“And the way I wrote to him in order to bring him round,” added the Chancellor. “I knew that he could not bear me, and did not trust me. So I wrote to him at last, that one of our estates had been granted to our family by Ludwig, the Bavarian, as Lord of Brandenburg, and that consequently we had had relations with his house for more than five centuries. That was true, in so far as the estates which we now hold were given to us in exchange for those which the Hohenzollerns extorted from us. Holnstein said the letter must have pleased the King very much, as he asked to read it again. It was Holnstein who did most in this matter. He played his part very cleverly. Tell me (to Bohlen), what Order can we give him?”
Bohlen: “He got the first class of the red fowl (the Red Eagle), when the Crown Prince was in Munich.”
“Well then,” said the Chief, “he has got the highest decoration that can be given to him.”
Bohlen: “Well, the King might give him the Imperial German Order, about which Stillfried is already meditating, or he can found a new Prussian Order, and thus supply a long-felt want.”
The Chief: “The Green Lion.”
Bohlen: “The German Order, with a black, white, and red ribbon.”
The Chief: “Or with the colours of the German Knights, a white ribbon with small black stripes. It looks very well. The King did not rightly know what it was all about when Holnstein requested an audience. He said to me, ‘I observed to Holnstein, that I supposed he wished to see Versailles.’ Of course, he (King William) could not have arranged that himself”—(i.e., he could not have arranged to acquire the Imperial dignity through the good offices of Bavaria.)
Werther, our Minister at Munich, seems to have reported that it was intended there to commission Prince Luitpold with the proclamation of the Emperor. The Chancellor observed: “A singular idea! Another example of the way in which Bray treats matters of business. How is he to do it? Step on to a balcony, and proclaim it?—to whom? That might do if all the Princes were here—but with the three or four now present! I had hoped that we should have made peace before German unity was secured.”
Bohlen: “How pleased the King will feel at being made Emperor! and still more so, the Crown Prince!”
The Chief: “Yes, and no doubt he is already thinking about the cut of the Imperial robes.”