Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 167, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1917 — The Secrets of the Hohenzollerns [ARTICLE]

The Secrets of the Hohenzollerns

EDITORIAL NOTE. William LeQneux, who here chronicle* for hie friend, Count Ernst von Helteendorff, the latter’s revelations of the inner life of the Imperial German court, has long been recognised throughout Europe as the possessor of its innermost secrets. The English “Who’s Who” says of him: “He bps Intimate knowledge of the secret service of Continental countries and is considered by the government (of Great Britain) an authority on such matters.’’ Another authority says: “Few people have been more closely associated with or know more of the astounding inner machinery of Germany than he.” LeQueux probably has more sources of secret information at hie command than any contemporary in civil life, and for the last six years the British Government has made valuable use of his vast store of secret Information through a specially organised department with which LeQueax works as a voluntary assistant. Count von Heltsendorlf became an intimate of LeQueux several years prior to the outbreak of the warj he has been living la retirement in France since August, 1914, and It was there that LeQueux received from the crown prince’s late personal adjutant permission to make public these revelations of the inner life of the Hohensollerns —that the democracies of the world might come to know the real, but heretofore hidden, personalities of the two dominant members of the autocracy they are now arrayed against.

On arrival there we went to the Royal hotel, where the crown prince registered as Mr. Richter, engaging a private suite of rooms for himself and his secretary, myself. For three days we remained there, taking motor runs to Dartmoor, and also down into Cornwall, until on the morning of the fourth day the crown prince said: “I shall probably have a visitor this morning about eleven o’clock —a young lady named King. Tell them at the bureau to send her up to my sitting j'rooqi.” x At the time appointed the lady came. I received her in the lobby of the selfcontained flat, and found her to be about twenty-four, well-dressed, fairhaired and extremely good-looking. Miss King, I learned, was an English girl who some years previously had gone to America with her people, and by the heavy traveling coat and close-fitting hat she wore I concluded that she had just come off one of the incoming liners. One thing which struck me as I looked at her was the brooch she wore. It was a natural butterfly of a rare tropical variety, with bright golden wings, the delicate sheen of which was protected by small plates of crystal—one of the most charming ornaments I had ever seen.

day evening, and we will dine together.” “But I can’t—l really can’t do as you wish. You surely will not compel me to —to commit a crime!” The Crown Prince’s Threat “Hush!” he cried. “I have shown you these papers, and you know my instructions. Remember that your father must know nothing. Nobody must suspect, or you will find yourself in equal.peril with your brother.” “You —you are cruel!” sobbed the girl. “No, no,” he said cheerfully. “Don’t cry, please. Think it all over. Miss King, and meet me in London on Thursday night.” After listening to the appointment, I discreetly withdrew Into the corridor on pretense of summoning a waiter, and when I returned the pretty English girl was taking leave of “Mr. Richter.” ; Her blue eyes betrayed traces of emotion, and she was, I saw, very pale, her bearing quite unlike her attitude when she had entered there. “Well, good-by, Miss King,” said his highness, grasping her hand. “It was really awfully good of you to call. We shall meet again very soon —eh? Goodby.” Then, turning to me, be asked me to conduct her out. On returning to the crown prince, I found him in a decidedly savage mood. He was pacing the floor impatiently, muttering angrily to himself, for it was apparent that some plan of hiswas being thwarted by the girl’s refusal to conform to his wishes and obtain certain information he was seeking. The crown prince, when in a foreign country, was never idle. His energy was such that he was ever on the move, with eyes and ears always open to learn whatever he could. Hence it was at two o’clock that afternoon Knof brought round a big gray open car, and in it I sat beside the emperor’s son while we were driven around the defenses of Plymouth, just as on previous occasions we had inspected those of Portsmouth and of Dover.

As I ushered her in she greeted the crown prince as “Mr. Richter,” being apparently entirely unaware of his real identity. I concluded that she was somebody whom his highness had met in Germany, and to whom he had been introduced under his assumed name. “Ah! Miss King!” he exclaimed pleasantly in his excellent English, shaking hands with her. “Your boat should have been in yesterday. I fear you encountered bad weather—eh?” “Yes, rather,*’ replied the girl. “But it did not trouble me much. ‘We had almost constant gales ever since we left New York,” she laughed brightly. She appeared to be quite a charming little person. “Heltzendorff, would you please bring me that sealed packet from your dispatch oox?” he asked suddenly, turning to me. The sealed packet! I had forgotten, all about it ever since he had handed it to me at the door of the Marmor palace. I knew that it contained some secret reports prepared for the eye of the emperor. The latter had no doubt seen them, for the crown prince had brought them with him from Berlin. As ordered, T took the packet into the room where his highness sat with his fair visitor, and then I retired and closed the door.

"I Can’t; It Would Be Dishonest!" Hotel doors are never very.heavy, as a rule, therefore, I was able to hear conversation, but unfortunately few words were distinct. The interview had lasted nearly half an hour. Finding that I could hear nothing, I contented myself in reading the paper and holding myself in readiness should “Mr. Richter” want me. Of a sudden I heard his highness’ voice raised in anger, that shrill, highpitched note which is peculiar both to the emperor and to his son when they are unusually annoyed. “But I tell you, Miss King, there is no other way,” I heard him shout. “It can be done quite easily, and nobody can possibly know.” “Never!” cried the girl. "What would people think of me?” “You wish to save your brother,” he said. “Very well, I have shown you how you can effect this. And I will help you if you agree to the terms — if you will find out what I want to know.” “I can’t I” cried the girl in evident distress. “I really can’t! It would be dishonest —criminal!” “Bah 1 my dear girl, you are looking at the affair from far too high a standpoint,” replied the man she knew as Richter. “It is a mete matter of business. You ask me to assist you to save your brother, and I have simply stated my terms. Surely you would not think that I would travel from Berlin here to Plymouth in order to meet you if I were not ready and eager to help you?” “I must ask my father. I can speak to him in confidence.” “Your father!” cried Mr. Rltflter. “By no ° means. Why, you must not breathe a single word to him. This affair is a strict secret between us. Please understand that.”" Then, after a pause: “Your brother is, I quite admit, in direst peril, and you alone can save him. Now, what is your decision?” The girl’s reply was in a tone too low for me to overhear. Its tenor, however, was quickly apphrent from the crown prince’s Words: “You refuse! Very well, then, I cannot assist yob. I regret, Miss King, that you have your journey to England for nothing.” . “But won’t you help me, Mr. Richter?” cried the girl appealingly. “No,” was his answer. “I will, however, give you opportunity to reconsider your decision. You are, no doubt, going to London. So am L You will.meet me in the hall of the Carlton hotel at seven o’clock on Thurs-

main a few days in Ostend, before we return to Potsdam.” Next afternoon we had taken up our quarters at a small but very select hotel on the Digue at Ostend, a place called the “Beau Sejour.” It was patronized by old-fashioned folk, and “Herr Richter” was well known there. There may have been some who suspected that Richter was not the visitor’s real name, but they were few, and it always surprised me how well the crown prince succeeded in preserving his incognito—though, of course, the authorities knew of the imperial visit. The English Girl Again. The following day, about three o’clock, while the crown prince was carelessly going through some letters brought by couriers from Potsdam, a waiter came to me with a message that a Miss King desired to see Mr. Richter. In surprise I received her, welcoming her to Ostend. From the neat dress of the pretty English girl I concluded that she had just crossed from Dover, and she seemed most anxious to see his highness. I noted that she still wore the beautiful golden butterfly. When I entered his room to announce her the crown prince’s brow knit, and his thin lips compressed. “H’m ! More trouble for us, Heltzendorff, I suppose! Very well, show her in.” The fair visitor was in the room for a long time —indeed, for over an hour. Their voices were raised, and now and then, curiously enough, I received the impression that, whatever might have been the argument, the pretty girl bad gained her own point, for when she came out she smiled at me in triumph, and walked straight forth and down the stairs. The crown prince threw himself into a big armchair in undisguised dissatisfaction. Towards me he never wore a mask, though, like his father, he invariably did so in the presence of strangers. “Those accursed women!” he cried. “Ah, Heltzendorff, when a woman is in love she will defy even satan himself! And yet they are fools, these women, for they, are in ignorance of the irresistible power of our imperial house. The enemies of the Hohenzollerns are as a cloud of gnats on a summer’s night. The dew comes, and they are no more. It is a pity. Has not one of our greatest German philosophers written: ‘lt? is no use breathing against the wind?’ ” “True,” I said. “But, surely, it is a nuisance to be followed and wonted by that little English girl I” “Worried! Yes. You are quite right, my dear Heltzendorff. But I do not mind worry, if it is in the interests of Prussia, and of our house of Hohenzollern. I admit the girl, though distinctly pretty, is a most irresponsible person. She does not appeal to me, but I am compelled to humor her, because I have a certain object in view.”

On the following Thursday evening we had returned to London, and the crown prince, without telling me where he was going, left the Ritz hoteh merely explaining that he might not be back till midnight It was on that occasion, my dear LeQueux, you will remember, that I dined with you at the Devonshire club, and we afterward spent a pleasant evening together at the Empire. I merely told you that- his highness was out at dinner with a friend. You were, naturally, Inquisitive, but I did not satisfy your curiosity. Secrecy was then my duty. A Sample of German Preparedness. On returning to the hotel I found the crown prince arranging with Knof a motor run along the Surrey hills on the following day. He had a large map spread before him —a German military map, the curious marks, upon which would have no doubt astonished any war office official. The map indicated certain spots which had been secretly prepared by Germany in view of the projected Invasion. To those spots we motored on the following day. His Imperial highness, at the Instigation of the emperor, actually made a tour of inspection of those cunningly concealed points of vantage which the Imperial general staff had, with their marvelous forethought and bold enterprise, already prepared right beneath the very nose of the sleeping. British Hon. From the crown prince’s jaunty manner and good spirits I felt assured that by the subtle persuasive powers he possessed towards women be had brought the mysterious Miss King into line with hla own plans—whatever they might be. We lunched at the Burford Bridge hotel, that pretty, old-fashioned house beneath Box hill, not far from Dorking. After our meal in the long public room, we strolled into the ground? for a smoke. "Well, Heltsendorff” he said presently, “we will return to the- continent tomorrow. Our visit has not been altogether abortive. We will re-

I could not go further, or I might have betrayed the knowledge I had gained by eavesdropping. "I was surprised that she should turn up here, in Ostend,” I said. “I had written to her. I expected her.” “She does not know your real rank •or station?” “No. To her lam merely Herr Emil Richter, whom she first met away in the country. She was a tourist, and ! was Captain Emil Richter of the Prussian Guards. We met while you were away on a hoUday at Vienna.” I was anxious to learn something about Miss King's brother, but “Willie” was generally discreet, and at that moment unusually so. One fact was plain, however, that some secret report presented to the emperor had been shown to her. Why? I wondered if his highness bad been successful in coercing her into acting as he desired. Certainly the girl’s attitude as She had left the hotel went to show that, in the contest, she had won by her woman’s keen wit and foresight. A. fortnight afterwards we were back again at Potsdam. A Surprise Package for “Willie." About three months passed. The had accompanied the emperor to shoot on the Glatzer Gebirge.

STARTLING EXPOSURE OF INNER LIFE OF KAISER AND CROWN PRINCE AS TOLD BY COUNT ERNST VON HELTZENDORFF TO WILLIAM LEQUEUX

that wild mountainous district beyond Breslau. For a week we had been staying at a great, high-up prisonlike schloss, the ancestral home of Prince Ludwig Lichtenau, in the Wolfelsgrund. The emperor and his suite had left, and our host had been suddenly called to Berlin by telegram, his daughterJhavlng been ill. Therefore, the crown prince and we of the suite had remained for some further sport. On the day after the emperor’s departure I had spent the afternoon in a small paneled room which overlooked a deep mountain gorge, and which had been given up to me for work. I was busy with correspondence when the courier from Potsdam entered and gave me the battered leather pouch containing the crown prince’s letters. Having unlocked it with my key, I found among the correspondence a small square packet addressed to his imperial highness, and marked “private.” “Now, fearing bombs or attempts by other means upon his son’s life, the emperor had commanded me always to open packets addressed to him. This one, however, being marked “private,” and, moreover, the inscription being in a feminine hand, I decided to await his highness’ return.

When at last he came in, wet and muddy after a long day’s sport, I showed him the packet. With a careless air he said: “Oh, open it, Heltzendorff. Open all packets, whether marked private or not.” “I obeyed, and to my surprise found within the paper a small leather-cov-ered Jewel case, in which, reposing upon a bed of dark blue velvet, was the beautiful ornament which I had admired at the throat of the fairhaired British girl—the golden butterfly. I handed It to his highness just as he was taking a cigarette froin the box on a side table. The sight of if electrified him. He held his breath, standing for a few seconds staring at it as though he were gazing upon some specter. His countenance was as white as paper. “When did that arrive?” he managed to ask, in a hoarse voice, which showed how completely sight of it had upset him. “This afternoon. It was in the courier’s pouch from Potsdam.” “If the Truth Came Out." He seemed highly nervous, and at the same time extremely puzzled. Receipt of that unique and beautiful brooch was, I saw, some sign, but of its real significance I remained in entire ignorance. That it had a serious meaning I quickly realized, for within half an hour the crown prince and myself were in the train on our 200-mile journey back to Berlin.

On arrival his imperial highness drove straight to the Berlin Schloss, and there had a long interview with the emperor. At last I was called Into the familiar pale-green room, the kaiser’s private cabinet, and at once saw that something untoward had occurred. The emperor’s face was dark and thoughtful. The crown prince. In his badly creased uniform betraying a long journey—so unlike his usual spick-and-span appearance, stood nervously by as the kaiser threw himself into his writing chair with a deep grunt and distinctly evil grace. “I suppose it must be done,” he growled to his son. "Did I not foresee that the girl would constitute a serious menace? When she was In Germany she might easily have been arrested upon some charge and her mouth closed. Bah! our political police service grows worse and worse. We will have It entirely reorganized. The director, Laubach, is far too sentimental, far too chicken-hearted.” As he spoke he took up his pen and commenced to write rapidly, drawing a deep breath as his quill scratched upon the paper.

“You realize,” he exclaimed angrily to his son, taking no notice of my presence there, because I was part and parcel of the great machinery of the court, “you realize what this order means? It is a blow struck against our cause —struck by a mere slip of a girl. Think, if the truth eaihe out 1 Why, all our propaganda Tn the United States and Britain would be nuiHfied in a single day, and the ‘good relations’ we are how extending on every hand throughout the world in order to mislead our enemies would be exposed in all their true meaning. We cannot afford that It would be far cheaper to pay twenty million marks —the annual cost of the whole propaganda in America—than to allow the truth to be knovm.” Suddenly the crown prince’s face brightened, as though he had had some inspiration. •The truth will not be known, I promise you,” he said, with a strange grin. I knew that expression. 11l meant that he had devised some, fresh plan. "The girl is defiant today, but she will not remain so long. I will take your order, but I may not have occasion to put it in force.”

, *.‘Ah !* You have perhaps something—eh? I hope so,” said the emperor. "You are usually ingenious in a crisis. Good! Here is the order • act just as you think fit” "I was summoned, your majesty,* I said, in order to remind him of my presence there. ’ “Ah! Yes. You know this Mia* King, do you not?” ■ ; “I received her in Plymouth,” was my reply. “Ah! then you will recognize her. Probably your services may be very urgently required within the next few hours. You may go,” and his majesty curtly dismissed me. I waited In the corridor until his imperial highness came forth. When he did so he looked flushed and seemed agitated.. There had, I knew, occurred a violent scene between father and son, for to me it seemed as though “Willie” had again fallen beneath the influence of a pretty face. He drove me In a big Mercedes over to Potsdam where I had a quantity of military documents awaiting Attention, and after a change of clothes I tackled them. Yet my mind kept constantly reverting to the mystery surrounding the golden butterfly. A Note From Miss King. After dinner that night I returned to my workroom, when, upon my blottingpad, I found a note addressed to me in the crown prince’s sprawling hand. Opening it, I found that he had scribbled this, message: “I have left Tell Eckhardt hot to trouble. Come alone, and meet me tomorrow night at the Palast hotel, in Hamburg. I shall call at seven o’clock and ask for Herr Richter. I shall also use that name. Tell nobody of my journey, not even the crown princess—-Wilhelm, Kronprinx” I read the note through a second, time, and then burned it Next day I arrived at the Palast hotel, facing the Binnenalster, in Hamburg, giving my name as Herr Richter. At seven o’clock I awaited his highness. Eight o’clock eame—nine-—ten —even eleven —midnight, but, though I sat in the private room I had engaged, no visitor arrived. Just after twelve, however, a waiter brought up a note addressed to Herr Richter.

Believing it to be meant for me, I opened it To my great surprise, I found that it was from the mysterious Miss King, and evidently intended for the crown prince. It read: “My brother was released from the Altona prisoq this evening—I presume, owing to your Intervention—and we are now both safely on our way across to Harwich. You have evidently discovered at last that I aid not the helpless girl you believed me to be. When your German police arrested my brother Walter In Bremen as a spy of Britain I think you will admit that they acted very injudiciously, in face of all that my brother and myself know today. At Plymouth you demanded, as the price of Walter’s liberty, that I should become attached to your secret service In America and betray the man who adopted me and brought me up as his own daughter. But you never dreamed the extent of my knowledge of your country’s intrigues; you did not know that, through my brother and the man who adopted me as his daughter, I know the full extent at your subtle propaganda. You were, I admit, extremely clever, Herr Richter, and I confess that I was quite charmed when you sent me, as souvenir, that golden butterfly which I. returned to yoh as a mark of my refusal and defiance of the conditions you Imposed upon me for the release of my brother from the sentence of fifteen years to a fortress. This time, Herr Richter, a woman wins. Further, I warn you that if you attempt any reprisal my brother will at once expose Germany’s machinations abroad. He has, I assure you, many good friends, both to Britain and America. Therefore if you desire silence you will make no effort to trace me further. Adieu!” Twelve hours later I handed that letter to the crown prince in Potsdam. Where he had been in the meantime I did not know. He read it through; then he crushed It in his hands aad tossed it Into the fire. (Copyright, 1917, William LeQueuxJ