Color was given to these suspicions by the fact that many of the anonymous letters contained remarks and information that manifestly emanated from the imperial family, while some of the views expressed in the letters were known not merely to have been shared, but even to have been uttered in conversation by the prince and princess in question. What gave still further weight to these suppositions was the extraordinary fact that incidents which had occurred within what may be described as the most intimate circle of the court,--incidents, indeed, of which no one could be aware, save royal personages themselves and those few chosen friends and associates who were with them at the time when the incidents in question occurred,--were revealed a few days later in the anonymous letters, twisted and distorted in such a manner as to admit only of the most shameful interpretation. Added to this was the knowledge that there are few women at the Court of Berlin more cruelly satirical or have a keener sense of ridicule than Princess Charlotte, or any more inveterate gossip than Duke Ernest-Gunther of Schleswig-Holstein. The anonymous letters had literally spared no one, not even that most blameless and excellent of women, the Empress Augusta-Victoria; nor was there anybody of mark who had not received at least several of them. But for some reason or other which was not understood at the time, they seemed to be imbued with an especially relentless and savage animosity against the charming Countess "Fritz" von Hohenau, who must not be confounded with her less attractive sister-in-law, Countess "Willy" von Hohenau; for whereas the latter is by birth a princess of Hohenlohe and a niece of the imperial chancellor of that ilk, Countess Fritz is by birth a Countess von der Decken, and rejoices in the Christian name of Charlotte. If Countess Fritz has one weakness which in any degree lends itself to unfriendly criticism and ridicule it is the pride which she manifests in her relationship through marriage to the reigning house of Prussia, and in her being the sister-in-law of that Prince Albert of Prussia, who is regent of the Duchy of Brunswick, her husband, Count Fritz von Hohenau, being a half-brother to Prince Albert. It is owing to this very innocent weakness of the countess that she was nicknamed "_Lottchen von Preussen_," or "_Die Preussiche Lotte_" that is to say "_Lotte of Prussia_" and at least a third of the hundreds of anonymous letters confided to the mails during the period extending between 1892 and 1896 were filled with the most scurrilous remarks concerning the unfortunate "_Lottchen von Preussen_."