Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-12-07
REVELATIONS OF A

Iup before you leave. You remember
that I gave YOU promise the other ev
ening, before we dispatched you on yonl
lmission. Since then communication
has been made to me about yourself by
an old friend of yours-in fact, the
Grown Prince l need not specify its
nature, but it will of necessity make
it impossible for me to carry out youl
suggestion. That your services ought
| to be rewarded is very true, and I will
see that they are so, but you will un
derstand that what we agreed upon is
out of the question.
For moment the woman, who had
ben taken at So cruel a disadvantage
appeared about to faint. She WINGED as
thiugh she had been stabbed with a
stilletto. Then she quickly recovered
and burst into laugh, just a touch
too boisterous, for my thinking, to be
Ireassuring.
"Of course, understand my dear
Prince" she said, "in point of fact
proposed it only by way of a joke. u
And next moment, still laughing, she
was gone.
A curious feeling Of alarm seized me
on her absence.
What if she betrayed usl
What if the letter to Falkenhayn was
delivered to---s
But the thing was impossible9 Still,
as the time sped by and she did not
return, my fears increased. 1t had been
arranged that she should, having de-
livered the note, Immediately come back
to us in her car, but the delay seemed
endless, and she did not come.
Conspirators Arrested.
Rupprecht sat with cold confidence
and perfect equanimity. He had prom
ised the woman reward, that would
be all right. Marriage, of course, was
out of the question, and she realized
this, no doubt; and he turned to listen
once more to the Crown Princes beau.
tiful defamation as to what that pro-
Dizzy would achieve when he had the
reins of Empire in his hands.
Suddenly the Crown Prince was in
terrupted. There was the sound of a
carriage arriving in hot haste on the
drive out side; we heard the hall door
thrust open violently; some men were
coming up the stairs.
Another instant and captain of the
Prussian Guard entered the room,s and
saluted; behind him was squad Of
men.
/
''Your Royal Highness, he said to
the Crown Prince, 81 came direct from
the kaiser, who has ordered me to re-
quest you and Prince Rupprecht to con-
slider yourselves under arrest, and to
proceed with me to the kaiser at
once.
And then knew that my worst fears
were realized. The Frau had achieved
her revenge, and it was not to Falken-
hayn that she had delivered the letter
She had taken it instead to the kai
! ser!
I Now let me tell you who this woman
| is. The Baroness Elsa Baronin Schwei-
rim is the sole woman in the whole Ger
man empire who has had the most pow
erful influence over the person of the
kaiser. For many years. dating to the
prewar days she had acted as the pri-
vate spy Of the kaiser. The baroness
was the chief of the kaiscf's household
intelligent bureau. Through this posi-
tion which she has held during the last
fifteen years; she has built up power
that is not excelled even by the German
chancellor himself. l had known her
from the prewar days and knew her
prowess over the kaiser himself. A
word from me would have put my mas
ter, The rlince Rupprecht of Bavaria
on his right track buc, frank.y, I fear
ed the consequences Of interfering with
her plans. l knew that my life would
not be worth mark once | spoiled her
scheme. On seeing me in the company
| of the Bavarian Prince she had eau
toned me in these significant words:
"Colonel Schroeder, the Crown Prince
agrees with me that you are man who
knows how to keep stiff lower jaw. :"
My position as the aid-decamp on the
personal staff of the Bavarian Crown
Prince had not necessitated my giving
him advice on his private undertak.
| lings. This may not be chivalrous at
titude towards my military master;
but it satisfied me and that is the best
apology I can offer at this time for
keeping silent regarding the Baroness
and her relationship with the kaiser
himself. In short, both the Crown
Prince of Germany and Prince Rup.
preeht had played in to the hands of
the kaiser by admitting into partner
ship the Baroness Elsa Baronin Sch
weirin as a fellow -plotter.
''Hell Let LOOSE
| For the first time since the German
occupation of Belgium opened new
and terrible chapter in the history of
human suffering, Prince Rupprecht
found himself driven by the logic of
events to doubt the efficacy of the
methods he had been SO ruthlessly EN-.
| ploying.
These methods had lacked nothing in
thoroughness, nothing in their rigorous
unbending severity, and yet they brot
him only harvest of failure. Even
since his return from Berlin to thG
| front (where the kaiser had despatched
him after a severe verbal castigation,
for the part he had played in the ev-
ents / described last week., ever since
the failure of his plot against the High
Command, which l fully revealed in
the above narration, Ruppreeht had