But no, it cannot be, for has he not been converted?  Is he not the summus episcopus, who conducts the service in person?  Has he not composed psalms?  Could anybody be more pious, a more resolute foe of those vices which he pursues with such energy?  Could any one be more determined to be a pillar of the Church?  In his interviews with the delegates of the synod of the United Prussian Church, has not the summus said that the Reformation drew its strength from the hearts of princes?  True, you may say, that this does not sound very like a humble Christian; but then humility had never anything to do with William.

At the administration of the oath to new recruits, after having held forth to them on the subject of the hardships at the beginning of a soldier’s life, he added, “It shall be your reward when you have learnt your trade, to manoeuvre before me.”

December 13, 1891. [17]

The nations of Europe desire peace, and it has been so often proved to them that they also desire it, who have been accused of furbishing their weapons unceasingly, that it would be dangerous even for William II to seem to be preparing for war, or rather that, having made ready for it, he should be working to let it loose.  And so it comes to pass that the fire-eating Emperor and King of Prussia himself is compelled to play the part of a bleating sheep “admiring his reflection in the crystal stream,” and that he cannot even have recourse to the expedient, now exhausted, to make it appear that either France or Russia are ravening wolves in search of adventure.  But the role of a sheep sits badly on William, and the mot d’ordre, which he dictates is so evidently opposed to the condition of affairs for which he is responsible, that Messrs. Kalnoky and Caprivi, in spite of their appearance of rotund good nature, have shown distinct signs of intractable irritation.

People have been asking what can be the meaning of all these pacific assurances, so hopelessly at variance with everything that one sees and knows, at a moment when the Monarch of Berlin is furious at the visit of the Tzar to Kronstadt?  Well, the truth is out, and it is M. de Kalnoky who, by proxy, shall reveal it to you.

“The reception at Kronstadt and its consequences have effected no change in the situation.”  There you have the secret.  It is necessary to prove that the diplomacy of the Triple Alliance has not been checked at any point or in any way; that the “excellent impression,” to quote the words of M. de Caprivi, left in Russia by the visit of William II did not allow the Tzar any alternative; he was compelled to show attention to some other country than Germany.  Moreover, the appearance of Alexander III on the Marengo was nothing more than a simple desire for a sea trip; France, going like Mohammed to the mountain, bore in her flanks nothing larger than a mouse.  Finally, that Peace never having been threatened by the Loyal League of Peace, there could be no possible reason left to France and Russia for wanting to defend it, etc., etc.