‘I have no doubt I shall, sire.’
‘Then, why are you in Berlin, and how is it you know so much?’
‘I am here, sire, in the train of his Imperial Highness, as the confidential agent of the Dowager Empress of China.’
The Kaiser glared at me, biting his lip to repress the amused smile that struggled forth nevertheless.
‘M. V——, you are a wonderful man! I am not sure whether I ought to arrest you or to pardon you freely; however, I will cry quits if you will tell me who this fellow really is?’
‘He is, of course, sire, the brother of his Imperial Maj——’
Wilhelm II. strode to me, seized me by the shoulders, and thrust me out of the room.
VIII
THE ABDICATION OF FRANCIS-JOSEPH
I am now going to relate the story of what is, perhaps, the most extraordinary mission on which I have ever been employed. It will, I think, come as a surprise to many of the best-informed politicians on the Continent, including the highly placed personages whose schemes I was the means of detecting and defeating.
It was during the war between the British and Boers in South Africa, at a period which I do not care to specify more particularly, that I had the honour to receive a request to proceed without loss of time to Petersburg, and wait upon M. Witte. It is chiefly this Minister’s unjust dismissal that has provoked me to make this disclosure.