against every surprise and ready.

April 28, 1891. [7]

On the occasion of the presentation of new standards to his troops, the
Emperor observed that the number 18 is one of deep significance for his
race, that it corresponds with six important dates in the history of
Prussia. "For this reason," he added, "I have chosen the 18th of April
as the day on which to present the new standards." As William II himself
puts it, this day, like all the "eighteenths" that went before it, has
its special significance.

The strange words uttered by the monarch on this occasion--always
intoxicated with the sense of his power, and sometimes by
_Kaiserbier_--are denied to-day, or perhaps it would be more correct to
say that the _Monitor of the Empire_ has not published them. "Let our
soldiers come to me," he proclaimed in the White Hall, to "overcome the
resistance of the enemies of the Fatherland, abroad as well as at home."

On the one hand, after the manner of the Middle Ages, he reveals to us
the ancient mysteries of the Cabal, on the other, as an up-to-date
emperor, he compels his brother Henry to become a sportsman like himself.
On occasion he will don the uniform of the Navy, interrupt a
post-captain's lecture, and throw overboard the so-called plan of
re-organisation, so as to substitute a new strategy of his own making for
the use of the German fleet.

So Field-Marshal von Moltke is dead at last. His place is already filled
by the Emperor, who is willing to be called his pupil, but a pupil equal
in the art of strategy to his master and a better soldier. The
remarkably peaceful death of Von Moltke only reminds me of the violent
deaths that he brought about. It was to him that we owed the bombardment
of Paris. Only yesterday, Marshal Canrobert said "he was our most
implacable foe, and in that capacity, we must continue to regard him with
hatred and contempt." Von Moltke himself was wont to say "when war is
necessary it is holy." He leaves behind him all the plans in readiness
for the next war.

William II, you may be sure, will proceed to depreciate the military work
of Von Moltke, just as he tries to depreciate his diplomatic and
parliamentary work. He has reached a pitch of infatuation unbelievable;
and is becoming, as I have said before, more and more of a Nero every
day. At the present moment he is instigating the construction of an
arena at Schildorn where spectacles after the ancient manner will be
gi