One of the features of the Theerbude is a goblet of the time of King Frederick-William III. The vessel is held between the points of a couple of antlers, and it is only possible to drink out of it by squeezing one's face between these two points. The possessor of a rotund countenance experiences considerable difficulty in performing this feat, and is apt to spill the contents over himself, yet every one of the emperor's guests has to submit to the ordeal, for an inscription on the goblet says that all persons attending shooting-parties at Rominten for the first time must empty the vessel of its contents,--a pint bottle of champagne,--at one draught, to the health of the sovereign. So great are the quantities of game shot by the emperor and his guests at these shooting-parties that they very much exceed the needs for the consumption of the imperial household. Formerly, it was the kaiser's custom to distribute all the surplus among the various hospitals and charitable institutions; but since discovering that these gifts of game seldom reached the persons for whom they were destined, namely the inmates, but were monopolized by the staff and the attendants of the establishments, he has given orders that the game that is not needed for imperial consumption should be sold, and the money derived therefrom turned over to the funds of the hospitals and convalescent homes under the patronage of the crown. That is why one so frequently sees in the great Central Market of Berlin, deer, stags, wild boars, etc., adorned with greenery, and with cards intimating that the quarry in question has been shot by his imperial majesty the kaiser. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS WILLIAM II AND FRANCIS JOSEPH _VOLUME I_ WILLIAM II, EMPEROR OF GERMANY........... _Fronts_ PRINCESS FREDERICK AND PROFESSOR VON BERGMANN............. 80 THE RUNAWAY AT PROECKELWITZ............................... 104 SCENE IN DUKE ERNEST GUNTHER'S QUARTERS................... 136 AUGUSTA VICTORIA, EMPRESS OF GERMANY...................... 192 IN THE WHITE HALL......................................... 256 End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Secret Memoirs of the Courts of Europe: William II, Germany; Francis Joseph, Austria-Hungary, Volume I. (of 2), by Mme. La Marquise de Fontenoy