The King was traveling with the Queen, Princess Thyra, Prince Gustave, and the usual suite.  His Majesty had bade them good-night and retired—­alas! not to his room, for he wished to take a stroll through the streets of the town.  It was only at two o’clock that the valet noticed that the King had not been in his room.  Then he alarmed the Hof-Marshale, who, with the other gentlemen, commenced a search.  At five o’clock they found his Majesty in the Krankenhaus.  He had fainted in the street and had been put into a cab, in which he died.  Johan stayed all the next day in Hamburg, accompanying the Queen on board the Daneborg (the royal yacht), which had been sent to take the King’s body back to Denmark.

[Illustration:  THE EMPEROR IN 1905 From an autographed photograph given to Madame de Hegermann-Lindencrone.]

The Queen was overwhelmed with grief, but showed the greatest self-control.

It has been a distressing time indeed for the Duchess of Cumberland.  She has lost her eldest son (killed in an automobile accident on the way to Schwerin to see his sister, the Grand Duchess) and now it is her brother who is taken so tragically.  The young duke was very unwise to take that particular road.  We had passed over the same route, or tried to, on our way to pay a visit to the grand-ducal pair not more than two weeks before.  Our chauffeur was appalled at the dreadful condition of the road and advised turning back.  We made a great detour and avoided an accident.  The Duke was driving himself, and the ruts in the road made the car jump so that the wheel struck him under the chin, he lost control, and the machine struck a tree, killing the Duke instantly.  The chauffeur was saved.

BERLIN.

Mr. Roosevelt and family arrived in Berlin three days ago.  Society was on tiptoe with expectation.  They talked of giving Arthur Nevin’s Indian opera, “Poia,” in order that the ex-President should have the thrill of seeing his compatriots in a German setting.  This idea was abandoned, though Count Huelsen had accepted the opera and at an enormous expense had had it mounted at the Grand Opera.

The Kaiser received Mr. Roosevelt and was charmed with him, just as Mr. Roosevelt was charmed with the Kaiser.  Of course, who could resist the magnetic forces of these two dii ex machina.

Ambassador and Mrs. Hill gave a large and all-comprising reception at the Embassy in honor of their distinguished guest, which is much too small to contain the entire society of Berlin and embrace (I like that word) all the American colony.

To gain a little more space they very practically turned the porte-cochere into a vestiaire, where we took off our mantles before crossing the carpet-covered carriage-drive.

Mr. Roosevelt was most amiable.  He greeted people with a cordiality which bordered on epanchement—­giving their hands a shaking the like of which they had never had before.  Mr. Roosevelt remained by Mrs. Hill’s side and smiled kindly at the guests as they poured in and out of the salon.  That was about all the guests did—­pour in and pour out.  One could not expect even the most favored to exchange more than a few words with the great man.