Three days later, on December 9th, a further cipher telegram came from
Von Metzsch, the Emperor's sycophant in Dresden, which read: "Luisa has
learnt of the Sonnenstein project, and has left Salsburg for Zurich, her
brother accompanying.--VON METZSCH."
Sonnenstein! That was a private lunatic asylum! I held my breath at the
awful fate which the Emperor had decided should be hers.
In a few moments the Kaiser had summoned, by his private telephone,
Koehler, then chief of the Berlin secret police, and given orders that
the Princess was to be watched in Switzerland. Half an hour later three
police agents were on their way to Zurich to follow and persecute the
poor, distracted woman, even beyond the confines of the Empire.
She was, no doubt, in deadly fear of being sent to a living tomb, so
that her mouth should be closed for ever.
The Emperor, not content with casting her out of Germany, intended to
wreak a terrible and fiendish revenge upon her by closing her lips and
confining her in an asylum. She knew that, and seeing herself surrounded
by enemies and spies on every hand--for even her brother Leopold, with
whom she had travelled to Switzerland, now refused to assist her--she
adopted the only method of further escape that at the moment presented
itself.
Alone and without anyone to advise her, she, as you know, took a
desperate resolve, one, alas! fraught with disastrous consequences.
The iron had indeed entered the poor Princess's soul.