Produced by Moti Ben-Ari and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) THE SECRETS OF POTSDAM _First impression, March, 1917. Second impression, March, 1917._ THE Secrets of Potsdam _A STARTLING EXPOSURE OF THE INNER LIFE OF THE COURTS OF THE KAISER AND CROWN-PRINCE_ REVEALED FOR THE FIRST TIME by COUNT ERNST VON HELTZENDORFF _Commander of the Order of the Black Eagle, &c. Late Personal-Adjutant to the German Crown-Prince_ CHRONICLED BY WILLIAM LE QUEUX LONDON: LONDON MAIL LTD. 39, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN. W.C. _Copyright in the United States of America by William Le Queux, 1917 Translation and Cinema Rights reserved_ _"Veneux Nadon, "par Moret-sur-Loing "(Seine-et-Marne). "February 10th, 1917._ "MY DEAR LE QUEUX, "_I have just finished reading the proofs of your book describing my life as an official at the Imperial Court at Potsdam, and the two or three small errors you made I have duly corrected._ "_The gross scandals and wily intrigues which I have related to you were, many of them, known to yourself, for, as the intimate friend of Luisa, the Ex-Crown-Princess of Saxony, you were, before the war, closely associated with many of those at Court whose names appear in the pages of this book._ "_The revelations which I have made, and which you have recorded here, are but a tithe of the disclosures which I could make, and if your British public desire more, I shall be pleased to furnish you with other and even more startling details which you may also put into print._ "_My service as personal-adjutant to the German Crown-Prince is, happily, at an end, and now, with the treachery of Germany against civilization glaringly revealed, I feel, in my retirement, no compunction in exposing all I know concerning the secrets of the Kaiser and his profligate son._ "_With most cordial greetings from_ "_Your sincere friend_, "ERNST VON HELTZENDORFF." The Secrets of Potsdam SECRET NUMBER ONE THE TRAGEDY OF THE LEUTENBERGS You will recollect our first meeting on that sunny afternoon when, in the stuffy, nauseating atmosphere of perspiration and a hundred Parisian perfumes, we sat next each other at the first roulette table on the right as you enter the rooms at Monte Carlo? Ah! how vivid it is still before my eyes, the jingle of gold and the monotonous cries of the croupiers. Ah! my dear friend! In those pre-war days the Riviera--that sea-lapped Paradise, with its clear, open sky and sapphire Mediterranean, grey-green olives and tall flowering aloes, its gorgeous blossoms, and its merry, dark-eyed populace who lived with no thought of the morrow--was, indeed, the playground of Europe. And, let me whisper it, I think I may venture to declare that few of its annual habitués enjoyed the life more than your dear old ink-stained self.