"Imperial Highness is pleased to jest," replied Haeseler. "Peter the Great's last will, so called, was an invention of Napoleon to justify his making war on his friend Alexander, while the third Napoleon revived the fraud for purposes of the Crimean campaign."
In his surprise the War Lord, who knows history only as taught in school, dropped a bit of marmalade on his white cloth tunic.
"Unless you can prove these statements, you will have to pay for cleaning this," he said, looking sharply at Haeseler.
"May it please Your Majesty, I will consult the card index." The marshal pulled out a drawer. "Here it is," he said: "'Napoleon Auteur du Testament de Pierre le Grand,' and here is another volume: 'Les Auteurs du Testament du Pierre le Grand.'"
"Authentic?" queried the War Lord.
"Abundantly so. Shall I send these volumes to the Schloss?"
"No; I have no time for reading olle scharteken" (ancient tomes).
"In that case I'll want them," said Franz, who was of a studious nature. "Have you got anything more on the subject?"
"Only an essay printed in the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung."
"Send that too." The Bavarian town being a stronghold of Catholicism, Franz evidently concluded that anything printed there was akin to gospel.