ime.
Alas! an inscrutable Providence made that time to be crowned only with
the halo of a dawning immortality, a time in which strength and peace
were to be radiated from one anointed by the chrism of pain, and
whose diadem was to shine, not among the treasures of earth, but as
the stars for ever and ever. When the messenger of the fallen Napoleon
III. had brought his unexpected surrender after Sedan, and the flush
of startling victory had mantled even the cheek of the pale and
reticent Von Moltke, had shaken the leonine composure of Bismarck, and
affected the heroic William I. almost to tears, the courtly Frederick
forgot himself and the victory of the cause he had helped to win, in
sympathy for the vanquished foe. The embarrassed general who brought
the surrender of the French had Frederick's instant devotion, and
those first moments of deep humiliation were soothed by the
conversation of the Crown Prince and by kind attentions which all
others forgot to render. With a truth and devotion to his country
which could never be doubted or questioned, he yet had a heart "so
much at leisure from itself" that in the supremest moments of life he
sympathized with friend and foe, as only regal souls can do.

I saw this foremost prince of Europe in the nineteenth century always
and increasingly to admire him, whether in the largest or the
smallest relations of life; whether as royal host entertaining the
sovereigns of Europe and their representatives when that magnificent
assemblage came to greet the ninetieth birthday of his father; dashing
on horseback through the streets of the capital and the riding-paths
of the park; saluting with stately grace his Imperial sire, as he
alone entered the place where the Emperor sat; handing the Crown
Princess to her seat, or going down on his knees to find her Imperial
Highness's misplaced footstool in her pew at church; accompanying his
daughters to places of public amusement and looking upon them with
manly tenderness; or standing with military helmet before his face in
silent prayer, as he entered the house of God to worship before the
King of kings.

My last sight of his Imperial Highness was on one of the latest
occasions of his public appearance in Berlin while in health, in
connection with one of those opportunities of hearing grand music in
which this city excels the rest of the world. It was that most
devotional music ever written,--Bach's Passion Music, rendered once a
year, on t