Their Majesties as I Knew Them / Personal Reminiscences of the Kings and Queens of Europe

e, that little wandering court swayed by the melancholy and fascinating figure of its sovereign. She led an active and solitary existence. Rising, winter and summer, at

ere raining, perambulated the long passages which run out of the halls or "lounges" of most hotels. Sometimes she would vent

a cup of tea with a single biscuit. She then disappeare

orning out of several pounds of fillet of beef by means of a special apparatus which accompanied her on her travels. She also tasted a l

versity of Athens, and often appointed by the Greek Government, he was changed year by year. I, for my part, have known three different reade

ch her dreams incessantly evoked; she had a passionate love for antiquity, loved its artists and its poets; she wanted to be able, everywhere and at all times, when the obsession of her sorrowful memories became too intense, to escape from the pitiless phantoms that pursued her and in some way to isolate her thoughts from

obstinately refused to allow herself to be photographed; she dreaded the professional indiscretion of amateur photographers; and no sooner did she perceive a camera aimed in her direction than she quickly unf

ected beforehand, he read a few chapters to her during the rests by the roadside, on the mountain-tops, or at the deserted edge of the sea. Later, he added the

aterial. It was a question of health and comfort. This little change of attire was effected in the most primitive fashion. The Empress would disappear behind a rock or a tree, while the read

dietary to which she had forced herself in order to preserve the slimness of figure which she prized so highly. She took all her meals alone, in a private room, and seldom

o it each time with an equal pleasure. The softness of the climate, the wild beauty of the views, the splendour of the luxurious vegetation and the poetic solitude of the pine-forests and orange-groves, reminded her of her property of Achilleon in

ith a brass bedstead surmounted by a mosquito net, a mahogany dressing-table and a few etchings hanging on the walls. On the other hand, the management had placed beside the bed, at her request, a system o

billiard-room, to which she could repair without attracting attention. But the rites of the Church require that every room in which mass is said should first be consecrated; and none save the bishop of the diocese is qualified to perform the consecration. A ceremony of this kind in an hotel and in a billiard-room would have been rather embarrassing. The difficulty was overcome in a curious and unexpected manner. There is an old rule, by virtue of which the great dignitaries of the religious Order of Malta enjoy the privilege of consecrating an

ountry-side. Whenever, in the course of her walks, she saw some humble cottage hidden in the mountain among the olive-trees, she entered it, talked to the peasants, took the little children on her knees and, as she feared lest the sudden offer of a sum of money might o

ong the rocks on the shore, sometimes wend her way through the woods; sometimes she would climb the steep hills, scrambling "up to the goats," as the herds say.... She never mentioned the des

thing will happen to me. What would you have them do to a poor woman? Bes

RESS OF

aving heard that some Italian navvies, who were at work on the Mentone road, had spoken in threatening terms of the crowned heads who are in the

d. "I repeat, I am not afraid of

ons to mix with the Italians who were breaking stones on the road. He rigged himself out in a canvas jacket and a pair of corduroy trousers and made up his fac

s beginning to fall; the Empress, accompanied by her reader, was on her way back to Cap Martin. Bending over his heap of stones, the sham navvy waited rather anxiously. When the Em

ork you're doin

s head, he stammered a

ou speak

sig

u any ch

sig

s hand. "Tell them that it comes from a lady who is

me at the hotel, she came

e. I have been disobedient. I went along the

faithful

usual walks. For instance, one afternoon she s

the Casino at Monte Carlo; I have never been there. I must r

, thoroughly enjoying her incognito, sat down beside them. At Monte Carlo, we made straight for the Casino and walked into the roulette-room. The august visitor, who had slipped through the crowd o

y luck," she said to us.

t on another and lost again. The third time, number 33 turned up. The croupier pushed 175 f

y. I have never won so

gged us fro

Mentone, Nice and Monte Carlo were well aware of the identity of their regular customer; but she had asked them not to betray her incognito. When there were many people in the shop, she would sit down at a little ta