A few seconds later I heard the Count's voice raised in anger and high,
bitter words. Next moment I sprang up the stairs and, dashing into the
room, found the pretty Countess standing near the window, white and
rigid as a statue, while the two men in uniform faced each other. Von
Leutenberg's countenance was distorted with rage as he abused the
Crown-Prince, and openly charged him with having brought about his exile
to London.
His Highness made no reply, but only smiled sarcastically and shrugged
his narrow shoulders.
So enraged the other became at this latter gesture that, with a sudden
movement, he drew his sword.
The Countess shrieked and swooned as I sprang forward and stayed her
husband's hand.
It was a dramatic moment. The Count instantly realized the enormity of
his crime, and his hand dropped.
"Enough!" cried the Crown-Prince, waving his adversary aside. Then,
turning to me, he said in a calm, hard voice:
"Heltzendorff, you are witness that this man has drawn his sword upon
the heir to the Throne."
And with those haughty words he bowed stiffly and strode out of the
room.
Two hours later I was commanded to the Kaiser's presence, and found him
in counsel with his son.
The Emperor, who wore the uniform of the Guards, looked pale and
troubled, yet in his eyes there was a keen, determined look. As I
passed the sentries and entered the lofty study, with its upholstery and
walls of pale green damask--that room from which the Empire and the
whole world have so often been addressed--the Kaiser broke off short in
his conversation.
Turning to me as he still sat at his littered table, he said in that
quick, impetuous way of his:
"Count Heltzendorff, the Crown-Prince has informed me of what has
occurred this evening in the Lennestrasse. I wish you to convey this at
once to Count von Leutenberg and to give it into his own hand. There is
no reply."
And His Majesty handed me a rather bulky envelope addressed in his own
bold handwriting, and bearing his own private cipher impressed in black
wax.
Thus commanded, I bowed, withdrew, and took a taxicab straight to the
Lennestrasse, being ushered by Josef into the presence of husband and
wife in that same room I had quitted a couple of hours before.
I handed the Count the packet the Emperor had given me, and with
trembling fingers he tore it open.
From within he drew three letters, those same letters which his wife had
written to London, and which had been intercepted by the Secret
Service--the letters which I had read in his Highness's room.
As he scanned the lines which the Emperor had penned his face blanched.
A loud cry of dismay escaped his wife as she recognized her own letters,
and she snatched the note from her husband's hand and also read it.
The light died instantly from her beautiful countenance. Then, turning
to me, she said in a hoarse, hopeless tone:
"Thank you, Count von Heltzendorff. Tell His Majesty the Emperor that
his command shall be--yes, it shall be obeyed."
Those last words she spoke in a deep, hoarse whisper, a strange, wild
look of desperation in her blue eyes.
An hour later I reported again at the Imperial Palace, was granted
audience of the Emperor, and gave him the verbal reply.
His Majesty uttered no word, merely nodding his head slowly in approval.
Next afternoon a painful sensation was caused throughout Berlin when the
_Abendpost_ published the news that Count von Leutenberg, the man so
recently promoted by the Emperor, and his pretty wife had both been
found dead in their room. During the night they had evidently burned
some papers, for the tinder was found in the stove, and having agreed to
die together, they being so much attached during life, they had both
taken prussic acid in some wine, the bottle and half-emptied glasses
being still upon the table.
The romantic affair, the truth of which I here reveal for the first
time, was regarded by all Berlin as an inexplicable tragedy. The public
are still unaware of how those intercepted letters contained serious
warnings to the British Government of the Emperor's hostile intentions
towards Britain, and the probable date of the outbreak of war. Indeed,
they recounted a private conversation which the Countess had overheard
between the Kaiser and Count Zeppelin, repeating certain opprobrious
epithets which the All-Highest had bestowed upon one or two British
statesmen, and she also pointed out the great danger of a pending
rupture between the two Powers, as well as explaining some details
regarding the improved Zeppelins in course of construction secretly on
Lake Constance, and certain scandals regarding the private life of the
Crown-Prince.
It was for the latter reason that the heir, aided by the War-Lord, took
his revenge in a manner so crafty, so subtle, and so typical of the
innate cunning of the Hohenzollerns.
Thus the well-meant warnings of one of your good, honest Englishwomen
never reached the unsuspicious address to which they were sent, and thus
did "Willie"--who, as I afterwards discovered, devised that subtle
vengeance--act as the Emperor's catspaw.