t the eyes of my ancestors look down upon me from the other
world, and that I shall one day have to render account to them of the
glory and honour of the army." The navy received his salutation on that
same day; and not until three days later did a proclamation go forth to
his people. Men everywhere remembered that "Frederick the Noble" had
first addressed his people, and then his army and navy. The inference
was unavoidable that the young Kaiser meant to be a Frederick the Great
rather than a "citizen Emperor," as his father had longed to be known.
The world has now learnt to discount the utterances of the most
impulsive of Hohenzollern rulers; but in those days, when it knew not
his complex character, such an army order seemed to portend the advent
of another Napoleon.

Not only France but Russia felt some alarm. True, the young Kaiser
speedily paid a visit to his relative at St. Petersburg; but it soon
appeared that the stolid and very reserved Alexander III. knew not what
to make of the versatile personality that now controlled the policy of
Central Europe. It was therefore natural that France and Russia should
take precautionary measures; and we now know that these were begun in
the autumn of that year.

In the first instance, they took the form of loans. A Parisian
financier, M. Hoskier, Danish by descent, but French by naturalisation
and sympathy, had long desired to use the resources of Paris as a means
of cementing friendship, and, if possible, alliance with Russia. For
some time he made financial overtures at St. Petersburg, only to find
all doors closed against him by German capitalists. But in the spring of
the year 1888 the Berlin Bourse had been seized by a panic at the
excessive amount of Russian securities held by German houses; large
sales took place, and thenceforth it seemed impossible for Russia to
raise money at Berlin or Frankfurt except on very hard terms.

Now was the opportunity for which the French houses had been waiting and
working. In October 1888, Hoskier received an invitation to repair to
St. Petersburg secretly, in order to consider the taking up of a loan of
500,000,000 francs at 4 per cent, to replace war loans contracted in
1877 at 5 per cent. At once he assured the Russian authorities that his
syndicate would accept the offer, and though the German financiers
raged and plotted against him, the loan went to Paris. This was the
beginning of a series of loans launched by Russia at Par