army.  He is now commander of the First Regiment of Boay Guards ("Death’s Head” Hussars) at Langfuhr, near Danzig, with the rank of major.  He was married in June, 1905, to Cecilie, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and is the father of four children, all boys.  The Crown Princess is one of the cleverest, most popular, and most charming characters in Germany, of the brightest intelligence and the most unaffected manners.  The leading trait in the Crown Prince’s character is his love of sport, from big-game shooting (on which he has written a book) to lawn tennis.  In May last he began to learn golf.  He is personally amiable, has pleasant manners, and is highly popular with all classes of his future subjects.  He is credited with ability, but is not believed to have inherited the intellectual manysidedness of his father.  The only part he can be said to have taken in public life as yet is having called the imperial attention to the Maximilian Harden allegations regarding Count Eulenburg and a court “camarilla,” referred to later, and having, while sitting in a gallery of the Reichstag, demonstrated by decidedly marked gestures his disagreement with the Government’s Morocco policy.

Since his marriage the Emperor has more than once publicly congratulated himself on his good fortune in having such a consort as the Empress.  The most graceful compliment he paid her was in her own Province of Silesia in 1890, when he said: 

“The band which unites me with the Province—­that of all the provinces of the Empire which is nearest to my heart—­is the jewel which sparkles at my side, Her Majesty the Empress.  A native of this country, a model of all the virtues of a German princess, it is her I have to thank that I am in a position joyfully to perform the onerous duties of my office.”

Only the other day at Altona, after thirty years of married life, he referred to her, again in her home Province and again as she sat smiling beside him, as the

“first lady of the land, who is always ready to help the needy, to strengthen family ties, to discharge the duties of her sex, and suggest to it new aims.  The Empress has bestowed a home life on the House of Hohenzollern such as Queen Louise, alone perhaps, conferred.”

Queen Louise, the famous wife of Frederick William III, died in 1810 and is buried in the mausoleum at Charlottenburg, the suburb of Berlin.  She has remained ever since, for the German nation, the type of womanly perfection.

III.

PRE-ACCESSION DAYS

1881-1887

The seven years between the date of his marriage and that of his accession were chiefly filled in by the future Emperor with the conscientious discharge of his regimental duties and the preparation of himself, by three or four hours’ study daily at the various Ministries, among them the Foreign Office, where he sat at the feet of Bismarck, for the imperial tasks he would presumably have to undertake later.