The Trautmann affair was one which caused a wild sensation at Potsdam in
the autumn of 1912.
In the Emperor's immediate entourage there was a great deal of gossip,
most of it ill-natured and cruel, for most ladies-in-waiting possess
serpents' tongues. Their tongues are as sharp as their features, and
though there may be a few pretty maids-of-honour, yet the majority of
women at Court are, as you know, my dear Le Queux, mostly plain and
uninteresting.
I became implicated in the unsavoury Trautmann affair, in a somewhat
curious manner.
A few months after the Leutenberg tragedy I chanced to be lunching at
the "Esplanade" in Berlin, chatting with Laroque, of the French Embassy.
Our hostess was Frau Breitenbach, a wealthy Jewess--a woman who came
from Dortmund--and who was spending money like water in order to wriggle
into Berlin society. As personal-adjutant of the Crown-Prince I was, of
course, one of the principal guests, and I suspected that she was
angling for a card of invitation to the next ball at the Marmor Palace.
Who introduced me to the portly, black-haired, rather handsome woman I
quite forget. Probably it was some nobody who received a commission upon
the introduction--for at the Berlin Court introductions are bought and
sold just as the succulent sausage is sold over the counter.
In the big white-and-gold _salle-a-manger_ of the "Esplanade," which, as
you know, is one of the finest in Europe, Frau Breitenbach was lunching
with sixteen guests at one big round table, her daughter Elise, a very
smartly dressed girl of nineteen, seated opposite to her. It was a merry
party, including as it did some of the most renowned persons in the
Empire, among them being the Imperial Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, of
the long, grave face and pointed beard, and that grand seigneur who was
a favourite at Court, the multi-millionaire Serene Highness Prince
Maximilian Egon zu Fuerstenberg. Of the latter it may be said that no man
rivalled his influence with the Emperor. What he said was law in
Germany.
Fuerstenberg was head of the famous "Prince's Trust," now dissolved, but
at that time, with its capital of a hundred million pounds, it was a
great force in the German commercial world. Indeed, such a boon
companion was he of the Kaiser's that an august but purely decorative
and ceremonial place was actually invented for him as Colonel-Marshal of
the Prussian Court, an excuse to wear a gay uniform and gorgeous
decorations as befitted a man who, possessing twenty millions sterling,
was an important asset to the Emperor in his deep-laid scheme for
world-power.
Another Prince of the "Trust" was fat old Kraft zu Hohenlohe Oehringen,
but as he had only a paltry ten millions he did not rank so high in the
War-Lord's favour.
Fuerstenberg, seated next to the estimable Jewess, was chatting affably
with her. Her husband was in America upon some big steel transaction,
but her pretty daughter Elise sat laughing merrily with a young,
square-headed lieutenant of the Death's Head Hussars.
That merry luncheon party was the prologue of a very curious drama.
I was discussing the occult with a middle-aged lady on my right, a
sister of Herr Alfred Ballin, the shipping king. In society discussions
upon the occult are always illuminating, and as we chatted I noticed
that far across the crowded room, at a table set in a window, there sat
alone a dark-haired, sallow, good-looking young civilian, who,
immaculate in a grey suit, was eating his lunch in a rather bored
manner, yet his eyes were fixed straight upon the handsome, dark-haired
young girl, Elise Breitenbach, as though she exercised over him some
strange fascination.
Half a dozen times I glanced across, and on each occasion saw that the
young man had no eyes for the notables around the table, his gaze being
fixed upon the daughter of the great financier, whose interests,
especially in America, were so widespread and profitable.
Somehow--why I cannot even now decide--I felt a distinct belief that the
young civilian's face was familiar to me. It was not the first time I
had seen him, yet I could not recall the circumstances in which we had
met. I examined my memory, but could not recollect where I had before
seen him, yet I felt convinced that it was in circumstances of a
somewhat mysterious kind.
Two nights later I had dined with the Breitenbachs at their fine house
in the Alsenstrasse. The only guest beside myself was the thin-faced,
loud-speaking old Countess von Bassewitz, and after dinner, served in a
gorgeous dining-room which everywhere betrayed the florid taste of the
parvenu, Frau Breitenbach took the Countess aside to talk, while I
wandered with her daughter into the winter garden, with its high palms
and gorgeous exotics, that overlooked the gardens of the Austrian
Embassy.
When we were seated in cane chairs, and the man had brought us coffee,
the pretty Elise commenced to question me about life at the
Crown-Prince's Court, expressing much curiosity concerning the private
life of His Imperial Highness.
Such questions came often from the lips of young girls in society, and I
knew how to answer them with both humour and politeness.
"How intensely interesting it must be to be personal-adjutant to the
Crown-Prince! Mother is dying to get a command to one of the receptions
at Potsdam," the girl said. "Only to-day she was wondering--well,
whether you could possibly use your influence in that direction?"
In an instant I saw why I had been invited to dinners and luncheons so
often, and why I had been left alone with the sweet-faced, dark-eyed
girl.