Punch/Volume 147/Issue 3826/The Mystery of Prince -
We seek information of the present whereabouts of Prince ——— of ———.
Some few weeks ago the news came that he was carried wounded into a Brussels hospital, with a velvet mask over his face, so that none might recognise him. The Prince was visited in hospital by a tall man, also heavily masked, but not so heavily as to conceal a pair of soaring moustaches, freshly waxed. None dared speculate as to Who this Visitor might be. The hush was tremendous. The Visitor silently pinned on the patient a specimen of the Iron Cross and as silently left.
It was the 37000th Iron Cross bestowed since the outbreak of war.
At the autopsy it was proved conclusively that the bullet inside the Prince was of German origin.
After the post-mortem the Prince was luckily captured by the Belgians, and held at Antwerp as hostage for the good behaviour of the German troops occupying Brussels.
When the fall of Antwerp became imminent the Prince was secretly removed to England. A fortnight ago he was seen in a motor-car driving round Battersea Park, accompanied and guarded by an English officer.
The Prince wore his saxe-blue full-dress tunic, his corn-gold moustache and his rather stout face, and was looking considerably depressed.
Since that date no word has come of him. The Censor seems to have rigidly suppressed all evidence of his movements.
Is the Prince kept prisoner on a trawler sweeping the North Sea for mines? Has he escaped in the German submarine which ventured up the Thames as far as the lower end of Fleet Street? Or is he interned in the searchlight apparatus at Charing Cross to insure it against attack by Zeppelins?
We seek exact information.