“Then, in that case, you will stay and lunch with the Empress and myself, my dear Prince.”
As soon as the handcuffs had been removed, I told the whole story to the Kaiser, who was immensely interested, and decidedly touched by the part which related to the drowned Princess.
Before leaving the Palace, I asked permission of my imperial host to make use of his private wire for a message to London, in the interest of peace.
Wilhelm II., who began to see that he had been betrayed into going a little farther than was altogether desirable, consented in the friendliest spirit, merely stipulating that he should be allowed to see the message.
He was rather surprised when he found it was addressed to Lord Bedale at Buckingham Palace, and comprised a single word, “Elsinore.”
And so, although some of the newspapers in the two capitals of England and Russia continued to breathe war for some days longer, I felt no more anxiety after reading the paragraph which stated that the British Prime Minister, at the close of the decisive Cabinet Council, had driven to the Palace to be received in private audience by her majesty Queen Alexandra.