ince, cast his son into
prison, and ordered him to be shot, merely because he discovered
that he was about to leave the kingdom without his permission for the
purpose of undertaking a trip to England; and there is no doubt that
the crown prince would have been put to death, and thus shared the
fate of his two aids-de-camp, who were beheaded before his very
eyes, in the fortress prison of Kuestrin, had it not been for the
intervention of the ambassadors of Austria, Great Britain, Russia and
France in behalf of his royal highness.

Yet another phase of this despotism, which the two kaisers,--namely
their majesties of Germany and of Austria,--exercise over the members
of their respective families, is the right which they claim to select
and appoint the officers and ladies-in-waiting of every prince and
princess of the blood. In order to appreciate what this means it
must be explained that it is not merely contrary to etiquette, but
absolutely forbidden by the rules and regulations instituted by
Emperor William and his brother sovereigns, that any such princes or
princesses should venture to appear anywhere in public without being
escorted either by a gentleman or a lady-in-waiting. These attendants,
who are, it is needless to state, of noble birth, may be said to
constitute the very shadow of the personage to whose household they
are attached. In fact a royal or imperial prince or princess cannot
even cross the street, far less leave home for a ride, a drive, a
walk, or for the purpose of paying a visit, or of doing some shopping
without being escorted, if a prince, by a gentleman-in-waiting, and
if a princess, by a lady-in-waiting, and possibly by a chamberlain as
well.

Nor are the duties of the ladies and gentlemen-in-waiting confined to
attendance upon their royal charges in public, for they form part and
parcel of the royal or imperial household to which they are attached,
and if they do not occupy quarters in the palace, at any rate they
take all their meals there, since their duties commence in the early
morning, and only cease late at night.

Now, human shadows of this kind are all very well when one is at
liberty to choose them one's self; but it is very different when
one has no voice whatsoever in the matter, and when one is forced to
submit to close and intimate attendance of this kind by ladies and
gentlemen whom one neither likes nor trusts. In such cases as these,
the gentlemen or ladies-in-waiting are a