In the name of her Majesty, the Empress, and in my name I thank you particularly for the indescribably patriotic and enthusiastic reception which has been prepared for us by all classes of the city of Aix. I earnestly desired to visit the city of Aix, and I thank you for the opportunity which you have given me through your invitation. Who would not be deeply moved on such historic ground as that of Aix by the breath and murmur of the past and of the present? Who would not think of the providential guidance of Heaven as he looks back over the history of the centuries which our Fatherland has lived through in its connection with Aix? Aix is the cradle of German imperialism, for it was here that Charlemagne erected his throne, and the city of Aix shone in his reflected glory. So important, so imposing was the figure of this great German prince that from Rome the dignity of the Roman Cæsars was bestowed upon him, and he was chosen to enter into the inheritance of the _Imperium Romanum_--certainly a splendid recognition of the capability of our German stock as it appeared for the first time in history. For the Roman sceptre had fallen from the hands of the Cæsars and their successors. Crumbling and decayed, the Roman edifice was tottering to its fall, and only the appearance of the victorious Germans with their virtuous dispositions made it possible to point a new and as yet untrodden road for the history of the world. It goes without saying that the mighty Charles, the great King of the Franks, drew upon himself the gaze of Rome which looked to him as to its bulwark and protector. But the task of combining the office of Roman Emperor with the dignity and burden of the German King was too severe. What he was able to accomplish through his powerful personality Fate denied to his followers; and through their desire for a world-empire, the Emperors of the later generations lost sight of the German people and country. They turned toward the south in order to maintain the world-empire, and in so doing forgot the Germans. So gradually our German country and people perished. Just as the blossoming aloe gathers up all the strength of the plant for this task and, striving upward, develops flower on flower and fascinates the eye of the astonished beholder, while the plant itself withers and its roots shrivel away, so it was with the Roman Empire of the German Nation.