e this!"

"I am flattered to think you may be right, sire," I responded in my
natural voice, with a smile.

The Emperor bounded from his seat.

"You--are--Monsieur V----!" he fairly gasped out.

"I was, sire. Permit me to repeat that I am now called Prince
Matsukata of Japan."

Wilhelm II. made an effort, and came out of it with his best manner.

"Then, in that case, you will stay and lunch with the Empress and
myself, my dear Prince."

As soon as the handcuffs had been removed, I told the whole story to
the Kaiser, who was immensely interested, and decidedly touched by
the part which related to the drowned Princess.

Before leaving the Palace, I asked permission of my imperial host to
make use of his private wire for a message to London, in the interest
of peace.

Wilhelm II., who began to see that he had been betrayed into going a
little farther than was altogether desirable, consented in the
friendliest spirit, merely stipulating that he should be allowed to
see the message.

He was rather surprised when he found it was addressed to Lord Bedale
at Buckingham Palace, and comprised a single word, "Elsinore."

And so, although some of the newspapers in the two capitals of
England and Russia continued to breathe war for some days longer, I
felt no more anxiety after reading the paragraph which stated that
the British Prime Minister, at the close of the decisive Cabinet
Council, had driven to the Palace to be received in private audience
by her majesty Queen Alexandra.

EPILOGUE

As I write these lines the war which has cost so many brave lives,
and carried so much desolation through the fields and cities of
Manchuria is still raging.

The great fleet of Admiral Rojestvensky, from which the stains of the
innocent fisherman's blood have not yet been washed, is plowing its
way to meet a terrible retribution at the hands of the victorious
Togo.[C] A curse is on that fleet, and it may be that the British
Government foresaw that they could punish the crime of the Dogger
Bank more terribly by letting it proceed, than by bringing it into
Portsmouth to await the result of the international trial.

[Footnote C: These words, which have been proven prophetic, were
written last March, when Admiral Rojestvensky's fleet was still a
very formidable fact to be reckoned with.--EDITOR.]

In the great affairs of nations it is not always wise to exact strict
justice, or to expose the actual truth.

I, too, am