That was about a month prior to Orville Wright"s flight and the midnight visit of Frau Kleist to the Emperor.
Truth to tell, the old woman"s mention of Herr Reitschel"s name caused me considerable misgivings, because three weeks before I had gathered certain strange facts from a secret report of a spy who in Constantinople had been set to watch Herr Reitschel"s doings. That spy was Frau Kleist"s son.
The Kaiser trusts n.o.body. Even his favourites and most intimate cronies are spied upon, and reports upon those familiar blue papers are furnished regularly. In view of what I had read in that report from Karl Kleist, I stood amazed when, at the grand Court a week later, I had witnessed Herr Reitschel"s French wife bow before the Emperor and Empress and noticed how graciously the Kaiser had smiled upon her. Truly the Emperor is sphinx-like and imperturbable. Outside the privacy of his own room, that chamber of cunning plots and fierce revenge, he never allows his sardonic countenance to betray his inner thoughts, and will grasp the hand of his most hated enemy with the hearty warmth of friendship, a Satanic _volte-face_ in which danger and evil lurk always, a trait inherited to its full degree by the Crown-Prince.
The days that followed Frau Kleist"s midnight visit were indeed busy, eventful days. Certain diplomatic negotiations with Washington had been unsuccessful; Von Holleben, the Amba.s.sador, had been recalled, and given an extremely bad half-hour by both Kaiser and Chancellor. In addition, some wily American journalist had fathomed the amazing duplicity of Prince Henry"s visit to the States and Germany"s Press Bureau in America, while the Yellow Press of New York had published a ghastly array of facts and figures concerning the latter, together with facsimile doc.u.ments, all of which had sent His Majesty half-crazy with anger.
Nearly three months pa.s.sed.
Herr Reitschel often came from Constantinople, and frequently brought his handsome young wife with him, for he was _persona grata_ at Court.
To me this was indeed strange in view of the reports of the ex-opera dancer"s son--who, by the way, lived in Constantinople in the unsuspicious guise of a carpet-dealer, and unknown to the bank director.
The latter had, a.s.sisted by his wife"s fortune, inherited from her grandmother, purchased the Schloss Langenberg, the splendid ancestral castle and estates of the Princes of Langenberg, situate on a rock between Ilmenau and Zella, in the beautiful Thuringian Forest, and acknowledged to be one of the most famous shooting estates in the Empire. It was not, therefore, surprising that the Emperor, to mark his favour, should express a desire to shoot capercailzie there--a desire which, of course, delighted Herr Reitschel, who had only a few days before been decorated with the Order of the Black Eagle.
One afternoon in mid-autumn the Emperor, accompanied by the Crown-Prince and myself, together with the suite, arrived by the Imperial train at the little station of Ilmenau, where, of course, Reitschel and his pretty wife, with the land-rats, head and under foresters, and all sorts of civil officials in black coats and white ties bowed low as the All-Highest stepped from his saloon. The Kaiser was most gracious to his host and hostess, while the schloss, we found, was almost equal in beauty and extent to that of Prince Max Egon zu Furstenberg at Donau-Eschingen, which place we always visited once, if not twice, each year.
The Emperor had complained of a slight cold, and in consequence, just before we left Berlin, I had been instructed to summon by telegraph a certain Dr. Vollerthun from Augsburg, who was a perfect stranger to us all, but who had, I supposed, been recommended to the Emperor by somebody who, for some consideration, wished to advance him in his profession.
While the Emperor and his host were out shooting, the Crown-Prince and several of the suite being of the party, I remained alone in a big, circular, old-world room in one of the towers of the Castle, where the long, narrow windows overlooked the forest, dealing with a flood of important State papers which a courier had brought from Berlin two hours before. Papers followed us daily wherever we might be, even when yachting at Cowes or in the Norwegian fjords.
About midday Dr. Vollerthun was ushered in to me--a short, stout, guttural-speaking man of about sixty, rather bald, and wearing big, round, gold-rimmed spectacles. I quickly handed him over to the major-domo. He was a stranger, and no doubt one who sought the Emperor"s favour, therefore as such I took but little interest in him.
About three o"clock that same afternoon, however, a light tap came at the door, and on looking round, I saw my hostess standing upon the threshold.
She was quietly but elegantly dressed, presenting the true type of the smart Parisienne, but in an instant I realized that she was very pale and agitated. Indeed her voice trembled when she asked permission to enter.
Since her marriage I had many times chatted with her, for she often came to the Palace when her husband visited Berlin, as he did so frequently.
I had danced with her; I had taken her in to dinner at various houses where we met, always finding her a bright and very intellectual companion.
She quietly closed the door, and, crossing the room with uneven steps, advanced to the table from which I had risen.
"Count von Heltzendorff!" she exclaimed in a low, strained voice. "I--I have come to seek your aid because--well, because I"m distracted, and I know that you are my husband"s friend," she exclaimed in French.
"And yours also, Madame," I said earnestly, bowing and pulling forward a chair for her.
"My husband is out with the Emperor!" she gasped in a curious, unnerved tone. "And I fear; oh, I fear that we are in great peril--deadly peril every hour--every moment!"
"Really, Madame, I hardly follow you," I said, standing before the dark-haired, handsome French girl--for she was little more than a girl--who had inherited the whole fortune of the biggest sugar refinery in Europe, the great factory out at St. Denis which supplied nearly one-sixth of the refined sugar of the world.
"My husband, whom I love devotedly, has done his best in the interests of his Emperor. You, Count, know--for you are in a position to know--the real aims of the Kaiser in Turkey. These last six months I have watched, and have learned the truth! I know how, when the Emperor went to Constantinople five months ago in pretence of friendship towards the Sultan, with Professor Vambery as interpreter, he practically compelled Abdul Hamid to give him, in return for certain financial advances, those wonderful jewels which the Empress Catherine, wife of Peter the Great, gave in secret to the Grand Vizier to secure the escape of the Russian Army across the Pruth. I know how the Emperor seized those wonderful emeralds, and, carrying them back to Potsdam, has given them to the Empress. I know, too, how he laughed with my husband at the cleverness by which he is fooling the too trustful Turks. I----"
"Pardon, Madame," I said, interrupting her, and speaking in French, "but is it really wise to speak thus of the Emperor"s secrets? Your husband is, I fear, guilty of great indiscretion in mentioning such matters."
"I am his wife, Count, and he conceals little, if anything, from me."
I looked the pretty young woman straight in the face in fear and regret.
Possession of those ancient jewels which, with reluctance, Abdul Hamid had brought out from his treasury, was one of the Kaiser"s greatest secrets, a secret of Potsdam known to no more than three people, including myself. The Emperor had specially imposed silence upon me, because he did not wish the Powers to suspect his true Eastern policy of bribery and double-dealing, blackmail and plunder.
And yet she, the daughter of a French diplomat, knew the truth!
Instantly I realized the serious danger of the secret being betrayed to France.
"Madame," I said, leaning against the writing-table as I spoke in deepest earnestness. "If I may be permitted, I would urge that the Emperor"s diplomacy neither concerns your husband, as an official, nor yourself. It is his own private affair, and should neither be discussed nor betrayed."
"I know," she said. "That is just why I have ventured to come here to consult you, M"sieur! You have been my good friend as well as my husband"s, and here to-day, while the Emperor is our guest beneath our roof, I feel that I am in greatest peril!"
"Why?" I asked with considerable surprise.
"The Emperor has already learnt that I know the truth regarding his secret," was her slow reply. "By what means His Majesty has discovered it, I, alas! know not. But I do know from a confidential quarter that I have incurred the Emperor"s gravest displeasure and hatred."
"Who is your informant?" I inquired sternly, eager to further investigate the great intrigue.
"A certain person who must be nameless."
"Have you spoken to anybody of the Emperor"s secret plans in Turkey, or of his possession of the Empress Catherine"s jewels?"
"I have not uttered a word to a single soul except my husband. I swear it."
"Your husband was extremely indiscreet in revealing anything," I declared again quite frankly.
"I fully admit that. But what can I do? How shall I act?" she asked in a low, tense voice. "Advise me, do."
For some moments I remained silent. The situation, with a pretty woman seeking my aid in such circ.u.mstances, was difficult.
"Well, Madame," I replied after reflection, "if you are really ready to promise the strictest secrecy and leave the matter to me, I will endeavour to find a way out of the difficulty--providing you--good German that you are by marriage--will take, before the Emperor himself, an oath of complete secrecy?"
"I am ready to do anything--anything for my dear husband"s sake," the handsome young woman a.s.sured me, tears welling in her fine dark eyes.
"In that case, then, please leave the matter entirely in my hands," I said. And later on she left.
That same night, about ten o"clock, the Emperor, in the dark-green uniform which he always wears at dinner after hunting or shooting, entered the room to which I had just returned to work.
"Send Frau Kleist to me," he snapped. "And I will summon you later when I want you, Heltzendorff."
Frau Kleist! I had no idea the woman had arrived at the castle. But I dispatched one of the servants to search for her, and afterwards heard her high-pitched voice as she ascended the stairs to hold secret and, no doubt, evil counsel with His Majesty.
Below I found the fat, fair-haired little doctor from Augsburg, who was still an enigma, but eager to see his Imperial patient, and with him I smoked a cigarette to while away the time. I was anxious to return to His Majesty, and, as became my duty as his adjutant, to explain what I had learnt from the lips of our French hostess.
Suddenly one of the Imperial flunkeys bowed at the door, commanding the doctor to the Royal presence, and he left me, hot and flurried, as all become who are unused to the Court atmosphere, its rigid etiquette, and its constant bows.
Had the Emperor called the unknown doctor into consultation with Frau Kleist?
Inquiries I had made concerning the doctor from Augsburg showed that he was quite a well-known specialist on mental diseases, and he had also written a text-book upon bacteriology and the brain. Why had the Kaiser summoned him? He required no brain specialist.
"We leave to-morrow at noon," the Emperor exclaimed brusquely when, an hour later, I was summoned to his room. This amazed me, for our arrangements were to remain three days longer. I recollected Madame Reitschel"s words.
"I do not feel at all well," His Majesty added, "and this Dr. Vollerthun orders me rest at Potsdam."