Williams news., 1917-08-09

vented amazing additions, and in se-
 cret sown it broadcast.
 His hand would have left no trace if he had not been so indiscreet as to buy his paper from that one shop close to the Rue de Provence, where he had rooms.
 The Arrest of General won Trautmann.
 On the third night following I stood In the emperor's private room at Pots- dam and made my report, explaining all that knew and what I had wit messed in Paris.
 | ''That man knows a very great deal but how does he knowT' snapped the emperor. "See Schunke early tomor- row." he ordered, "and tell him to dis cover the link between this young blackguard and your friends the Brei- tenbachs, and report to me-"
 Next morning I sat with the astute Schunke at the headquarters of the detective police in Berlin, and there discussed the affair fully, explaining the result of my journey to Paris and what I had seen, and giving him the order from the kaiser.
 'But, count, if this woman Breiten- bach and her daughter are your friends, you will be able to visit them and glean something," he said.
 'T have distinct orders from the em- peror not to visit them while the in- quiry is in4rogress," replied. Later that same morning I returned to the Marmor palace to report to the crown prince, but found that his high ness was absent upon an official visit 1 of inspection at Stuttgart. In the meantime I several times saw the great detective, Schunke, and found that he was in constant commu- nication with Baron Steinmetz in Paris. The pair were evidently leaving no stone unturned to elucidate the mys- tery of those annoying letters, which were still falling as so many bombs into the center of the kaiser's court.
 Suddenly, one Sunday night, all Ber- lin was electrified at the news that General von Trautmann, captain gen. eral of the palace guard-whom, truth to tell, the crown prince had long se- cretly hated because he had once dared to utter some word of reproach-had been arrested and sent to fortress at the emperor's order.
 An hour after the arrest his majes- tvs personal adjutant commanded me by telephone to attend at the Berlin Schloss. When we were alone, the kaiser turned to me and said:
 Count von Heltzendorff, you will say nothing of your recent visit to Paris, or of the authorship of those anonymous letters-you understand? You know absolutely nothing"
 Then, being summarily dismissed by wave of the imperial hand, I retired, more mystified than ever. Why should my mouth be thus closed?
 When I returned to my rooms that evening Schunke rang me up on the telephone with the news that my friends the Breitenbachs had closed their house and left early that morn- ing for Brussels.
 "Where is Seeliger?" I inquired.
 "In Brussels. The Breitenbachs have gone there to join him, now that the truth is out, and his father is under arrest''
 The emperor's fury knew no bounds. His mind poisoned against the poor old general, he had fixed upon him as the person responsible for that dis graceful correspondence which for so many weeks had kept the court in con- stant turmoil and anxiety. Though his majesty was aware of the actual writer of the letters, he would not listen to reason, and openly declared that he would make an example of the silver-haired old captain general of the guard, who, after all, was perfectly | innocent of the deeds committed by his | vagabond son.
 A prosecution was ordered, and | three weeks later it took place in | camera, the baron, Schunke and a number of detectives being ordered to | give evidence. So damning, indeed, was their testimony that the judge | passed the extreme sentence of twenty years imprisonment.
 And I, who knew and held proofs of the truth, dared not protest.
 Elise Breltenbaeh.
 Where was the generals son-the real culprit and author of the letters? made inquiry of Schunke, of the baron, and of others who had, at the order of the all-highest, conspired to ruin poor Won Trautmann. All, how ever, declared ignorance, and yet, cu- -fously enough, the fine house of the Breitenbachs in the Alsenstrasse still remained empty. About six months after the secret rial of the unfortunate general I had accompanied the crown prince on a 7fsit to the Quirinal, and one after loon while strolling along the Corso, n Rome. suddenly came face to face with Fraulein Elise Breitenbach. In delight I took her into Ronzi's, he noted confectioner's at the corner ' # the Piazza Colonna, and there, at l me of the little tables, she explained o me how she and her mother, having ecome acQuainted with Franz Saoli