¶ The imperial messenger arrived with the Kaiser’s portrait, as a farewell souvenir to Prince Bismarck. His wife exclaimed: “Take it to Friedrichsruh and let it be placed in the stable!”
¶ At the depot, a great crowd came to see the old man depart for the country, but the Kaiser was not there.
Bismarck’s hoary age, his great dignity, his known services to Germany, were now dear to the heart of Germans; thousands gathered, in spontaneous farewell, crowding around the old man and kissing his hand.
¶ Now let us face the facts.
To a man of Bismarck’s iron mold, the exercise of power is the breath of life; this made it a tragedy for the aged Bismarck to withdraw.
It was but natural for him, as time passed and his ambition grew, that he should believe himself the sole founder of the German Empire. His constant utterances after his downfall bear out this idea. The composite victory of scores of minds merged in his imagination and now crystallized in his own soul victory. Such is human nature, and so we say “Wellington won the Battle of Waterloo,” but is this strictly true? True or false, such is human habit of thought, and Bismarck was also now shown to be human enough to claim it all for himself.
¶ The story of Wolsey over again; our old counsellor of state thrown off in his declining years; and we can almost hear Bismarck in his great bitterness repeat the tragic words:
Had I but serv’d my God with half the zeal
I serv’d my King, he would not in my age
Have left me naked to mine enemies!