"MY EARLY LIFE"

By the EX-GERMAN EMPEROR

(Full Copyright reserved by the Spectator.) [This week we publish the concluding instalment of this autobiography of the ex-German Emperor. The book was published fry Messrs. Methuen on November 4th.] [Last week's instalment described, in the concluding portion of Chapter XX., the increasing tension between Germany and Russia, brought about by the Pan-Slav agitation and Russia's rapprochement with France, which already virtually amounted to an alliance. The valuelessness of Bismarck's Reinsurance Treaty concluded in 1887 with the Tsar, was now made apparent, and the Tsar was exasperated by the forged Bulgarian letters, which made it appear that Bismarck had secretly supported the Candidature of Prince Ferdinand of Coburg. The visit of the `Tsar to Berlin, as the author points out,'while it enabled Bismarck to denounce the forged letters, only produced a temporary detente; the Pan-Slav agitation rose higher and higher ; Moltices report on " the War on two Fronts " was presented in December, 1887 ; the transference of troops to the East was sanctioned, and the Intilding of the network of strategic railways ordered. Lastly, on February 8rd, 1888, Bismarck published the Treaty of Alliance of 1879 between Germany and Austria-Hungary, and three days later made his historic speech of warning in the Reichstag. Chapter XXI., " The Tragedy of the Crown Prince," recounted the origin and progress of his fatal illness, which began in 1887. The author described the summoning of the specialists in May, and the calling in, at their request, of Sir Morell Mackenzie, whose derisive intervention, based on his assurance that the disease was not cancer, and his promise of a cure, led to a series of journeys in the vain pursuit of health. The author's vehement opposition to this policy was explained and justified, as he contends, by the failure of Mackenzie's treatment and his admission at San 'Remo, in November, 1887, that the disease was fatal. The author then described the verdict of the assembled doctors and its conse- quences : his appointment, at Bismarck's instigation, as the Emperor's representative, and the resentment of his father at Bismarck's delay in communicating this decision. The instal- ment ended with an account of the episode of the " Waldersee Assembly," in which a purely charitable enterprise was made the occasion of a bitter Press campaign against the author and his Wife, in which Bismarck took the side of their critics and oppon- ents.] CnArrEn. XXI. (Continued).

THE TRAGEDY OF THE CROWN PRINCE.

Tut: days of the great Emperor were all but numbered. It seemed a.long distance from the time when, out shooting Kith Count Stolberg at Wernigerode, he had still covered a considerable stretch of ground, and had been extraordinarily lively and entertaining—and that had been only in the previous October ! The attacks of weakness became more and more frequent, and the physicians judged that the life of the old man, who was now nearly ninety-one, would shortly flicker out. Two things were yet destined to cast a gloom over the evening of his existence.

THE SORROWS OF THE OLD EMPEROR.

The one was the hopeless condition of the Crown Prince. On February 9th the operation of tracheotomy had had to be performed in order to save the sick man from suffocation, and thenceforth he carried a silver tube in his windpipe. Often the Emperor asked weeping for his son and the heir to his throne--but he was far away. From San Remo more and more disquieting news kept coming in, and many were already afraid that the German Crown Prince would die on foreign hail. In these circumstances, at the end of February, the l'Iroperor- commanded me to travel to San Remo, in order to secure. the return of my father as quickly as possible to Germany.

Then a second sorrow fell upon him. On February 28rd Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, the second son of the Grand Duchess Louise, died suddenly. The Emperor was specially devoted to this grandson, a splendid, vigorous young man and a smart soldier, who was a close friend of my brother Henry. His death in the flower of his youth, therefore, deeply affected him.

HE SENDS ME TO SAN REMO AGAIN.

I now received the command to travel, in the first instance to Karlsruhe, in order to represent the Emperor at the funeral, and thence to proceed without delay to San Remo. On March 2nd I once more arrived at the Villa Zirio.

The aspect of my father was heartbreaking. The tall Siegfried's figure showed in its emaciation and the yellow colour of the face unmistakable signs of the rapid progress of the disease. He was perpetually tormented by a tearing cough, and no word passed his lips, for his mouth was already for ever dumb. Notes rapidly scribbled on bits of paper had to take the place of speech when gesture and mimicry failed. But he bore his terrible fate with the greatest self-control, and even with a certain quiet cheerfulness. It was harrowing, too, to see with what love and devotion my mother nursed her sick husband, and how nothing in the world would persuade her to believe the awful truth. She would not grasp the fact that her glorious husband was being killed by an incurable cancer. Mackenzie still remained the great man who had her confidence and beside whom the pessimistic German doctors were as nothing. The diagnosis of cancer, with which he himself had agreed in November, he had in the meantime once more light-heartedly abandoned, and had inspired my mother with renewed optimism. In addition, precisely during the days when I was present, a certain im- provement showed itself under her faithful nursing. In the morning the sick man was able to sit in the garden or on the balcony and enjoy the warm sun of the South, and often, too, from the balcony to greet the strangers, who came in hosts, full of gratitude for their sympathy.

A migration to Germany might, therefore, very well have taken place, in order to meet the wishes of the Emperor, if the winter at home had not been exceptionally cold and Stormy. For this reason it was decided to await the coming of warmer weather, and I left without having carried out my commission. I could only arrange with Dr. von Bergmann, Who also wished to return to Germany in the course of the next'few days, that he should obtain a promise from Mackenzie to bring my father home in the event of his growing worse. In addition, his assistant, Dr. Bramann, who had performed the operation of tracheotomy, was to telegraph in cypher to Leuthold every day as to my father's condition. More I could not do.

Deeply depressed and hopeless I travelled back to Berlin.

Tim PASSING OF THE OLD EMPEROR.

When on March 7th I arrived in Berlin, the doctors were counting the life of my beloved grandfather only by -hours ; already his pulse was continually ceasing to beat. It is impossible to describe what I felt as I approached the death- bed, after just leaving another ! As soon as the • Emperor saw me, he asked about San Remo, and for some moments I was able to give him information—of course, in the form best calculated to spare him.

The old Emperor's flame of life flickered for yet two days. He was surrounded by all those most devoted to him, especially the Empress Augusta, who remained constantly at his bed- side reclining in her wheel-chair, and the Grand Duchess Louise, who had just lost her son. My grandfather was still able repeatedly to talk to me, mostly about military matters ; he was, above all, occupied with the spring parade, and he gave me exact instructions as to the disposition of the troops. The last thing of which he spoke to me, clearly in the belief that my father was standing before him, was the question of the relations of Germany with Austria-Hungary and Russia, which he saw again in the light of bygone years : I was to hold fast to the alliance with Austria-Hungary, but to preserve and cultivate friendship with Russia. Then there rose up in his dying imagination pictures of his youth, of the family life with his mother Queen Louise, of the Wars of Liberation. And then he bowed his head in eternal sleep.

The memory of the passing of the great Emperor is for me a holy and inviolable legacy.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE NINETY-NINE DAYS It is only sadly and reluctantly that I take up my pen in order to describe the short reign of my father. It was so full of pain and suffering, so full also of cabals and intrigues against myself, that even to-day the memory of it oppresses me like a nightmare. Yet let that be said which must be said within the limits of this book.

THE QL'ESTION OF THE NEW EMPEROR'S TITLE.

Though my sorrow for my beloved grandfather was profound, I had no leisure to yield to it. For, since my father was living abroad, it was upon my shoulders that the whole burden fell of the measures connected with the change of Government as well as the arrangements for the lying-in- state and the funeral ceremonies, which often involved con- sulting my father beforehand by telegraph.

The first task was to decide by what name the troops were to take the oath to the Emperor. The answer to the question from San Remo was the instruction : His Majesty would assume the name Frederick IV. Prince Bismarck, with the utmost firmness, declared this to be impossible, as the German Empire founded in 1871 had nothing to do with the old Roman Empire of German nationality. As King of Prussia His Majesty was Frederick III and, as the King of Prussia was at the same time German Emperor, he should as such logically bear the same name. Albedyll and I were in com- plete agreement with this view, and a telegram in this sense was at once despatched to San Remo. With the help of my mother, who expressed herself strongly in favour of this solution, the proposal thus submitted was accepted by my father. . .

I took the oath in the drill-hall in the Karlstrasse with the staff of the Guards' Corps and the 1st Guards' Division, together with the 2nd Regiment of Foot Guards. I stood next to General von Schlichting, my Divisional commander. In front of us were held, wreathed in flowers, the flags of the regiment, which had waved in front of it in many a victorious battle under my grandfather. It was a deeply moving moment when, with hands upraised, we repeated the formula of the sacred military oath, which was followed by three hurrahs for the Emperor Frederick III. The emotion was so general that tears stood in the eyes of many of the officers and men, I, too, was so moved that I could not restrain my tears.

THE RETURN TO CHARLOTTENBURG.

Preparations were now made for the transference of my father from San Remo to the Palace of Charlottenburg, which, being free from dust, quiet and surrounded by a park, seemed better suited to be the residence of the sick Emperor than his own Palace or the Royal Palace in the middle of Berlin. Everything possible was done to make it warm and com- fortable to live in. 'hie meeting with my tather on the evening of March 11th was deeply moving. He embiseed me with an indescribable expression in his eyes, which I shall never forget. His condition was so bad that he could not even be present at the funeral of his father. Wheri, on the afternoon of the frost-bound March 16th, the funeral Pro- cession conducted the old Emperor on his laifjOurney to the Mausoleum, he stood weeping at one of the windows of the palace looking out over the garden.

Soon after his arrival my father held a meeting of the - Crown Council, at which the ministers took the oath. Thew gentlemen were profoundly affected by the altered appear. ance of the Emperor, whcim they had not seen for more than a year. As my father could no longer speak, he asked qucs. tions and issued orders on slips of paper, and answered questions by nodding or shaking his head : his mental rigour was unimpaired .and fully as of old. One other memory remains with me of that sitting. It is that the Finance Minister Scholz spoke about the minting of new coins with the portrait of the present Emperor, and that when Satoh announced that the minting would take about two months, my father made a gesture with his hands which said clearly: I shall not live to see them ! His foreboding did not deceive him, and after his death I considered it an act of filial piety to have as many coins as possible struck with my father's portrait.

On the first Sunday on which we children went to Char. lottenburg to attend service in the chapel of the palace, my father showed rue the plans and elevations for his pmjeeted rebuilding of the cathedral in Berlin, which were set up in his ante-chamber. These plans, my father told me, had been completed by the architect, Herr Raschdorff, in a year, after many consultations with him and with my mother. During their travels in. Italy, it appears, my parents had made a consistent study of all domed buildings, and these plans were the outcome of their studies. He himself would not live to see the completion of the work, and therefore left to me, as his legacy, the duty of seeing it carried out after his death.

• In view of my father's painful illness I again received an order authorizing me to act as his representative in the signing of the less important current orders. Meanwhile the sick Emperor's vital strength once more flickered up. On March 28th he was able for the first time to go out into the garden, and on March 29th he was even able' to take a drive in the Griinewald. On March 30th and April 1st my father drove to Berlin, and was 'received with rapturous joy by the people of the capital, who covered him with flowers. But the hopes excited by this visit to Berlin were to prove only too deceptive.

JOURNALISTIC INTRIGUES. MY DIFFICULT POSITION.

Unfortunately, the company of correspondents had also followed from San Remo and, under the protection of Mackenzie, had succeed in pushing themselves into the physicians' room in the palace. It was thanks to these gentlemen that not only was a shameless campaign of denunciation conducted against the German doctors, notably Bergmann, but that in a certain section of the Berlin Press, as well as in English and French newspapers, there began against me a campaign of calumny and vituperation which can only be described as base' beyond all example. (Later, of course, I have had a good deal more to put up. with in this respect.) I rejected repeated proposals that I should take action to meet these calumnies ; for my father's sake I preferred to suffer every. injustice quietly rather than add to all his sufferings the torture of a public scandal.

There was, however, • something else connected with the Press attacks which was far more painful to me. I soon noticed that difficulties were being put in the way of my visits to my father, that,attempts were being made to cut them off, and, indeed, to .preyent them altogether on the most flimsy pretexts. I hticl the feeling that efforts were being made to erect an invisible wall between my father and myself. Then leaned that spies were posted who gave timely notice of my arrival at the palace, whereupon,I was either reoeived by may mother or greeted at the house door with the information that the Emperor was asleep and that my mother had gone out for a walk. It was clear that I was to have no speech with my father without witnesses being present. . When. I at last succeeded, with the help of the .valet Schulze, in slipping by the_ back-stabs unnoticed into my father's bedroom, he showed himself greatly, pleased to see me and let me talk to him of many things, notably about my brigade. When he gave me to finder' stand.that I .ought ,to, vjsit him more often, as he saw me so

seldom, and I answered that I had already called several times but had never been admitted, he was greatly astonished and described this barring-out as senseless ; he said that my presence was welcome to him at any time. When I next visited- him I noticed that various faces unknown to me were watching us from the doctors' room, which lay further back, and I therefore locked the door. On leaving the palace I expressed to His Majesty's gentlemen in no measured terms my indignation at these proceedings, but all the answer I got was that they were not in a position to get rid of the journalists protected by Mackenzie. Even on the day of my father's death, when his eyes had scarce been closed, I found in the death chamber a Viennese journalist, introduced by Mackenzie. He went out faster than he came in.

On 16th April I received from my father's aide-de-camp, Colonel von Kessel, who lived in Berlin, a message to say that a mounted servant had just arrived at his house from Char- lottenburg with the news that my father's life was in immediate danger. I at once had my swiftest thoroughbred saddled, and galloped out to Charlottenburg. My appearance seemed to cause great surprise and was greeted with visible thankful- ness by my brother and sisters. For several days the condition of the Emperor was hopeless, and the doctors thought that the end was near. Yet the danger passed, and my father once more revived.

QUEEN VICTORIA'S VISIT: On 24th April Queen Victoria of England arrived at Char- lottenburg with her daughter Beatrice and her son-in-law, Prince Henry of Battenberg. By my father's command she was received by me and my brother and sisters and conducted by us to the palace, where she was greeted by my mother with deep emotion. The Queen was lodged in the pavilion on the east side of the palace, which my mother had had artistically furnished with the most costly furniture and stuffs in the rococo style of the time of Frederick the Great. In the evening various distinguished personalities, at the head Prince Bismarck, were invited from Berlin to dinner in order to be presented to the Queen.

As my grandmother had expressed the wish to see something of the troops of the Prussian Guard, my father commanded the 4th Regiment of Foot Guards belonging to my brigade and the Regiment of the Gardes du Corps to parade before my grandmother on the Charlottenburg parade ground ; he instructed me to take over the command. Queen Victoria came out with my mother in a carriage drawn by four horses ; I commanded the salute and then accompanied my grand- mother's carriage as it drove down the front of the two regi- ments. The march past met with the whole-hearted approval of the Queen.; standing beside her, I could see by the expression of.her face how fascinated she was by the military spectacle. At the close of the parade she expressed to me her joy that my father had chosen me, her grandson, to lead these fine regiments before her. They were, she said, the first Prussian troops that she had seen since her visit to Coble= as a young Queen.

A BRIEF RALLY. Tim EMPEROR'S DEVOTION TO DUTY.

At the beginning of May the Emperor once more rallied ; once more he was able to visit his beloved Berlin and receive the homage of its population, but after that the course down- hill was continuous. When, on 24th May, my brother Henry was married to the Princess Irene of Hesse-Darmstadt in the chapel of the Palace of Chadottenburg, the solemnilation, at which the Prince of Wales also assisted, was entirely dominated by the prOfOund sorrow caused in all those present by the terribly emaciated 'appearance of my father. He insisted, 'none the less, while the rings were being exchanged, on rising and remaining standing, like a hero of old, supported upon his Stick, but directly after had to leave the chapel. Never again have I - attended a wedding like this, at which not joy but sorrow filled all hearts.

In spite of his rapidly failing health, my father carried out his duties as ruler with' all the deep sense of duty natural to him. Every day he worked, though in great pain, for hours together with Prince Bismarck and the chiefs of the two Cabinets: He wished to introduce a new uniform for the Imperial Navy ; he therefore commissioned my brother Henry to work out the various proposals made for this, and com- manded me to attend the final exhibition, at which the models of the new uniforms were submitted to and approved by him. I secured their introduction after my accession to the throne. For the Army my father appointed a Commission to work out new rules for drill and new regulations for service in the field. The results of this were the abolition of the third rank, the introduction, as the basis formation, of the company column in three sections, the abolition of line tactics and of evolutions in column of battalions, and in their stead the increase of exercises in skirmishing and more thorough training in scattered fighting. On these principles, in the spring of 1888, I trained my brigade, as the first troop in the Army.

As I have already mentioned, my father also abolished the exercises which it had hitherto been the custom for the regi- ments and brigades to carry out in the spring. At my parti- cular request, to which I had been moved by a petition from my brigade, my father gave me permission instead to train my brigade in fighting. My personal A.D.C., Major Baron von Biasing, who had often been entrusted with the command of the marked enemy and had full freedom of action, had at his disposal a flag brigade with the necessary personnel of officers, and was empowered to give both me and the regimental commanders opportunities for rapid decisions by unexpected measures. He carried out this task brilliantly, and at times succeeded in bringing about situations that were almost critical, but these were always exceedingly well parried by the commanding officers, acting on their own initiative. I was delighted to find that they, too, in spite of the old rules, thoroughly well understood how to conduct a battle on modern principles.

TEE EMPEROR'S FIRST AND LAST REVIEW OP HIS TROOPS.

On the evening before the last of these exercises in fighting I was sitting with my officers over a glass of beer when I received a letter from Charlottenburg. I had a violent fright, as I could not but fear evil news ; an icy silence fell upon the assembly. But who can describe my joy when I was able to read out to my officers my father's command to the brigade, on its return from the manoeuvres next day, to defile before him in the park at Charlottenburg ! I had not been wrong in believing that it would give my father pleasure to see the troops—he had accepted the proposal I had made on the same morning. Three hurrahs for the Emperor Frederick III were the answer.

On the following day, the 20th May, there was a lively battle on the rifle-range at Tegel, which was decided by a clever flank attack by the Fusilier Regiment of the Guard-:. When the manoeuvres were over the men of the three regiments of my Second Guards' Infantry Brigade were informed that they were to have the honour of marching past the Supreme War Lord, whereupon their joy was great. With song and jubilation the stretch between the Tegel rifle-ground and the park of Charlottenburg was covered. inside the park gates, in accordance with the Emperor's special commands, I ordered columns of companies to be formed, and so before the garden façade of the Palace of Charlottenburg the march past took place, to the accompaniment of the rolling of drums and the music of the regimental bands. During the march past my father, in full uniform, and with this helmet on his head, sat in his open carriage, holding himself stiffly upright with all his force ; I myself took up a position at the carriage door obliquely behind him. It was an unforgettable experience, deeply affecting to all who shared in it, for this march past of my brigade, as a sorrowful foreboding told everyone, was to be the only review of his troops ever held by my poor father. When the regiments had defiled past, he pressed my hand with deep emotion and, weeping, kept pointing to his heart. Then he handed me a slip on which he had written : " What troops those are of mine !" and yet another : " Have been content and felt great joy."

When I galloped along the line of the battalions, which had started on the march to Berlin before me, I found them wrapped in a deep silence, that lay upon them like a paralysing spell. The picture of my father's manly beauty which was still alive in their memory was in terrible contrast with what they had just seen. They did not shake off this gloom till they had got well into the Tiergarten. The spot where my father's carriage stood is now marked by a stone, designed by Buie, and dedicated by the 2nd Guards' Infantry Brigade.

His TRANSFERENCE BY WATER PROM CHARLOTTEN.BuRG TO

_ POTSDAM.

My father's transference from Charlottenburg to Potsdam gave me the opportunity for ihe last service I could render him before he died. He expressed a vehement desire to get away to his beloved Potsdam, and especially to that New Palace which was so dear to him, " where he had been born and where he wished to die." This led to frequent conferences between the doctors, General von Winferfeld; the Chief Court Marshal Prince Radolin, and with me. The doctors pronounced a railway journey too dangerous, and they also refused to risk a carriage journey along the dusty high roads, so that the perplexity was great. It was a joy to me to be able to suggest a satisfactory solution of the problem. The steam= yacht of the Royal Family, the ` Alexandria,' which, during the summer, was berthed at the " Matrosenstation," had been a paddle-boat 'dating from the end of the 'forties or the beginning of the 'fifties, one of the oldest steamers in Europe. When my grandfather, in his day, was informed that this vessel would have to be replaced, he had commissioned me to have a new steam - yacht designed. This new ' Alexandria' had just been put into commission, after completing her trials, and was now lying at the " Matrosen- station." As the ship lay very low in the water, it was possible to board her from the shore by a level gangway, no ladder being necessary. The large saloon, which was on deck- and furnished with comfortable sofas and arm-chairs upholstered in white calico, would provide every convenience necessary to the sick man, while the large windows, which could be opened or shut at need, affordeda wide view. My suggestion* was accepted, and I caused the yacht to come by the Spandau Canal to Charlottenburg, where she was moored by the palace park.

On the evening of 81st May my father visited for the last time the silent Mausoleum in the park at Charlottenburg in order to bid farewell to the resting-place of his father and his grandparents, and on the following day went on board the ' Alexandria,' which he thus consecrated. My mother and we brothers and sisters accompanied him. It was touching to see what pleasure he took in the trim ship, with its light and cheerful saloon, and in the beautiful journey by water. Having been so long imprisoned in a sick-room, he was never weary of gazing at the sun-bathed banks of the Havel, which had become for us so intimate and so dear. When we passed the Pfaueninsel, where innumerable times as children, and later when grown up, we had spent happy hours with _him in the intimacy of the family circle, he was overcome with grief. Slowly he waved to it with his hand, and a tear stole from his eye—he was taking leave of the lovely island and of all the fair memories associated with it. This moment was so poignant that I had to go on to the bridge in order to hide the emotion which threatened to overmaster me. I stood beside the master of the ship, Captain Velten, who was affected the same way as I. He held the wheel firmly in his hand,-his _ eyes staring into the distance and his jaws firmly set, while the tears streamed down into his great ruddy seaman's beard.

In the New Palace my father occupied the apartments on the ground floor which had formerly been reserved for the use of my grandfather when he visited Potsdam on the occasion of the Schrippenfest and which I subsequently used during the whole period of my rule. As the weather, , was glorious, all the doors could be left open,-and my father was, able at any moment to go out and enjoy the sight of the beloved park of Sanssouci, which was brilliant with a glorious wealth of flowers. He was now where he had longed to be.

PrTTRAMER'S DISMISSAL. MY MOTHER UNJUSTLY CHARGED.

Soon after the migration to the New Palace there followed, pretty unexpectedly, the dismissal of the Minister of State, von Puttkamer. This unloosed in the political world exas- peration on the Right, joy on the Left, and everywhere great excitement. Innumerable rumours and surmises buzzed about, - which finally concentrated themselves into the belief that my.. mother was responsible for this event. My knowledge of what was happening behind the scenes enables me to declare that this assumption is wrong. It was not my mother who " behind the back of Prince Bismarck," as it was said, had by her intrigues led to Puttkamer's dismissal ; on the contrary, it was the Chancellor who, in the hope of overcoming the

-oppositicai of which he complained on my, mother's part. and cif „gaining her favour, dropped -the Minister who was disagreeable. to her. My- mother suffered Much under these rumours; and charged me to take the first opportunity of letting Puttkamer know that she had had nothing to do with his dismissal.

I DESTROY A DANGEROUS DOCUMENT.

The Ministei Justice, Friedberg, paid several visits to the New Palace. He was, as I have already stated, an old and intimate friend and adviser of my parents, whom I often met in the house and whom I learned to honour and value highly. He possessed the entire confidence of all of us, for his was a thoroughly high-minded and noble nature. I often walked with him on the terrace of the palace, and on one such occasion he called my attention to the fact that, in the event of my father's death, an important document would be laid- before me, to which I should give ripe consideration. I will at once mention what it was to which he referred. It was a sealed letter of King Frederick William IV, on the envelope of which were the seals of my father and grandfather, with notes that they had read it. In the letter the King exhorted his successors to abolish the Constitution which had been forced from him by the Revolution of 1848 and to restore the old form of govern- ment, as this was the only form in which it would be possible to-rule in Prussia.

- When Friedberg handed me this-document after my accession to the throne, I at once saw that it might easily work the greatest harm if it were to come into the bands of an inex- perienced: heir. I therefore had no hesitation in tearing the letter tip and burning if in my stove. On the envelope I wrote, with my seal and the date of the day below it "_Contents read and destroyed." The envelope was returned to the archives.

DEATH OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK.

Now came the sorely tried Emperor's last days of suffering. On the 13th June King Oscar of Sweden came on a visit to my father. The two Sovereigns had long been friends, and the King had therefore expressed the wish once more to grasp my father by ,the hand. My father received him sitting, for he was now quite feeble, in a room situated on the garden side of the New Palace ; he wore an old fatigue-jacket, of which the buttons at the top were undone. But only a few minutes had passed when the King came out to me on the terrace with a soul so harrowed that for a long while he could speak no word. The heartrending spectacle of that once magnificent figure had affected him too deeply.

In the morning of the following day Dr. Schrader and Professor Bardeleben, who had been called into consultation, announced to me that it was no longer possible to give my father nourishment, as the liquid food which he took ran out again beside the tube, the inside of the throat being completely destroyed. WbenThwas admitted to see my father, I found him already in the death-agony. I therefore spent the night in the house, taking up my quarters in a guest chamber not far from my father's apartments.

In the early morning of the 15th my sister Victoria woke me, telling me that I must come over quickly, as the end was near. I found my father completely exhausted, shaken by violent

fits Coughing,:. and :near to death ; my mother and my brother and sisters were already gathered round him. In order to give the dying man, relief he was raised high, np, so that he was almost sitting. Soon after I came he wrote with a trembling hand, hardly legible, on a scrap of paper, " Victoria, I and the children—" : he wanted to express his satisfaction in having all his dear ones about him. These were his last words. But it was only after several hours that the release came. Once more he looked at-us intently and lovingly with his kind blue eyes, and then he sank slowly back on to the pillows. Through the large open French windows came the song of birds, the room was filled with the intoxicating scent of flowers from the .

gardens which he had tended with such endless love, and on his noble countenance, emaciated and lined with pain, fell the rays of the clear June sun.

Quietly and without any death-struggle the victor 4■1 Koniggratz and Worth, the second Kaiser of the new German Empire, breathed out his noble soul.

(Concluded.)