“You dare to tell me so!”
“Your majesty will find I am right. The case falls within the Hohenzollern Family Statute.”
The Kaiser appeared stupefied.
“The Family Statute?” he repeated slowly, as if unable to believe his ears. “What has the Statute to do with you?”
“It is provided in the Statute, if I recollect rightly, sire, that a member of the Imperial Family can be tried only by his peers, that is to say, by a court composed of members of your majesty’s House.”
“Well, and what then?”
“By another clause in the Statute—I regret that the number has escaped my memory—the privileges of a Hohenzollern in that respect are extended to members of other reigning Houses.”
“What are you going to tell me?” Wilhelm II. demanded in amazement.
“Only that I have the honor to be the adopted son of his imperial highness Prince Yorimo, cousin to his majesty the Emperor of Japan.”