SECRET MEMOIRS ***
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SECRET MEMOIRS
William II and Francis Joseph
VOLUME I
[Illustration: _WILLIAM II EMPEROR OF GERMANY_ _From Life_]
SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE COURTS OF EUROPE
William II _Germany_
Francis Joseph _Austria Hungary_
BY
MME. LA MARQUISE DE FONTENOY
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I
ILLUSTRATED
1900
PUBLISHERS' NOTE
The essential qualifications for an author of such a work as the present are an actual acquaintance with the persons mentioned, an intimate knowledge of their daily lives, and a personal familiarity with the scenes described.
The author of William II. and Francis-Joseph, sheltered under the _nom de plume_ of Marquise de Fontenoy, is a lady of distinguished birth and title. Her work consists largely of personal reminiscences, and descriptions of events with which she is perfectly familiar; a sort of panoramic view of the characteristic happenings and striking features of court life, such as will best give a true picture of persons and their conduct.
There has been no attempt to trammel the subject,--which embraces religious, official, social and domestic life,--by following a strictly sequential form in the narrative, but the writer's aim has been to present her facts in a familiar way, impressing them with characteristic naturalness and lifelike reality.
To this task the author has brought the habits of a watchful observer, the candor of a conscientious narrator, and the refinement of a writer who respects her subject. Hence she presents a true, vivid and interesting picture of court life in Germany and Austria. If such merely sensational, and too often fictitious, unsavory tales as crowd the so-called court narratives expressly concocted for the "society" columns of the periodical press are not the most prominent features of the present work, it is because they receive only a truthful recognition and place in its pages.
WILLIAM II
AND
FRANCIS-JOSEPH
CHAPTER I
"If only Emperor William would be true to himself--be natural, in fact!" exclaimed Count S----, a Prussian nobleman, high in the diplomatic service of his country, with whom I was discussing the German Emperor a year or so ago. Then my friend, who had, a short time previously, been brought into frequent personal contact with his sovereign, in connection with his official duties, went on to say:
"There are really two distinct characters, one might almost say two personalities, in the kaiser. When he is himself he is the most charming companion that it is possible to conceive. His manners are as genial and as winning as those of his father and grandfather, both of whom he surpasses in brilliancy of intellect, and in quickness of repartee, as well as in a keen sense of humor. He gives one the impression of possessing a heart full of the most generous impulses,--aye, of a generosity carried even to excess, and this, together with a species of indescribable magnetism which appears to radiate from him in these moments, contributes to render him a most sympathetic man."
"But," interposed an Englishman who was present, "that is not how he is portrayed to the outer world. Nor is that the impression which he made upon me and upon others when he was at Cowes."
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