It is not without significance that the mother and the eldest son have understood one another only since the dismissal from office of Prince Bismarck.  From that time the relations between the two have been of the most affectionate and cordial character.  Perhaps at first there was at times a little difference of opinion, owing to the difficulty experienced by a woman of the imperious character of Empress Frederick in realizing the fact that her eldest son was no longer “her boy Willie,” to be ordered about and controlled, but that he had become, not merely emancipated from her control, but her sovereign master, whose commands she is now forced to obey, and whose wishes she is obliged to consult and consider.  But every year since the fall of Bismarck has had the effect of bringing the mother and the son nearer to each other.

The empress seems to have come to the conclusion that she has judged her son harshly and unjustly, prejudiced by appearances which were frequently against him; while he, on the other hand, demonstrated to Prince Bismarck that, while he was grateful to him for his services to the empire, he found difficulty in pardoning him for the advantage which he had taken of his—­the emperor’s—­youth and inexperience to estrange him from both his father and his mother.

If I have repeated in this chapter some history that may be regarded as ancient, since it dates back to eleven and twelve years ago, it is for the purpose of relieving Emperor William of much unmerited reproach heaped upon him, as the most unfilial of royal and imperial princes in modern times.  William has a warm heart, and an affectionate disposition.  He shows this in the happiness of his home life, and by the tenderness of his devotion to his wife and children.  If he was for a time estranged from his parents, and in particular from his mother, it was less through any fault of his, or of theirs—­I repeat it—­than through the intrigues of Bismarck, and of the latter’s friends within and without the imperial household, who fondly imagined that they were serving the “vaterland” by keeping the parents and their son estranged from one another.

CHAPTER VII

Everyone, I presume, is acquainted with that old French saying, “Dis moi qui tu hantes et je te dirai qui tu es!” which may be rendered in English:  “Tell me with whom you associate and I will tell you who you are!” While this adage is almost invariably true in the case of ordinary people, it would hardly be just to apply it where monarchs and princes of the blood are concerned.  Given that every form of pleasure, of entertainment and of amusement is always within their reach, thanks to the loftiness of their station, their wealth, and facilitated furthermore by the anxiety of their courtiers both to please them and to retain their favor, they naturally soon become blase to such an extent that they become a prey to ennui—­a thoroughly royal malady, from which