This was quite preposterous.  Dr. von Seidler could not be responsible for events that had occurred a year before—­at a time when he was not Minister—­apart from its being an established fact that during his tenure of office he was not aware of what had happened, and not until after my resignation did he learn the Imperial views on the situation.  He might just as well have accepted responsibility for the Seven Years War or for the battle of Koeniggraetz.

In 1917 and ’18, when I had certain official dealings with the Emperor William, his horror of an unpleasant discussion was so great that it was a matter of extreme difficulty to impart the necessary information to him.  I recollect how once, at the cost of the consideration due to an Emperor, I was compelled to extract a direct statement from him.  I was with the Emperor Charles on the Eastern front, but left him at Lemberg and, joining the Emperor William in his train, travelled with him for a couple of hours.  I had certain things to submit to him, none of which was of an unpleasant nature.  I do not know why it was, but it was obvious that the Emperor was expecting to hear some disagreeable statements, and offered a passive resistance to the request for a private interview.  He invited me to breakfast with him in his dining-car, where he sat in the company of ten other gentlemen, and there was no possibility of beginning the desired conversation.  Breakfast had been over some time, but the Emperor made no sign of moving.  I was several times obliged to request him to grant me a private interview before he rose from the table, and even then he took with him an official from the Foreign Ministry to be present at our conversation as though to have some protection against anticipated troubles.  The Emperor William was never rude to strangers, though he often was so to his own people.

With regard to the Emperor Charles, the situation was very different.  He was never anything but friendly; in fact I never saw him angry or vexed.  There was no need for any special courage in making an unpleasant statement to him, as there was no danger of receiving a violent answer or any other disagreeable consequences.  And yet the desire to believe only what was agreeable and to put from him anything disagreeable was very strong in the Emperor Charles, and neither criticism nor blame made any lasting impression on him.  But in his case, too, the atmosphere that surrounded him rendered it impossible to convince him of the brutal realities prevailing.  On one occasion, when I returned from the front, I had a long conversation with him.  I reproached him for some act of administration and asserted that not only on me but on the whole Monarchy his action had made a most unfavourable impression.  I told him in the course of the conversation that he must remember how, when he came to the throne, the whole Monarchy had looked to him with great hopes, but that now he had already lost 80 per cent. of his popularity.