long, low villa. Neither father nor son had opened their lips
to me during the drive from the station and I had not ventured to put a
question to either of them, but I knew we were in Potsdam. The little
station in the woods was Wild-Park, I suspected, the private station
used by the Emperor on his frequent journeys and situated in the grounds
of the New Palace. All the officials of the Prussian Court have villas
at Potsdam, though why I had been brought there in connection with an
affair that must surely rather interest the Wilhelm-Strasse or the
Police Presidency was more than I could fathom.

There was a frightful scene in the hall. Without any warning the General
turned on the orderly who had opened the door and screamed abuse at him.
"Camel! Ox! Sheep's-head!" he roared, his face and shining pate
deepening their vermilion hue. "Do I give orders that they shall be
forgotten? What do you mean? You ass...." He put his white-gloved hands
on the man's shoulders and shook him until the fellow's teeth must have
rattled in his head. The orderly, white to the lips, hung limp in the
old man's grasp, muttering apologies: "Ach! Exzellenz! Exzellenz will
excuse me...."

It was a revolting spectacle, but it did not make the least impression
on the son, who, putting down his cap and great-coat and unhooking his
sword, led me into a kind of study. "These orderlies are such
thickheads!" he said.

"Rudi! Rudi!" a hoarse, strident voice screamed from the hall. The
lieutenant ran out.

"You've got to take the fellow to Berlin to-night. The message was here
all the time--that numskull Heinrich forgot it. And we've got to keep
the fellow here till then! An outrage, having the house used as a
barrack for a rascally detective!" Thus much I heard, as the door had
been left open. Then it closed and I heard no more.

As I had heard this much, there was a certain irony in the invitation to
dinner subsequently conveyed to me by the young Uhlan. There was nothing
for it but to accept. I knew I was caught deep in the meshes of Prussian
discipline, every one had his orders and blindly carried them out, from
the garrulous Major on the frontier to this preposterous _Exzellenz_,
this Imperial aide-de-camp of Potsdam. I was already a tiny cog in a
great machine. I should have to revolve or be crushed.

His Excellency left me in no doubt on this point. When I was ushered
into his study, after a much-needed wash and a shave, he received me
stand