With a heart deeply moved, I take the opportunity to-day to speak as sovereign Duke of Silesia to my Silesians, for the impressions which have been showered upon me during the short time that I have been among you are of so powerful and compelling a nature that words fail me to express them or to find the proper form for the thanks which I would like to communicate to my people of Silesia. I do not refer only to yesterday's demonstrations, which surpassed, if that were possible, the jubilations on the day of my entrance. And I do not mean only those on the part of the old soldiers in black uniforms with their military decorations on their breasts, who can say, "We have been present at the time when history was made," and who dare pride themselves on having been fellows in arms of the great Emperor and his noble son, my father, whose heart, as is known to all of you, beat high for Silesia, but I mean to-day, on my journey through the green Silesian country to Bunzelwitz, Schweidnitz, and Rogau and back--everywhere I have found the same warmth, the same glowing, burning enthusiasm. It is the old Silesian loyalty which breaks forth and which proves the appreciation on the part of the people for what the house of Hohenzollern has done for them. This loyalty is rooted in ground specially consecrated by history. For who will deny that the province of Silesia, almost more than any other, stands in closest union with the history of our Fatherland and of our house? And, especially, how could any one speak of the development of Silesia without first thinking of the one powerful figure of whom the grenadiers sang from the Rhine to the Oder: "Fredericus Rex, our King and leader"? Wherever we look over the plains of Silesia rise the memories of him, of the incomparable battles through which he made Prussia a world-power, and also of the splendid work of peace in which he sought to raise and strengthen the sorely oppressed country. And again in later times it was precisely to Silesia that it was reserved to send a new ray of hope to that sorely tried Hohenzollern King, Frederick William III, when he encountered the ardent enthusiasm of the first volunteers in Breslau, when the first raising of troops took place here, and when the "wild, dashing Lützow hunters" started in their career against the enemy at the Zobten. And so it has been ever since. The sons of Silesia have fought whenever it was a question of coming forward and sacrificing their blood for the Fatherland. And so it may be very well said that the history of our house is indissolubly bound up with that of Silesia, one of her most beautiful provinces. And when we glance back over this great history we can characterize it with the phrase which my great departed grandfather used when, after fierce conflicts, through the will of Heaven the imperial crown was set upon his brow: "God was with us, and His be the honor!" And when I stop to think how the flags of the veterans passed