“’Maybe he was frightened at the prospect of furnishing a
     couple of dozen wax candles,’ sneered the Duke of Schleswig.

     “’More likely he knew nothing of Menzel’s growing
     reputation,’ suggested Begas, the sculptor.

“The Emperor overheard the last words.  ’Are you prepared to say that my grand-uncle’s chief marshal failed to recognize the genius of the foremost Hohenzollern painter?’ he asked sharply.

“‘I would not like to libel a dead man,’ answered Begas, ’but appearances are certainly against the Count.  I have it from Menzel’s own lips that the Court marshal refused him all and every assistance when he was painting the scenes of life in Sans Souci.  The rooms of the chateau were accessible to him only to the same extent as to any other paying visitor or the hordes of foreign tourists, and he had to make his sketches piece-meal, gathering corroborative and additional material in museums and picture-galleries.’

“Quick as a flash the Kaiser turned to Count Eulenburg.  ’I shall repay the debt Prussia owes to Menzel,’ he spoke, not without declamatory effect.  ’We will have the representation of the Sans Souci flute concert three days hence.  Your programme is to be ready tomorrow morning at ten.  Menzel, mind you, must know nothing of this:  merely command him to attend us at the Schloss at supper and for a musical evening.’  And, turning round, he said to her Majesty:  ’You will impersonate Princess Amalia, and you, Kessel’ (Adjutant von Kessel, then Commander of the First Life Guards), ’engage all your tallest and best-looking officers to enact the great King’s military household.’

“Again the Kaiser addressed Count Eulenberg:  ’Be sure to have the best artists of the Royal Orchestra perform Frederick the Great’s compositions, and let Joachim be engaged for the occasion.’  Saying this, he took her Majesty’s arm, and bidding his guests and the Court a hasty good-night, strode out of the apartment.”

A description of the Empress’s costume for the concert follows.

“Her Majesty’s dress consisted of a petticoat of sea-green satin, richly ornamented with silver lace of antique pattern and an overdress of dark velvet, embroidered with gold and set with precious stones.  On her powdered hair, amplified by one of Herr Adeljana, the Viennese coiffeur’s, most successful creations, sat a jaunty three-cornered hat having a blazing aigrette of large diamonds in front, the identical cluster of white stones which figured at the great Napoleon’s coronation, and which he lost, together with his entire equipage, in the battle of Waterloo.  In her ears her Majesty wore pearl ornaments representing a small bunch of cherries.  Like the aigrette, they are Crown property, and that Auguste Victoria thought well enough of the jewels to rescue them from oblivion for this occasion was certainly most appropriate.”

The Emperor’s costume is also described.