After these séances I questioned him, because while they were proceeding I had to be silent and play the march from _Aida_. He invariably answered: "The Devil exists. I call on him and he comes!" I did not believe this; I mean to say I did not believe in the Devil's actual visit, but I was nevertheless a little frightened, and when my brother-in-law once again began his incantations I would look round to see if there was anything extraordinary in the room. But there was nothing unusual excepting Ferdinand and my own curiosity--and, perhaps, the unrevealed vision of both our futures! Full of eccentricities, he would bury gloves and ties which he had worn. There was quite a ceremonial attached to this, at which I was sometimes obliged to assist. Ferdinand dug the hole himself, and repeated strange sentences with a mysterious air. His mouth would then assume that bitter expression which age has accentuated. Did he indeed juggle with the Prince of Evil, and did he acquire thereby the dominating spirit which became so strong in him? Did he seek some kind of brain stimulant in these practices, under the action of which, I believe, auto-suggestion becomes dangerous? I leave it to physicians, to occultists and to casuists to diagnose this case. I am simply a witness, nothing more. Ferdinand was not yet Prince of Bulgaria. He was only known as a charming lieutenant in the Austrian Chasseurs, who had exchanged from the hussars because he was not in sympathy with the animal from which it is possible to fall, and which is generally supposed to be the most noble conquest of man. I wish to say plainly that Ferdinand of Coburg was a wretched horseman. Who would have thought that this officer of noble descent who had exchanged into an infantry regiment would later possess a throne, and would dream of becoming Emperor of Byzantium? He designed his crown and arranged his State entry and his coronation, just as did the miserable Emperor William who wished to crown himself _Welt Kaiser_ in Nôtre Dame de Paris, and I do not hesitate to say that he dreamed of a ceremony to which the Pope would come, willing or unwilling, and that all confessions should be reconcilable in his Imperial, august and sacred person. It is really impossible to-day for a man to be a king according to the ancient formula of absolute power. This kind of wine is too strong; it goes to the head.