No description of Empress Frederick seems complete without adding thereto a brief reference to the grand-master of her court, Count Seckendorff, who may be said to have devoted his entire life to her service, and to that of her husband.  A scion of one of the oldest houses of the Prussian aristocracy, and bearing a name that figures frequently in the pages of German history, he was attached to the household of Empress Frederick as chamberlain in the early days of her marriage, and the only time since then when he has been absent from her side was during the war; for the count is no mere drawing-room soldier, as is the case with so many military men who are in attendance on royalty.  He has seen active service in the wars of 1864, 1866 and 1870, winning the iron cross for bravery in the latter campaign, and was likewise attached to Lord Napier’s expedition to Abyssinia, which found its climax in the storming of Magdala, and in the death of Emperor Theodore.

As an artist he may be said to be almost as gifted as Empress Frederick is herself, and his paintings have won distinctions of the highest order at many national and foreign exhibitions.  Indeed, it is this sympathy of artistic tastes that has contributed in no small measure to the altogether exceptional position which he enjoys in the favor and confidence of the widowed empress.  He has seen all her children grow up around her, has been the confidant of many of her sorrows, and at a moment when both she and her dying husband were surrounded by chamberlains and officers who were devoted to the interests of Bismarck, and virtually traitors in the camp, he alone remained loyal in evil as well as in happier days.  Being a bachelor, he makes his home with the empress, attends her wherever she goes, and, after having been the object of much abuse and even calumny,—­the latter originated and circulated by the so-called “reptile press,”—­that is to say, the newspapers, domestic and foreign, drawing pay and inspiration from Prince Bismarck,—­he now enjoys the regard and the good-will of everyone at the Courts of Berlin and Windsor, particularly at the latter, where his lifelong devotion to the widowed empress is keenly appreciated by her mother, Queen Victoria.

No greater contrast can be conceived than that which exists between Empress Frederick and her daughter-in-law, the empress-regnant.  Far less brilliant than either her husband’s mother or grandmother, she has nevertheless managed to achieve, as I have remarked before, not only an infinitely greater degree of popularity, but likewise a more extensive influence upon the German people.  Experience and history show that ordinary sense on the throne is far more beneficial to the population than a lofty order of intellect, and Empress Augusta-Victoria merely offers another illustration of the truth of this assertion.  None of the queens of Prussia, nor either of the first German empresses, can be said to have left any impress upon the subjects