Emperor William and Prince Adolph bitterly resented the setback to which they were subjected by this decree of the King of Saxony; and although they were forced to yield in the present instance, they threatened to reopen the entire question should anything untoward happen to the present regent, Count Lippe, for they insist that under no circumstances can any of his sons be permitted to inherit either his rights or his honors, owing to the fact that his wife, the Countess of Lippe, is also the issue of a mésalliance, her mother having been an American girl, a native of Philadelphia, who married Count Leopold Wartensleben. On the strength of this, Prussian authorities, military as well as civilian, while directed to accord to the Count of Lippe the honors due to the regent of a German sovereignty, are forbidden to recognize in any way either the count's consort or his children, on the ground that these can only be regarded as morganatic, and as such debarred from the tokens of respect due to full-fledged members of a sovereign house. Naturally, all this has served to render Prince Adolph and his wife extremely unpopular throughout the length and breadth of Germany; and when a short time ago there was a question of appointing the prince as regent of the Duchy of Brunswick in succession to Prince Albert of Prussia, who is tired of the post, or as a stadtholder of Alsace-Lorraine in the place of Prince Herman Hohenlohe, the press throughout Germany, and even in Prussia, raised its voice in protest against the emperor's forcing his brother-in-law into places for which he was in no sense of the word fitted, either by his talents, his administrative skill, his tact, or his intellectual abilities. CHAPTER IX Although Germany's young crown prince has until now been more or less of a stranger to court functions and gaieties at Berlin, his time being absorbed by his studies at the military academy of Plön, and his holidays spent in travel and Alpine expeditions, yet, as he is about to celebrate his majority, and has passed from the stages of boyhood to those of manhood, he will be from henceforth a personage of the utmost importance--second only in rank to the emperor.