Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER XVII In a preceding chapter I invited the reader to witness the taking off of a Minister,?Botho Eulenburg losing the Chancellorship because William had to forego his accustomed bath of blood?hare's blood?(at Liebenberg, October 23, 1894), and while on the subject I will add, incidentally, what I omitted to state in my earlier reference; namely, that Count Botho and the war-lord indulged in a violent quarrel on that occasion. The then Prussian Premier seems to have followed His Majesty, when William ran away from the hunting-field, and tried to keep him from going to bed by opening up a conversation on politics. William listened morosely, until Botho, in an effort to improve the all-highest temper, began to demonstrate his well-known ideas about a suspension of the constitution,?government by royal decree. This is William's beau ideal of kingship, and the Kaiser had repeatedly upheld His Excellency's views on the subject in the state council as well as privately and before a roomful of people in the palace, but under the circumstances he chose to consider the Premier's suggestions as mere bids for office. "You forget," he said, icily, "that since the days of the great Frederick, Prussia has trebled in size and population and that the imperial diadem largely adds to the King's burden. /cannot do everything myself." Under the lash of this remark the Premier paled. "Your Majesty led me to believe that you placed some slight trust in my abilities," he said. " I never opined that you were a Bismarck, and nothing in your past career convinces me that you are," cried the Emperor, stamping his foot impatiently. "And now," he continued, "with your permission, His Majesty will go to his room." Philip Eulenburg advanced to conduct him, but the Kaiser motioned him aside....
评价“Private Lives of William II and His Consort”