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54 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
the Atlantic. He relied on his soldiers’ superb bravery and
contempt of death and on the officers who led them on land
and water.
If the French had any idea of the Emperor’s real feelings
towards them, they would judge him very differently. Surely
no one thinks that I would take the responsibility of attri-
buting to the Emperor opinions other than those which had
fallen from his lips and which I myself had heard ! It would
be an ill reward for the hospitality I met with in the German
Army.
The conversation turned besides on many other topics. The
Emperor said many strong and manly things. He spoke like
Gustavus Adolphus, when he first landed in Germany with his
Swedish Army to bring succour to the Protestant princes and
to fight for the liberty of thought and religion on this earth.
When the German Emperor talks thus—then I have truly no
time to eat beef and vegetables—then I prefer to listen and
to order sandwiches afterwards, when back in my room at the
hotel.
On a table in the chancellerie were cigars and cigarettes
round a lighted candle. Here the conversation was continued
with zest and vigour, and jest and earnest, horrors of war and
funny stories were all jumbled together ; finally the Emperor
took his leave, wishing me a successful and instructive trip,
and went up to his apartments, where no doubt piles of papers
and letters, reports and telegrams awaited him.
The talk of the Emperor having aged during the war, and
of the war with all its labours and anxieties having sapped his
strength and health, is all nonsense. His hair is no more pro-
nouncedly iron grey than before the war, his face has colour,
and far from being worn and thin, he is plump and strong,
bursting with energy and rude health. A man of Emperor
William’s stamp is in his element when, through the force
of circumstances, he is compelled to stake all he possesses and
above all himself for the good and glory of his country. But
his greatest quality is that he is a human being and that with
all his fulminant force he is humble before God.
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