On 21 June, 1897, the German Ambassador at Rome, Herr von Bülow, found on his table in the Palazzo Caffarelli a telegram summoning him to Kiel. On his arrival there he was greeted on board the Hohenzollern by the Emperor William II with the words: “My dear Bernhard, I'm sorry for you and even more for the Contessina (for this is what the Empress Frederick and her children always called my wife) but you must go to the front. The Man from Baden has betrayed me.” In conversation William II proceeded to explain that Marschall von Bieberstein—the “Man from Baden”—had forfeited the Imperial confidence by intriguing with the Social Democrats and the Centre to introduce parliamentary government into Germany. In consequence, the Emperor added, he proposed to appoint Bülow Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in succession to Marschall von Bieberstein. Bülow was too clever to accept the proffered office at once and contented himself by pleading that, “until I had thoroughly informed myself about our international situation by studying the documents of the Foreign Office, I could not possibly give a definite answer as to whether I could conscientiously accept the post offered to me or not. Besides, I would have to collect my thoughts before I made the final decision, not through any kind of timidity, but because I felt my responsibility towards the country and the throne.”