_blase_
and oppressed by moral and physical satiety. You must know everything,
have tried everything, have had all your personal wishes and desires
satisfied, all obstacles removed from your path, and pass your way
through life with the firm conviction that there remains nothing to
interest or arouse your ambition in order to be a victim of _ennui_.
The greatest sufferers from this disagreeable sensation are, as I
have just remarked, the royal and imperial personages of Europe, and
although the emperors of Germany and Austria have the greater
portion of their time taken up by the business of the State, and the
administration of the government of their respective countries, yet
neither of them is exempt from ennui. Indeed, there are no princes
whose features betray to such an extent unmistakable evidence of
ennui, as those of the imperial house of Hapsburg, while Emperor
William's choice of many of his friends is guided by the powers which
they may possess to entertain him, and to deliver him in his hours of
leisure from that dreaded complaint. Of course there are exceptions to
this rule, and there are several of Emperor William's cronies who owe
the friendship of their sovereign to kindnesses which they rendered,
and devotion which they displayed to him, in the days prior to
his accession to the throne. But in the majority of instances,
the sometimes strange selection of friends made by the emperor is
attributable to the fact that the personages to whom he accords his
favor succeed in amusing and entertaining him during the time that he
is not occupied with the cares of his empire.

Conspicuous among friends of this particular character, is Baron von
Kiderlen-Waechter, who holds the rank of minister plenipotentiary in
the diplomatic service of Germany, and who was recently, and possibly
still remains, Prussian envoy to the Court of Denmark, but who is
known in the imperial circle at Berlin by the nickname of "August,"
that being the "sobriquet" given to the clowns belonging to
variety-shows and circuses in England, Austria, and France. In fact,
he certainly occupies among William's immediate circle of cronies and
associates the position of court jester, and the emperor makes a point
of taking the baron along with him whenever he goes on his annual
yachting trips along the coast of Sweden and Norway. The latter is the
life and soul of these imperial yachting parties, his witticisms, his
antics, and, above all, his inim