People were getting the story right. "The aide-de-camp! Two major-generals! By Jove!" And the graceful smartness of the salutes! Even Mayor Scheffelweis was dragged out of his modest obscurity and could stand stiffly in front of his superiors in the uniform of a lieutenant in the Army Service Corps Reserve. Dressed as a lancer Herr von Quitzin thoroughly examined through his monocle the place which had temporarily belonged to him. But Wulckow, the red hussar, only now brought into evidence the full significance of what a Governor was, as he saluted, thrusting forward the profile of his paunch framed with cords. "Those are the pillars of our strength!" shouted Diederich, his words drowned by the powerful sounds of the march. "So long as we have such rulers we shall be the terror of the world!" Driven by an overpowering impulse, in the belief that his hour had come, he rushed down towards the speaker's platform. But the policeman on guard intercepted him. "No, no! It ain't your turn yet," said the policeman. Suddenly checked in his course, he ran into a steward, who had been keeping an eye on him, the same one as before, a municipal employe, who assured him that he knew very well that the seat of the lady with the yellow hair belonged to Diederich, "but the lady got it according to superior orders." The rest was told in a faint whisper, and Diederich let him go with a gesture implying: "Of course, in that case! " His Majesty's aide-de-camp! Of course, in that case! Diederich wondered whether it would not be well to turn around and openly pay his homage to Käthchen Zillich.

He did not have time to do so. Colonel von Haffke commanded the colour guard to stand at ease, and Kühnchen gave his warriors the same command. Behind the marquee the regimental band played a call to prayers, which was obeyed by the maids of honour and the Veterans' Association. Kühnchen in his historical Landwehr uniform, which was decorated not only with an iron cross but also with a glorious patch—where a French bullet had penetrated—met Pastor Zillich attired in his robes in the middle of the open space. The colour guard also fell in and, under Zillich's guidance, they did honour to their ancient Ally. On the stand for the civilians the public were compelled by the officials to get up. The officers and gentlemen did so of their own accord. Then the band played "Ein' feste Burg." Zillich seemed anxious to do something more, but the Governor-General, obviously convinced that the ancient Ally had had enough, fell back in his seat very bored, with the aide-de-camp on his right and the Major-Generals on his left. When the whole company had formed groups, according to their natural laws, in the official marquee, Governor von Wulckow was seen to give a sign, as a result of which a policeman was set in motion. He betook himself to his colleague in charge of the speaker's platform, whereupon the latter passed the word to Diederich. "Come on, it's your turn," said the policeman.

Diederich took care not to stumble as he climbed up, for his legs had suddenly become weak, and everything swam be fore his eyes. After gasping for a moment, he distinguished in the bare circle around him a little tree, which had no leaves, but was covered with black-white-and-red paper flowers. The sight of the little tree brought back his strength and his memory. He began: "Your Excellencies, my Lords and gentlemen, it is a hundred years since the great Emperor, whose monument is being unveiled by His Majesty's representative, was given to us and to his country. At the same time—to lend more significance to this hour—it is almost a decade since his great grandson ascended the throne. Why should we not first of all cast back a proud and grateful glance over the great times which we ourselves have been privileged to experience?"

Diederich glanced back. He alternately celebrated the unparalleled development of commerce and loyalty. He lingered over the ocean for a considerable time. "The ocean is indispensable to the greatness of Germany. In the ocean we have a proof that there can be no decision, on the seas or beyond them, without Germany and the German Emperor, for to-day the business of the world is our chief concern." Not only from an industrial standpoint, however, but even more from a moral and intellectual standpoint, their advance could be described as unique. What was our former condition? Diederich drew an unflattering picture of the previous generation which, led away with perilous beliefs by a one-sided humanitarian education, had no sense of dignity in national affairs. If that had now been fundamentally changed, if we now formed one single national party, in the just consciousness that we were the most efficient people in Europe and the whole world, despite mean-spirited and captious critics—whom had we to thank for it? Only His Majesty, Diederich answered. "He aroused the citizen from his slumbers, his lofty example has made us what we are." As he said this he struck himself on the chest. "His personality, his unique, incomparable personality, is so powerful that we can all creep up by it, like the clinging ivy!" he shouted, although this was not in the draft he had written. "In whatever His Majesty the Emperor decides for the good of the German people, we will joyfully co-operate, without distinction of creed and class. The plain man from the workshop is also welcome!" he again added at the inspiration of the moment, suddenly stimulated by the smell of the perspiring populace behind the military cordon, which was borne in his direction by the wind.

"Rendered efficient to an astonishing degree, full of the highest moral strength for positive action, and in our shining armour, the terror of all the enemies who enviously threaten us, we are the Mite among the nations. In us German master-culture has for the first time attained heights which will never be surpassed by any people, be they who they may!"

At this point the Governor-General was observed to make a sign with his head, while the aide-de-camp moved his hands against one another. Then the applause broke out in the stands. Handkerchiefs were waved amongst the civilians.

Guste allowed hers to flutter in the breeze, and so did Käthchen Zillich, in spite of the earlier unpleasantness. His heart as light as the fluttering handkerchiefs, Diederich resumed his lofty flight.

"A master-nation, however, does not achieve such an incomparable flowering in the slackness of peaceful ease. No. Our ancient Ally has deemed it necessary to test the German gold with fire. We had to pass through the fiery furnaces of Jena and Tilsit, and in the end we have been able to plant our victorious colours everywhere, and to forge the imperial crown of Germany upon the field of battle."

Again the Governor-General made a sign, which was again the signal for enthusiastic applause. The sun had disappeared and it grew colder, and as if inspired by the lowering skies Diederich turned to a deeper question. "Who, then, stood in the way of his exalted purpose? Who was the enemy of the great Emperor and of his loyal people? Napoleon, whom he had happily laid low, held his crown not from God but from the people. The fact itself was eloquent. That gives to the judgment of history its eternal and overpowering significance." Then Diederich essayed to depict conditions in the empire of Napoleon III, poisoned by democracy and therefore abandoned by God. Crass materialism, concealed by hollow religiosity, had exaggerated an undoubted business sense. This contempt for the soul was naturally allied with a degraded lust for pleasure. The craving for advertisement was the essence of publicity, and at every moment it degenerated into a mania for persecution. Relying outwardly upon prestige, but inwardly upon the police, with no other remedy but force, one strove only for theatrical effects, making great pomp with the heroic periods of the past, but chauvinism was the only goal which was ever reached. … Of all that we know nothing," cried Diederich raising his hand towards the witnesses above. "Therefore, there can never, never be for us that terrible end which awaited the empire of our hereditary foe."

At this point there was a flash of lightning. Between the military cordon and the partition, in the neighbourhood of what he vaguely guessed to be the crowd, there was a lurid flash in the dark cloud, and a peal of thunder followed, which was obviously going too far. The gentlemen in the official marquee began to look Uncomfortable and the Governor-General had winced. On the stand reserved for the officers there was, naturally, no falling off of discipline, though amongst the civilians a certain uneasiness was visible. Diederich dominated the noise, for he shouted, thundering likewise: "Our ancient Ally proves it! We are not like others. We are serious, loyal and true! To be a German is to do a thing for its own sake. Who amongst us has ever made money out of his loyalty? Where could corrupt officials be found? Here masculine honesty is united with feminine purity, for woman leads us ever onward and is not the tool of vulgar pleasure. This radiant picture of true German character, however, rests upon the solid earth of Christianity, and that is the only true foundation; for every heathen civilisation, however beautiful and fine, will collapse at the first breath of disaster. And the soul of the German being is respect for power, power transmitted and hallowed by God, against which it is impossible to revolt. Therefore we must, now as always, regard the defence of our country as the highest duty, the King's uniform as the supreme distinction, and the making of arms as the most dignified labour." The thunder rumbled, though apparently intimidated by Diederich's increasingly powerful voice. But drops began to fall, which could be heard separately, they were so large. "The turbid stream of democracy," Diederich shouted, "flows unceasingly from the land of our hereditary foe and German manliness and German idealism alone can dam the tide. The unpatriotic enemies of the divine world order, however, who wish to undermine our political system, —they must be exterminated, root and branch, in order that, one day when we are called before our heavenly Judge, each of us can appear with' an easy conscience in the presence of his God and his old Emperor; so that when asked if he has worked wholeheartedly for the welfare of the Empire, he can strike his chest and answer frankly: 'Yes.'"

At these words Diederich hit his chest so hard that he was winded. The civilian stand profited by the unavoidable pause which ensued to show by its restlessness that it regarded the speech as finished. The storm had now come up right over the heads of the festive gathering, and in the mephitic light these raindrops, as big as a hen's egg, kept falling singly, slowly, like a warning. … Diederich had recovered his breath.

"Now, when this monument is unveiled," he began with renewed vigour, "when flags and standards are drooped in reverence, swords are lowered and bayonets flash at the command: present arms —" Just at this moment there was such a formidable crash in the heavens that Diederich ducked his head, and before he knew what he was doing he had crept under the reading-desk. Fortunately he emerged again before any one had noticed him disappear, for everybody had done the same. They scarcely paid any attention as Diederich requested His Excellency, the Governor-General, to be so kind as to order that the monument be unveiled. However, the Governor-General stepped out in front of the official marquee, his face was a shade yellower than usual and the glitter of his star was extinguished. In a feeble voice he said: "In the name of His Majesty I declare this monument to be unveiled"—and the covering fell, to the strains of "Die Wacht am Rhein." The loyal subjects were once more steeled against the threats from heaven by the spectacle of William the Great, riding through the air, looking like a good pater familias, though surrounded by all the terrors of authority. They joined heartily in the cheers of the Governor-General for the Emperor. The air of the national anthem was the cue for His Excellency to go up to the foot of the monument, examine it and to reward the expectant sculptor with a few appropriate words of recognition. People found it natural that this exalted personage should glance up dubiously at the sky, but, as might be expected, his sense of duty triumphed—a victory all the more brilliant because amongst that crowd of gallant soldiers he was the only civilian in a dress-suit. He ventured boldly forth, advancing beneath those huge, slow drops of rain, surrounded by lancers, cuirassiers and army service corps. … The inscription "William the Great" had already been inspected, the sculptor had been favoured with a few words and received his decoration, and it was just the turn of Hessling to be introduced as the spiritual creator of the monument, and to be decorated, when the heavens burst. They burst all at once with such force as to suggest a long-delayed explosion. Before the gentlemen could turn around they were up to their ankles in water, and His Excellency's sleeves and trousers were dripping. The stands disappeared beneath the downpour, and as if on a distant billowing sea it could be seen that the awnings had collapsed beneath the fury of the cloud-burst. Shrieking crowds struggled right and left in their moist embrace. The civilians scrambled down, like a grey, writhing serpent, bathing in the flooded field with spasmodic twists.

In the circumstances, the Governor-General consented to omit the remainder of the festive programme for reasons of expediency. While the lightning flashed all round him, and water sprang from him as from a fountain, he beat a hasty retreat, with the aide-de-camp, the two major-generals, dragoons, hussars, lancers and army service corps in the rear. On the way His Excellency remembered that the decoration for the spiritual creator was still hanging from his finger. Faithful to his duty in the extreme, but determined not to be detained, he passed it on, as he ran in his dripping clothes to Governor von Wulckow. Wulckow, in his turn, met a policeman, who was still clinging to his post, and entrusted him with the bestowal of this sign of the All Highest's approval. Whereupon the policeman wandered through storm and rain in search of Diederich. Finally he found him crouching in the water underneath the reading-desk. "Here y'are, the order of William," said the policeman, making off, for just then a flash of lightning came so near that it seemed as if it would prevent the decoration from being bestowed. Diederich could only heave a sigh. When he finally ventured to peep halfway out at the world, it presented a spectacle of increasing ruin. Tie Huge black partition opposite was swaying and threatened to topple over, with the house behind it. Above a seething mass of people, in the ghostly light of sulphur-yellow and blue, the carriage horses reared and dashed away. Happy were the unprivileged crowd outside who had decamped. The cultivated and possessing classes, on the other hand, were in such a position that they could feel the fragments of the ruin falling about their heads, and fire from heaven. It was hardly surprising that their behaviour was governed accordingly and many ladies were hurled back from the exit in the most ungentlemanly fashion, and simply rolled over one another. The officers, relying upon their bravery alone, made use of their weapons of offence against every one who opposed them, while flags, torn by the storm from what remained of the stands and the official marquee, whistled through the air, black-white-and-red, about the ears of the stragglers. Hopeless though everything was, the regimental band continued to play the national anthem, even after the military cordon and the world order had been dispersed. They played like the orchestra on a sinking ship to ward off terror and the inevitable end. Another burst of the hurricane demoralised even them. Diederich closed his eyes, and to his dazed senses the end of every thing seemed imminent. He sank back into the cool depths below the desk, to which he clung like a drowning man to a log. His farewell glance had embraced something that passed all understanding: the fence hung with black-white-and-red, which enclosed the park, had collapsed beneath the weight of the people on it, followed by this clambering up and down, this rolling about, this ebb and fall of people, standing on their heads and getting in one another's way—and then being lashed by whips from above, these streams of fire, this breaking up like the end of a drunken masquerade: nobles and commoners, the most distinguished uniform and the citizen aroused from his slumbers^ pillars of the state and heaven-sent statesmen, ideal riches, hussars, lancers, dragoons and army service corps!

The horsemen of the apocalypse rode on, however, as Diederich noticed. They had only held manoeuvres for the Judg ment Day; the supreme crisis was not yet. With great precautions he left his hiding-place and discovered that it was now only raining, and that Emperor William the Great was still there, with all the paraphernalia of power. All the time Diederich had had a feeling that the monument had been smashed and carried away. The scene of the festivities cer tainly looked like a desolate memory; not a soul stirred amongst the ruins. But, yes, there was some one moving in the background, some one wearing a lancer's uniform. It was Herr von Quitzin, who was examining the house that had collapsed. It had been struck by lightning and was smoking behind the remains of the huge, black partition. In the general exodus only Herr von Quitzin had stood his ground, for an idea had given him strength. Diederich read his mind. Herr von Quitzin was thinking: "We should also have planted that house on those fellows. But nothing could be done, in spite of the strongest pressure. But now I'll get the insurance money. There is a God!" And then he went in the direction of the fire-brigade which could not now intervene with any effect in the matter.

Encouraged by this example Diederich also set out. He had lost his hat, his shoes were full of water, and in the seat of his trousers he carried a puddle with him. As no conveyance seemed to be available he decided to cut through the centre of the town. The corners of the old streets shielded him from the wind and he felt warmer. "There is no danger of catarrh. I'll get Guste to put a poultice on my stomach. If she will only be good enough not to bring influenza into the house!" After this worry he remembered his decoration. "The order of William, created by His Majesty, is given only for exceptional services on behalf of the welfare and improvement of the people. … That's what I've got!" said Diederich out loud in the empty street. "Even if the heavens fall!" Nature had attempted to upset authority with inadequate means. Diederich called upon Heaven to observe his osder of William and said, "Sold again!" Whereupon he pinned it on, beside the order of the Crown, fourth class.

In the Fleischhauergrube several carriages had stopped, curiously enough, in front of old Buck's house. One of them, moreover, was a country cart. Was he by any chance …? Diederich peered into the house. The glass door stood open, strange to say, as if some one were expected who did not often come. A religious quiet prevailed in the wide hall; it was only when he crept past the kitchen that he heard sobbing: the old servant, with her face resting on her arms. "So things are as bad as that!"—Diederich suddenly shuddered and stopped, ready to retreat. "This is no place for me. … Yet, my place is here, for everything here is mine, and it is my duty to see that they do not take anything away afterwards." But this was not the only thing that impelled him. Something less obvious and more profound made him gasp for breath and caught him in the stomach. He stepped carefully up the flat old stairs and thought: "Respect for a brave enemy when he stands on the field of honour! God has judged him. Yes, indeed, such is life. Nobody can tell whether some day— But, come now, there is a difference, either a thing is right or it isn't. One must neglect nothing that can add to the fame of what is right. Our old Emperor probably had also to make an effort when he went to Wilhelmshöhe to meet the utterly defeated Napoleon."

By this time he had reached the mezzanine floor, and he walked cautiously along the lengthy corridor at the end of which the door—here also—stood open. He kept close up against the wall and peeped in. A bed with the foot turned towards him, and in it old Buck was reclining against a heap of pillows, apparently out of his mind. Not a sound. Was he alone? He moved carefully to the other side. Now he could see the curtained windows and, in front of them, the family in a semi-circle. Judith Lauer was sitting motionless, nearest the bed, then Wolfgang, with an expression on his face which nobody would have expected. Between the windows was huddled the herd of five daughters and their bankrupt father, who no longer even preserved outward appearances; further off stood the countrified son and his dull-looking wife, and finally Lauer, who had sat down. With good reason they all kept so quiet, at that moment they were losing their last prospect of ever having a say in anything again! They had been very uppish and very sure of themselves, so long as the old man held out. He had fallen and they with him; he was disappearing and so were all of them. He had always built upon quicksands, for he had not relied upon Power! The spirit was useless, for it left behind it but decay. The delusion of every ambition which had no fists nor money in those fists!

Why did Wolfgang look like that? It did not look like grief, although tears were falling from his yearning eyes; it looked like envy, bitter envy. What was wrong with the others? Judith Lauer, whose brows frowned darkly; her husband who was sighing aloud—even the eldest son's wife had folded in front of her face her working-woman's hands. Diederich stepped into the centre of the doorway in a determined attitude. It was dark in the passage and they could see nothing even if they wanted to; but what of the old man? His face was turned exactly in that direction, and where his eyes were fixed one divined more than was actually there, visions which nobody could obstruct. As they reappeared before his astonished eyes he opened out his arms on the pillows, tried to lift them, and did so, moving them in a gesture of welcome. Who was it? How many were there to whom he made these prolonged signs of welcome? A whole nation, apparently, but of what character, that its coming should awaken this spiritual joy in the countenance of old Buck?