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

lete your collection,

till reached our ears through the silence and the darkness. Leaning from the window of the s

elt hat on his head, and gave me a friendly little wave of the hand. His long, slender figure looked very smart and supple in a pale-grey travelling-suit; and a broad smile

ther has often spoken to me of you and, when she heard that you had been app

d, "by that gracious mark of confidence. It is true th

month before and was just entering upon his career as a monarch, if I may so express myself. The watchful eyes of Europe were beginning to observe with sympathetic interest the first actions of this young ruler who, with the exuberant grace of his fine and tr

ure all impul

racter," said peop

arm the bird from the tree," an old

ht I, still perplexed by the unconventional, amusing, jocula

ith a delighted curiosity the sights that met his eyes as the train rushed at full speed through the verdant plains of the Charent

w me standing near him. "I feel as if I were still at home, as i

as épatant) proceeding from the royal lips, it was my turn to be "stunned." In my innoc

ps, he questioned us without ceasing. He wanted to know everything, though he knew a great deal as it was. The army and navy excited his interest in the highest degree; the provinces through which we were passing, their customs, their past, their administrative organisation, their industries supplied him with the subjects of an exhaustive interrogatory, to which we did our best to reply. Our so

e said, his eyes ablaze w

ng him full details about the

And the prime minister? A

as telling stories, recalling his impre

"that you have never had to lo

ering imagination, counterbalanced, however, by a reflective brain. I remember the astonishment of the French officers who had come to meet him at the frontier, on hearing him discuss matters of military strategy with the authority and the expert wisdom of an o

haven't I a gun?" And, taking aim with an i

in which, full of admiration for the beauties of ou

bout it, I love Fra

gnity, his gait proud and lofty, compelling in all of us a respect for the impressive authority that emanated from his whole person! He found the right word for everybody, was careful of the

ENRY OF BATTENBERG, PRINCESS

a wide and studied gesture which betrays a certain, almost theatrical affectation. Alfonso XIII's salute is like none of these: in its military stiffness, it is at once simple and grave, marked by supreme elegance and profound deference. On the platform of the Orleans railway-station, opposite the motionless battalion, in the presence of a number of officers and civil functionaries, this sa

charm the bird