I have seen it mentioned both in German and foreign publications that the three Counts of Brandenburg, two of them distinguished generals, and the third for many years Prussian envoy at Brussels, were the issue of the union of Countess Anna Dohna and old Emperor William of Germany. But this is not true; for their father, a famous premier and soldier, of whom a fine statue exists at Berlin, was the son of King Frederick-William II. of Prussia, and his morganatic wife, the Countess of Dohenhoff.
With regard to Count Douglas, I may state that the kaiser"s intimacy with him dates back to many years prior to his accession to the throne. Like his twin brother, Count Louis Douglas, the Swedish statesman, who until a few weeks ago occupied the post of minister of foreign affairs at Stockholm, Count Willie Douglas may be said to have royal blood in his veins, for his father, old Count Douglas, now dead, married the morganatic daughter of a royal princess of the reigning house of Baden. On the old count"s death, William, the elder of the twins, inherited his mother"s vast property, while Louis, the younger, took possession of his father"s estates in Sweden.
William was educated in Germany, is an officer of the Prussian army, as well as a member of the Prussian House of Lords: Louis was brought up in Sweden, entered the Swedish army, became chamberlain to the Crown Prince of Sweden, married the daughter of Count Ehrensward, late minister of foreign affairs at Stockholm, and eventually succeeded to his father-in-law"s post at the head of Sweden"s foreign office. Like his twin brother in Prussia, he is exceedingly conservative, imbued with the necessity of retaining the old feudal prerogatives, and of placing every obstacle in the way of the rising tide of democracy.
Indeed, whatever influence he exercises over the King and Crown Prince of Sweden, is as reactionary as any influence which his German brother may be said to enjoy over the kaiser.
The Douglas twins are descended from the great Scotch family of Douglas, and are therefore allied to the Duke of Hamilton and the Marquis of Queensberry. Their ancestors emigrated to Prussia from Scotland at the time of the Thirty Years" War, fought under Gustavus-Adolphus, and afterwards returned with him to Sweden, where they became members of the Swedish n.o.bility. Count Willie, like his brother, displays all the hereditary traits of the Scotch house that bears his name, having the peculiar jaw, falling underlip, and dark complexion of the celebrated "Black Douglas." Yet neither of the twins speaks a word of English, nor has ever visited the land of his sire, though they bear the Douglas motto of "Do or Die." Count Willie has few British sympathies, but some British tastes, being famous as a four-in-hand whip, and as a magnificent shot. He is also very hospitable, and entertains at Berlin in a right royal fashion, his wealth, derived from the mines which he owns in the Hartz Mountains, enabling him to do so without hesitation on the score of expense.
It is no secret that Emperor William has, on two or three occasions, offered a cabinet office to his friend William Douglas, who has, however, invariably declined it, much to the relief of those who are convinced that the same peculiar moral and psychological affinity exists between the Douglas twins as that attributed to the Corsican brothers. It would have been, they declare, a dangerous experiment to have had one of them directing the foreign policy of Germany, and the other that of the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway.
It may interest my American readers to add that a few years ago Count Willie Douglas was the defendant in an extraordinary lawsuit at Berlin which had an American end to it. It seems that some thirty years ago a man of the name of Brandt died in the United States, leaving a fortune of several millions of dollars. Having no near relatives in America, the lawyers advertised for any heirs that he might have left behind him in Germany. The father of Count Douglas was at the time burgomaster of the little town of Aschersleben, and one day some of the inhabitants of the place bearing the name of Brandt placed a lot of papers in his hands, asking him to glance over them, and to see whether there was any truth in the statement that they were heirs to an immense fortune in America. The old count, in his capacity of burgomaster, declared that the affair looked to him very questionable, that he believed it was a mere swindle, and that there was surely nothing in it for them. Whether he returned to them the papers or not, is unknown, but he declared to the day of his death that he had restored them, whereas the Brandts of Aschersleben swear that he did not. Eventually, they brought suit against his son, not merely for the recovery of the doc.u.ments, but likewise for the fortune, actually alleging that the latter had been appropriated by old Count Douglas, with the connivance of the late Prince Bismarck, who had received a large share of the plunder. It is scarcely necessary to state that they were non-suited.
Emperor William"s intimacy with Count and Countess Goertz may be said to be a sort of inherited friendship, the count"s father, president of the Hessian House of Lords, and his consort, a princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein, having been the most intimate friends of Emperor and Empress Frederick, whose acquaintance they made through the late Grand Duke and Grand d.u.c.h.ess of Hesse. In order to show the affectionate relations existing between the parents of the kaiser and those of the present head of the ancient and ill.u.s.trious house of Goertz, it is merely necessary to state that Professor Hintzpeter, who for a number of years directed the education of Emperor William and his brother Henry, and who, as their old tutor, retains much influence over both the imperial brothers, was selected by Emperor and Empress Frederick for the purpose, on the personal recommendation of the late Count and Countess Goertz, in whose family he had resided for a number of years as tutor to their son.
In fact, the present Count Goertz, who is some eight or nine years the senior of the emperor, can boast, like the latter, of having been a pupil of old Hintzpeter, who in some respects is the German counterpart of the late Czar Alexander"s tutor, M. Pobietnotzoff.
That William shares the confidence placed by his parents in the Goertz family is shown by the fact that when he found it necessary, at one time, to obtain the services of a tutor for one of his young relatives, in a case, it must be added, of particular delicacy, he at once nominated to the post Professor Krenge, who at the time was tutoring the sons of the present Count Goertz. Countess Goertz is a woman of great beauty, which she may be said to have inherited from her mother, the so-celebrated Countess of Villeneuve, wife to the Brazilian envoy to the Court of Brussels, and renowned throughout Europe on account of her loveliness.
Although the admiration which the kaiser displays for the fascinating countess is of the most undisguised character, it fails to excite the jealousy either of his consort or the count, and the relations between the empress and the countess are so close that the former has been known to lend to her friend articles of jewelry, and even of dress, for use at fancy dress b.a.l.l.s and elsewhere. The emperor and the count are also as united and unrestrained with each other as two men can be who have the same tastes, who have been intimately acquainted since childhood, and whose parents have been close friends before them. It is doubtful whether William ever enjoys himself so much, or feels so thoroughly at home, as when visiting the Goertzes at Schlitz. There his days are spent in shooting and hunting with the count, and the evenings in composing new melodies, and setting songs to music with the countess. The emperor"s children and the young Goertzes are bound by equal ties of affection, and are old-time playmates, so that there seems every likelihood of this friendship between the Hohenzollerns and the former reigning sovereign house of Goertz being continued in the third generation.
No account of the emperor"s private life can be properly written without including a brief sketch of General Count von Hahnke, and of Baron von Luca.n.u.s. The former is the chief of the military cabinet of the emperor, and the other is at the head of his civil cabinet, that is to say, he occupies the post of princ.i.p.al private secretary. Both of them accompany the emperor wherever he goes, and in fact const.i.tute his very shadow, enjoying by reason of their proximity to the sovereign, and by their close a.s.sociation with him, a far greater degree of power and influence than any cabinet minister.
Baron Luca.n.u.s is an extremely good-looking man, whose popular nickname at Berlin, namely, "the emperor"s Blackie Man," is in nowise due to any swarthiness of complexion, but to the fact that among the great dignitaries in attendance on the emperor, he is the only one in civilian attire, while moreover he is invariably selected by the sovereign to convey to any cabinet minister, whose resignation is required, the imperial intimation "_that he has ceased to please_."
It was Baron von Luca.n.u.s who communicated to Prince Bismarck the emperor"s request and subsequent peremptory command for the surrender of the chancellorship of the empire, and it was he, too, who was sent to ask Bismarck"s successor, General Count Caprivi, for his resignation; in fact, there has not been a single ministerial head to fall during the last ten years--and they have been very numerous during the present reign--where Herr von Luca.n.u.s has not been the imperial emissary of these evil tidings. This is so well known in Berlin that the moment the baron is seen to be calling at the residence of any distinguished statesman who happens to be in office, it is at once taken for granted that the axe has once more fallen, and that it is another case of a ministerial downfall.
The Berliners declare that Emperor William pitches upon Luca.n.u.s for these particular jobs in consequence of his being the son of a Halberstadt druggist, and as such, more likely to be proficient in the art of sugar-coating the bitter pills than any mere military officer!
He owes his patent of n.o.bility to the late Emperor Frederick, who entertained a very high opinion of his intelligence, and it is worthy of note that he first came to the fore in the entourage of the emperor when Prince Bismarck"s power as chancellor commenced to wane. He is a man of about fifty, and served for a quarter of a century in the Department of Public Worship. It was, however, as an expert in art matters, and as an intelligent a.s.sistant in the organization of the Imperial Museum of Science and Art at Berlin, that he first attracted the notice and good-will of the late emperor, and particularly of the Empress Frederick.
His military colleague, General Count von Hahnke, although a charming man, is, nevertheless, one of the most bitterly-hated officers of the German army; this is due to the fact that he has virtually usurped the prerogatives and the power of the minister of war, who has been reduced to a mere instrument of his wishes. This is not altogether the fault of the general, for the emperor insists on retaining absolute control of the army in his own hands, and of exercising its command in every particular, no appointment being made without his initiative and sanction, while everything is done through Count Hahnke as supreme head of the military cabinet of his majesty.
A few years ago the general lost his son under singularly tragical and somewhat mysterious circ.u.mstances. The misfortune occurred during one of the annual yachting trips of the kaiser, young Hahnke being a lieutenant on board the yacht. According to the official version, the young officer met with his death while coasting down a mountain road at one of the Norwegian ports at which the yacht had touched, his bicycle getting beyond his control, and precipitating itself with its rider over a low stone parapet into a fierce torrent hundreds of feet below. The emperor happened at the time to have a bruise on the face, caused by a block and tackle swinging against him during a squall, while on deck, and on the strength of this temporary disfigurement, a story most painful to the emperor was circulated to the effect that his black eye was due to a blow from young Hahnke, who resented some indignity in connection with the practical jokes and rough horse-play so frequent on board the _Hohenzollern_ during the emperor"s annual holiday. It was added that the young officer had been given by military and naval etiquette the alternative of blowing out his brains, or of taking his life in some other way, as the only means of saving his name from disgrace and his honor from loss; and a certain degree of color was given to the tale by the fact that it was published at full length in a London society newspaper, at the very time when its proprietor and editor was sojourning at Marienbad with the Prince of Wales, and in daily intercourse with the British heir apparent, who was naturally supposed to know the truth about young Hahnke"s death. Perhaps the most striking and convincing evidence of the absurd fabrication of this story, which has given much sorrow, both to the emperor and empress, is to be found in the fact that the young officer"s father remained at the head of the emperor"s military cabinet, and has never abandoned, even temporarily, his service near the kaiser; this the general would certainly not have done had William been in any sense of the word responsible for the death of his boy.
In fact it was the kindly and tactful sympathy of both the emperor and the empress that enabled the bereaved father to bear his loss with fort.i.tude, and his grat.i.tude for the kindness shown to him by his sovereign is of a deep and undying quality.
CHAPTER VIII
Great is the contrast between the Court of Berlin to-day and the aspect which it presented during the closing years of the reign of old Emperor William, and were any of the latter"s familiars to return to the place where so much of their existence had been spent, they would indeed find themselves amidst strange surroundings and strange faces.
In those days, grey and white hair were the rule rather than the exception. To-day the contrary is the case, and not merely do the dignitaries of the court and of the army belong to a younger generation, but also the members of the imperial circle, that is to say, the princes and princesses of the blood, with whom the emperor and empress a.s.sociate as kinsfolk and near relatives.
The few older members of the reigning house of Prussia who survive--the contemporaries of the grandfather and father of William II.--find the atmosphere of the court so different from what they have been accustomed to in the past, so out of keeping with their ideas--in one word, feel themselves so little at home there, that they prefer to stay away as much as they can. Thus Prince Albert of Prussia, one of the grandest looking soldiers of the imperial army, and certainly one of the most gigantic in stature, divides his time between Brunswick, where he holds a court of his own as regent, and England, where he is accustomed to spend his holidays. The widowed Princess Frederick-Charles lives nearly all the year round in Italy with her chamberlain, Baron w.a.n.genheim, whom she is understood to have morganatically married, and in whose company she occasionally visits the pope, a circ.u.mstance which has led to the rumor that she has joined the Church of Rome. The widowed Empress Frederick is either at her lovely castle of Kronberg, near Homburg, which is stocked from garret to cellar with those art treasures of which she is one of the finest _connaisseuses_ in Europe, or else is traveling about in Italy, Austria or England. Indeed the only contemporary of the old Emperor who still remains at Berlin, and who is occasionally to be seen at court, giving one the impression of a spectre of the past, is Prince George, who bears a startling resemblance to the old kaiser particularly when arrayed in uniform.
While slightly eccentric, he is remarkably accomplished, and has not only written a number of German plays over the pen-name of "George Conrad," which have been successfully staged in Germany, but is even the author of a drama written in the purest and most exquisitely correct French, sparkling with Parisian wit and brilliancy, which has had long runs in many theatres without either the actors or the public being aware that it was from the pen of a prince of Prussia.
Until the war of 1870, Prince George was on terms of the utmost intimacy with the de Goncourts, the Dumases, de Girardin, and all the princ.i.p.al literary lights of France, with whom he was wont to foregather on a footing of artistic equality each year at Ems, a German watering-place much frequented by the French prior to the great struggle of 1870; of course, since that time his intercourse with French people has been much more restricted, and through a feeling of delicacy and tact, with which he is not usually credited, he has refrained from visiting Paris, or even from setting his foot on French territory since the war. This, however, has not prevented him from keeping himself _au courant_ of every literary and dramatic event that takes place on the banks of the Seine, and a French academician of my acquaintance who was presented to him last summer at Ems, and who spent several days there in his company, could not sufficiently express his amazement, not merely at the extraordinary purity of the prince"s French, but likewise at the amazing manner in which he seems to have kept track of everything that has happened at Paris in the world of letters and art, as well as of the French idioms, figures of speech, and even witticisms of the present day.
The delicacy which Prince George manifests with regard to the French people, and his fear lest his admiration for them should be misinterpreted, is largely due to the treatment that he received at the hands of Empress Eugenie at Carlsbad, in 1874 or 1875. Having been a frequent and welcome guest at the Tuileries during the reign of Napoleon III., the prince, when he found that the widowed empress had arrived at Carlsbad, and had taken up her residence at the very hotel at which he was staying, naturally considered that he could not do otherwise than take some notice of her presence; if he affected to ignore her, he would have exposed himself to the reproach of gross discourtesy; at the same time he felt that any public form of attention might prove unwelcome to her, and might possibly serve to impair her son"s prospects of recovering his father"s throne; so he contented himself with sending her every day magnificent baskets of flowers, and with bowing to her with the utmost deference, but without attempting to accost her when he met her in the gardens or park. He likewise caused it to be intimated to her secretary, M. Pietri, that if at any moment she felt disposed to accord him an audience, he would be only too glad of the opportunity to "lay his homage at the feet of her majesty." That was all. Yet such as it was, the empress managed to turn it to political account, for she suddenly left Carlsbad, making it known throughout France, by means of the press, that she had been compelled to quit the baths, and to interrupt the cure, in consequence of the undesirable attentions which Prince George of Prussia persisted in forcing upon her. Naturally, the newspapers made the most of her story, and were filled with denunciations and abuse of the prince, some of the sheets a.s.serting, by way of explanation of his conduct, that he was mentally unbalanced, his mother having been an acknowledged lunatic, and his brother. Prince Alexander, an imbecile.
Nothing can be further from the truth. It cannot be denied that he has a few harmless and kindly eccentricities which would attract no attention whatever in an ordinary septuagenarian, but which excite comment merely by reason of his rank as a prince of the blood. He is a gentle, brilliantly accomplished, chivalrous old fellow, without an enemy in the world, and is a great favorite with the emperor"s children, who will deeply miss him when he pa.s.ses over to the majority, and is laid to rest in the family vault of the house of Hohenzollern.
With this exception, the princes and princesses of the blood of the Court of Berlin are all of much the same age as the emperor. They comprise Prince Henry, his only brother, who is due home from China in the spring of 1900, and his consort, Princess Irene of Hesse, sister of the young czarina. Then there is Prince Frederick-Leopold, the extremely wealthy son of Prussia"s celebrated cavalry general, Prince Frederick-Charles, to whom belonged the credit of taking the French stronghold of Metz, in the war of 1870. He is married to a younger sister of the empress, and is, therefore, not only the cousin, but likewise the brother-in-law of the kaiser.
Prince Adolph, of Schaumburg-Lippe, although nominally stationed at Bonn, is also accustomed to spend the entire season at Berlin, with his wife, Princess Victoria of Prussia, a sister of the kaiser. The latter is credited with the intention of investing Prince Adolph with the regency of Brunswick, should it be vacated by Prince Albert, or else of appointing him Viceroy of Alsace-Lorraine. Princess Aribert of Anhalt and her husband, too, are very conspicuous figures in the imperial circle, the princess being a special favorite of the kaiser.
She is his first cousin, being the offspring of Queen Victoria"s daughter Helena, who married Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, the guardian of the present empress, who spent much of her girlhood in England with Prince and Princess Christian, so that her friendship with Princess Aribert may be said to date from childhood. Duke Ernest-Gunther of Schleswig-Holstein, the only brother of the empress, has quieted down to a great extent since his marriage a year ago to Princess Dorothy of Coburg, and inasmuch as his eighteen-year-old wife appears to be supremely happy, there is every reason to believe that he has demonstrated the truth of the good old adage, according to which "reformed rakes make the best husbands!" The only daughter of the King of Wurtemberg has made her home at Potsdam and at Berlin since her marriage to the Prince of Wied, and as she is not only the cousin, but likewise the most intimate friend of the young Queen of Holland, the kaiser finds considerable political advantage in lavishing tokens of his affection and regard upon both her and her husband.
Another young couple belonging to the Court of Berlin are Prince and Princess William of Hohenzollern. The princess is a daughter of the Sicilian branch of the house of Bourbon, while her husband is the eldest son of that Leopold of Hohenzollern, on account of whose election to the throne of Spain in 1870, France embarked upon her disastrous war with Germany. Young Prince William of Hohenzollern, it may be added, figured for a time as Crown Prince of Roumania, and as heir to the throne of his uncle, King Charles; but after living for some time at Bucharest, he came to the conclusion that life in Roumania as crown prince was infinitely less agreeable than that of a scion of the house of Hohenzollern at Berlin, so he renounced his rights to the Roumanian throne, and came back to Berlin to live.
His younger brother, Charles of Hohenzollern, divides his time between Berlin and Potsdam; he is married to Princess Josephine of Belgium, daughter of that Count of Flanders, who is brother and next heir to King Leopold. Besides these, there are Prince and Princess Albert of Saxe-Altenburg, and several other young couples belonging to the junior sovereign houses of the German empire, who prefer to make their home at Berlin, and at Potsdam, rather than in the smaller and infinitely less brilliant capitals of their respective countries.
Moreover, it has now become the fashion among the various non-Prussian rulers of the German Confederation, to send the junior members of their families--the young men--to Berlin for a time, in order to complete their military education under the eyes of the kaiser, and to be in touch with that general staff which is virtually the Supreme Council of War of the German army.
It is for this reason that Prince Louis of Bavaria, although he notoriously dislikes the kaiser and resents his a.s.sumption of superiority, claiming that the members of the Wittelsbach family are not the va.s.sals, but the allies of the emperor, nevertheless has sent first his eldest son, and then each of his younger ones in turn, to spend a year or two at the Court of Berlin, under the immediate direction and eye of the kaiser. Prince Louis was particularly anxious that his eldest son, Rupert, as future King of Bavaria, should get in touch with the emperor, and become thoroughly acquainted, not only with Prussian methods, but also with the leading statesmen and generals, and with the trend of political aims and aspirations at Berlin. The example of Prince Louis has been followed by all the other petty German sovereigns, so that there are always about a score of non-Prussian but German young princes of the blood, giving life and gayety to the Courts of Berlin, and Potsdam, and taking a leading part in Berlin society.
Among the princes there is none, however, who possesses so striking an individuality as William"s only brother, Henry. His a.s.signment to the command of the German naval forces in the far Orient a couple of years ago, created much comment and speculation, being construed by many, both in Germany and abroad, as a banishment resulting from the kaiser"s jealousy and dislike of the very popular Sailor Prince. I do not believe for one moment that this supposed jealousy exists, although everything that can possibly be conceived has been done, unintentionally and intentionally, to create it, in a manner which I will describe a little further on.
The reason of Prince Henry"s being sent to the far Orient was of a twofold character. In the first place, the Chinese Empire seemed to be on the eve of a break-up, and each of the various Great Powers of Europe, was exerting its utmost energies to secure the lion"s share in the game of grab in progress at Pekin. Scions of European royalty who visit China and j.a.pan are few and far between, and the emperor very naturally thought that the presence of Prince Henry at the head of the German naval forces in Chinese waters--a prince who in addition to being the kaiser"s only brother, is brother-in-law to the Russian czar, and a grandson of the Queen of England,--would have the effect of giving to the cause of Germany in the Orient an importance and a prestige which would atone for the inferiority of its naval strength in that part of the globe. Then, too, the emperor is generally believed to have foreseen the conflict between Spain and the United States, and to have known beforehand of the intention of the latter to make a dash upon Manila, in order to secure possession of the rich and fertile Philippine archipelago at the first outbreak of hostilities.
Germany"s navy is of such relatively recent origin that its flag-officers are far from possessing either the spirit of resource, or the cleverness and diplomacy for which the commanding generals of the German army are so distinguished. They are men who, officially, intellectually, and socially, are of an inferior calibre, the majority of them being of plebeian birth. The emperor held, therefore, that it was all-important that Germany"s squadron in the far Orient should be, at that particular juncture, under the command of an officer such as Prince Henry, who, by reason of his royal rank and his intimate knowledge of his brother"s views and wishes, would have the necessary boldness, tact, and presence of mind to know exactly how to deal with any crisis that might arise.
I am perfectly aware that there is a disposition in the United States to blame Prince Henry for the bad feeling which was caused by the att.i.tude of the German warships at Manila during the few months that followed the great American naval victory gained under the guns of that city, but the trouble was due to the Prussian rear-admiral, Diederichs, who, to use the expressive phrase of the English captain, Sir Edward Chichester, in endeavoring to excuse him in the eyes of Admiral Dewey, "had no sea-manners," and there is no doubt that had Prince Henry been at Manila, instead of Diederichs, at that moment, there would have been no friction whatsoever, either between the naval commanders, or subsequently between the two nations, for Prince Henry possesses precisely those qualities which would have resulted in feelings of good-will and friendship with Admiral Dewey. He is modest, honest, broad-minded, speaks English perfectly, and is entirely free from any affectation or pose. He is a man, indeed, who has so many qualities in common with Dewey that it is impossible that they should not have understood each other, and under the circ.u.mstances it is most unfortunate that the prince happened to be in the northernmost portion of the China seas at the very time that the battle of Manila was fought. It may be remembered that matters went on very much more smoothly between the Germans and the Americans at Manila after the withdrawal of Admiral Diederichs.
There was another very important reason for sending Prince Henry to Manila; he is, of all the members of his house, the one most strongly imbued with liberal and progressive ideas in political affairs. In fact, he seems to have inherited all those political views of his father, Emperor Frederick, which were a source of so much concern and apprehension to the late Prince Bismarck. To tell the truth, the political views and aspirations of Henry are diametrically opposed to those of his elder brother, a circ.u.mstance which does not, however, in any way impair the affection existing between the two.
At the time when he sent off Prince Henry to China, the kaiser was far from well, and was suffering more than usually from the painful malady of the ear already referred to, and which is identical with the disease which first of all wrecked the mind and then killed his grand-uncle, King Frederick William IV. Added to this, he is firmly imbued with the idea that he is destined to meet with a sudden death at the hands of an a.s.sa.s.sin, a conviction which never leaves him, and which is perhaps responsible for that species of stern and even aggressive air with which he, gazes at the cheering crowds when he rides home at the head of his troops through the streets of Berlin or of Potsdam after a day spent in military manoeuvres on the great plains of Tempelhof.
If any of my readers feel disposed to condemn him for this apprehension,--it would be unjust to style it fear,--let them try to imagine how they themselves would feel if they knew that there were scores of desperate men and women who had sworn to take their lives by means of bullets or explosive bombs, fired or hurled from the centre of some dense crowd, which would destroy the life of the victim of such an outrage without a moment"s warning, or without being able to even so much as raise a hand in self-defense.
Now at the time when Prince Henry sailed for China, the young crown prince was sixteen years of age; that is to say, he lacked two years of the attainment of his majority. Had anything untoward happened to the kaiser during the minority of the crown prince, Prince Henry would, according to the laws of the house of Hohenzollern and of the Prussian const.i.tution, have been appointed as regent until his nephew came of age. Prince Henry"s right to the regency, as nearest male relative, was one of which he could not be deprived, save by altogether exceptional and questionable methods, which both policy and fraternal affection forbade the emperor to employ. Yet he realized that were Henry to be entrusted with the regency he would change in the most radical fashion the course of the ship of state; would introduce measures dear to the late Emperor Frederick, but to which he, the kaiser, was unalterably opposed, and would, in short, undo everything that he himself had done; so that when eventually the crown prince came of age there would be no longer any possibility of his continuing his father"s policy, a policy which the emperor has been at great pains to inculcate into his boy.
With Prince Henry at the Antipodes, there was an excuse for vesting the regency either in the harmless hands of Frederick-Leopold, or in those of Prince Albert, whose ideas on the subject of government are to a great extent in keeping with those of the kaiser. That was one of the reasons why Henry was sent off to China, and any doubt upon the subject will be removed by remembering the fact that his sojourn in the far East will terminate with the eighteenth birthday,--the coming of age--of his nephew, the young crown prince.
That such real and lasting affection should subsist between William and Henry is indeed surprising, and speaks volumes for the warm-heartedness, and I might almost say magnanimity of the kaiser"s character. For everything that could possibly have contributed to render him jealous of his brother, has been done, as I remarked above.
Henry was always favored at the expense of William by his father and mother, as well as by the entire imperial family. In fact, the late emperor gave a striking expression of his preference for his younger son, when at the time of the prince"s marriage to Princess Irene of Hesse, he pressed into Henry"s hand a slip of paper--he could not speak any longer, owing to the awful malady which carried him off,--on which he had written, "_You at least have never given me a moment"s sorrow, and will make as good a husband as you have been a loving son_;" and when soon after this Emperor Frederick breathed his last, it was found that he had left the major part of his fortune either to Henry directly, or to Empress Frederick, in trust for this, his favorite son.
This privileged position in the affection of his parents, aye, and it may be added in the hearts of the German people, is due in a large measure to Prince Henry"s education. He was brought up, so to speak, at sea, and the moral profession is of all others the one which calls forth all the best qualities of a man, develops manliness, and diminishes pride and affectation. Before he was twenty years of age, he had twice circ.u.mnavigated the globe, visiting every corner of the earth, and carrying the flag of Germany into regions where it had never been seen before. This in itself was sufficient to interest Germans in the young prince, the first of his house to seek adventures in such far distant climes; and this healthy, manly, interesting mode of life was compared to his advantage with the somewhat dissipated existence of a young army officer, which his elder brother, prior to his marriage, indulged in at Berlin.
Occasionally, stories reached the public through the press of feats of gallantry performed by the royal sailor, such as the plunging overboard once in a squall, and at another time in shark-infested waters, to save drowning sailors; while every incident which thus became known concerning the young prince served to confirm his countrymen in the belief that he was endowed in an altogether exceptional degree with those qualities which we are so fond of ascribing to "those who go down to the sea in ships." These long sea voyages had, moreover, the effect of keeping him clear of all those court and political intrigues with which Emperor William was surrounded, as if with a very network, prior to his accession to the throne; intrigues, I may add, which since William became emperor, have been devoted to many a futile endeavor designed to create mischief between the two brothers. It is probable that they will have less effect than ever from henceforth, since William, now that his eldest boy has attained his majority, will have no longer any reason to apprehend the possibility of Henry"s undoing, in the capacity of regent, all the work that he, the kaiser, has accomplished during the eleven years of his reign; indeed, now that this danger is eliminated, the two brothers are likely to become more intimate than ever, and the Court of Berlin will probably see much more of the sailor prince than heretofore. Henry is the very life of his brother"s court, as he is not only extremely fond of making fun, even at the expense sometimes of his majesty, especially about the excessively earnest att.i.tude which the emperor a.s.sumes, with regard to the most trivial questions.
Absolutely unconventional, save on his own quarter-deck, he carries about with him an atmosphere of brightness and breeziness which is almost as infectious and as bracing as a whiff of sea air.
For all his love of skylarking, and the freedom of his manners, his name has never been a.s.sociated with any questionable story, save by the gutter element of the Parisian press, which endeavored to drag him into the Dreyfus case by declaring that Germany"s strange att.i.tude in the affair was due to the alleged knowledge the French War Department of terrible immorality proved to have been committed by Prince Henry during frequent secret visits to Paris. Of course there is not a word of truth in these contemptible stories, and the prince"s reputation as a perfect husband and a healthy-minded gentleman, stands high, even in Berlin, where people are overfond of scandalous gossip. Certainly there are plenty of stories current about the pranks that he has played, but these are all of an innocent and boyish character. The prince creates the impression of the most complete wholesomeness; his six feet of well set up manhood, his bright eyes and clear, tanned skin, seem the outward and visible sign of a thoroughly clean and sound mind; common sense, frankness, fearlessness, dignity and kindness, are written in his every feature in a way that reminds people vividly of his lamented father; while the easy movements of an athletic body, always apparently in the pink of condition, are evidently allied to the smooth serenity of a mind confident in itself, but modest with the humility of knowledge.
After having said so much that is pleasant of the prince, I must, in pursuance of my determination to give the shadows as well as the lights of my portraits, admit that there are two particulars in which Prince Henry cannot be said to shine. One of these is public speaking, and the other is shooting; he is as unfortunate in the one respect as in the other.
His only public utterance of any importance was made at the time of his departure for China, when he addressed the emperor in such extravagant terms, referring to his "consecrated majesty," and so on, that it created mingled feelings of amazement and amus.e.m.e.nt from one end of the civilized world to the other! There has always been an impression in my mind that there was in this extraordinary speech just a suspicion of a disposition to guy his brother: for not only were the terms that he used entirely foreign to his character,--their _outre_ tenor bordering on the ridiculous,--but it is impossible for anyone who has ever heard him chaffing his seasick brother while out yachting, putting his head in at the cabin door every now and again, and calling out, "Well, Willie, how do you feel now, and what has become of your imperial dignity?" to believe that he was really serious when he so solemnly ascribed divine attributes to this selfsame Willie.
I heard that after the prince"s arrival in China, where banquets were given in his honor by the German and English leading colonists, he was repeatedly asked to make a few remarks in reply to the toasts drunk in his honor, but that on each occasion he politely informed his hosts that he would see them in Jericho before he got on his feet to address them. "Only once in my life," he was wont to say, "did I make a speech, and I shall never hear the end of that to the close of my days!" A little later on, when the Shanghai correspondent of the London _Times_ was presented to him, he himself referred to this most celebrated and oft-quoted speech by inquiring good-humoredly, and withal plaintively, "By the way, don"t you think your newspapers have roasted me enough about it?"