pt to be regarded in the
light of spies by their royal charges, and as people appointed by the
sovereign to keep watch upon their actions. It is probable that no
one has suffered so cruelly in this connection as the widowed
Empress Frederick of Germany. Possessed of extremely liberal views in
political matters--ideas which she imparted to her consort, she found
herself, within a few years after her marriage, in complete opposition
to Prince Bismarck. The latter regarded her as a very dangerous
opponent, and responded to her openly avowed disapproval of his
political methods by using his influence with her father-in-law, old
Emperor William, urging him to interfere with her management of
her children; and above all, to appoint as members of her household
personages with whom she could have no possible sympathy, political
or otherwise, and who were, in every sense of the word, devoted to
the Iron Chancellor. In fact, Prince Bismarck acknowledges in his
reminiscences, as published by his Boswell, Dr. Busch, that he caused
the crown princess--as Empress Frederick was then--to shed many a
bitter tear, by his interference, through her father-in-law, in her
domestic affairs.

Bismarck made no secret of his enmity towards Empress Frederick and
her husband before the latter ascended the throne, and it is on record
that he even officially insisted that secrets of state should not be
confided to "Unser Fritz," for fear that the latter's consort might
communicate them to her English relatives. He even went so far as to
accuse her of having, during the war of 1870, betrayed to non-German
relatives Prussian military secrets, which were used by the French
against her adopted country, and served to prolong the conflict. These
odious charges, "_which have been abundantly disproved_" and for which
"_there was not even the shadow of a foundation_," are merely referred
to here in order to show the intense bitterness of the personal
animosity entertained by the chancellor towards Empress Frederick. Yet
it was he, Bismarck, who, through the old emperor, had the right of
selecting and nominating, not merely the instructors and attendants of
her boys, but her own gentlemen and ladies-in-waiting--nay, even the
physicians and surgeons to be called in cases of illness.

CHAPTER VI

It is to the part played by Prince Bismarck in selecting the
attendants and tutors of the present emperor that must be ascribed the
strained relations that