I had previously been accustomed every evening after dinner to spend some time romping in the next room with the three little Rantzaus. When I asked their mother at lunch how the boys were, she asked me not to let them have their usual game to-day as a punishment, the two elder lads having been rude and insolent to their governess in the morning. The Prince said they must be whipped for that. The Countess replied that she had deprived them of their bath and slapped them on the cheek for it. He rejoined, however, “That is not enough for such naughtiness. They ought to be well whipped.” He then related how he had chastised Herbert and Bill on one occasion, when they took some hazel nuts and then ran away from the ranger. “It was not on account of the nuts, but because they had obliged the old man to run after them through bush and briar until I caught them and gave them a good trouncing, at which the ranger seemed to be greatly surprised.” I inquired of him whether governesses and other persons entrusted with the education of princes were at liberty to chastise them when they were naughty, or whether they had to tell the parents, who decided as to their punishment. He answered the first part of my question in the affirmative, and went on to say that the governess of the Emperor William II. said as she was administering physical chastisement to him on one occasion: “Believe me, Royal Highness, that it hurts me as much as it does you to do this.” “Ah!” exclaimed the little Prince, “and does it hurt you in the same place?” Everybody laughed heartily at the queer form taken by the boy’s curiosity. As we rose from table and Lindau was taking leave before returning home, the Prince asked me: “Are you going to your room now?” “Yes, Serene Highness.” “I will send for you there. I have something I should like to show you.” In about a quarter of an hour I was summoned to the Prince’s study, where the Chief handed me a large packet of letters. “These are from the old Emperor,” he said, and then read me some passages from them. He wished to have them arranged like the former papers. “Again in mere chronological order, according to the dates.” He asked: “But will not that be too much for you?” I replied with an emphatic negative. I was there for that purpose, and it was a pleasure to me to serve him, and at the same time to have something to read and take with me for my information. He continued: “And here, too, is one from old Bodelschwingh-Schwindelbod. And there are others (pointing to a second packet), the correspondence with Andrassy, for instance, in the summer of 1879. You will find information enough there.” He took up the third pile. “These are from the Emperor Frederick when he was Crown Prince, and also one from _her_ from the villa Zivio.” He was about to return them to the drawer of his writing-table, but I begged him to let me have them also. He said smiling, “But, Büschlein, haven’t you already enough?”--“It will be better for me to