Cadinen (pronounced Cad_ee_nen) and its glories were, for the first few months of our acquaintance, a frequent topic of the Princess’s conversation, so that it was with very lively interest that I found myself in the month of June of the following year journeying towards its promised felicities. We were travelling all night in the special train, which carried the usual portentous amount of luggage, besides three tutors, one doctor, a lady-in-waiting, myself, and various footmen and maids. In addition to Prince Joachim and his sister, their two young cousins, Princes Max and Fritz of Hesse, whose acquaintance I had made in Homburg, were also going with us. Her Majesty was to come to Cadinen later, when the _Kieler Woche_ was over, bringing with her Prince Oskar and Prince August Wilhelm from Ploen. His Majesty never came at the same time as his family, for the simple reason that there was then no room for himself and his numerous suite: even on ordinary occasions it was a very tight fit for everybody. Once, with a sudden determination to see how the Empress was getting on, the Emperor made a descent of three or four days, announcing his coming only a few hours beforehand. A kind of general shuffle of apartments had to be made instantly, everybody packing up their things and squeezing themselves into little out-of-the-way holes and corners. Every house in the village having a decent spare room was requisitioned, but only two were available, the rest being impossible; and somebody suggested a tent on the lawn, but unfortunately there were no tents. Most of His Majesty’s adjutants had to use the train, shunted on to a siding, as an hotel, sleeping and dressing there in much discomfort; for it is one thing to live simply, divested of life’s superfluities, and quite another to retain a courtier-like appearance in the midst of an absolute dearth of means to that end. “We have only accommodation for a tooth-brush and a cake of soap, yet must change into four different costumes every day,” complained one unfortunate Kammer-Herr. Fortunately it only lasted for four days, and then the Emperor and his suite departed to more comfortable and roomy quarters. But on our first visit we had the house to ourselves and plenty of space in which to move about. The journey from Berlin is long and slow, and appears interminable. The train passed through very flat, uninteresting country, especially during the last few miles, where the railway approaches the _Frisches Haff_, that curious bay formed by the waters of the sluggish Vistula, separated from the Gulf of Danzig by a thin strip of sand which stretches some hundred miles along the coast.