"The Emperor commands you to audience at once in the private
dining-room," said one of the Imperial servants, entering the Kaiser's
study, where I was awaiting him.
It was seven o'clock on a cold, cheerless morning, and I had just
arrived at Potsdam from Altona, the bearer of a message from the
Crown-Prince to his father.
I knew that the Emperor always rose at five, and that he was
breakfasting, as was his habit, alone with the Empress in that
coquettish private dining-room of the Sovereigns, a room into which no
servant is permitted, Augusta preparing and serving the coffee with her
own hands. It was the one hour which the All-Highest before the war
devoted to domesticity, when husband and wife could gossip and discuss
matters alone and in secret.
As I passed downstairs to the room, to which entrance was forbidden even
to the Crown-Prince himself, I naturally wondered why I had been
commanded to audience there.
On tapping upon the mahogany door of the little private salon the
Empress's hard voice gave permission to enter, whereupon I bowed myself
into the cosy little place, hung with reseda silk and with pictures by
Loncret, Perne and Watteau. Upon one side of the room was a beautiful
buhl cabinet, and at the little round table placed near the window sat
the Imperial pair.
The Empress was reading a letter, but His Majesty rose as I entered. He
was wearing a grey tweed suit, a well-worn and, no doubt, easy one, in
which nobody ever saw him, for he always changed into uniform before he
went to his study.
"Have you any knowledge of the contents of the letter which you have
brought from the Crown-Prince?" he asked me bluntly, and I saw by his
eyes that he seemed somewhat mystified.
I replied in the negative, explaining that I had been with His Imperial
Highness to Kiel, and afterwards to Altona, where the Crown-Princess had
performed the opening ceremony of a new dock.
"Where are you going now?" he asked suddenly. "There are other
engagements, I believe?"
"To Thorn. His Imperial Highness inspects the garrison there on
Thursday," I said.
"Ah! of course. I intended to go, but it is impossible."
Then, after a pause, the Emperor looked me straight in the face and
suddenly said:
"Heltzendorff, have you any knowledge of any man called Minckwitz?"