It will be in every sense of the word an arduous training, for the first regiment of Guards being considered all the world over as the crack corps of the German army, and as the embodiment of military perfection in every sense of the word, its officers, realizing that it is, so to speak, the star phalanx of Germany, are engaged, morning, noon and night, in maintaining it at its proper standard, and there are no officers anywhere in Europe who are so hard worked as those of the first regiment of Prussian Guards;—­that regiment which in the days of Frederick the Great’s father was composed entirely of giants, recruited, or rather purchased often, at a cost of several thousand dollars apiece, from all parts of the world!

The prince must be on the drill grounds and the manoeuvre fields as early as four o’clock in the morning, returning for a sort of luncheon towards ten or eleven; he must devote his afternoon to military studies of one kind or another; while from four o’clock till seven his time will be taken up by barrack-room inspections, company reports, and the other thousand and one duties incidental to regimental life in Germany.  In the case of the crown prince the work will be exceptionally heavy, as he is expected to acquire in the course of six months an experience which other subalterns take years to obtain.  At the end of the term in question he is to go to Bonn, there to take his seat, like his father before him, on the benches of the celebrated university as an ordinary student.

From his eighteenth birthday the crown prince will have an establishment and a civil list of his own.  He will have his court marshal, who will be at the same time the treasurer, governor, and chief officer of his household.  He will have his aids-de-camp, who will, as far as possible, be young men of his own age and alive to the responsibilities of their office; he will also have a palace of his own, stables of his own, and his own shooting.  Indeed the forest of Spandau has already been for some time past strictly preserved in view of his coming of age.

This particular forest has from time immemorial been assigned as the particular game-park of the heir to the crown.  The crown prince is to make his home in the so-called “Stadtschloss” at Potsdam, where he will occupy the same suite of apartments that was tenanted by his parents during the alterations that recently took place at the “Neues Palais.”  This palace was erected at the close of the seventeenth century, and contains, among other objects of interest, the furniture used by Frederick the Great, the coverings of which were nearly all torn to shreds by the claws of his dog; his writing-table covered with ink-stains, his library filled with Trench books, music composed by himself, etc.  The various halls and rooms are kept nearly in the same manner, indeed, as when he used them.  Adjoining his bedroom there is a small cabinet, where he used to dine alone or with Voltaire, without attendants, everything coming through the floor on a dumbwaiter, the king himself placing the dishes on the table.