One of the most interesting things that happened to me in my first
year was a visit (with the Princess, of course) to Villa Hügel, the
house of Herr and Frau Krupp von Bohlen, in the Ruhr valley near
Essen. Bertha Krupp, the "Cannon Queen" and richest German heiress
in Germany, if not the world, had been married to the South German
diplomat, Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach, less than four years. She was
only about twenty-four, but the coming of children had aged her as it
does all German women apparently, and she had already ceased to look
girlish. Her husband, who is sixteen or seventeen years senior to his
wife, might have been no more than ten years older, to judge by their
appearance when together. He put the name of Krupp in front of his own
immediately after his marriage with the heiress, and few people add the
"und Halbach" now, except officially....
While I was in the "Spatzenhaus" with the boys, Herr Krupp von Bohlen
brought in these four gentlemen and another, to see the celebrated
visitors' book kept there since Bertha and Barbara were children.
General von Bernhardi had arrived the night previous, and this was
my first sight of him, as well, of course, of Herr Eccius and Doctor
Linden.
I was more interested in the last of the three, because I had listened
while Frau Krupp von Bohlen repeated to the children a wonderful story
about the intelligence of some fish in the Naples Aquarium; and all I
knew then of General von Bernhardi was that he was considered a great
soldier, and had been the first officer to ride into Paris in 1871, or
some tale of that sort. However, the minute I saw him I felt that here
was a tremendous personality, and an intensely repellent one, a man to
be reckoned with. I determined to ask a great many questions concerning
him of the Countess, who knew everything about everybody, and did not
object to telling what she knew with embellishments.
My name was politely mentioned by the host, and the visiting gentlemen
all bowed to me. The only one who did so stiffly, as if he grudged
bending his thick, short neck for my benefit, was General von
Bernhardi. He gave me one sharp look from under his rather beetling
eyebrows, and I wondered if he despised all women, or had merely taken
a distaste to me.
"You are English?" he asked shortly, in German, his tone being that of
a man accustomed to throw out commands as you might throw a battle-ax.
"She was born in Washington," said Herr Krupp von Bohlen, in his
pleasant, cultivated voice. "Washington is the most interesting city
of the United States, and holds pleasant memories for me. Miss ----'s
grandfather was a distinguished American naval officer."
As he said this, he gave me a faint, rather humorous smile, which
I interpreted as a warning or request not to try explaining my
antecedents.
"Ach! That is better!" grunted the General. And I knew that, whatever
might be his attitude toward women in general, Englishwomen were anyhow
beyond the pale.
(Later I heard from the Countess that women were not much higher
than the "four-footed animal kingdom" for Bernhardi; that he loudly
contradicted his wife, even at hotel tables, when they traveled
together; that he always walked ahead of her in the street, and pushed
past her or even other ladies, if strangers to him, in order to go
first through a doorway.)
The General condescended to glance at me, and I thought again that he
was the most ruthless, brutal-looking man I had ever met, the very type
of militarism in flesh and blood--especially blood.
"You are a friend of the English?" he inquired.
I dared to stand up for England by answering that I thought her the
greatest country in the world.
"That is nonsense," was his comment. I shall never forget it, or the
cutting way in which it was spoken.
The Prince, though knowing me to be English (which Bernhardi, to do him
justice, did not), backed the General up, explaining for my benefit
as well as the children's that England might once have been nominally
the most powerful nation, owing to her talent for grabbing possessions
all over the world, and the cleverness of her diplomacy. But, he said,
that was different now, under the Liberal Government. England was going
down exactly as Rome had gone down, and the knell of her greatness was
sounding already. Not one of her colonies would stand by her when her
day of trouble should come, and most of them would go against her.
"You have only to read their own newspapers," said General Bernhardi,
"to see that the English know they are degenerating fast. But the hand
of Fate is on them. They are asleep, and they will wake up with a rude
shock only when it is too late."