Directly I arrived in Luxemburg, I was honored with an invitation
to dine with the Emperor William the following day at one o'clock.
Most of the guests were stopping at the _Hotel Staar_, and the cars
were to leave there in good time. I went with Adjutant-General,
Lieutenant-General von Gontard, Acting General à la suite. The street
close to the Imperial residence was railed off, the barriers being
withdrawn by the soldiers to let our car pass. The Emperor lived in
the house of the German Minister and had his private apartments on the
first floor. On the ground floor was the chancellerie, where enormous
maps of the theaters of war were mounted on easels, and next to it was
the dining-room, quite a small apartment.
The guests, all in field uniform, without any display, for-gathered in
the chancellerie. I myself was dressed in the most flagrant, everyday
clothes--in the field nothing is carried for show. Among the Emperor's
suite I recognized a couple of old acquaintances, the Headquarters
Commandant, Adjutant-General, Colonel-General von Plessen, and
the President of the Navy Council, Admiral von Müller, of Swedish
descent, who spoke Swedish as fluently as German. The others were his
Excellency von Treutler and Lieutenant-General Baron Marschall, Colonel
von Mutius, acting aide-de-camp, the Princes Pless and Arnim and the
Emperor's body-physician, Dr. Ilberg. We were thus ten all told.