The CROWN PRINCE was in evidence, disguised as a Death’s Head Hussar, and HINDENBURG was easily recognisable as he bristled with the nails which the admiring populace had hammered into him; the rest of the company were unknown to me.  They were all engaged in a heated discussion when suddenly there came a knock at the door, a knock which, to me, was curiously familiar.

During the silence that ensued Millie walked into the room.  She was still wearing her overall and felt slippers, and she had not waited to put on a hat or even to straighten her hair.  She came forward unhesitatingly, with her short, shuffling steps and, disregarding the furious demand of a Bavarian General as to who she was and how she dared to enter there, she addressed herself to the KAISER himself.  She spoke in her normal tones, but to me there seemed something sinister about them at this moment, and I noticed that in her right hand she carried a coal-hammer.

Now above all things Millie hated breaking coal and filling scuttles, and I knew that she would not be carrying a coal-hammer without a very special reason.  Her words revealed it.

“You, KAYSER, I’ve been wanting to get near you and smash you up, I have.  You’ve gone a bit too far, you have ...  No sugar without a card, and then only half-a-pound, and they do say it’ll only be a quarter soon.  And matches!—­only one box at a time, and they don’t strike, and how’s a body to light a fire at all?”

With this she lifted her coal-hammer and brought it down with all her force on the KAISER’S head.  Involuntarily I flinched; it was a terrible blow.

Several Generals, their iron crosses jingling, rushed forward and seized Millie, uttering guttural sounds of horror and indignation.  But the KAISER stood unmoved—­yes, unmoved.  Millie gaped at him.  He ordered his satellites to release her and, as they reluctantly did so, Millie nodded her head at them.

“You leave me where I’m to!  He can take up his own part,” she told them.

The KAISER addressed her sternly.

“Presumptuous woman,” he said, “it is not written that you shall be the cause of my death.  There is something much higher in store for me.  You deserve worse than death at my hands; but since you are from England I will squeeze from you all the information I require and bend you to my uses.”

All this was obviously wasted on Millie, who heard nothing.  Having waited politely until his lips stopped moving in speech, she again cracked him on the head with the coal-hammer.

The KAISER ignored this uncivil retort and spoke again.

“You shall go back to your matchless country and tell them there that we have plenty of matches in Germany; that we have kept on good terms with Stockholm, and our matches are made in Sweden.  We have all we need to kindle every fire in hell.  Now are you convinced that you are beaten?”

He was interrupted by another blow from the coal-hammer, which made him bite his tongue, for Millie was becoming exasperated and put all her strength into the stroke.  The KAISER stepped back.