The selection of the positions of the party is regarded as a matter of the utmost importance, and on the evening before, the grand huntsman submits to the emperor a carefully drawn up plan of the locality.  His majesty thereupon designates with his own hand the spot where each of his guests is to take up his position on the following morning.  He himself and the King of Saxony generally await the game in the lowest part of the valley, the remaining guests and officials being spread up the mountain side on each hand according to their degree of rank and the imperial favor, those who enjoy the greatest share of the latter being the nearest to the sovereign down the valley, while those of less importance are posted higher up on the mountain side.  By nine o’clock, every member of the party must be in the place assigned to him on the plan, and the beaters, who have kept the game carefully within the circle of their lines, now proceed to drive it down towards the shooting party.

Usually, great nets are stretched a hundred yards to the rear of the two monarchs, with the object of forcing the game which may have got past their majesties to retrace its steps, and to face the royal and imperial sportsmen once more.

Sometimes curious scenes result in connection with these nets.  On one occasion a magnificent gemsbock had managed to get past the King of Saxony, and finding a net in the way, charged it full tilt with a flying leap.  Its horns got entangled in the meshes, seven or eight feet high, and there it remained hanging and kicking until a couple of jaegers in attendance on the king disentangled it and carefully placed it on the ground.  For a moment it stood as if transfixed with amazement, gazing steadfastly at the net, and then deliberately charged head down, and with a tremendous bound, at the obstacle once more, with the same result, of course.  Again the jaegers disengaged it, but in its struggles to recover its liberty the gemsbock left its beard torn out by the very roots in the hand of one of the men who had grabbed it for the purpose of holding the animal fast.  A third time the gallant buck charged the net, and cleared it in magnificent style and made good its escape.  The beard which it left behind it figures to this day on the Alpine hat of King Albert, who is probably the only man living who can boast of wearing the beard of a chamois that may still be roaming over the Styrian Alps.

Emperor William’s favorite form of sport is wild-boar hunting.  This species of game abounds in the imperial preserves of Koenigs-Wusterhausen, Letzlingen, Gohrde and Springe, the latter being quite near to the ancient city of Hamelin, celebrated in legendary lore for its “pied-piper” and for its rats!

The preserves at Gohrde are liked best by the kaiser, as they were by his grandfather, the old emperor, for they are alive with wild boars.  Persons invited for the first time to these imperial shooting parties have to go through a regular form of initiation, somewhat akin to that practised in the case of people crossing the line for the first time at sea.