a guard of honour, a guard _à la Prudhomme_, whose business it would be
to defend and to fight him. The State Council of the patriotic Grand
Duchy is aroused, and denies the right of Prussia on any pretext to
interfere in its affairs. Boldly it reminds the Powers signatory to the
Convention of 1867 of their pledges.

And with all his mania for governing the world at large, William II would
seem to be possessed of the evil eye, and to bring misfortune to all whom
he honours with his friendship for any length of time.



February 10, 1891.

It looks as if poor Bismarck were about to be treated just as he treated
Count von Arnim. Can it be that everything must be paid for in this
world, and that a splendid retributive justice rules the destiny even of
super-men and punishes them for committing base actions? It is rumoured
that the Duke of Lauenbourg (Bismarck) is threatened with prosecution on
a charge of _lèse majesté_, which the lawyers of the Crown will not have
very much trouble in proving against him. That any one should dare to
criticise the Emperor's policy, even though it be Bismarck, or that any
one, even be it Count Waldersee, should express a personal opinion in his
presence, is more than William II will tolerate.

The "sympathetic Emperor" has a cruel way of doing things. Before
striking his victims it is his wont to give them some public mark of his
esteem and good-will. Small and great, they pass before him, sacrificed
each in his turn, so soon as they have come to believe themselves for a
moment in the enjoyment of his favour. Thus Colonel Kaissel,