'but appearances are certainly against the Count. I have it
from Menzel's own lips that the Court marshal refused him
all and every assistance when he was painting the scenes of
life in Sans Souci. The rooms of the chateau were accessible
to him only to the same extent as to any other paying
visitor or the hordes of foreign tourists, and he had to
make his sketches piece-meal, gathering corroborative and
additional material in museums and picture-galleries.'

"Quick as a flash the Kaiser turned to Count Eulenburg. 'I
shall repay the debt Prussia owes to Menzel,' he spoke, not
without declamatory effect. 'We will have the representation
of the Sans Souci flute concert three days hence. Your
programme is to be ready tomorrow morning at ten. Menzel,
mind you, must know nothing of this: merely command him to
attend us at the Schloss at supper and for a musical
evening.' And, turning round, he said to her Majesty: 'You
will impersonate Princess Amalia, and you, Kessel' (Adjutant
von Kessel, then Commander of the First Life Guards),
'engage all your tallest and best-looking officers to enact
the great King's military household.'

"Again the Kaiser addressed Count Eulenberg: 'Be sure to
have the best artists of the Royal Orchestra perform
Frederick the Great's compositions, and let Joachim be
engaged for the occasion.' Saying this, he took her
Majesty's arm, and bidding his guests and the Court a hasty
good-night, strode out of the apartment."

A description of the Empress's costume for the concert follows.

"Her Majesty's dress consisted of a petticoat of sea-green
satin, richly ornamented with silver lace of antique pattern
and an overdress of dark velvet, embroidered with gold and
set with precious stones. On her powdered hair, amplified by
one of Herr Adeljana, the Viennese coiffeur's, most
successful creations, sat a jaunty three-cornered hat having
a blazing aigrette of large diamonds in front, the identical
cluster of white stones which figured at the great
Napoleon's coronation, and which he lost, together with his
entire equipage, in the battle of Waterloo. In her ears her
Majesty wore pearl ornaments representing a small bunch of
cherries. Like the aigrette, they are Crown property, and
that Auguste Victoria thought well eno