was based on the murderous progress of the Teutonic Knights. Then there
was the war between Turkey and Greece only lately concluded to discuss,
and there again--for the Emperor's sister was Crown Princess of
Greece--conversation must have been a shade difficult. Altogether, in
spite of the Emperor's lifelong desire to visit the Holy Places in
Palestine, it was an odd moment for a Christian monarch to visit the
butcher of Constantinople. But the truth is that Wilhelm II. had a very
strong reason for going to see his brother, for the fruit of German
policy in Turkey was already ripening and swelling on the tree, and the
minor disadvantages of visiting this murderous tyrant while still his
hands were red with blood was more than compensated for by the
advantages of having a heart-to-heart talk with him on other subjects.
Germany had already begun her peaceful penetration, and the real motive
of the Emperor's visit was, after swords and orders had been exchanged,
to make the definite request that bodies of colonising Germans should be
allowed to settle on the Sultan's dominions in Asia Minor, and a hint no
doubt was conveyed that there would be plenty of room for them now that
there were so many Armenian farms unfortunately without a master. But,
like Uriah Heep, the Emperor had attempted to pluck the fruit before it
was ripe, or, to use a more exact simile, before he was tall enough to
reach it. In vain he represented to Abdul Hamid the immense advantages
which would result to Turkey by the establishment of those Gott-like
German settlers in Asia Minor. Out of his colossal egalo-megalomania, of
which we know more now, he thought that any request which the
All-Highest should deign to make must instantly be granted. But he met
with a perfectly flat refusal, and the baffled All-Highest left
Constantinople in an exceedingly bad temper, which quite undid all the
good that the balm in Gilead and the sacred associations of Jerusalem
had done him. It is pleasant to think of the Pan-Islamic merriment with
which Abdul Hamid must have viewed the indignant exit of his Christian