Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Private Lives of William II and His Consort and Secret History of the Court of Berlin, Vol. 2: From the Papers and Diaries Extending Over a Period, Beginning June, 1888, to the Spring of 1898, of Ursula, Countess Von Eppinghoven
Writhing under this undeserved rebuke, - the gratitude of kin gs, - I was about to say a word that would have tumbled to the ground the cardhouse of self-satisfied assurance, but conquered my passion. Such is life at Court! One has to do things one's womanhood condemns, and is insulted for carrying out the all-highest commands. I had told the truth about Countess Hohenau, but did not tell all I observed. If pique had got the better of me, if I had added to my description of the incidents a hint about the graceful courtesy with which Countess Fritz accepted, at the end of the chase, the customary green twig from His Majesty's hand, raised it to her lips, and buried it in her bosom, the whole complexion of social life in the capital for the next two or three years might have been changed, for that knowledge would have wrought the Empress up to such a pitch of passion that, by some decisive step, she would have made it impossible for William to continue in his intrigue. But the courtly usages in which I was brought up compelled me to resist the impulse of anger as well as that of outraged propriety. My mistress never learned the complete, unvarnished story of the Hubertus hunt. Thou shalt not breathe anything disagreeable, reads the law governing a courtier's life, thou shalt not.
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