The Emperor was at sea, on his annual northern trip, when the birth occurred.  As the ship approached Bergen the town was seen to be gaily decorated with flags.  As it happened, everybody on board knew of the birth except the Emperor, but none of the officers round him ventured to congratulate him, because they supposed he knew of it already and were waiting for him to refer to it.  At Bergen the German Minister, Stuebel, and German Consul, Mohr, came on board.  The Minister, being a diplomatist, said nothing, but the Consul, as Consuls will, spoke his mind and ventured his congratulations.  “What?  I am a grandfather!” exclaimed the Emperor.  “Why, that’s splendid! and I knew nothing about it!” The captain of the ship then asked should he fire the salute of twenty-one guns usual on such occasions.  “No,” said the Emperor, “that won’t do.  Mohr is a great talker.  Let us first see the official despatches from Berlin.”  The party, including the Emperor, went down into the cabin to await the despatches, which were being brought from Bergen.

On their arrival a basketful of State papers was placed before the Emperor.  The first one he took out was a telegram from the Sultan of Turkey with congratulations (great merriment); the second from an unknown lady in Berlin, with a name corresponding to the English “Brown,” with four lines of congratulatory poetry; and it was not until more than a hundred despatches had been opened that they came to one from the Minister of the Interior and another from the Empress announcing the birth.  Popular reports at the time represented the Emperor as boiling over with anger at his being kept or left in ignorance of the happy event.  As a matter of fact, he was in high good-humour, and himself mentioned a similar occurrence at Metz in 1870, when an important movement of the French army was not reported because it was assumed that it was already known to the Intelligence Department.  As a public sign of his satisfaction he amnestied the half-dozen of his subjects who happened to be in gaol as punishment for lese majeste.

Another domestic event at this time was the celebration by the Emperor and Empress of their silver wedding.  Berlin, of course, was illuminated and beflagged.  There was a great gathering of royal relatives, a State banquet, and a special parade of troops.  At the latter were remarkable for their huge proportions two former grenadiers of the regiment of Guards the Emperor commanded in his youth.  They were now settled in America, but came over to Germany on the Emperor’s particular invitation and, of course, at his private expense.

The last item of domestic interest this year (1906) worth record was the marriage of Prince Eitel Frederick, the Emperor’s second son, with Princess Sophie Charlotte of Oldenburg.  In his speech to the bridal pair on their wedding-day the Emperor referred to the personal likeness the young Prince bore to his great-grandfather, Emperor William, and expressed the hope that the Prince might grow more like him in character from year to year.