I have been back about two weeks and am quite settled again. I have always two or three disagreeable days when I first come back from France. The coal fires try me very much and I think regretfully of the enormous chimneys at Bourneville and the trees that we burned there. We have a fog and it is very cold. Francis and I went to skate yesterday at the Botanical Gardens. The ice was very bad, there was very little room, and swarms of children struggling along on their little skates, but the outing was pleasant. I also went one day with a friend to Wimbledon, and that was better. We drove down and had a pleasant afternoon, but the ice was soft, and it was the end. Really though, in March in England, one could hardly expect to skate.
March 8th.
Hilda came in this morning with very bad news of the German Emperor. The Crown Prince was to start from the Riviera, and I am afraid he is in a bad way too. He looked such a magnificent man at the Jubilee Fêtes. Of course even then his voice and colour showed that something was wrong, but it was difficult to believe that a mortal disease was mining his strength. We have had telegrams all the afternoon, and at 5 they told us the Emperor was dead. We sent immediately to Mrs. Jeune, where we were engaged to dine to meet Prince and Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, to know if her dinner was put off; but the answer came back that the dinner was to take place. We went of course, and found Princess Christian and Lady Salisbury. Prince Christian, as a German Prince and a relation of the German Royal Family, did not come; neither did Lord Salisbury, who had received a telegram from Berlin announcing the Emperor's death. The Princess looked anxious and was evidently very much worried at the journey of the Crown Prince in such weather, in his delicate state. She left almost instantly after dinner. The Drawing-room is postponed. The Crown Prince starts to-morrow morning. All eyes are upon him, and will follow his journey with hopes and fears.
Sunday, March 18th.
We all went to the funeral service for the German Emperor this morning in the German Lutheran Chapel close to Marlborough House. I was quite correct this time, and was swathed in crêpe; Mrs. Lecky has lent me her long crêpe veil, which will serve again probably, as everyone seems to think the Emperor Frederick is doomed. All the men were in uniform with crêpe on their sleeves and sword hilts (the Germans with their helmets covered with crêpe) and the women in woollen dresses with crêpe veils. Almost all the Princesses were there (not the Princess of Wales), but the Princes were in Berlin. The service was long, and curiously enough was not the Lutheran service, but the regular Church of England service translated into German. It was done, it seems, for George II, who was obliged to follow the Church of England service, and who didn't understand a word of English. There was much chanting, two addresses, and a sermon.
Everyone of course is talking and speculating over what will happen in Germany. All the doctors say the Emperor Frederick is near his end. No one seems to know exactly what will be the attitude of the present Crown Prince. He is young, intelligent, with an iron will; all good qualities in a sovereign, but he has little experience and an absolute confidence in his own judgment.
To H. L. K.
London, April 25, 1888.
We hear a great deal now here about Boulanger, and there seems to be the most extraordinary "engouement" for him here as well as in France. Roustan, the Naval Attaché, has just come back from Paris and says the state of things is very serious, people have lost their heads over Boulanger. He (R.) thinks it is the most serious crisis France has passed through since the Commune. W. is less blue—he knows the famous General very little, but doesn't think there is much character or backbone there.
We had a big dinner the other night at Lord Rothschild's, and Lord Hartington, a well-known political and social figure, sat between me and the Princesse de Wagram. He naturally asked us, the only two Frenchwomen at table, what we thought of Boulanger. The Princess spoke most enthusiastically of him. The one man in France who could regenerate the country, and who would be supported by all parties. I said exactly the contrary, and that I thought his popularity and power very much exaggerated. Lord Hartington was rather amused at the two opinions so absolutely at variance.