From San Remo, too, the Crown Prince wrote to his beloved French tutor a touching letter, in which occurs the following passage:
“As to the life we are leading here, it could not be more intimate and more gemütlich. First of all, my wife nurses me as might a true Sister of Charity, with a calm and knowledge truly admirable. Our daughters surround us with their loving tenderness, and the Riviera is a delightful climate and does us much good.”
Even then, the Crown Princess had not given up hope. Her husband still looked in good health; he slept well, and his appetite was excellent.
On December 1, the Princess herself wrote to M. Godet:
“We are profoundly touched by the many proofs of sympathy which reach us from all sides. I cannot help feeling that it must make you very happy to know that all the care you took, in old days, in developing that pure and noble soul, has now brought to him these universal tributes of respect and confidence.”
Alas, even then the Prince had heard from the physicians his sentence of death, which he received with the same stoicism he had shown on the field of battle.
Christmas came, and was celebrated with characteristic kindliness by the Prince, who arranged magnificent gifts for his wife and the little circle of intimate friends at San Remo. But his health steadily declined, and a sudden operation had to be performed early in January.
Meanwhile the aged Emperor had caught a chill in the severe Berlin winter. His magnificent constitution was already enfeebled by age, and to his physical weakness were now added the distress and anxiety caused by the news from San Remo, which became continually more and more disquieting. The end soon came, and the stout old soldier sank and died on March 9, 1888, less than a fortnight before his ninety-second birthday.
CHAPTER XVII
THE HUNDRED DAYS’ REIGN
ON the morning of March 9, 1888, the Crown Prince was walking in the gardens of the Villa Zirio, when a telegram was brought to him. He took it up with languid interest, but when he read the address, “To His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Frederick William,” there was no need to open the envelope, and it is said that his habitual self-control deserted him, and he burst into tears.