"There is but one master, myself, and I will suffer none other beside me."
For the future William will only make his appearances accompanied by heralds clad in the costumes of the Middle Ages, bodyguards drawn from the nobility, surrounding the summus episcopus, pope and khalif of the Protestant Church.
The extremely curious mixture which unceasingly permeates the character of William II may be observed in the orders which he, the mystic, the pious, has recently given to the chaplains of the Court, viz. that they are never to preach in his presence for more than twenty minutes. Naturally enough, the Prussian pastors are extremely indignant at the cavalier way in which the summus episcopus treats the Holy Word.
May 29, 1891. [9]
The business of a Sovereign is not a bed of roses, and causes of discomfiture are just as frequent in the palaces of kings as in the humblest cottages. William II has just had more than one experience of this humiliating truth, but it must be admitted he fully deserves most of the lessons he receives.
Instead of saying, as he used to say, "my august confederates and myself," he has suddenly conceived the pretension that he and he alone is the sole master in Germany. Accordingly the august confederates by common consent, although invited by the Grand Marshal of the Palace, Count Eulenberg, have refused to take part in the trifling folly of the Golden Throne that William is having made for himself. Kings, Grand Dukes and Senators of the Free Cities, all have unanimously declared that they will never assist "in the erection of a throne which is the sign and attribute of sovereignty."
But to continue the list: At Strelitz, a clergyman refused the request of the Prussian colonel of the 89th Regiment to allow his church to be used for a thanksgiving service in honour of the birth of William II, and preached a sermon declaring that the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and he alone, had the right to have a divine service and a sermon in honour of his birthday.
And yet another instance: The Emperor has organised a regatta to be held on Lake Wannsee on May 30 for all yachts and pleasure boats owned by princes and by the German aristocracy. The Archduke, heir to the Austrian Throne, has refused to honour the occasion with his presence.
The toast at Dusseldorf, "Myself the only Master," has been very generally condemned; equally that which the Emperor addressed to the students at Bonn, when he said to them "Let your jolly rapiers have full play," or in other words, "Indulge to the top of your bent, and without regard to the laws, in your orgies of brutality." People in Germany are beginning to think that William reminds them a little too much of the incoherencies of his great-uncle, Frederick William, who was undoubtedly clever in all sorts of ways, but who died insane.
At the shipyards of Elbing, William II narrowly escaped being wounded by the fall of the large mast of the ship Kohlberg, which had been sawn through in several places. He has just had his coachman, Menzel, arrested, who very nearly brought him to his death by driving him into a lime tree in a troika presented to him by the Tzar.