Death was now drawing very near to the doomed Emperor. On June 1 he was conveyed by boat from Charlottenburg to the New Palace, where he had been born, where he had spent the happiest days of his married life, and the name of which he now changed to "Friedrichskron." But he was not allowed to die in peace; his last days were disturbed by what is known as the Puttkamer incident. Puttkamer, a typical Bismarckian, had been Minister of the Interior for seven years. In his official announcement of the old Emperor's death, he had actually made no allusion to the new Emperor; the latter in consequence insisted on the Minister's retirement as the condition of his signing the Bill prolonging the life of the Reichstag to five years. Puttkamer's resignation was gazetted on June 11, and on the same evening Prince Bismarck gave a dinner at which the fallen Minister was the guest of honour. The Emperor Frederick died at Friedrichskron on June 15. The first message written by the widowed Empress was to the aged Empress Augusta: "She whose one pride and happiness it was to be the wife of your son grieves with you, afflicted mother. No mother ever had so good a son. Be proud and strong in your sorrow." CHAPTER XVIII EARLY WIDOWHOOD: THE FALL OF BISMARCK It is said that one of the last acts of the dying Emperor was to place Bismarck's hand in that of the Empress as a token of reconciliation. But there was no reconciliation. On the contrary, the Emperor Frederick was no sooner dead, than Bismarck once more became all-powerful, and ruthlessly he used his power. The accession of the young Emperor William was followed by an astounding outburst of violence against the Empress Frederick on the part of Bismarck's tools, his agents in the Press and elsewhere--indeed, the Empress once told an intimate friend that no humiliation and pain which could be inflicted on her had been spared her. The first humiliation took a strange and terrible form; a cordon of soldiers was drawn round the New Palace, when the Emperor Frederick was known to be dying, in order that no secret documents might be removed without the knowledge of the new Emperor. The Empress, aware that this was the work of Bismarck, requested an interview with him, but Bismarck replied that he had no time, as he was so fully occupied with his master, the new Emperor. As a matter of fact, everything at the New Palace which the late Emperor or the Empress Frederick considered to be important had been placed out of Bismarck's reach. For a considerable time these private papers were entrusted to the care of a person in the Empress's confidence, who resided outside the country, ultimately they were sent back to Germany. Unfortunately not all the late Emperor's papers had been so carefully guarded, and, to the anguish of his widow, his memory became involved in acute, and it may even be said degrading, controversy.