The one which is supposed to have led to the haunting of the palace is the murder by one of the princes of the house of Hohenzollern, in a fit of passion, of a Prussian nobleman who was his guest at the time. The prince is reported to have run the nobleman through the back with his sword while following him down one of the staircases from the upper story to the ground floor. Endeavors have repeatedly been made to obtain permission from the sovereign to tear down the brick wall so as to give access to this staircase, not only for the sake of convenience, but also with the object of setting at rest forever the popular superstitions and rumors on the subject. Neither King Frederick-William IV., nor the late Emperor William would ever hear of such a thing, and the late Emperor Frederick, who was the least superstitious and most matter-of-fact of men, grew grave and silent, when it was suggested to him that he should give the desired permission. As for the present emperor, he has sternly forbidden that the matter should even be mentioned in his presence. This extraordinary reluctance displayed by both the kaiser and his predecessors to discover what there is behind that brick wall leads to the conviction that the mouldering remains of the victim of the treacherous hospitality of a prince of Prussia lie concealed there. CHAPTER XVI It is among the crowned heads and princes of the blood in the Old World that St. Hubert, the patron of the chase, finds his most fervent devotees, and nowhere is his cult followed with a greater degree of pomp and ceremoniousness, and, I might almost add, religious sentiment, than at the Courts of Berlin and Vienna. The foremost Nimrod of Europe is undoubtedly old Emperor Francis-Joseph, who finds his only relaxation from the cares of state in stalking the chamois, and who is celebrated in the annals of sport as the most successful and fearless hunter of that excessively shy and difficult quarry.