morning of September 12th I went from Russia

direct to Strassburg where, on the evening of September 14th, I called at the Governor's Palace in order to report to my grandfather, who was just receiving the loyal homage of a procession of Alsatian peasants and peasant women. When I had given him my, report in private; the-Emperor, looking very thoughtful, remarked that things in Russia seemed to have very much altered.- My father, to ray joyful surprise, received me in, a friendly way and, a few days later,. got me to tell him all about my visit to Brest-Litovsk.- When I had finished, he embraced me, and all was well again.

(To be continued.) .

[Next week's instalment deals, in the concluding part of Chapter

XX, with the increasing tension between Germany and Russia owing to Pan-Slav aviation and Russia's rapprochement With France. The author describes the vigil of the Tsar Alexander III to Berlin and the temporary détente produced by his talks wills Bismarck ; Bismarck's retorts to Russian threats; and his Mitotic speech in the Reichstag in February, 1888. Chapter XXI," The Tragedy of the Crown Prince," relates the progress of his fatal illness ; the calling in of specialists and the intervention of Sir Morel! Mackenzie; the Crown Prince's journeys in search of relief ; the fatal verdict of the doctors : and the political and family difficulties caused by the delegation of the Emperors duties to the author.1-