“I am rejoiced that you thus salute me as a fellow-countryman, and I thank you for the honor you do me. I see in it a proof that the feeling of solidarity has also grown stronger and stronger with you; and of this I shall joyfully inform the King. We have always belonged to each other as Germans—we have ever been brothers—but we were unconscious of it. In this country, too, there were different races: Schleswigers, Holsteiners, and Lauenburgers; as, also, Mecklenburgers, Hanoverians, Lübeckers, and Hamburgers exist, and they are all free to remain what they are, in the knowledge that they are Germans—that they are brothers. And here in the north we should be doubly aware of it, with our Platt Deutsch language, which stretches from Holland to the Polish frontier: we were also conscious of it, but have not proclaimed it until now. But that we have again so joyfully and vividly been able to recognize our German descent and solidarity—for that we must thank the man whose wisdom and energy have rendered this consciousness a truth and a fact, in bringing our King and Lord a hearty cheer. Long live His Majesty, our most gracious King and Sovereign, William the First!”
A threefold cheer was heard throughout the castle-yard. The torch-bearers and pedestrians then accompanied the honored man to the railway station hard by, where the farmers, who had led the procession on horseback, were introduced to the Count, and were greeted by him in friendly accents. A hurrah of many hundreds of voices followed the train as it glided away.
CHAPTER V.
A BALL AT BISMARCK’S.
Beauty and might,
With honor bedight,
Assembled by night,
Shining so bright:
And what was not flower a plant would be—