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THE EMPEROR WILLIAM 51
flagrant everyday clothes—in the field nothing is carried for
show. Among the Emperor’s suite I recognised a couple of
old acquaintances, the Headquarters Commandant, Adjutant-
General, Colonel-General von Plessen, and the President of
the Navy Council, Admiral von Miiller, of Swedish descent,
who spoke Swedish as fluently as German, The others were
his Excellency von Treutler and Lieutenant-General Baron
Marschall, Colonel von Mutius, acting aide-de-camp, the
Princes Pless and Arnim and the Emperor’s body-physician.
Dr. Ilberg. We were thus ten all told.
At the stroke of one the door from the vestibule was opened
and Emperor William entered with a firm, quiet step. All
glances were fixed on the strongly built, well-knit figure.
The room became as quiet as the grave. One realised that one
was in the presence of a great personality. The little room,
otherwise so humble, now had a deeper significance. Here
was the axis, the pivot round which the world’s happenings
turned. Here was the centre from which the war was directed.
Germany is to be crushed, so say its enemies. " Magst ruhig
sein," ^ says the German army to its Fatherland. And here
in our midst stands its supreme war-lord, a picture of manliness,
resolution and honourable frankness. Around him flit the
thoughts and passions of the whole world. He is the object of
love, blind confidence and admiration, but also of fear, hate
and calumny. Round him, who loves peace, rages the greatest
war of all times, and his name is ringed with strife. A man
who, in a nation sprung from the same race, can arouse such
fierce hatred and call forth such outrageous indictments, must
indeed possess a very remarkable personality. For otherwise
his detractors would leave him in peace and empty the vials
of their wrath on someone else, more formidable still. But
all that calumny, meanness and craven fear can inspire has
been poured on his head. His intentions are distorted, his
words are misconstrued and his actions are turned into crimes.
But in the whole of Germany, throughout the German army,
his praises are sung. In the field services, in all the churches
of Germany, everywhere fervent prayer’s for his safety are
offered up. " Magst ruhig sein," the soldiers may well say
to their Emperor, and they on their part know that he will
never fail in his duty and that he will never withdraw a single
’From the line "Lied Vaterland magst ruhig sein" ("Be undismayed, dear
Fatherland "), in Die Wacht am Rhein.
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