' ■ "5 -"a CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY K***' Cornell University Library D 400.B36 1895 Men cities, and events / 3 1924 027 827 850 Men Cities and Events ^rynM^^ ^ ^ '-CLJ^. /J /^^j The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027827850 Second Edition Men Cities AND Events By W. BEATTY- KINGSTON AUTHOR OF "MUSIC AND manners;" "MONARCHS I HAVE MET;" *A wanderer's notes;" "a journalist's jottings; "my hansom lays;" "the chumplebunnys ;" etc. etc, etc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED LONDON BLISS, SANDS AND FOSTER CRAVEN STREET, STRAND, W.C 3/4 W 3/3 ®0 JOHN MERRY LE SAGE, Esq. MY STAUNCH FRIEND, TRUE COMRADE, AND BROTHER JOURNALIST OF THIRTY years' STANDING, THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. PREFACE 'TPWENTY-NINE years have elapsed since -*- I first took journalistic service, and was told off for special duty " in foreign parts." It has been written that poets are "born," not made ; which I take to mean that the poetic faculty is a natural gift, not an artificial acquire- ment. This statement may be true ; indeed, the presumption is in favour of its correctness, for it emanated from a poet, who " ought to know." No journalist, however, to the best of my remembrance and belief, has ever ventured to pronounce the nasciiur, non fit theory as being applicable to members of his own profession. It has been my privilege to become personally acquainted with many jour- nalists of different nationalities, but I have never yet met one who impressed me as being PREFACE to the manner born, although I count among my friends several indisputable poets who have earned journalistic fame as contributors to the daily Press. To the compounding of an efficient journalist all sorts of ingredients are indispensable. In almost every other career, success may be secured by thorough proficiency in one special class or branch of knowledge. Not so in journalism, which exacts from its practitioners a fair average acquaintance with an unlimited number of subjects, and a capacity for dealing with them intelligently and readably at a moment's notice. The value of a jour- nalist to his employers is enhanced, to a certain extent, by his unquestionable mastery of any particular subject. If, however, he be nothing more than a specialist, the sphere of his utility is necessarily circumscribed. To be really use- ful he must be versatile, or what the Germans aptly term "many-sided," and the versatility which characterises Press-men "of the first flight" is acquired by many several preparatory processes, some of which are undergone labor- iously and others unconsciously. PREFACE ix Among journalists of recognised ability there are, probably, not two whose training for their profession has been identical in method and circumstance. Of those whom I know well, every one has, like myself, followed some calling or callings other than journalism before he took to writing regularly for the Press. Some have started in life as soldiers or sailors ; some as diplomatists or civil servants ; a few as clergymen or college tutors, doctors, or engineers ; but all have been " something else," while qualifying for admission to the Fourth Estate, than what they actually are at the pre- sent time. When I commenced my own bread- earning career, at the age of fifteen, as a junior clerk in an English Government office, the idea that I might eventually become a professional journalist had never even crossed my mind ; nor did it seriously occur to me until some thirteen years later. In the interim, I had passed from the service of my own country into that of a foreign Sovereign, in which I was fortunate enough to earn quick advance- ment and honorific distinction; but through a X PREFACE measure of administrative re-organisation, sub- stituting native-born officials for those of alien origin, I found myself one day thrown upon my own resources, the proud possessor of a couple of decorations, symbols of Imperial and Royal favour, but without post or pension — a husband and father, twenty -eight years old, with no patrimony or savings to fall back upon and, like Jerome faturot, a la rdcherche d'une position sociale. It was then, or somewhat later, after I had knocked in vain at many gates, and suffered disappointment after disappointment by the dozen, that one of my oldest and dearest friends, Thornton Hunt, at that time occupying a position of influence and responsibility on the Editorial Staff of The Daily Telegraph, advised me to " try journalism," for which, in his opinion, my literary education, acquaintance with several foreign languages, and official experiences abroad and at home, might be deemed suffi- cient and even acceptable qualifications. War had just broken out between two oreat Continental Powers; and "Specials," able and willing to take the field, were for the moment PREFACE xi in request. In that capacity, at the earnest recommendation of my kind friend, I was engaged "on sight" by the proprietors of the journal in question, and joyfully enlisted under a flag which has had my faithful and uninter- rupted service from June, 1866, down to the date of this writing. Thus much for the circumstances which drew me into the ranks of journalism, and to which I have only adverted because they illus- trate my theory that journalists, as a rule, are earth -made rather than heaven -born. Mine has been a life of adventure, or at least one rife with memorable incidents and experiences, many of which belong to a period long antece- dent to that of my journalistic activity. In its course of more than half a century's duration, I have been brought into contact with many personages of eminence in the political, artistic, and literary worlds; with the rulers of nations, with a few of the statesmen who have made the history of our times, with great musicians, painters, and men of letters, with soldiers, diplomatists, and orators of world-wide renown. xii PREFACE In view of the probability that such sayings and doings of dead and living celebrities, as having come within my personal cognisance, may be fraught with interest toi a large class of the public, I have been led to jot down for publication some reminiscences, setting forth facts only, for the authenticity of which my memory vouches, and excluding all hearsay and statements at second hand. The Author. CONTENTS A Visit to Sydney Smith An Improvisation by Mendelssohn The King of Hungary's Coronation A Memorable Christmas Dinner A Royal Marriage "The Great Frenchman" Interview with Victor Emmanuel The Abbe Liszt . The Second German Emperor Two Roumanian Statesmen A Servian Premier A Roman Pontiff The Belgian Brighton . A Christmas Dinner in Prison . The Great Diamond Show A Modern Italian Statesman Prince Bismarck at Home Pope Leo XIII. . Out of Doors . PAGE IS 26 38 S3 71 86 102 118 133 151 168 182 197 210 226 240 253 289 303 A Visit to Sydney Smith I WELL remember staying for several weeks with the Sydney Smiths at Combe Florey, the " witty Canon's " Somersetshire rectory, not far from Taunton town. This must have been nearly half a century ago, for I was either six or seven years old at the time. My parents and the Sydney Smiths were on terms of inti- mate friendship, and the latter had asked my mother and the younger of my two sisters — who had previously more than once been their guest in the country — to spend part of the summer with them. In this invitation I was specially included, despite my extreme juvenility, for Sydney Smith had taken a great fancy to me, probably on account of my precocious musical ability, and had expressed a wish that I should accompany my people on the occasion in question. We all loved and revered him so deeply that to us his wishes were commands. It was one after- noon, in the drawing-room at Green Street, after I had been singing to him for more than an '5 1 6 A VISIT TO SYDNEY SMITH hour, that, as we were taking our leave, I heard him say to my mother, " Pray bear in mind that on no account is Httle WilHe to be left behind." Afterwards, when the prospect of visiting Combe Florey — an oil-painting of which, presented to my father by the Canon, had been hanging for two or three years in our library at home — was fully disclosed to me — I fancy it was held out as a premium to good conduct — my delight was unbounded. Of course, I knew nothing of his social greatness, or of his re- nown as a humorist and littdrateur ; but I knew him as a wonderfully entertaining and indulgent old gentleman, who had given me delightful books, and often told me funny fairy- tales — who praised and caressed me whenever I sang or played to him, and encouraged me to persevere in all the studies I liked, best. Perhaps I should here mention that I was really a musical child, endowed by Nature with a correct ear and a sweet treble voice, which latter had already been trained and developed, at the time of which I am writing, by assiduous and judicious cultivation. I had also been taught notation, had been strictly and con- tinually exercised in sight-reading, and in memorising instrumental as well as vocal pieces, and had acquired a familiarity with the key- board of the pianoforte that enabled me to A VISIT TO SYDNEY SMITH 17 •■^ play the ,efaer works of Kalkbrenner, Henri Herz, and Dohlef — aye, even of Mendelssohn and Bach — less stiffly and unmeaningly than such compositions are usually rendered by very juvenile pianists. I owed my instruction in singing and playing alike to my mother, one of the most accomplished English musicians of her day, who was maternally proud of her little pupil, and missed no opportunity of showing me off, as vocalist and pianist, to her friends and acquaintances, whose name was legion. During the first decade of her Majesty's reign precocious amateur musicians were far less numerous than is now the case. Hence my vocal and instru- mental feats speedily acquired a certain notoriety in London society, outside our own intimate circle of musicians and music-lovers, which in- cluded Sterndale Bennett, Sir George Smart, Cipriani Potter, the Novellos, Charlotte Dolby, and several other eminent virtuosi, and it was my, by no means infrequent, lot to be bidden to the houses of the great in the recognised character of an " infant musical prodigy." Arrayed in a velvet jerkin with a falling lace collar and cut-steel buttons, silk stockings, and silver-buckled shoes, I have sung as a litde fair-haired child to Cabinet Ministers, great social magnates, and grandes dames de par le monde by- the hundred. My first watch — A VISIT TO SYDNEY SMITH a tiny costly toy, which I then regarded as a "joy for ever" — -was given to me by her Royal Highness the late Duchess of Gloucester, for singing " II mio tesoro " to her, at a grand musical party given by Lady Theresa Lister — I think, during the season of 1844. Of that brilliant gathering I am probably the only sur- vivor, for I was the junior, by at least fifteen years, of the next youngest person present. Among those, I remember, who spoke kind words of praise to me after I had sung my two songs — the other was an English ballad of my mother's composition — were Lord John Russell, Lord Clarendon, the Earls of Morley and Minto, Lord Monteagle, Mrs. Sydney Smith, and her daughter. Lady Holland. Our visit to Combe Florey took place at the appointed time. To me it was fraught with con- tinuous happiness, only once interrupted by an untoward incident, which shall presently be described. The rectory, a large white house of unpretending exterior, the walls of which were partly covered by magnolias, climbing roses, and luxuriant flowering creepers, was fitted through- out with every procurable appliance of comfort, as comfort was understood in relation to country life fifty years ago; and to it were attached all manner of outbuildings — dairies, stables, wash- houses, poultry-sheds, and the like — about which A VISIT TO SYDNEY. SMITH 19 I had the Canon's license to prowl at my pleasure, unhindered and unwatched, between breakfast and luncheon-time. Sometimes these investigations, full of charm and surprise to a London-bred child, were carried on alone, and sometimes in concert with my kind host's granddaughters, Hollands and Hibberts, who arrived at Combe Florey a few days after our advent, and became my constant playmates throughout the remaining period of our stay, The afternoon of well-nigh every fine day — and the weather was almost uniformly lovely — was devoted to drives through the neighbouring country, visits to show places and territorial magnates within a ten-mile radius of the parsonage, and shopping excursions to Taunton, the graceful church-tower of which picturesque rural town made an indelible im- pression upon my youthful mind. In the house we children were always " on our best behaviour " ; not because we stood in fear of chiding or severe looks, but because none of us could endure the thought of giving the least pain or umbrage to the tender, generous hearts that overflowed with indulgence, even for our humours and fancies. I was the only one, alas ! who broke — and but once — the rule of exemplary conduct otherwise steadfastly observed by us all, and who, temporarily possessed by the fiend of mischief, offended in such sort as to incur a A VISIT TO SYDNEY SMITH well-merited punishment, the merciful mildness of which seemed to me infinitely terrible, I remember, at the time of its infliction. Let me tell how this crime of mine came about, and what was its penalty. I must premise that one of the institutions of Combe Florey was a handsome china bowl, half filled with coloured wafers, such as were then in general use for closing letters, and placed in the centre of Sydney Smith's huge writing-table, just behind a " presentation " inkstand of massive silver, which he spoke of as his "fount of in- spiration." On the evening after our arrival at the rec- tory, when bedtime had sounded for me, and I went up to the dear old man to bid him good- night, he took me between his knees, drew the bowl towards him, and, picking out a white wafer, pressed it hard upon my forehead, say- ing, " While you stay with us, in this wise every night I shall signalise your conduct throughout the day. Absolutely irreproachable behaviour will be rewarded by a white wafer. Any trivial misdemeanour will be gently hinted at by a coloured wafer. A black wafer will mean that you have done something really wrong, and that I am seriously displeased with you. Now go to bed, dear child; sleep well; and if you must dream, let it be of white wafers." A VISIT TO SYDNEY SMITH I had undergone the ceremony several nights in succession, and nothing worse than a pale pink wafer had happened to me, when one dull morning, as I was wandering about the gardens and shrubberies near the house in search of amusement, an evil destiny set temptation in my path, and I fell over it, figuratively speak- ing. It had taken the form of a harmless necessary cat, calmly crouching with folded fore- paws on a sundial, encircled by flower-beds. At Combe Florey there were many furred and feathered pets, highly respected by all the sub- ordinate members of the household. The most eminent of these cherished creatures was a huge tabby, known by the name of Patty, and high in the favour of Mrs. Sydney. Patty was a blissful cat, and her contentment of spirit was evinced by a singularly complacent expression of counte- nance, somewhat out of keeping with a pair of bristling, wiry, whiskers, which would have done credit to Puss-in-Boots himself, as portrayed in the children's picture-books. We were excellent friends, Patty and I ; wherefore, when she caught sight of me that fateful morning, she did not flee, but confidingly awaited my approach. As I gazed upon her, fondly rather than otherwise, the baleful idea suggested itself to me that she would look happier without those formidable whiskers, than with them. The longer I looked at her the A VISIT TO SYDNEY SMITH more strongly this fascinating notion laid hold of me. No warning vision of a retributive black wafer floated timely before my mind's eye. It was an hour before breakfast time, and I knew the coast was clear; so- I sped away to Mrs. Sydney's morning room, extracted a pair of sharp scissors from her capacious work-basket, swiftly returned to the sundial, and — did the deed ! Patty offered no resistance and uttered no protest when all was over, unless a slight sneeze might be interpreted in that sense. Presently she arose, shook her head dubitatively, sprang down upon the path, and slowly walked away, halting now and anon to lightly brush with alternating paws the old familiar places from which her once luxuriant whiskers were missing. It occurred to me, I remember, as she left me, that, after all, she looked none the more cheerful for the operation she had undergone; but as soon as I had restored Mrs. Sydney's scissors to their accustomed dwell- ing-place, my attention was diverted to some other subject — I know not what — and I ceased to think of Patty and her bereavement. During breakfast all went as smoothly and pleasantly as usual, and immediately afterwards the Canon withdrew to his library, where he was wont to write letters and transact parish business during the forenoon ; the ladies retired to the morning- room, in which they used to work, read, talk, and A VISIT TO SYDNEY SMITH. 23 sometimes "make music," while our hostess gave audience to the housekeeper, butler, and coach- man — Patty, by the way, was free of this room, and generally occupied her own particular cushion hard by Mrs. Sydney's chair, within a great bow-window overlooking the lawn — and we children scampered off to play in the grounds. It was my mother's custom to give me a singing lesson every morning between the hours of eleven and twelve, and one of the servants generally came out to tell me when she was ready for me. To my surprise, no summons reached me at the usual time that morning ; but my young companions were called in by name, one after the other, until I was left alone. Still, no gloomy foreboding crossed my mind. When, however, in obedience to the luncheon-bell, I made my appearance at the midday-meal, it struck me as strange, and rather alarming, that every eye became gravely fixed upon me for a few seconds, except those of my mother and sister, which I repeatedly tried to catch, but in vain. A brief and ominous silence ensued, during which, for the first time, a dreadful understanding of my turpitude and its probable consequences came upon me, and seemed to surge up in my throat as though it would suffocate me. My discomfiture was complete when I heard 24 A VISIT TO SYDNEY SMITH Sydney Smith's voice ask, in its most impressive tones, " Who, I wonder, could have been so wicked and cruel as to cut off a poor, unoffending cat's whiskers ? " I verily believe that f :e sound of the last trumpet would have affected me less painfully than that solemn question, addressed, as I felt it was, to me and me only, by one whom I positively idolised. I burst into tears, and sobbed out a full confession ; upon which the Canon simply observed that " Mrs. Sydney would talk to me in the course of the day, and that he did not wish to see me again until my bed-time, when he should expect me to come to him as usual." A little later on my kind hostess gently ex- plained to me the cruelty of which I had been thoughtlessly guilty, and of which, as soon as I understood it, I was deeply ashamed. She also told me that her attention had been attracted to "Poor Patty" by the animal's unwonted un- easiness, and that, when she perceived what had happened to it, she had questioned all the servants, as well as her own grandchildren, none of whom evidently knew anything of the matter. The obvious conclusion to which she came was that I must be the culprit ; and the ordeal at the luncheon-table had been pre-arranged by Sydney Smith himself, with my mother's consent. That evening my forehead was stigmatised with a A VISIT TO SYDNEY SMITH 25 coal-black wafer, and I went to bed the unhappiest child in Christendom. Full forgiveness, how- ever, was accorded to me the following morning, and the subsequent frontal record of my conduct at Combe Florey displayed a continuous succes- sion of white wafers. The black one I kept for years. It effectually cured any proclivity towards cruelty to animals that may have been latent in my disposition until aroused by the suggestive- ness of Patty's exuberant whiskers. An Improvisation by Mejidelssokn ONE of the most vivid reminiscences of my early boyhood is that which has to do with my introduction to FeHx Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a privilege that I owed to my precocious musi- cality. I was just nine years old when I first met the great composer for whom, of all those with whose pianoforte works I had any real practical acquaintance, I entertained the liveliest sympathy and admiration — when the honourable but agonising task of playing to him was imposed upon me, and when he rewarded my strenuous endeavour to deserve his approbation by volun- teering to extemporise for my special amusement, and on a theme of my own choosing. This memorable event — such, at least, it was to me and mine — was brought about by the coincident action of several of my mother's intimate friends, who were also on terms of close amity with Men- delssohn. Those chiefly concerned in the matter, to the best of my remembrance, were Vincent Novello, Sir George Smart, Cipriani Potter (then 26 AN IMPRO VISA TION B Y MENDELSSOHN 2 7 Principal of the Royal Academy of Music), W. Sterndale Bennett (his successor in Tenterden- street some years later), and Mr. R. Lane, the Queen's Lithographer, himself a musical dilet- tante of considerable talent. It was either at the last-named gentleman's house, or at that of the venerable Novello — at which of the two I cannot positively say, but I have a vague recollection that the house was situate just outside the Regent's Park, and very near to the York and Albany — that the meeting above referred to took place. It had been discussed, in and out of my presence, for several weeks before definitive arrangements were made for it to come off. I had been put through my facings, so to speak, repeatedly by Sir George Smart, with whom I rehearsed my whole repertoire of memorised pianoforte pieces, and who, moreover, had called for me two or three times in his neat little brougham, and driven me off to Sterndale Bennett's house, in order — as he told me — that " the man of all men who knew best how Men- delssohn's compositions should be rendered," should hear me play some of the " Songs without Words," which I had taken great pains to learn, and give me a few improving hints with respect to the correct manner of interpreting them. Bennett's sweetness and geniality put me com- pletely at my ease with him, and on one occasion 28 AN IMPRO VISATION B V MENDELSSOHN my manifest desire to please him must have pro- duced the desired effect, for — after I had played through the first book of the " Lieder " with tolerable correctness — he sat down to the piano, saying, " That was much better ; and now, what shall I play to you ? " I had heard him say that perfect scale-playing was one of the most difficult accomplishments, in the way of technique, that a student of the pianoforte had to master; so I promptly replied, "If you please, sir, I wish you would play through the scales in octaves, thirds, and tenths." Smiling, he said, " That is a musi- cianly request enough," and proceeded to comply with it. I shall never forget the feeling of hopelessness that came over me, as I listened to his playing of those scales, with an equality of touch and tone that appeared to me absolutely unattainable, and even inimitable. Since then forty-six years have passed away, in the course of which I have heard every great European pianist play, from Thalberg to Paderewski ; but none of their surprising feats of "vir- tuosity" has left so deep and indelible an im- pression upon my memory as that effected by Sterndale Bennett's scale-playing, of which, by the way, he laughingly reminded me when last we met at Bonn, in 1 871, to take part in the Beethoven centenary celebrations. He told the story to Ferdinand Hiller, who conducted the AN IMPR VISA TION B Y MENDELSSOHN 2 9 musical festivities on that occasion ; and it is one of my proudest recollections that I was called upon by that admirable composer to respond, in his own language, to the toast of " British Musicians." Hiller had proposed this toast at the memorable " Banquet on the Rhine," with which the festival terminated, but Bennett's unconquer- able nervousness absolutely incapacitated him from addressing the leading composers and virtuosi of the Fatherland there gathered to- gether in a tongue which, during his long resi- dence at Leipzig, had once been as familiar to him as the vernacular of his native country. Several other English musicians of well-merited renown were present, but none of them could deliver an impromptu speech in German,, to which circumstance I doubtless owed the high honour of being selected by Dr. Hiller, as a substitute for Sir Sterndale Bennett, in the capacity of spokesman for our musical fellow- countrymen. To return, however, to Mendelssohn, from whom I have allowed myself to be diverted by his friend and disciple — of all English musi- cians of that day the one who stood highest in his esteem. When my mother and sister and myself entered the music-room, in which from thirty to forty guests were already as- sembled, we were accosted by the maUre du logis 30 AN IMPRO VISA TION B Y MENDELSSOHN and by Sir George Smart, who took me by the hand and led me across the room to where two Broadwood " grands " were stationed, head and tail, between a bayed window and the fire- place. Leaning against the nearer of the two instruments, and engaged in animated conver- sation with a young lady of striking appearance — Clara Novello, if I remember aright — was a somewhat slightly-built man of middle height, with extremely handsome, regular features, dark hair curling round a high forehead, and the brightest pair of eyes I had ever looked upon, onyx-like in clearness and colour, but gleaming with a live lustre never given out by any precious stone. As I had already seen this brilliant being in public, and watched him with the deepest interest, as he wielded the conductor's baton at one of the Philharmonic Concerts, I instantly recognised him, and stood gazing at him with a passionate admiration that, for a few moments, fairly bewildered me. Touching him gently on the shoulder. Sir George said, " Here, Mendels- sohn, is the English boy of whom I have more than once spoken to you." Mendelssohn gave me his hand, in which he pressed my small paw very kindly, and said, with a radiant, reassuring smile, which magically dispelled my distressful nervous-ness, " Well, my little fellow, they tell me that you can play the piano, and that AN IMPR VISA TION B Y MENDELSSOHN 3 1 you would like to play to me. I am sure I should like to hear you. Say, now, what can you play^ — by heart, of course, I mean ? " I managed to stammer out the names of some of the pieces in which I believed myself to be note-perfect ; among them the two first books of his " Songs without Words." When I had come to the end of my list, he said, "That is all very well — very well, indeed — but can you not play anything by Bach ? Have you never studied the ' Wohl- temperirtes Klavier ' ? That was my schoolbook when I was your age, and had to play for the first time in public at Berlin." I answered : Yes, I had learned a few of the forty-eight fugues and preludes — only the easy ones, of course — but had not mentioned them, because I thought they were regarded as studies, rather than as morceaux de salon. " That is nonsense," he rejoined ; " only people say that who cannot play or understand them. Now, you sit down and play me a prelude and fugue, which you like best, and feel most at home in ; then I shall tell you what I think about your playing." Forthwith I did what I was bidden to do, selecting the prelude and fugue in E flat major, with which I was so familiar that, had none but my own people been by, I could have played it blind- folded, and, indeed, had done so more than once at home "for fun." So intense and overwhelming 32 AN IMPRO VISATION B Y MENDELSSOHN however, was the agitation caused to me by Mendelssohn's presence that I went through my task quite mechanically, and almost unconsciously, with cold fingers and a feeling as of iced water running down my back. I was told afterwards by more than one of my musical friends that " I had not missed a note " ; and I think that I must have played to Mendelssohn's satisfaction, for as I was rising from my seat in dumb despair, he bent down towards and kissed me on the forehead, saying, " You are a really musical child. Let that be enough for you to know at present. And you may say that Felix Men- delssohn told you so." Then he drew me away to a sofa in the bay window, where he sate down, taking me between his knees, and talked to me for at least ten minutes, asking many questions about my family, who had taught me, how long I practised daily, what I was learning otherwise than in music, and whether I had felt any disposition to compose, observing, " If so, you should at once begin to study harmony and counterpoint." When I told him that I was working hard at Dr. Crotch's book on thorough-bass, and writing exercises every day, and practising Cipriani Potter's studies — a copy of which the kind old man had given me a few weeks previously — Men- delssohn seemed well pleased. In return he AN IMPRO VISA TION B Y MENDELSSOHN 33 gave me a comic account of his dibut, as a very small boy of nine, at a concert given by a German with a queer name — something like Goggle — when he played the pianoforte part in a concerted work by Woelfl, and had quite a success, " Though," he added, " I was much more nervous then, than you were just now." Then he spoke of Mozart's wonderful capacity for sight-reading in the days of his early child- hood, and said, " If you want to make music a source of life-long happiness, be careful to exercise yourself constantly in playing a prima vista. ■ You should make a point of reading something at sight every day; there is plenty of printed music, old and new. To acquire perfect execution and a great repertoire would be of the first importance, if you were intended to earn your bread by playing in public ; but I hear that is not so, and therefore I advise you to cultivate sight-reading, from which you will derive an enjoyment only to be exceeded by the pleasure of listening to faultless perform- ances of fine musical works." I pass over his kindly praise of my touch and steadiness in respect to the observance of " time and marks " — an expression which I did not fully understand until he explained it to me. Finally he said, " Now, you would like me to play to you, would you not ? I '11 tell you what we will do. You c 34 AN IMPROVISATION BY MENDELSSOHN shall give me a subject, and I will extemporise upon it. I know many English tunes well, some of them are very beautiful ; choose one of your favourites." A few days before this meeting I had made a strenuous attempt to fabricate a set of variations, having for their theme " The Blue Bells of Scotland." When Mendelssohn suggested that I should furnish him with a subject for im- provisation, it at once occurred to me to seize the opportunity afforded to me of hearing how the greatest composer of the day would deal with a melody which I myself had recently and quite unsuccessfully endeavoured to treat after the manner prescribed by the popular arrangeurs and fantaisistes of the thirties and forties — Henri Herz, Chaulieu, Kalkbrenner, and Thalberg — some of whose lighter piano- forte works I had been diligently studying, in the hope of improving my technique. So I asked the great man if the air in question were known to him, and, if so, " would it do " as a theme for extemporisation. He answered in the affirmative, adding that it was a "capital tune," and he felt sure he " could do something with it." Then, telling me to stand by his side, he sat down to the piano upon which I had played, struck a few introductory chords, arpeggiando, and played the air through, plainly AN IMPRO VISA TION B Y MENDELSSOHN 35 harmonised, and without any ornament what- soever. Sober, almost severe, as was his rendering of the familiar melody, it enabled me to realise for the first time that a pianoforte could be made to sing. About twenty variations followed, each illustrating a special method of subject - treatment or branch of technical pro- ficiency. While listening to this succession of marvels and surprises, one did not know what most to wonder at — the infinite variety of his tone-production, the absolute command which he exercised over the expressive capacities of the instrument, or the perfection of training evinced by his supple fingers, the mechanical interpreters of his thoughts, at once so entirely obedient and capable, that they left his bright intellect free to conceive and contrive at its pleasure, without troubling itself about how its inventions and devices were to be carried out upon the key-board. Among other amazing feats performed by these ministers of genius, I remember the " canonisation " of the melody alia seconda and alia settima ; two versions, differently harmonised, in the minor mood; an inimitable left-hand ^iude, in the Chopinesque manner; and a tremendous four-part fugue, with episodical inversion of the subject, leading into a stately chorale, at the close of which Mendelssohn fairly broke out into one of those 36 AN IMPRO VISA TION B Y MENDELSSOHN fanciful, incomparable impromptu cadenze in which he notoriously delighted to "let himself go," and which may justly be said to have ex- hausted the difficulties of pianoforte-playing. This paramount achievement, which lasted fully three minutes, culminated in a triumphal march, with which the improvisation closed, and which sounded throughout as though it were being played by four hands instead of two. All the musicians present were unanimous in declaring that they had never theretofore witnessed such a glorious feat of supreme virtuosity. As for me, I could find no words wherewith to describe any phase of the rapturous enjoyment I had experienced t;hroughout the performance. When I tried to express my gratitude to Mendelssohn, he gently patted my head and said : " I know — I know ; I could see how pleased you were ; don't say anything about it. Some day you shall hear me play with my feet as well as my hands ; that will be something new and interesting for a little fugue-player like you. I will let your parents know when and where to bring you." He kept his promise. A few days later I had the inexpressible pleasure of standing by him in the organ-loft at St. Paul's, and of working the stops for him auf commando, while he played Bach's great pedal-fugue in G minor and two or three of his own compositions for the King AN IMPRO VISA TION B Y MENDELSSOHN 37 of Instruments. Perhaps I should mention that some of the incidental details set down in this reminiscence were recorded at the time of their occurrence by my beloved mother, whose gift of improvisation was only less wonderful than that of Mendelssohn ; and that to her careful notes I owe an important refreshment of my memory in relation to both my meetings with the composer of " Elijah." The King of Hungary s Coronation UNTIL I arrived in the Hungarian capital, towards the close of May, 1867, it had not been my privilege to contemplate an exclusively tri-coloured town. Some ten weeks earlier in that memorable year, on the occasion of the King of Hungary's first visit to Buda-Pesth, after his reconciliation to his Magyar subjects, I had noticed a marked disposition on the part of the twin cities to break out into all sorts of red, green, and white adornments, and even to drape themselves here and there in the Magyar national colours. This tendency, however, had chiefly manifested itself in connection with State and municipal buildings, and public monuments. Domestic architecture had only been affected by it to a comparatively small extent ; whereas, on my return to the Royal burghs, I found well-nigh every private house in them tricked out in three- coloured bunting, and emblazonments of the Hungarian and Hapsburg arms. The route along which the King was to drive, from the 38 KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION 39 station to his castle at Ofen, was ornamented by- many thousands of tri-colour flags, a dozen triumphal arches, and uncounted tall " Venetian masts," painted red, white, and green, surmounted by massive escutcheons linked together by leafy ropes, from which again hung banners, graduated in size and varying in shape, but all tri-colour, with the Kingdom's "coat" depicted on the central white band. Stefan Sz^chenyi's famous suspension bridge was scarcely recognisable in its ceremonial array, its approaches and towers topped by gigantic standards, and its chains, sloping downward either way from the summits of their turreted supports, studded at brief in- tervals with narrow tri-colour pennons. The effect of this " dressing " was indescribably pic- turesque and enlivening. Huge tribunes were erected throughout the whole length of the Franz Josef Quay, and in front of the Pfarr- kirche, and wooden graduated galleries, of great size and strength, skirted the long line of route allotted to the Royal procession on Coronation Day, as well in Buda as in Pesth. All these temporary constructions — and there were miles of them— were draped in the national colours. So, in fact, was everything that would lend itself to the display of a flag, streamer, banderole, shield, or festoon of ribands. It was, indispur tably, a three-coloured city, through the streets 40 KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION. of which I drove to the Queen of England, the old-fashioned hostelry in which I had secured quarters for the Coronation week. Stronger than ever was the impression theretofore made upon me by the grotesque morning dress of Hungarian manhood, whenever I had sojourned in Pesth — to wit, that Destiny, for some quaint and occult purpose, had landed me in a city peopled by theatrical " supers," who had once been ladies' pages, during which phase of their career buttons had entered their souls, only to break out in later life all over their bodies. It was difficult for one dressed in the ordinary garb of occidental civilisation to bear up against the outburst of national sentiment symbolised by the Magyar buttons, braid, and boots, during the Coronation celebrations. This I discovered to my cost on the great illumination night, when a group of peculiarly fervent local patriots made a spirited, but fortunately unsuccessful, attempt to lynch me because of my crush hat and braidless evening apparel, and I was gallantly rescued by my excellent friend Elek von Thaisz, the Town Captain of Pesth. He was wearing at the time more than enough braid, buttons, and lacquered upper-leather for any two able-bodied men, however patriotic, and, what was even more to the point, as far as my salvage was concerned, a heavy, curly sabre, with the flat of KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION 41 which he laid about him lustily among my assailants, until they quitted their hold of me, and fled, howling. It is pleasant to me, even now, to remember that one of those enthusiasts I, spent the eriiuing six weeks in hospital, " and no questions asked." I had made the personal acquaintance of the new Hungarian Ministers at the Dedk Club, shortly after the formation of the first Magyar Cabinet. When I again met them, some eight days before the Coronation, I found them in a state of painful perplex;ity with respect to the Inaugural Diploma, and seriously contemplating the postponement of the ceremony until June 10, for reasons which I will presently explain. Whit-Monday, however, happened to fall on that date in 1867, and a proverb, as old as St. Stephen's mantle itself, warned the Hungarian nation that any important State business tran- sacted during Whitsuntide was bound to prove futile. Franz Josef dared not run the risk of being nicknamed " The Whitsun King," and so the date originally fixed — June 8— had even- tually to be adhered to. The Diploma difficulty, which for some hours seemed insuperable, was this. According to Magyar constitutional tradi- tions, it was absolutely necessary that the Diploma should be engrossed upon the skin of a dog, specially prepared for that purpose. All 42 KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION the Crown lawyers were of opinion that the legitimacy of the Coronation ceremony would be fatally affected by the substitution of any other material for that prescribed by immemorial usage. It was not, however, till June i that Andrdssy and his colleagues were reminded that they had forgotten all about the Diploma dog, which had not then even been slaughtered, far less flayed. The dilemma was a tremendous one ; but it was carefully kept from public knowledge, and eventually the Diploma — which Deak himself drew up, and showed to me in draft — was inscribed upon a piece of vellum. Of course, the Great Seal had to be affixed to it. Unfortunately, the only available Great Seal was one on which, among the Kaiser's many titles, appeared that of " King of Lombardy and Venetia," as well as the escutcheons of both these provinces, which, something less than a twelvemonth previously, had definitely ceased to belong to the Austrian Empire. It would have been utterly unconstitutional to confirm a State document of supreme moment, by appending to it a seal setting forth untruthful statements and delusive heraldic insignia. On the other hand, no seal-engraver in the Diial Realm would undertake to execute a new Great Seal in a week ; so the much-exercised Ministry was com- pelled to give orders that the redundant titles KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION 43 and shields should be blocked out of the old signet. Hence the seal ultimately set upon the King's Coronation manifesto displayed three be- wildering blanks, and continues to do so, I have no doubt, at the present moment. The Coronation Hill, thrown up on the Franz Josef Quay, was just being finished off when I first ascended it, and its constructors informed me that it consisted of earth from every county in Hungary, the top layer coming from far Tecza, where the Huns first suffered conversion to Christianity. There must have been many tons of this mould, every atom of which was forwarded to Pesth, in wooden cases, by the Lords Lieutenant of the different Comitats. The hill itself was about twelve feet high, its summit enclosed in a white stone balustrade, open at all four corners. From this eminence the King was to execute four sabre cuts, symbolis- ing his resolve to defend the integrity of Hungary against all the nations of the world. As it turned out, the four openings in the balustraded enclosure atop of the Kronungshiigel having been made to correspond with the four chief points of the compass, his Majesty was under the obligation of aiming his four sword-strokes respectively at the University, the Exchange, the Cathedral, and the Castle of Ofen. Thus, as the dryest of local humourists took occasion 44 KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION to point out on the morning of the ceremony, the first of the King's constitutional sabre-cuts menaced art and science, the second commerce, the third rehgion, and the fourth his own residence. On June 6, the Crown of St. Stephen, the adventures of which during its chequered career would — and as a matter of fact do — fill a book of no inconsiderable dimensions, was carried in State through the streets of the twin cities to the town church of Buda, where it was deposited on the altar, and remained " on view " till the following evening. Though the old crown weighs nearly four pounds, Francis Joseph had to wear it on Coronation Day for ten hours, without intermission. According to the statute " in that case made and provided," he might not divest himself of it, after the Palatine and his Grandeur of Gran should have placed it on his head at about eight a.m., until he should take his seat at the Coronation banquet at six p.m. Inviolable custom also exacted that the King and Queen should fast for six and thirty hours before being crowned, and that during the ceremony they should both be publicly anointed with sacred oil, his Majesty on the forehead and throat, and her Majesty under the right armpit, the crown being sub- sequently allowed to rest for a minute or so KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION 45 on her right shoulder; no higher, in her case, might it be raised. At four a.m., on June 8, 1867, the Blocksberg batteries thundered out the announcement that Coronation Day had fairly dawned, and a hour and a-half later I took possession of the place I had been permitted on the previous day to select in the old Pfarrkirche of Ofen — a long, lofty, narrow stone building, the interior walls and roof of which were entirely concealed by banners, wreaths, exotics, cloth of gold. Gobelin tapestries, embroidery, and tri-colour cloth. Mid- way between the great door and the altar two pairs of gilded thrones, upholstered in drap d'or, had been set up, one pair facing the sanctuary, the other under a crimson velvet baldaquin to the left of the altar. I was by no means the first of the bidden spectators to arrive in the church, although I had fully two hours before me wherein to watch the preparations for their Majesties' reception. During that " wait " the most bril- liantly-apparelled gathering I have ever looked upon filled every inch of sitting and standing room in the edifice, except, of course, the space set apart for the chief actors in the impend- ing ceremony, and the officiating clergy. The banners of the ten Hungarian provinces, each borne by a magnate, were displayed close by the church door, so that the King and Queen 46 KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION were bound to pass under them on their way to the central thrones. At half-past seven exactly their Majesties entered the church, and were met, with the crucifix and goupillon, by Cardinal Simor, Primate of Hungary. Then, preceded by a " section " of the Archer Lifeguard, by eight Imperial pages, twelve ladies of honour, and ten Austrian Archdukes, the Royal pair passed up the main aisle, and took their seats opposite the sanctuary. Queen Elizabeth was robed in gold-embroidered white satin. The corsage of her gown, back and breast, was entirely covered with brilliants ; a triple riviere of enormous diamonds hung from her stately white throat, and two huge solitaires were attached to her dainty ears ; the massive coils of her hair were surmounted by a light crown of black velvet and diamonds. There were many beautiful women in that church ; but the loveliest of them all was the Queen of Hungary. The King, wearing the picturesque uniform of a Magyar general, walked to his throne between the Cardinal Primate and my old friend Hay- nald, Archbishop of Kalocza. The procession was musically accompanied by flourishes of trumpets and trombones, peals of bells, and tremendous organ harmonies. As soon as their Majesties were seated the Court orchestra and " Aulic " singers plunged into the " Kyrie " of KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION 47 Liszt's Coronation Mass, composed expressly for the occasion. At the conclusion of this performance the ecclesiastical ceremony com- menced, with Latin exhortations addressed to the King by the Primate and Vice -Primate. Then his Majesty knelt down before the altar, kissed a crucifix, and pronounced an oath pledging him to sustain both Church and Nation. Having been prepared for unction behind the altar, he came forward, was anointed by the Cardinal, invested with St. Stephen's mantle and buskins, and reconducted to his throne. More music ensued, after which the King again approached the altar, knelt down on one of the higher steps, and received the unsheathed sword of St. Stephen from Simor, to whom he returned it after delivering three double cuts with it, turning towards the audience for that purpose. The Primate having returned the con- secrated glaive to its massive scabbard, fastened it round his Majesty's waist, saying, " Gird this sword upon thy thigh, most potent Monarch, and remember that the saints conquered not by the sword, but by faith ! " Then the Palatine — Julius Andrdssy — and the Cardinal lifted the ancient crown from a velvet cushion on which it was lying, set it on the King's head, placed the sceptre in his right hand, and the orb in his left, and led him to one of the two thrones 48 KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION. situate to the left of the sanctuary, the dais of which he ascended, the Primate loudly exclaim- img, "Hold and maintain the place now occupied by thee as successor to thy forefathers, accord- ing to the law of heritage — a place delegated to thee by the authority of God, the All-Powerful ! " Instantly Andrdssy stepped forward, facing the assembly, raised his plumed coronet, and shouted, "Elj'en a Kiralyi!" (" Long live the King"), thrice, at the top of his voice, his exclamation giving the signal for a tremendous acclamation, vociferated by all present, and supplemented by salvoes of artillery, " firing " of bells, shrill trumpet-blasts, and a wild waving of feathered caps of maintenance, banners, swords, halberts, and lace handkerchiefs. The effect of all this clamour and movement was overpowering ; it visibly affected the King — and the Queen, sitting alone in the middle of the church, fairly broke down, hid her face in her hands, and shed tears abundantly. Her part in the ceremony came next, after performing which, with splendid self-possession, she was ushered to the vacant throne, beside that occupied by the King. At nine o'clock. Cardinal Simor having meanwhile officiated at High Mass, the Corona- tion procession was re-formed, and quitted the church, headed by the King and Queen, his Majesty now wearing St. Stephen's regalia, and ,KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION 49 carrying the globe and sceptre. The famous sword was confided to Count Edmond Zichy, who bore it to the State coach, on the front seat of which he reverently deposited it. Francis Joseph rode from the Pfarrkirche to the Garrison Church, where the next act of the ceremony took place — the conferment of the Order of the Golden Spur upon twenty-two Magyar noblemen, who received the accolade of knighthood from the King's hand. The road- way between the two churches was covered by tri-coloured cloth, which, in conformity with im- memorial usage, became a perquisite of the populace as soon as the hoofs of the Coronation charger had passed over it. Accordingly, as his Majesty rode forward, the crowd broke through the lines behind him, and took possession of their prescriptive property, tearing the cloth into shreds, until its very last tatter had vanished from the surface of the stony street. Then came another tumultuous tussle, provoked by the Finance Minister's distribution of "Coronation Money." Mounted on a superb charger, the future Premier scattered broadcast among the seething multitude a hundred golden ducats, and three thousand silver medals struck expressly for the occasion. Even the soldiers broke their ranks, dropped their firelocks, and joined in the supreme scramble. Inside the Garrison Church D so KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION all was ready for the King. Each of the Knights-elect knelt in turn at his Majesty's feet, ejaculated the formula " Emeritus sum" and was duly dubbed a member of the most exclusive Order in Christendom — for the Golden Spur can only be conferred by a Hungarian Monarch on the day of his coronation. The next act in the ceremonial drama was the public pronouncement of the Constitutional Oath by the King, on a dais erected in front of the Pesth Pfarrkirche, to which he was followed by a cortege over a mile in length, consisting of the Banderia (free horsemen) of all the counties, that of Somogy being costumed in brown velvet jerkins, black fur caps, and bearskin cloaks spread out to the horses' tails, and that of Kdcskemet in scarlet velvet tunics, grass-green moire breeches, gold-topped lacquered boots, and snow-white fur mantles and shakoes. The Banderia were followed by sixty mounted magnates, each one attended by two esquires on foot, and wearing his house-colours. Among these illustrious patri- cians Count Gustav Batthyany was glitteringly conspicuous, being arrayed in silver chain-armour and solid silver gorget, gauntlets, and brassards, and attended by two gigantic gentlemen in burnished plate-armour, cap-a-pid, surmounted by huge vizored helmets crowned with nodding white plumes. Then came the great officers of KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION 51 State, bearing some of the Coronation regalia ; Beust on an enormous grey horse ; a dozen or so of Archdukes, in the Austrian gala white and scarlet ; lastly, Franz Josef on a thoroughbred stallion, wearing St. Stephen's crown, mantle, and sandals, the costume prescribed to him for the display of swordsmanship on the summit of the Coronation Hill. This "rapid act" he performed with admirable precision, although he broke a stirrup-leather while compelling his charger to wheel sharp round just after he had delivered his fourth sabre cut. Then, executing a "half-turn to the left," he galloped at a breakneck pace down the hill, drawing rein at its foot, whence he crossed the suspension bridge to Buda at a hand-canter — this time alone, a dozen lengths ahead of the whole procession already de- scribed. At the Coronation banquet, held some hours later in the Castle of Ofen, their Majesties ate nothing; but, just before the first course was served, the King stood up, raised on high a golden cup filled with red Hungarian wine, and, after exclaiming, " Eljen a kazaf" ("Long live the country"), drained its contents, and set it down amid a storm of cheering. The last words uttered by Batthyany before he was shot dead by a firing party of Austrian soldiers, in 1848, were the first words spoken by Francis Joseph after 52 KING OF HUNGARY'S CORONATION the completion of the Coronation ceremony in 1867. Between those two ejaculations had inter- vened a period of painful and calamitous mis- understanding between the Magyars and their rightful sovereign ; but at last prince and people had agreed to meet in amity, and, on either part, the reconciliation achieved was cordially sincere. The martyred patriot's dying breath was echoed by a newly-crowned King, and nearly twenty years of misery and oppression were effaced from a chapter of Hungaria's history that had been written in the hearts' blood of her bravest sons. A Memorable Christmas Dinner TO the vast majority of English folk, old and young alike, the most interesting and con- genial of Christmas rites is that which is celebrated at table, and the performance of which, in fulfilment of ancient tradition, neces- sitates the consumption of an abnormal quantity of succulent food and generous liquor. In this country it is customary that the Christmas feast should be held within the strict limits of the family circle, and that certain prescribed comestibles should figure in its bill of fare. The only indefeasible claim to share a British householder's beef and tur- key, plum pudding and mince pies, at Christ- mastide, is based upon the consanguinity of guest and host ; claims founded upon intimate acquaintance, or even on old friendship, are by no means sure of recognition, although kindly people are not lacking who voluntarily extend their "seasonable hospitality" to lonely spin- sters or bachelors forlorn, for the time being 53 54 A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER accidentally placed outside the radius of their own kith and kin. In this respect, as a rule, the English abroad are less exclusive than the English at home. By them, not infrequently, stray strangers and wandering waifs, if of their own race and in any admissible way accredited to them, are mercifully bidden to partake of their Christmas fare. The Queen's representatives in foreign parts, whether diplomatic or consular, are justly cele- brated for a generous readiness to entertain their travelling compatriots at the " festive season," if these latter be fit and proper persons to receive attentions of this class. An Englishman, compelled by circumstances to spend Christmastide in some Continental capital or city of importance, far distant from the fireside at which he has a right to sit in his native land, who has to eat his Christmas dinner alone, in hotel or restaurant, and at his own cost and charges, must be a curiously friendless, misanthropical, or unpresentable in- dividual — unless, indeed, his arrival at the place of his temporary sojourn be too recent to have permitted him to present whatever letters of recommendation or introduction he may have provided himself with. The writer of these lines was for many A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER 55 years absent from England, and, during the long period of his voluntary expatriation, it was his lot to spend twenty -one successive Christmas Days abroad — some of them in out-of-the-way localities, and in strange com- pany enough. Craving permission to speak of myself in the first, instead of the third person, I may here observe that not one of the repasts of which I partook on those anniversaries was consumed in solitude. For the most part the materials of which they were composed were quaintly unorthodox, from the British point of view ; some of them, substantially and access- orially, were as un- Christmaslike as dinners could possibly be ; at two or three I played the host ; at others I figured as a guest ; a few were "joint" affairs (in more than one sense of the adjective) got up in a hurry by casual Englishmen, whom accident or the for- tune of war had brought together in partibus. One and all were genuinely merry meetings, at which sincere, if not always successful, efforts were made to reproduce or closely imitate the leading features of a correct English Christmas dinner. My strange experiences in connection with an endeavour to impress a famous plum-pudding recipe upon the mind of a musical Roumanian 5 6 A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER cook, by translating the formula into his native tongue, turning it into verse, and adapting it to a popular Dacian air, have already been told elsewhere. On another occasion, at Madrid, a desperate attempt, in which I was energetically supported by two fellow -journalists, one of her Majesty's Messengers — our Legation did not entertain that Christmas Day — and a wealthy London merchant, to organise a seasonable banquet at the principal restaurant in the Puerta del Sol, resulted in a gruesome repast, the English items of which were a lengthy and elderly boiled fowl, claiming to be a turkey poult, stuffed with chestnuts and garlic, and a thick currant pottage arabesqued with stoned olives and small slabs of candied orange peel. I remember that we had to fall back upon the gigantic prawns, for which the capital of Spain is justly renowned. These — all our Anglo- maniacal culinary experiments having igno- miniously failed — constituted "the chief of our diet" on December 25, 1868, and were washed down by sugary champagne, such as the haughty Spaniard loveth, and by a baneful compound of insidious intoxicants, hight "Swedish Punch," one of the surest headache breeders proscribed by the Index Expurgatorius of teetotal'ism. I have eaten my Christmas .dinner in the bosom A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER 57 of a hospitable German family at Berlin, which, strong in the conviction that carp stewed in beer, roast goose and plums, and " Pumper- nickel mit Schlagsahne " — that is, crumbled black bread stirred up in whipped cream — were peculiarly appropriate to the Feast of the Nativity, regaled me profusely with those amaz- ing dainties. I could describe other Christmas dinners, no less heavily fraught with surprise to British ap- prehensions than those of Bucharest, Madrid, and Berlin, of which I have partaken at Vienna and Galatz, Belgrade and Rome — repasts no less anachronistic than convivial, and replete alike with preposterous viands and ludicrous incidents — but, as Mr. Rudyard Kipling has taught contemporary raconteurs to say, "These are other stories." My present purpose is to tell the tale of a Christmas dinner which, in more than one respect, was the most memorable banquet of its class to which I ever sate down. I have reason to believe, moreover, that all the other survivors of that brilliant festivity are at one with myself as to its exceptional noteworthi- ness. The Franco-German War, commenced in the high summer of 1870, had been prolonged — des- spite a long and unbroken series of French 58 A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER reverses — until winter set in upon the still con- tending armies of invaders and invaded, with a severity almost unprecedented in the fair land of France. Round Paris, upon the siege of which mighty city the chief power of the German hosts was concentrated at the approach of Christmas- tide, the whole face of the country was thickly shrouded with snow, and the earth itself was frozen as hard as iron or stone to the depth of nearly a foot. Since Ducrot's great sortie there had been but little hard fighting within the lines of the investment, which, however, were being slowly but surely contracted upon the doomed capital. The German bombard- ment, at no time theretofore carried on with vehement eagerness, seemed to slacken down appreciably as the cold intensified ; and there were December days during which Valdrien's favourite mouthpiece, "La Grande Catherine" preserved a. sullen silence for six and seven hours at a stretch. In Versailles, where the head -quarters of the King and Crown Prince of Russia and of General von Kirchbach had been established throughout the autumn, the French local popu- lation was suffering terribly from lack of means wherewith to purchase food and fuel, and persons of both sexes belonging to the classes of small rentiers and State pensionnaires — A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER 59 among them elderly ladies of high birth and aged officers en rStraite — might be seen during the few hours of daylight wandering about the woods round Versailles, in quest of fallen branches and stray twigs, or haply cheapening a limp cabbage or hard-salted herring in the chilly, melancholy, market-place. It was a dread- ful time for the vanquished. They were cold and hungry, whatever their social status might be, while their conquerors were kept warm and full of wholesome meat and drink. Even the German soldiers detailed by night as well as by day, for field and out-post duty, and, therefore, necessarily exposed to the inclemencies of the weather, were better off than the shivering and fasting nobles and bourgeois of the ex- Royal town ; for the Fatherland had liberally supplied its warrior sons with high, wool-lined boots, thick flannels, fleecy comforters and sheepskin mantles, and the rations of food and wine served out thrice a day to the besiegers of Paris were sufficiently copious to allay the most formidable appetites. As a place of residence or of sojourn for non-combatants, Versailles was deadly dull all day long ; after dark, with its silent, snow- clad, feebly-lighted, forsaken streets and squares, it was indescribably gloomy. The only oases of light and cheerful sounds 6o A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER of song and laughter in that stony, frost-stricken desert were the quarters, or sets of apartments, occupied, on either side of the Place Hoche, by the war correspondents of the Times and The Daily Telegraph, who were " at home " to their friends and compatriots well-nigh every evening, save when engaged on some special duty of paramount importance, and whose com- fortable rooms, often thronged by Englishmen of light and leading, were not infrequently visited by jovial German staff officers con- nected by blood or marriage with English families, or by the ties of old comradeship with their hosts. The club organised by the Princes of the "Second Staff," in the annexe of the Hdtel des RSservoirs, was rarely kept open after eleven p.m., when the latest rubber of three- penny whist — that " personally conducted " by Duke Ernst of Saxe-Coburg — had been con- cluded, and their Highnesses, having buckled on their clanking sabres and muffled themselves up in their long furred cloaks, had vanished for the night into their cosy quarters next door. Prussian Royalty and its aide-de-camps, mili- tary secretaries, &c., went to bed early at the Prefecture and Les Ombrages ; so did Moltke, Roon, and the General Staff in the Avenue A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER 6i de Paris ; Bismarck, truly, sate up late as a rule, in his " cottage of gentility " in the Rue de Pro- vence, but his nocturnal receptions were strictly regulated by the principle, " No admission, except on business," and in no way contributed to such sparse social enlivenment as poor frozen-out Versailles could boast of during that grimmest of winters. Early in December it became manifest to the members of the little Anglo-American group of war correspondents, attached to the Royal head- quarters, that they would have to celebrate the ''Files de Noel" as best they might within hearing of " Big Kate's " deep-toned voice ; and one of them, at a convivial gathering held in the first-floor of No. 9, Place Hoche, about a week before Christmas Day, suggested that they should dine together in true British fashion on that anniversary, inviting to their feast a certain number of "outsiders," neither journalists nor Anglo-Saxons, but approved good fellows, and personally well-known to us all. The meeting at once formed itself into a committee of ways and means, under the presidency of Dr. William Howard Russell, the beloved and honoured doyen of our tiny guild, and half-a-dozen resolutions were rapidly passed, the most important of which, as far as I was concerned, was one unanimously 62 A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER empowering me to conclude every necessary arrangement for the contemplated banquet, in- cluding the issue of the invitations, composition of the menu itself, and of an artistic design for that engaging document, seasonable decor- ation of the rooms in which the festivity should be held, and organisation of special service for the occasion, to be composed of our couriers and body servants, the waiting staff of the Reservoirs being fully occupied from morn- ing till night in attending upon Royal, Serene, and Transparent Highnesses and their aides- de-camp, and therefore unequal to dealing with any emergency like that involved in the exe- cution of our project. In fact, the committee gave me absolute carte-blanche in every respect, and it was well for me that they did so, for a more difficult enterprise than the getting-up of an English dinner in a French town occupied by a German army, I have never carried through before or since. Fortunately, M. and Mdlle. Grossoeuvre, of the Reservoirs, entered heart and soul into the undertaking as soon as I propounded it to them, and, though overwhelmed with current business, contrived to hold at least one pertinent ^confer- ence a day with me throughout the week pre- ceding Christmastime. A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER 63 Of these consultations, which could not have been more solemn had the fate of Europe depended on their results, one, I remember, was devoted to fish, another to '' le Baron de Rosbif" — the abstract idea of which my kind advisers took a long time to tackle — another to turkey and oyster sauce, and another to plum-pudding, the chef being called in as amicus curicB to receive verbal and written evidence touching the ingredients of that cate, and the manner of its preparation. Versailles being cut off from the coast by a broad belt of occupied territory, turbot, lobster, and oysters seemed unattainable, when we first took into consider- ation the means of procuring them. They came to hand, however, late on Christmas Eve, and as fresh as paint ; at a cost, however, which my colleagues and myself, during the quart d'heure de Rabelais, vowed never to disclose, so that the charge of spendthriftry might not be justly preferred against us. On December 17, when I undertook the part of "Universal Provider" for the Anglo- American Christmas dinner, there was not a French or Prussian soul in Versailles who knew anything about a baron of beef, and the civil and military authorities alike assured me that a 20-lb. turkey did not exist in Seine-et-Oise, Seine-et- 64 A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER Marne, and the four other departments from which the Third Army Corps derived its incidental poultry. Yet both those viands figured conspicuously at our feast, and the turkey weighed 241b., independent of truffle inlay and chestnut stuffing. The problem of holly and mistletoe, for table garnish and wall decoration, was for some days an apparently insoluble one. At last, in pur- suance of a "happy thought," I persuaded two good friends of mine, Prussian officers, com- manding companies of infantry on outpost duty, to send out fatigue parties into the woods of Trianon and Ville d'Avray, with orders to collect seasonable evergreens, or perish in the attempt. The results of their energetic re- searches were a huge cart-load of the finest decorative material that ever adorned a Christ- mas banqueting-hall, and the presence at our feast of both the gallant gentlemen who had helped me out of my crowning difficulty. Our menu was a thing of beauty, with a gold-lettered title-page, displaying the inscrip- tion, " Noel, 1870, Versailles," and an elegant sepia design of two sturdy saplings, garlanded together by a chubby Christmas elf, draped in clouds "and nothing more." Within this fanci- ful frame was set forth the following list of good things edible and potable : A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER 65 Potage k la Reine. Filets de barbillon, sauce homard. Roast Beef. Dinde aux marrons et saucisses, sauce aux huitres. Faisans rotis, with bread sauce. Petits pois. Plum pudding et mince pies. Dessert. Vins : Madfere, Montrachet, Romande-Conti, Cremant d'Ay rosd, Moet frapp^, Porto. ^ To this plentiful and essentially insular repast, entertainers and guests sat down at seven p.m., precisely, nineteen in all, on December 25, 1870. Dr. Russell was in the chair, supported on his right hand by his namesake, Mr. Odo Russell — at that time Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and afterwards Ambassador at Berlin — and on his left by his colleague, Mr. Lawrence Oliphant. General William Duff, whilom of the U.S.A., and a half-brother of Andrew Halliday, acted as vice-chairman, his supporters being two war correspondents of The Daily Telegraph, Colonel H. B. Harvey and myself The other journalists present were : Dr. Maclaine, Dr. Scoffern, and Mr. Edward King, representing leading American news- papers ; Mr. Alfred Austin, of the Standard; Mr. Robert Landells, of the Illustrated London News ; Mr. Coningsby, of the Echo ; and Dr. Hassell, of Die Staatszeitung. Two expected 66 A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER " heroes of the pen " were missing — Archibald Forbes, who had been " commanded " to dine with the present King of Saxony on the other side of Paris, and Hilary Skinner, to whom a tempting chance of spending the evening, in an advanced position near Montretout, had been offered by some hospitable Prussian warrior, and whose excuse for his absence we (knowing how difficult it was for a correspondent to get to the absolute front at any time) had regretfully accepted. Our guests were Gadban Efifendi, the Tur- kish Consul-General in London — who, like Mr. Odo Russell, was en mission at Versailles in relation to Russia's repudiation of the Black Sea clause in the Treaty of Paris — Baron von Witzle- ben and Baron von Arnim, a gigantic cuirassier and a stalwart guardsman, both married to Eng- lishwomen, and speaking our language as though to the manner born ; Count von Niedhammer and ;iCaptain von Strantz, the kindly warriors to whom we owed our magnificent display of scarlet-studded holly garlands, and pearly-berried mistletoe-boughs ; and " Red-Cross " Young, of the British Ambulance. The dinner was a culinary as well as a convivial success, for the talented chef of the Reservoirs had personally superintended its preparation, and the cellars of that famous A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER 67 hostelry had yielded up their choicest treasures, to gladden the hearts of Anglo-American revel- lers on the most joyous of Christian anniver- saries. It had been agreed that only two toasts should be given, both from the chair — " The Queen," and " Absent Friends." To the former musical honours and lavish tribute of hearty cheering were duly paid, and it may be imagined with what deep and sincere emotion the latter was drunk by men whose nearest and deadest were all far away, at a season specially con- secrated to family gatherings, and the large majority of whom were under obligations to run the ordinary risks of war from day to day until the conclusion of the campaign. Deep draughts of pink and amber champagne were silently quaffed to the health of those dear women and children at home whom some of us might never see again. For a few seconds the wave of senti- ment surged up high, even to our eyes and throats. As soon as it had subsided, the divided rule of tobacco and music set in with gay reactionary vigour. I had not only contrived to charter an articulate pianoforte for the evening, but had succeeded in getting it efficiently tuned during the forenoon. It was my privilege to "preside" at that instrument during the subse- quent proceedings, vocal and choregraphic, 68 A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER although I was more than once relieved in the interludes of dance music by Witzleben, an excellent all-round pianist, to whom the trick of four-handed improvisation was as familiar as to myself There was no lack of " approved good" singers among our party, one of whom — the late Lord Ampthill — was entitled to rank among the most accomplished amateur vocalists of his. day. Dr. Russell led off with that spirited old. nautical ditty, " The Whale," his favourite after-dinner song for many a year. All present joined voci- ferously in the chorus with which each verse con- cluded, and it was pleasant to hear the sonorous voices of our German friends trolling out the final refrain, " But they never did catch that whale, brave boys ! " Our chairman then exercised his "right of call" upon Mr. Odo Russell, who sang "// ■ialen del suo sorriso," with a maestria that might have been envied by Graziani himself Colonel Harvey followed with " The Soldier's Dream," the appropriateness of which to the circumstances, which had brought us all together " within the lines of the besiegers," was undeni- able. Other lays of great pith and moment were subsequently sung by genial " Bob " Landells, by Maclaine and King, and by all our soldier guests, one of whom, gifted with a A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER 69 sweet and sympathetic tenor voice, earned an unanimous encore by his admirable rendering of Reichardt's " Du bist so fern und dock so nah." About an hour before midnight, at the instance of our jovial chairman, the tables and chairs were cleared away, and four couples of more or less bearded waltzers commenced gyrating slowly to the strains of " The Beautiful Blue Danube." 'Twas a goodly sight to see the dignified and symmetrical rotundities of a journalistic magnate and a military veteran revolving in concert, each impinging upon the other's fixed orbit, and to watch the heroic efforts of a colossal Prussian "sapper" and a dapper little American "ink- slinger" — the former personating a lady for the nonce — to keep step. From the first the dancing was " full of excellent differences," and with each new de- velopment of its humorous characteristics our mirth became less and less repressible, until the concluding galopade — the stirring old " Sturm- Marsch " — came to its close in a very hurricane of happy laughter. As the " witching - hour " struck, our valedictory clinking of glasses and interchange of kindly wishes took place, and five minutes later we emerged from the well- warmed hotel into the frozen street, lit up by the white moonshine with a pale brightness that ^o A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER seemed a sort of ghostly daylight. The trees, to their tiniest twigs, were decked with dazzling rime that shimmered and sparkled like billions of minute diamonds. Not a footstep save our own could we hear as we tramped through the crisp snow to our respective quarters. " The silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token " save the deep, distant growl of a huge French gun vexing the Prussian outposts at Ville d'Avray. Since then, Death has been busy with the mem- bers of our Christmas gathering. Its survivors, I fancy, as long as life and memory shall still be theirs, will not forget that weird winter night when Versailles, though it harboured two future German Emperors, thirty odd actual princes of the Fatherland, the general staff and the chief headquarter of the mightiest army that ever took the field, seemed a Dead City, stricken with the eternal muteness of the grave ! A Royal Marriage SIX-AND-TWENTY years ago I was pre- sent at the nuptials of the present King and Queen of Italy, who were married at St. John's Cathedral, Turin, on April 22, 1868, by Archbishop Riccardi, the Primate of Piedmont. Bride and bridegroom were cousins germane, the Prince of Piedmont being the eldest son of the R^ Galant'uomo, and Princess Marguerite of Savoy the daughter of Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa, Victor Emmanuel's only brother. Their marriage, however, was purely one of inclina- tion on both sides. The circumstances which immediately brought it about were sufficiently remarkable to merit recall to public remem- brance. Towards the close of the year 1867 Prince Charles of Hohenzollern, by that time firmly established on the Dacian throne as Hospodar of Roumania, was on the look out for a wife, and proposals were made on his behalf to the Duchess of Genoa for the hand of Princess 71 72 A ROYAL MARRIAGE Marguerite. As soon as the offer was imparted to her the Duchess proceeded to consult King Victor, who told her that, whichever way she might think fit to answer it, she might count upon his sanction and approval. Shortly after the Duchess had taken her leave of him, his Majesty acquainted the Prince of Piedmont with the proposal in question, whereupon his Royal H ighness — much and agreeably to his father's surprise — remarked that " he should infinitely regret its acceptance, inasmuch as he regarded his cousin's hand as an inestimable prize, which he himself eagerly desired to win." Furthermore, he besought the King's permission to enter the lists against the Prince of Roumania. Victor Emmanuel, always addicted to "striking while the iron was hot," straightway accom- panied his son to the Duchess's Palace, where they were ushered to a boudoir in which mother and daughter were sitting together. While the King was chatting gaily with his sister-in-law, the Prince of Piedmont drew Princess Marguerite aside into a window-recess, and asked her, in so many words, if she would accept him for a husband. Her answer proving all that he could wish it to be, he led her back to her mother, whose consent to the engagement he forthwith solicited and received, the whole affair not A ROYAL MARRIAGE 73 having occupied five minutes. Thus it came to pass that Marguerite de Savoie remained in her beloved native land, to share the throne of her near kinsman, the " Chivalric King." Three days before his marriage, at Turin, I was presented to this- illustrious Prince, who subsequendy did me the honour to personally introduce me to his lovely consort at the State ball, given on the night of Saturday, April 26, [868. It was from him, moreover, that I received permission to accompany his suite throughout the wedding tour, which lasted nearly a month, and was signalised by national rejoicings of the most enthusiastic and brilliant description at Florence, Genoa, and Naples, as well as in the old Piedmontese capital, where my task of chronicling the nuptial celebrations began. It was not until the 20th that the two principal wedding guests arrived at Turin — the Crown Prince of Prussia, whose transit through Lom- bardy and Piedmont was one continuous popular ovation ; and Prince Napoleon, the bridegroom's brother-in-law, whose reception in Northern Italy was marked by conspicuous coldness. The entire personnel of the Foreign Legations at Florence had preceded these august personages by twenty- four hours, so that the Prussian and French Ministers were in attendance on their respective 74 A ROYAL MARRIAGE Princes as soon as the latter crossed the frontier. All the diplomatists, as well as the members of the Royal family and their guests, were present at the races on the Place d'Armes, in the King's pavilion on the wedding eve, when the future Queen was seen to great advantage, a morning costume of dark-blue silk setting off her dazzling fair complexiom and lustrous golden hair with striking effect. That evening the marriage con- tract was signed in the Duchess of Genoa's principal drawing-room, all the great officers of State and dignitaries of the several Royal house- holds being convoked to witness the important ceremony. Next morning, at half-past nine, when I en- tered the King's palace, the reception rooms were already thronged with ladies en toilette de matin — only the women and maids-of-honour were in full Court dress — and with every imagin- able variety of illustrious or distinguished male personage. I did not tarry long in the Salle des Suisses, the Duke di Santirana (Grand Cham- berlain) having kindly hinted to me that I should do wisely to take my place in the cathedral with- out delay. It certainly was the best position for witness- ing the sacred rites, being a stall in one of the royal pews, resembling a pit-tier stage box at the opera, and in a line with the standing-room A ROYAL MARRIAGE 75 reserved for the Knights of the Annunziata— who, through holding that decoration, rank as " cousins of the King," and become life-members of the Royal Family Council — within ten yards of the bride and bridegroom. Just opposite my pew was another palco, in which the Crown Prince of Portugal, then a pretty fair-haired child only three years old, but wearing the Collars of the Orders of Christ and the Annunziata, was seated ; to my right, the high altar, almost hidden by masses of exotic flowers ; to my left, a poly- chromatic gathering of ministers, senators, and chamberlams ; immediately in front of me the thrones specially set up for the members of the ■House of Savoy and the foreign princes. The nave was filled with ladies, and the two aisles with military and naval officers. At a little before eleven the deceased Queen Adelaide's ladies-in-waiting, gorgeously arrayed in satin, feathers, and diamonds, made their appearance, and were conducted by a chamberlain to their stalls under the Royal palco ; one or two were so old and feeble that they had to be supported by equerries from the Salle des Suisses to the cathedral. Next came Countess Menabrea and Madame Rattazzi, ushered by a sublime Court official to places reserved for them as wives of Prime Ministers, close to the altar. Their husbands, as well as Cialdini, Delia Rocca, and 76 A ROYAL MARRIAGE Cibrario, stood among the " cousins of the King." Presently all the bells in Turin began to peal with a deafening clamour, six military bands stationed outside the church struck up the " Marcia Reale," the organ thundered out some- thing that sounded like a musical earthquake, the drummers of the National Guard beat such a roll as I have never heard since that day, even at the grand tattoo of a German arm)' corps, and the nuptial cortege entered the cathedral by the private passage communicating with the palace, in the following order : — The Prince of Piedmont and " Madame " Marguerite de Savoie ; King Victor and the Duchess of Genoa ; the Crown Prince of Prussia and the Queen of Portugal ; Prince Joseph (J drome) Napoleon and the Duchess of Aosta ; the Duke of Aosta and Prin- cess Clotilda, followed by the entire strength of the Court and Corps Diplomatique. The sposi took their seats on two gilded armchairs fronting the altar, and behind them, respectively to their right and left, sate the bridegroom's father and the bride's mother, attended by Prince Carignano and Marquis Alfieri, sponsors in virtue of their seniority in the Annunziata Order; still further back the Queen of Portugal, Princess Napoleon and the Duchess of Aosta, behind the King ; and the Prussian Heir Apparent, Prince Napoleon, Prince Amadeus, and the Duke of A ROYAL MARRIAGE 77 Genoa behind the Duchess of Genoa. The " Pearl of Savoy " was robed in white satin, embroidered with silver ; her mother wore pale lilac silk, point-lace, and diamonds ; the Queen Maria Pia, blue velvet, ermine, and a coronet of brilliants and emeralds ; Princess Clotilda, sea- green silk, Brussels lace, and a coronet of diamonds, rubies, and emeralds (the Italian colours) ; the Duchess of Aosta, pink silk, Valenciennes lace, and a coronet of enormous brilliants. The King and Princes were all in gala uniform, with collars, stars, and military medals. As soon as the Royal party had settled down in the places allotted to it, the religious cere- mony commenced, amid the melodious strains of Beethoven's Third Symphony. The sponsors held a broad scarf of cloth of silver over the heads of Humbert and Marguerite, while the latter were kneeling on the topmost altar-step, and as soon as they had returned to their seats the Piedmontese Primate pronounced a long- winded nuptial "admonition," which might more correctly be designated a fulsome eulogium, for it deluged all the members of the Italian Royal family, one after another, with floods of ex- travagant laudation. Nothing more ferocious can be conceived than the expression assumed by Victor Emmanuel's bronzed visage while his 78 A ROYAL MARRIAGE praises were being declaimed viva voce, nor than the withering smile which curled his lip when Monsignor Ricardi alluded to the bride- groom as the "valorous young warrior who had shed his red young blood for his country upon the field of Custozza " ; whereas it was the Duke of Aosta, not the Prince of Pied- mont, who had been wounded in that calamitous engagement. At the conclusion of the service the ecclesias- tics formed in procession two-deep, and marched down the nave, leaving the Royalties grouped quite informally before the altar. After im- parting, with characteristic brevity of speech and grimness of aspect, his paternal congratu- lations to the newly- married pair. King Victor gave his arm to his sister-in-law, with whom he left the cathedral by the private passage, followed by his relatives and guests in the order above recorded. Throughout the ensuing three days and nights, public rejoicings and State festivities followed one another, with scarcely any intermission. Barely half-an-hour had elapsed after the break- ing-up of the wedding party — the bride having meanwhile changed her dress — when the Prince and Princess of Piedmont drove in "half-State" to the Corso, and were greeted with acclamations by an amazing concourse of equestrians, carriage A ROYAL MARRIAGE 79 folk, and people of all classes. As might have been expected from a light-hearted girl of six- teen, just united to the man of her choice, the sposa was much exhilarated ; her beautiful face was wreathed in happy smiles, and the lively remarks with which she entertained her husband during the drive, frequently compelled Prince Humbert to relax the habitual sternness of his martial countenance. I may mention that, having succeeded by a dexterous flank movement in getting back to the State apartments before the bridal pro- cession reached them, I happened to be stand- ing sufficiently near to her Royal Highness to hear one or two of her laughing replies to the congratulations that were offered to her by a number of exalted personages, in the Salle des Suisses. When her brother-in-law, the Duke d'Aosta, had paid his tribute of felicitation — of which I could not catch a single word, for it was delivered in an undertone- — she exclaimed aloud, kicking her train aside very briskly, "What a pity that this affair is so long! I should so much like to dance!" And a few hours later, being seated by King Victor at the State banquet — a gorgeous feast, not one dainty of which was touched by, his -Majesty, whose left hand never left his sword-hilt throughout the seance, and who only raised a glass to his lips 8o A ROYAL MARRIAGE once, in order to drink to the health of the young couple — the Princess actually made her formid- able uncle laugh more than once at her vivacious sallies. After dinner the Royal family made its appear- ance in the State box of the Teatro Reggio, which was illuminated a giorno, and crowded from floor to- ceiling, except a few palchi on the grand tier, reserved for the members of the Diplomatic Body and household. Princess Marguerite was the first of the Royal party to enter the box, closely followed by the King, who stood like a rock, clutching his sword-hilt and twirling his huge moustache, throughout the storm of cheering by which his lovely daughter- in-law was welcomed, and which she acknow- ledged, by nine deep curtsies, each eliciting a fresh outcry of " Evviva la sposa ! " She wore a Court-dress of ivory-white silk, cut very low, and a parure of brilliants selected from among the Crown jewels by the King himself, and valued at two millions and a-half of lire. Cordial recep- tions were successively accorded to Victor Em- manuel, Frederick William of Prussia, and Maria Pia of Portugal, as they advanced to the front of the pa/co reale and took their places ; but Prince Napoleon and the Duchess of Genoa were not greeted by a single plaudit or batti-mano. The Royal party witnessed an act of " Dinorah," A ROYAL MARRIAGE which lasted about an hour, and on the fall of the curtain quitted the theatre, as vehemently applauded at their departure as they had been at their arrival. All through the evening, until nearly mid- night, military bands played on the different Piazze of Turin, a city which abounds in vast squares and apparently interminable streets. The weather being superb, the bulk of the local population stayed up all night sub Jove, and when I left the Whist Club at three a.m. the Piazza del Castello and Portici del Po were still thronged with laughing, singing, chattering, mandoline- playing, cavour-smoking, and perfectly sober Turinese. It were supererogatory to reproduce in this place all the details of the festivities which took place during the remainder of the wedding week • — the State and subscription balls, carrousels, popular open-air entertainments, illuminations, races, military reviews, banquets. Court recep- tions, and displays of fireworks. One incident personally concerning the chief actors in this gorgeous nuptial drama — an in- cident of which I was an eye-witness — I may venture to recall to public remembrance, al- though it has already been described in the columns of The Daily Telegraph. My excuse for repeating the anecdote is, that a quarter 82 A ROYAL MARRIAGE of a century has passed away since it first appeared in print. At the ball given by the Philharmonic Academy of Turin to the Prince and Princess of Piedmont, on April 24, 1868, the " Pearl of Savoy " was whirling round a champ clos of exalted personages, in the arms of one of her husband's young aides-de-camp, when her dress caught in the spur of a cavalry officer, and was badly torn, so that a long wisp of gauze trailed from its skirt along the floor. Before the Prin- cess had time to invoke the assistance of a lady-in-waiting, to rid her of this inconvenient appendage, the Prussiart Heir- Apparent had produced a dainty little morocco itui, from which he extracted a tiny pair of scissors, and — kneeling down at the feet of the bride — skilfully cut away the wreckage. As soon as the opera- tion was completed, he rose, bowed profoundly, and resumed his place by the King's side. After her Royal Highness had resumed dancing, Frederick William went up to her husband, and craved his permission to keep the gauze tatter as a souvenir of the " Queen to be." Prince Humbert cordially acceded to the gallant request, whereupon the Crown Prince formally solicited the King's authorisation of his courtly "act of appropriation," and, having received a hearty affirmative answer, folded up his booty, A ROYAL MARRIAdE 83 and carefully put it away in his pocket-book. All the Italians who happened to witness this graceful little episode, were enraptured with the presence of mind and fertility of resource, dis- played by a soldier-prince in whose favour Turin society was already strongly prepossessed. The shining social success that crowned his most opportune action was tenfold enhanced when it came out, later in the evening, that, Victor Emmanuel having brusquely complimented him on the forethought evinced in carrying about a complete trousse even in a ball-room, the Crown Prince had replied : " The whole merit of the idea belongs to my wife, sire — not to me. Long ago she gave me a pocket ndcessaire, with all sorts of useful things in it — needles and thread, button hooks, sticking - plaster, and scissors, as you saw just now — and made me promise to keep it always about me, wherever I might be. What took place just now only proved that I am a lucky fellow to have such a clever wife to look after me." King Victor was immensely delighted with this disclosure, and went about during the next dance, repeating it to all the great ladies of the Court, one after another, so that, within an hour, everybody who was anybody in the room knew all about it. As soon as the story reached me, I verified the spoken part of it — the action I had watched 84 A HOYAL MARRIAGE with lively interest — by reference to the Crown Prince himself, who confirmed it in every particular. In concluding this brief reminiscence of the wedding ceremony and festivities of April 22, 1868, I will crave permission to quote a few words, written five years ago, a propos of the union of Humbert of Piedmont and Margaret of Savoy. The happy chance that transformed their cousinly affection into ardent love, and made them one for life, was highly propitious to the well-being of Italy, as well as to their own happiness. Two nobler natures than theirs were never brought into contact, nor with more beneficent results to a great nation. The " Chivalric King" has ennobled Italian charac- ter by setting it an example of unrestricted self- sacrifice, persistent devotion to duty, and supreme humanity. The " Pearl of Savoy " has taught her countryfolk, men and women alike, to be tolerant, charitable, benevolent, merciful to animals, indefatigable in alleviating pain and solacing sorrow. As Princess and Queen she has passed her girlhood and woman- hood in brightening the lives of the poor, and in proving to all around her, by her unaffected gaiety, and uniform cheerfulness of manner, that true contentment is only to be found in the constant doing of good. It is impossible A ROYAL MARRIAGE 85 to exaggerate the moral and psychical value of the influence exercised upon the Italian people during the past quarter of a century by the actual King and Queen of United Italy, whose nuptial Jubilee was gladly and gratefully celebrated two years ago throughout the length and breadth of the Ausonian Peninsula. " The Great Frenchman IT was in the year 1857, when I was Second Chancellor of the Imperial Austrian Con- sulate-General in London, that I made the acquaintance of Ferdinand Count de Lesseps. At that time the Director of the Chancery was the Chevalier Ignatius de Schaeffer, dis- tinguished alike as an Oriental linguist and politico -economist, who had held a similar post at Alexandria before his transfer to St. Swithin's Lane. One fine spring morning, as my excellent colleague, Karl von Bolton, and myself were assiduously drafting despatches and reports for submission to our esteemed chief, the glass-door of the dingy old chancellerie opened to admit a strongly-built, well set-up, middle-aged gentle- man, with a dark complexion, glossy black moustache, and brilliant hazel eyes, wearing a dark-blue frock coat, with an enormous parti- coloured rosette in its top button-hole on the left side, light grey trousers, lacquered boots, 86 ''THE GREAT FRENCHMAN" 87 and a resplendent hat which, to the eye of an expert in continental fashions, proclaimed him a Frenchman of the haut monde. This remarkably good-looking and carefully turned -out personage, courteously uncovering his head, asked in French if M. de Schaeffer were visible, and, on receiving an affirmative reply, handed me his card with the request that it might be transmitted to that gentleman. It bore the inscription, " Ferdinand de Lesseps, Agent Diplomatique de France." Offering a seat to my chief's renowned visitor, I sent his "pasteboard" into the Chevalier's sanctum by the Chancery servant, and immediately M. de Schaeffer made his appearance, radiant with delight, and holding out both his hands to his old friend and colleague. De Lesseps was closeted with him for more than an hour, and they went away together ; but before their departure the Director introduced Von Bolton and myself to the eminent diplomatist, with whom we chatted very pleasantly for a few minutes, and who begged us to visit him at his hotel, where he hoped that we should be able to dine and spend an evening with him during his brief stay in London. This was how my long acquaintanceship with Ferdinand de Lesseps began, an acquaintance- ship that was destined to ripen into cordial " THE GREAT FRENCHMAN" friendship in later years. In the course of the fashionable season of 1857, I met him repeatedly at my chief's rooms in Pail-Mall, in society, at several evening parties given within the charmed circle of foreign diplomacy, and at his own table, where I dined with him twice, and listened delightedly to his brilliant talk, sparkling with sprightly humour and teeming with interesting anecdotes, of which he had accumulated an inexhaustible store during his consular and diplomatic experiences in Northern Africa, Spain, and the Low Coun- tries. Among the raconteurs of cosmopolitan renown with whom it has been my privilege to fore- gather during the past four decades, M. de Lesseps was entitled to a foremost place, rank- ing with the late Lord Ampthill, Dr. W. H. Russell, Prince Bismarck, Serjeant Ballantine, Mr. G. A. Sala, and Dr. Strousberg, the wise and witty Prussian Railway King, His list of friends and acquaintances included every political, financial, and social celebrity in Europe, and he had good stories to tell about many hundreds of them. With respect to the Court of the Tuileries and its villeggiatura sojournings at Compiegne and St. Cloud, his flow of causerie was appar- ently inexhaustible. The circumstance that he ''THE GREAT FRENCHMAN" 89 was a distant relative of the Empress, had thrown him into the society of the Imperial family on terms of exceptional intimacy, and had enabled him to observe and study the entourage of Napoleon 1 11.^ — which included some of the most amusing and unscrupulous adventurers of that or any other period — from a point of view seldom attained by a person not born in the purple. I remember that he invariably expressed the most sincere affection for the Emperor and Empress alike, whom he often spoke of as de bien bonnes et braves gens; and it will be remembered how staunchly he stood by his august kinswoman in the time of her greatest distress and danger, shortly after the catastrophe of Sedan, when he helped her to escape from Paris to the coast, at the imminent risk of his life. M. de Lesseps was also deeply versed in the secret history of the reign of the Citizen King, during which he had occupied several posts of politico-commercial importance, among others that of French Consul -General at Barce- lona, where he earned the gratitude — expressed in the form of honorific distinction — of half-a- dozen European sovereigns, for protecting their subjects when the Catalonian calpital underwent bombardment. In Egypt, too, part of his boyhood had go ''THE GREAT FRENCHMAN" been spent with the sons of the then Viceroy, who had been his constant playmates during his father's official residence in the land of the Pharaoh's, and remained his fast friends through life, It was to Said that, in the course of an expedition in the Desert, he suggested the cutting of the Suez Canal, sub- sequently carried out by Ismail, whose faith in " the great dyke-digger " was never shaken for an instant by the frequent and tremendous mishaps of that gigantic enterprise, nor by the vehement opposition offered to it by his own native advisers, as well as by more than one foreign Government. After M. de Lesseps left London in May, 1857, I lost sight of him for just nineteen years, until the early spring of 1876, when I was stay- ing in Cairo, whither I had been despatched from Berlin on a special journalistic mission. Immediately on arriving at the Egyptian capital I made inquiries respecting his whereabouts, knowing that he was dans le pays ; for trans- actions of great moment were just then "on the carpet " — to wit, a keen competition of English and French capitalists for a new Egyptian Loan, and an inquiry into the state of the Khedivial finances by British Com- missioners — Mr. Stephen Cave and Colonel Stokes, R.E. "THE GREAT FRENCHMAN'' 91 At our Agency I was informed that De Lesseps was at Ismailia with his family, so I wrote to him thither, announcing my arrival at Shepheard's, and expressing the hope that I should soon have an opportunity of re- newing my long -interrupted acquaintance with him. I waited day after day in vain for an answer to my letter, and had come to the conclusion that the great man had forgotten all about me, when one morning, shortly after breakfast-time, my Arab servant announced "His Excellency Count de Lesseps," and in walked that eminent personage, as sprucely attired and debonnair of bearing as he had been when I first met him, but with slightly grizzled hair and mous- tache. We exchanged a cordial accolade, and began, of course, to talk of old times, and exchange the latest intelligence about our common friends in London and elsewhere. Soon, however, we drifted into the burning topic of the day, which was the Cave-Stokes investigation ; and, having been frequently assured by those in authority that De Lesseps was the most stead- fast and dangerous opponent of Ismail's desire to secure the friendship and special protec- tion of England, I was agreeably surprised by the manifest sincerity with which he advocated 92 "THE GREAT FRENCHMAN" the increase of British influence in the ad- ministration of Egyptian affairs. From notes taken immediately after the conversation here referred to more particularly, I reproduce a careful abstract of his remarks upon the occasion in question. " My advice to the Khedive," he observed, "has been, and will be, to confide as many as possible of the pending enterprises — railways, Nile regulation, barrages, &c. — to English hands, and that without delay. What power can he lose by doing so ? Did Austria lose power or prestige among her own people because she granted one of her most important lines to a French Com- pany ? Those ideas of identifying sovereignty with railway administration, and of abatement in the prestige of a monarch, because he accords concessions to foreigners, are all childish and belong to a past age. If the Khedive gives up the management of his railways, for instance, to you English, you will teach the Egyptians how to organise and administer them so that they shall yield greater profits than is at present the case. That will benefit the country immediately by increasing its income, and ultimately by lessening the burdens of the people ; and Ismail will find his prestige con- siderably increased when his subjects become cognisant of the fact that they have fewer taxes "THE GREAT FRENCHMAN" 93 to pay, while there is a greater demand for the product of their labour. My most earnest wish, which is that of every true friend to Egypt, is that Englishmen should effect a loan suffi- ciently large to clear off the floating debt, aitd to impose upon them the imperative duty of exercising a salutary control over the expendi- ture, as well as of authoritatively urging upon Ismail retrenchment in many important respects. If you English only get money enough invested in this country to stimulate you to turn your serious attention to its internal affairs you will not only be the saving of Egypt from ruin, but you will convert it into one of the most prosperous and happy realms in the world. Its capacities of development are greater than you have any notion of; indeed, they are almost unlimited. The Egyptians are urgently in need of, firsdy, proper supervision of local enterprises already commenced ; secondly, an influx of capital wherewith to increase the number and scope of such enterprises ; thirdly, the establishment of a potent and firm in- fluence in Egypt that shall induce the Viceroy to voluntarily dispossess himself of many functions of personal and absolute rule, which are obsolete in spirit and incon- venient in practice, but to which he clings with a fondness excusable in one who has 94 " THE GREAT FRENCHMAN'' wielded despotic power for a number of years ; fourthly, the re-organisation of the whole Egyptian administration, upon constitutional and equitable principles. All these desiderata will be realised if England takes up Egypt in a hearty and thoroughgoing manner, which she will also find it very much in her interest to do. The Khedive has spent over sixteen millions sterling, borrowed at high interest, in completing the Suez Canal, from which achieve- ment England reaps a larger benefit than Egypt. It would be graceful on your part, and a bonne affaire into the bargain, to help him, and even to start him afresh, only saddled with liabilities that his income perfectly enables him to discharge progressively." Speaking of the British Commissioners then engaged in checking Egypt's national accounts, he said, ''Quant au Colonel Stokes" (I quote his own words), " c'est un de ces gentilhommes Anglais d'une rare intelligence et noble fran- chise avec lesquels un homme de coeur et d'honneur sentend au premier mot" and subsequently re- ferred, with marked exultation, to the Colonel's spontaneous acknowledgment of the change in his opinions respecting the financial future of the Canal, induced by his inspection thereof under M. de Lesseps' personal auspices. A few evenings later I was dining at the "THE GREAT FRENCHMAN" 95 Abd-deen Palace, and after dinner, while coffee and cigarettes were being served to the Khe- dive's guests in a luxurious tabagie adjoining the banqueting-room, his Highness came up to me with a handful of his own exclusive papelitos — he used to carry them about him loose in an inside breast-pocket of his frock-coat — and said : — " Would it amuse you to make a little excursion with me to-morrow ? I am going down with M. de Lesseps to Ismailia, and then we shall pass through the Canal from end to end. Several of your friends here are . going as my guests ; I hope you will come too, and I will try to make you all as com- fortable as may be in the power of a poor Prince in difficulties." I gratefully accepted this gracious invitation, and congratulated myself upon the prospect of visiting the celebrated Canal, in the com- pany of the two eminent personages to whom it owed respectively its genesis and comple- tion. Unfortunately, something occurred on the following morning, which prevented Ismail Pasha from making the contemplated trip. He placed his guests, however, under the care of his old friend, De Lesseps, and furthermore sent an aide-de-camp to the station nex.t day, just as we were starting for Ismailia, to offer 96 ''THE GREAT FRENCHMAN" us a vice-regal apology for his unavoidable failure to keep his appointment. As a matter of fact, the Khedive was our host throughout the ensuing week, and his illustrious represen- tative treated us right royally. At the time of which I am writing M. de Lesseps, if I mistake not, had entered his seventy- third year, and yet his activity and capacity of enduring fatigue were equal to those of any fairly robust and athletic man of half his age. Exempli gratia, I may recall a quaint in- cident that occurred during our railway journey from Cairo to Ismailia. It had been arranged that we should make a brief halt at Rhamses, where a couple of sphinxes had just been dis- covered by M. Paponeau, an engineer in the employ of the Canal Company, while digging, for some unexplained reason, outside his garden fence, in the so-called "Arab Desert." As the Khedive was expected with his guests, the complete disinterment of those venerable images ■ — which, in Mariette Bey's opinion, had been hidden from view for nearly 4,000 years — had been deferred, in order that it might take place in his Highness's presence. Consequently, when we alighted at Rhamses station, we found a large number of " mounts " in waiting to convey us to M. Paponeau's bungalow — several magnificent grey Arab stallions, as many superb white and " THE GREAT FRENCHMAN'' 97 dove-coloured donkeys, and three stately camels, for the gentlemen ; brakes and waggonettes for the ladies. " Have a gallop on the sand with me," exclaimed M. de Lesseps, giving me a friendly pat on the shoulder, and instantly mounting a particularly fiery steed, upon which he showed myself and the other equestrians the way, at full speed, for a spurt of a mile or so, afterwards putting his vivacious young charger through its various paces with all the skill and aplomb of an experienced riding - master. Such a headlong scamper, ventre-a-terre, I have never, before or since, seen executed by a septuagenarian diplomatist. Having witnessed the unearthing by a troop of turbaned Arabs of the sphinxes, which proved to be finely modelled figures, wrought in green serpentine of exceeding hardness, and more or less damaged by fire, we re-entered our train and proceeded to Ismailia, where all the " notables " of the place were assembled to greet their beloved chieftain ; for De Lesseps, barring the tawdry emblems and oppressive state of sovereignty, was in reality the monarch of the region traversed by his canal — a potentate implicitly obeyed and unaffectedly loved by thousands of subjects. The Ismailia colonists evinced towards him the affection of dutiful G 98 " THE GREAT FRENCHMAN'' children for a kind father, rather than the deferential respect manifested to an energetic leader by well - disciplined subordinates. At that time he seemed to me the happiest man I had ever known. Now that his name is being held up to universal opprobrium, and that his family, so joyous and light-hearted when I sojourned under his roof, is plunged into the deepest depths of affliction and humiliation, it must not be for- gotten that Ferdinand de Lesseps, within the memory of men still in their prime, overcame innumerable obstacles that impeded the realisa- tion of one of the noblest projects ever conceived by the human intellect ; that he absolutely justified the implicit confidence accorded to him by four successive rulers of Egypt ; and that lavish tribute of praise, gratitude, and honour was paid to him by sovereigns and statesmen who had condemned his projects, and done their utmost to ruin him. Only a few years ago his was the happiness accruing from perfect success in the undertaking to which his energies had been devoted for upwards of twelve anxious and laborious years — success untarnished by any breach of faith or departure from the straight and narrow path of honour. Moreover, his domestic felicity was as complete as that derived from all his public triumphs and honorific distinctions. It " THE GREAT FRENCHMAN" 99 was delightful to observe him in the bosom of his family, to witness the adoration of which he was the object on the part of his beautiful young Creole wife, and his lovely children, the younger of whom he never subjected to the restraint of shoes and stockings ; to note the loving eager- ness with which his employes and servants hung on his every word, and strove to anticipate his lightest bidding. Our arrival at the Chilet Lesseps was cele- brated by a banquet and a ball, and early next morning, after a sumptuous breakfast, we steamed away in the Khedive's yacht to the Suez end of the Canal. Between Timseh and the Bitter Lakes, our illustrious guide indicated to us the exact spot at which the Children of Israel, cross- ing the desert, were enabled to checkmate the pursuing Egyptian host, by the aid of perfectly natural though unusual phenomena, which had recurred within his own personal experience. At Suez we dined and passed the night; next day, after a brief cruise in the Red Sea, we returned to Ismailia, visited the bureaux d' administration of the company, dined en gala at the Chalet, and spent the whole night, "till daylight did appear," at a bal masqu^, given in the middle of the Desert, at the huge pump- ing station which supplies Port Said with fresh water. "THE GREAT FRENCHMAN'* On the following morning we again embarked, this time bound for the Mediterranean, and put up for the evening and night at Port Said, where, strolling into one of the licensed gambling-houses, with the German Diplomatic Agent and Prince Leo Sapieha, I beheld, to my amazement and consternation, an old acquaintance^ — the brother of an English duke, and once a brilliant cavalry officer — acting as croupier at one of the roulette tables. Poor fellow, he was then a ruined man, stock, lock, and barrel, and died soon afterwards in circumstances of a distressing character. Our next performance was a trip to the harbour works in the " Bahr-el-Abiad," or White Sea, M. de Lesseps still acting as our cicerone ; and the four day's excursion ended at Ismailia, where we were regaled with another magnificent feast, followed by a theatrical performance, in which two of our host's pretty little daughters took part. All the Khedive's guests returned to Cairo in the course of the following day except myself, whom De Lesseps had persuaded to "finish the week" with him, holding out an excursion into the desert and a visit to a Bedouin encampment as a special inducement to prolong my stay. Suffice it for the present to say that the promised expedition came off at its appointed time, and proved delightful in every respect. ''THE GREAT FRENCHMAN" For reasons that assuredly require no explana- tion, it is inexpressibly gratifying to me to be just now permitted to express in this place my gratitude to M. de Lesseps for all his kindness and hospitality, and to record the unaltered esteem, admiration, and respect which I entertain for "the great Frenchman." Interview with Victor Kmmaituel THEY were busy, anxious, and perilous days for the still unattained Unity of Italy, when Victor Emmanuel received me for the first time in private audience at the Pitti Palace, Florence being then the " provisional " capital of the Sub-Alpine Kingdom, and nominal seat of its Government. I say nominal, because on the very day of my arrival in the City of Flowers, and some thirty hours before the King signified his willingness to grant me an interview, Urbano Rattazzi had resigned office, his position having been rendered untenable by the Napoleonic ultimatum of October 19, 1867, which peremptorily demanded the arrest and disarmament of the Garibaldian volunteers, then encamped on Papal territory within a few miles of Rome. As Rattazzi had encouraged and protected the enlistment of these irregular forces, had connived at their invasion of the Pontifical States, even allowing officers of the regular army to join them in disguise, and had INTERVIEW WITH VICTOR EMMANUEL 103 facilitated the escape of Garibaldi from Caprera, by secretly instructing the commanders of the Royal frigates guarding that island to allow the "Liberator" to give them the slip, his retirement became imperatively necessary, when Imperial France evinced a firm resolve to hold Italy to the engagements she was even then breaking, one after another, under his direction and guidance. The only alternative, in fact, to his overthrow for the time being was war with France, which neither the King nor the people were prepared to undertake ; so Rattazzi -gave in his resignation, and Cialdini was " called in " to form an Administration. This he undertook to do, but, as had previously been the case in more than one great national emergency, his efforts proved unsuccessful, and for several days — indeed, throughout the tre- mendous crisis that culminated in the re-occu- pation of the Eternal City by French troops, followed hard on heel by the crushing defeat of Garibaldi's undisciplined legions at Mentana - — Italy was left without a Government. I may mention, however — there is now no indiscretion in my doing so — that, although Rattazzi was no longer a Minister of State .when I arrived in Florence, at the commence- ment of the fourth week of October, 1867, it was through the exercise of his personal 104 INTERVIEW WITH VICTOR EMMANUEL influence at the Palace that I obtained access to the King. " Cavour's wife," as Rattazzi had been jestingly nicknamed at the time when he enabled Count Camillo to defeat D'Azeglio, by forming a coali- tion known in Italy as the Cavour- Rattazzi " Connubio," or marriage, was an old acquaint- ance of mine ; and when I asked him to procure me an audience of his Majesty, he smiled blandly, shrugged his shoulders, and replied, "Just now, my dear sir, I am less than nobody ; but I still have some friends, of whom I can ask a favour. If you will call upon me to^ morrow morning, I shall then be able to tell you whether I can oblige you in this matter or not." When Garibaldi landed at Leghorn on Oc- tober 14, having evaded the "vigilance" of the Italian squadron told off to look after him, it became a moral certainty that he would contrive to get through the cordon of troops drawn out on the Papal frontier, would place himself at the head of the volunteers theretofore commanded by his eldest son, Menotti, and would either lay siege to Rome, or attempt to capture that city by a coup de main. The situation was fraught with menace to the peace of Europe, and was regarded with anxiety, as well as keen interest, by the English public, whose sym- INTERVIEW WITH VICTOR EMMANUEL 105 pathies, in general, were strongly enlisted in favour of Italian aspirations towards the achieve- ment of national unity, and in particular on behalf of the Liberator ; at that time — by reason of his heroic valour, lofty magnanimity, and ideal disinterestedness — as popular a personage in this country as in his native land. Few Englishmen outside official circles be- lieved that Napoleon III. would forcibly frustrate the work he had commenced in 1859, and countenanced in i860. It was thought in London that he would protest, and even threaten ; not that he would absolutely veto the national movement then finding expression in the invasion of the Papal States by the Gari- baldini. A siege, possibly a capture, of the Eternal City, carrying with it the final fulfilment of Italy's great patriotic resolve, seemed immi- nent, and even inevitable. Could any event be of greater importance from a journalistic point of view ? The proprietors of the leading English and American journals evidently thought not, for most of them lost no time in despatching members of their respective staffs to the scene of the expected operations. Of these special envoys I was one, my familiarity with the Italian language, and extensive per- sonal acquaintance with statesmen and soldiers "on both sides of the quarrel," enabling me io6 INTERVIEW WITH VICTOR EMMANUEL to obtain access alike to the Royal and Pon- tifical authorities, or to the Garibaldian head- quarters. I was in Vienna on October 20, when I re- ceived from Fleet Street my instructions to betake me to Rome, no matter what difficulties might have to be surmounted in getting there, and to make a brief halt at Florence on my way, in order to ascertain if possible what the King and his advisers had made up their minds to do to extricate themselves from the dilemma in which they had been placed by the action of the volunteers, as agents of the popular will, on the one hand, and by the Napoleonic Sic voleo, sic jubeo, on the other. On the evening of the 22nd I arrived in the City of Flowers, to learn that Garibaldi had had audience of the King during the previous night, which I did not believe ; that he had been closeted with the chief of the Comitato Centrale for three hours that very morning ; that he had subsequently harangued an enor- mous crowd of Florentines in front of the railway station, and that, late in the afternoon, he had departed by special train for Foligno, on the Papal frontier, en route for his sons' camp in the neighbourhood of Monte Rotondo. Furthermore, I was informed that Rattazzi's resignation had been accepted on the previous INTERVIEW WITH VICTOR EMMANUEL 107 Saturday, but that he had retained the charge of State affairs, pending the formation of a Conservative Cabinet by Cialdini — not yet achieved — and would quit the Palazzo Riccardi on Wednesday evening, the 23rd, whether the new Ministry should be constituted by that time or not. Though the hour was late, and I had been travelling day and night for over forty hours, I soueht " the Commendatore " at once, and was fortunate enough to find him, with the result already mentioned above. When, at an early hour of the 23rd, I pre- sented myself at the Ministry of State, I was at once received by Rattazzi, who greeted me with the words : " The King will see you this afternoon, en tite a tite, on one condition, with which he has been assured that you will strictly comply. It is that you will not publish the fact that he has granted you an audience. He wishes that you should consider whatever he may think fit to say to you as spoken in confidence, and not to be utilised by you journalistically as coming from him. Of course you will use it — there would be no object in your interview, else — but not in such sort that it may be ascribed to him. Personally, I advise you not even to use the expression 'highest authority' io8 INTERVIEW WITH VICTOR EMMANUEL in referring to the source of any information you may derive from his Majesty. He will talk frankly enough to you, because he knows that the journal you represent is a sincere well wisher to Italy, and an earnest advocate of Italian unity, and because you are an English- man. Also, he has had a good account of you personally, from no matter whom. You are to go at three o'clock to the Pitti and send in your card to the Marquis , whom you know. He will be expecting you, and will conduct you to the presence of the King. Come and see me as soon as you leave the palace ; we will talk over matters, and if you still maintain your purpose of pushing on to Rome, I will see what I can do to facilitate your journey, which I fear will not be an easy one. By the way, pay your visit in plain morn- ing dress ; the less attention you attract the better." I had resolved to make my way to Garibaldi's headquarter, wherever it might be, in case I should find it impossible to get into Rome ; so I spent the forenoon in obtaining credentials to the Liberator and his lieutenants from mem- bers of the Central Committee with whom I was acquainted. As far as the Papal authorities, ecclesiastical and military, were concerned, I was at my ease, for I had become personally known INTER VIE W WITH VICTOR EMMANUEL 109 to many of them only a few months previously, during the tercentenary celebrations, and had fortunately found favour in their eyes. In respect to the siege of Rome, therefore, if that supreme event should come to pass, I was fully prepared for either contingency ; that is, to witness the operations of attack without the city, or of defence within its precincts. I was amply provided with money, well armed, and fully accredited to both besiegers and besieged ; nothing kept me in Florence but the certainty of an interview with the Re Galantuomo, of all living men the one for whom I entertained the highest admiration and deepest reverence. At the appointed hour I was ushered into a small, plainly-furnished room at the back of the Pitti Palace and on the mezzanin floor, where I found the King standing by a window that overlooked the gardens. He was en petite tenue, without sword or decorations, except one star on the left breast of his dark tunic, which was not quite buttoned up to the throat. When my name was announced he turned round and came forward, holding out his hand ; and as he advanced, "fixing" me with a look of inde- scribably disconcerting grimness, it struck me that I had assuredly never theretofore set eyes upon a man of so entirely forbidding an 1 1 o INTER VIE W WITH VICTOR EMMANUEL appearance. There* was no doubt about it ; " King Honest-Man," the most intrepid soldier, astute statesman, and devoted patriot of Italy, was uncomely to the verge of absolute ugliness. His features were rough hewn and unsym- metrical ; his complexion was tawny ; his eyes were small, grey, and fiercely sparkling ; his bushy moustache, brushed upwards at either end, and heavy imperial, naturally red, were dyed a sort of purple-black. The expression of his face, when in repose, was extremely severe — not to say ferocious. He was bulkily and somewhat clumsily built, and breathing seemed to be an effort to him as soon as he began to talk. His manner was strangely abrupt, and his delivery spasmodic ; but what he said was always perfectly to the point, and as remarkable for its succinctness as for its pregnancy. " I am glad to see you," he began. " It is clearly understood between us that I receive you confidentially, and that what I tell you is only to serve for your own guidance as a journalist. You see I am in a position of great embarrassment just now. It is more than difficult enough, and I dare not further complicate it by any imprudence of action or indiscretion of word. I am between the Italian people, who insist upon my going to Rome, INTER VIE W WITH VICTOR EMMANUEX 1 1 1 and the Emperor of the French, who insists on . a strict observance of the September Convention. He is also in a great difficulty. His wife is continually urging him to protect the Pope and uphold the Temporal Power. He has felt the pulse of his people through the prefects and mayors, and she through the priests ; and he finds that the French nation, though addicted to free-thinking, is ultramontane in politics. Besides, the French dislike us, and desire to see us humiliated. It flatters them to think that France is still the Eldest Daughter of the Roman Church, though they will not endure -any Papal interference with their own home- affairs. They choose to believe that they have made us what we are, and that, therefore, we ought to be their very humble servants. On the other hand, the Emperor is well disposed towards us, and afraid of driving us to des- peration, for reasons that I need not explain. He knows that a French intervention, if sub- mitted to by my Government without resistance, might give rise to a revolution in Northern and Central Italy, and imperil my dynasty— perhaps lead to a European war, for which he is not prepared. " My people, again, are quite aware that our military and naval forces are inadequate to resist the armies and navies of France. Yet so 1 1 2 INTER VIE W WITH VICTOR EMMANUML exasperated are they at the mere notion of a re-occupation of Rome by the Imperial troops, that I can assure you yesterday, when Garibaldi was here, a declaration of war against la grande nation wonld have been greeted with general enthusiasm. Yes, he was here, as you probably know ; but I did not see him, though it has been said that I did. I would not ; but neither would I authorise his arrest, which certain persons asked me to do. There are ingratitudes of which an honest man is not capable, and that was one of them. Nevertheless, his presence here, under my very nose, and his provocative speech-making, aggravated my difficulties con- siderably. " For the moment the danger of a popular outbreak here is averted by the postponement of the French expedition, which really does credit to Napoleon's good sense. I tell you, he means well ; but his hand may be forced at any moment. As it is he is risking his popularity, and, after all, everyone must look after his own interests before those of other people. It is so with us Italians. Until now we have been very lucky ; perhaps because we have been fairly prudent. We have had to show patience, and to await the action of those stronger than ourselves, in order to take advan- tage of it for our own developments. As for INTER VIE W WITH VICTOR EMMANUEL 1 1 3 me, I am content to wait, though the opportunity for completing our task is just now an excep- tionally good one, inasmuch as the work is half done. ' Italia fara da se' is all very well as a popular cry. It sounds well, like Garibaldi's ' Roma morte' and the people like to shout it ; but would it have given us Lombardy and Venetia without the help of France and Prussia ? If we can manage to prolong the pourparlers relative to an ultimate settlement of the Roman question, until the general frenzy shall have had time to subside, the noise-makers here and in Paris will resume their ordinary vocations, relapsing into their normal state of indifference, and public affairs will slide back into their old grooves. "Italy may not gain much by the late and present agitation. But she will lose nothing, though her disappointment will be bitter for the moment. Meanwhile the prestige of the Emperor will remain unshaken, which, on the whole, may be a good thing for us. For my part, I will not be worse than my word. I have always fulfilled my pledges, et je ne veux pas rompre avec mes habitudes. Therefore I tell you frankly, if the Emperor makes it a point that the September Convention be carried out to the letter, I shall carry it out. I don't say that French threats are palatable, either to H 1 14 INTER VIE W WITH VICTOR EMMANUEL myself or to a proud sensitive people still flushed with the joy of its recent national regeneration. But hard words, though they hurt, do not kill ; and medicine has to be swallowed, however nasty it may be. We shall get Rome some of these days ; a little sooner, a little later, it does not perhaps matter so very much. There is plenty to do, in the meantime, to consolidate and reorganise what we have got. Of course my sympathies are with Garibaldi, and I shall let him alone until I find myself absolutely compelled to interfere with him. But he can- not be allowed to precipitate Italy into a war with France, which might result in our losing all that we have gained during the past eight years." Presently the King asked me what my plans were, adding that "he had been told that I was bound for Rome, but had hardly believed it, seeing that beyond the Italian frontier most of the country was in the hands of the Gari- baldini." I answered that I was under orders to get into Rome by hook or by crook, and to see out the siege — if siege there was to be — within its walls ; moreover, that I had resolved to try the coast-line, having been assured that the volunteers as yet held no ground between Leg- horn and Civita Vecchia. On hearing this, his INTER VIE W WITH VICTOR EMMANUEL 1 15 Majesty once more shook hands with me very cordially — his grip was something to remember — and said : "Au revoir, done, et bonne chance ! I am glad that you are not going to poor Gari- baldi's headquarters, for I foresee a cata- strophe which, as the devil will have it, I can do nothing to avert. Do not get shot by the Papalini, who are as likely to damage their friends as their enemies. Again, good luck ! and if you come back to Florence I shall be glad to see you." From the Pitti I drove straight to Rattazzi's, according to promise, and told him the King had received me very kindly. "Probably," he remarked, "his Majesty has hinted to you his intentions, with which I be- lieve I am acquainted. So I will only ask you one question : Did he say anything about Gari- baldi having been here .'' " I answered "Yes," and that the King had mentioned his refusal to authorise the Liberator's arrest. " I '11 tell you a good story about that, which will make it clear to you how the King facili- tated Garibaldi's departure yesterday afternoon without compromising himself or his Govern- ment. As soon as our chief of police here was informed of Garibaldi's arrival he applied to me — 1 1 6 INTER VIE W WITH VICTOR EMMANUEL I was still provisionally in charge of State affairs — for instructions, inquiring whether the General should be arrested or not. I replied that, hav- ing resigned office, I could not undertake the responsibility of so grave a political act as the re-arrest of Garibaldi, and that he had better ask Cialdini. To Cialdini, accordingly, went the Chief of Police ; and Cialdini told him that ' he had not yet succeeded in forming a Cabinet, and really could not undertake the responsi- bility, &c.,' come sopra. In despair, Signor drove to the Pitti, and asked audience of the King, who at once received him, I believe in the very room you were shown into to-day. He humbly begged his Majesty to instruct him in his duty. Looking fixedly at him, the King took out his cigar-case, selected and lit a cigar, and turned away to an open window, out of which he proceeded to lean and smoke calmly, not having uttered a single word. The Chief of Police waited respectfully for several minutes, presumably under the impression that his Majesty was thinking what he should answer. Presently he ventured to renew his inquiry. As, however, the Royal silence remained un- broken, and the King did not even turn his head, but continued gazing at space, and puffing at his cavour, Signor noiselessly withdrew, and Garibaldi was let alone." INTER VIE W WITH VICTOR EMMANUEL 1 1 7 This said, Rattazzi wished me success, and bade me adieu ; and two hours later I was speeding towards Leghorn, en route for Rome, and on the eve of a curious travelling experi- ence. But that, to borrow Mr. Kipling's favourite formula, is another story. The Abbe Liszt NEARLY thirty years ago, not long after I had taken up my abode in the Austrian Kaiserstadt, fully believing that I was destined to spend the remainder of my life in that most musical of capitals, I met Franz Liszt for the first time, and was introduced to him by Johann Herbeck, at that time Imperial H of kapellmeister, or conductor of the Court orchestra, and artistic director of the concerts annually given in the Redoutensaal of the H of burg, by the Society of the Friends of Music. The great Hungarian composer had come all the way to Vienna from Albano, in the neighbourhood of Rome — where for some years he occupied a pretty villa lent to him by Cardinal von Hohenlohe — in order to be present at the preparation of his "miracle set to music," " Saint Elizabeth," for production in public by the Society in question. The work was composed after his admission to holy orders, and showed unmistakable signs of a resolute effort on his ii8 THE ABB^ LISZT 119 part to submit his genius to the restraints of ecclesiastical solemnity and decorum. It was a curiously dismal setting of a legend, told in crabbed verse by Otto Roquette, the point of the tradition being the sudden conversion, by special divine interposition, of a number of eatables and drinkables into a basketful of roses, in order to save the Landgravine Elizabeth of Thuringia from being detected in a falsehood by her husband. Perhaps the moral to be deduced from this extra- natural incident was scarcely suitable to a sacred cantata. Stated in plain language, it would appear to be the following : " Be virtuous, charitable, and regular in your devotions ; and some day, when it shall suit your purpose to tell a lie. Heaven will step in with a miracle to get you out of your scrape, by proving that you have told the truth." For some years the orchestral associations and choral unions of Austria, France, and Germany had fought shy of this composition, deterred from undertaking its performance partly by the technical difficulties with which it bristled, and partly by its exceeding gloominess. Herbeck, however, and Joseph Hellmesberger, the Principal of the Vienna Conservatoire — both of them Liszt worshippers — had gradually screwed up their courage to the sticking point, had induced THE ABBM LISZT their respective executant following to study the cantata, and had apprised the Abb^ that " Saint Elizabeth " would be put into rehearsal on such and such a day. Over a fortnight was devoted to its preparation by some four hundred vocalists and instrumentalists, under Herbeck's direction, and the last rehearsal, which took place during the afternoon, on the eve of the public performance, was attended by about seven hundred musical virtuosi and dilettanti, specially invited, of whom I was one. Just as we had settled down in our places, and Herbeck had taken his seat at the con- ductor's desk, a tall, spare elderly man, with strongly-marked features and long, flowing grey hair, clad in a closely -fitting black cassock, suddenly made his appearance among us, threading his way through the maze of occupied chairs and benches towards the orchestra. It was Liszt, who had arrived in Vienna that very morning, without intimating his ad- vent to any of his friends and admirers, to whom his unexpected apparition was naturally the most delightful of surprises. Hellmesberger recognised him as he was advancing up the room, and, touching Herbeck on the shoulder, whispered something to him, whereupon the Hofkapellmeister rose, sprang down the steps leading from the orchestra to the auditorium, THE ABBi. LISZT and loudly ejaculating, " Der Meister, der Meis- ter!" seized Liszt's hands, bent over them, and devoutly kissed them. All present — audience and performers alike — were on their feet in an instant, greeting the reverend maestro with enthusiastic and pro- longed acclamation, which he repeatedly acknow- ledged with manifest gratification. When the cheering had subsided, Liszt took his seat in a chair placed for him a little to the left of Herbeck, and below the orchestral platform, on a level with the places occupied by the audience. Immediately afterwards the rehearsal commenced. Though it lasted con- siderably over three hours, not a soul quitted the room until its conclusion, when the musicians present who had any personal acquaintance with Liszt gathered round him, eager to exchange a few words or a hand-grasp with the worshipped hero of the hour. After watching the excited group, and particularly its stately central figure, with intense interest for several minutes, I turned to leave the Redoutensaal, wishing, I may confess, that it had been my good fortune to be presented to one of the greatest living musical geniuses, whose pianoforte works had for many previous years been at once my delight and my despair. It was at this critical moment that Herbeck, 122 THE ABB& LISZT casting a casual glance towards the body of the hall, caught sight of me, and forthwith eagerly beckoned me towards him. As soon as I was within hearing he ex- claimed : " Come, good friend, and be introduced to the great man." Then, taking me by the arm, he led me up to Liszt, who was talking to Hellmesberger and Count Laurencin, but in- terrupted the conversation to listen to what Herbeck had to say. The form of introduction was a quaint one : " Master, I beg you to know this Englishman, who, strange as it may seem, both loves and understands music." Liszt shook hands with me cordially, and smiled a sweet, compassionate, incredulous smile, signifying — as I interpreted it — " Possibly you believe that he does, you poor, good Herbeck, because you are the kindest fellow in the world, and the most easily imposed upon ; but I know better." I was well aware that it was one of the Abb6's most deeply-seated convictions that the English, one and all, were an absolutely unmusical people. The amazing coldness of his reception in Lon- don, both in 1840 and 1841, when — through his generous insistance to make good the losses incurred by his concert-agent — he was heavily THE ABB& LISZT 123 out of pocket by his visit to England, had prejudiced him unalterably against the "bar- barous islanders," whom he considered congeni- tally incapable of appreciating the musical art, either in respect to composition or execution. Hellmesberger, who had tested my musicality times without number, and in all sorts of ways, emphatically confirmed Herbeck's report of me ; but I could see that Liszt did not believe him, as, indeed, some years later he himself frankly admitted to me had really been the case. His incredulity in this respect, however, did not prevent him from treating me with the kindliest and most genial courtesy. During his stay in Vienna, I met him almost every day or evening at one or another musician's house, and he invariably conversed with me in the most gracious and entertaining manner, but never about music, from any ac- quaintance with or taste for which he felt per- fectly certain that my nationality irrevocably debarred me. For the mortification which his sedulous avoid- ance of this subject caused to me, I was fully compensated by hearing him play several times — twice extempore — at private houses in the Kaiserstadt. At that time all his capabilities of invention, memory, and technique, were still entirely at his disposal ; and, as a pianist, he 124 THE ABB& LISZT was not only unrivalled, but unapproachable. Practice and will had so thoroughly disciplined his fingers and accustomed them to fulfil infal- libly the orders transmitted to them from his brain, that he was absolutely free from any preoccupation as to their ability to execute, and was at liberty to give full play to the creative and constructive faculties of his intellect with- out giving a thought to the mere mechanical contrivances attached to his wrists. His inter- pretations of Beethoven and Bach were sublime revelations ; his improvisations bewildering reali- sations of the seemingly impossible. In the autumn of 1869 I was sent to Rome, in order to watch and report upon the proceed- ings of the CEcumenical Council there assembled from all parts of the world, for the express pur- pose of adopting and promulgating the Dogma of Papal Infallibility. Among the seven hundred or so of prelates who obeyed the summons of Pius IX. were several, of different nationalities, with whom I was entitled to claim personal acquaintance, and of whom I saw a good deal during my six months' sojourn in the Eternal City. The ecclesiastical dignitary with whom I was most frequently brought into contact was Haynald, Archbishop of Kalocza, who had not then been advanced to the cardinalate, and was THE ABBt. LISZT 125 simply Vice-Primate of Hungary. His suite of rooms in the Albergo di Roma adjoined mine, and in his saloon stood the best grand piano that had been hireable on his arrival in Rome, when — as soon as my presence in the hotel became known to him — he placed it at my disposal. His Grandeur was an excellent pianist and sight-reader, and nothing amused him so much as a bout of " quatre-mains a livre ouvert" with an efficient partner. Consequently he got to- gether a huge pile of pianoforte duets, heaped up on a couple of chairs near the instrument, and many a pleasant hour, of afternoons as well as evenings, did the most musical of Archbishops and myself spend in deciphering together four- handed arrangements of symphonies, quartets, overtures, operatic selections, rhapsodies, and suites. Haynald went to a good many parties, for the most part at the palazzi of the Foreign Ambassadors and great Roman Princes, but made a point of never sitting down to the piano at any of those miscellaneous gatherings ; probably he considered drawing-room pianism inconsistent with his Archiepiscopal dignity. Tete-a-tete with me, or in the company of two or three approved executants— there were several good pupils of Liszt in Rome during that (Ecumenical winter, whom the Archbishop was 126 THE ABB A LISZT always glad to see at his leisure moments — he was ever ready for a " foursome " ; but in general society the only part he would play was that of a listener. One evening, early in December, I met him at a musical soirde given by an Austro- Roman Princess — herself an accomplished performer on the pianoforte — to which his Grandeur, as well as myself, had been expressly bidden "to meet the Abbd Liszt." On one of the two "full- grands " placed in the centre of the music room, head-and-tail, so to speak, there happened to be lying an arrangement for two pianos of the Abba's symphonic poem "Tasso," which Liszt, while engaged in lively conversation with the hostess, casually picked up. As Haynald, who was standing close by his fellow-countryman, told me afterwards, Liszt asked the Princess if she had heard the work, and, on receiving a negative answer, observed that "he would gladly make it known to her, if she could find any one of her guests who would take the trouble to play it with him." None of the professional or amateur Italian pianists present, however, would attempt to render "Tasso" at sight, in conjunction with the great virtuoso, of whom one and all evidently stood in awe. Presendy, my friend the Archbishop crossed the room to where I was standing, and said to THE ABB^ LISZT 127 me, "Are you afraid of Liszt? He wants somebody to take the second piano with him and try his ' Tasso.' " " Monseigneur," I replied, "why do you not undertake the enterprise, which you are much better able to carry out than I am ? " " Because I am afraid of the fatigue ; besides, you know I never play to more than three or four listeners, and there are nearly a hundred persons here. What do you say ? Will you make the experiment?" I bethought me of Liszt's doubting, or rather unbelieving, smile, when Herbeck had presented me to him as an Englishman who " understood music," and replied, " Will your Grandeur vouch for me ? I am not afraid of Liszt, for the truly strong are generally merciful ; and if I break down, not being a professional performer, I daresay I shall manage to survive the disgrace of failure." Forthwith the Archbishop put his arm through mine, and led me up to Liszt, saying : " Franz, already thou knowest this young man. He can read music well ; he has done so with me again and again. He is ambitious to play with thee, and has the audacity to essay thy 'Tasso.' Wilt thou try him on my recommendation ? " " Certainly I will," said Liszt, and straightway 128 THE ABB& LISZT took his seat at one of the pianos, motioning me to the other. I was fortunate enough to follow his in- imitable leading in such sort as not to put him out. Many notes, doubtless, were missing at the second piano, but no noticeable hitch occurred. When all was over, and the customary ap- plause had set in, Liszt held out a hand to me, smiling — this time benignantly, not incredu- lously — and said only three words — " Herbeck avail raison." Nearly seventeen years later, when it was my privilege to entertain the Canon of Albano in my London home, on April ii, 1886, he reminded me of the above incident, as well as of several others in which he had figured during the " inverno ecumenico," and, while we were at table, told some of the friends I had asked to meet him that he had written, that very morning, to Cardinal Haynald, telling his Eminence that he (Liszt) "was just going to eat golash and paprika-huhn with the English amateur who used to play pianoforte duets with the Archbishop of Kalocza, in Rome, while awaiting the promulgation of the Infallibility Dogma." So tenacious was the memory of the great musician, only three months before his death ! THE ABBi. LISZT 129 Among the "events" which I had forgotten, and which he then recalled to my memory, was one of his marvellous improvisations at the Prussian Legation, then in charge of the unfortunate Count Harry Arnim, the " guest of the evening " being Prince Frederick of Hohenzollern, younger brother to the present King of Roumania. Upon this illustrious personage Liszt's marvel- lous extemporisation, to all appearances, pro- duced no impression whatever; "and no wonder," added the venerable Canon, "for all the Hohenzollerns I have ever known cared nothing for music, which old Prince Albrecht once told me he regarded as 'an expensive noise.' That was the man who one day said about his own son, Albrecht the younger — now Regent of Brunswick — ' He cannot be a true Prussian Prince, for he does not care about women, never gets drunk, and even plays the organ ! I cannot conclude this fragmentary word- sketch without mentioning an occurrence, strikingly characteristic of the amiability and delicate graciousness of Liszt's nature, which took place in the course of the afternoon he spent at my house, a few days before his departure from this country. It was clearly understood by all present that he was not to be asked to play, and both the pianos in my I30 THE ABBE LISZT drawing-room were closed. There was a good deal of loose music about, however, and among it happened to be one of my elder daughter's songs, published a few days previously. Turning over this music carelessly, after luncheon, Liszt came upon the song in question, picked it up, looked through it, and asked to hear it. Our gifted friend, Delphine Le Brun, who was present on that memorable occasion, at once volunteered to sing the song, which bore the title of "Come back to me," and rendered it most charmingly. As soon as she had concluded, Liszt beckoned to me, and asked me "if the song had really been composed by the young lady who had sought him out in Paris, and accompanied him to England throughout his journey." On receiving an affirmative reply he continued, " Tell me, old friend, would'st thou not like to hear me play once more before I leave thee .'' Who knows when we shall meet again ? " I need scarcely say that I gratefully accepted the unexpected offer, whereupon he said, " Let us open the piano, then, and I will do my best. Alas ! my fingers are not as they used to be!" My favourite Bechstein having been made ready, he sate down to it, and improvised for several minutes, taking for his theme the melody of my daughter's song, which he had committed THE ABBM LISZT 131 to memory while glancing over it with seeming inattention or, at the very least, indifference. It may well be believed that I and mine — most of all the young composer herself — were deeply moved by the subtle and tender surprise which Liszt,, in his great goodness of heart, had devised for our special gratification. Among the witnesses of this touching incident were the venerable Mrs. Keeley, Liszt's con- temporary in years, who entertained a lively recollection of his first appearance in this country at the age of sixteen. Princess Alexandrine Ghica, one of the best amateur pianists of Eastern Europe, Paolo Tosti, Herbert Stack, Marcus Stone, Stavenhagen, Bach, Bendall, and other notable musicians, as well as Mesdames Munkdczy, Goetz, Gabrielli, and Raimo, Miss Matilda Levy, and the Greek and Roumanian Ministers. Liszt stayed with us until the last moment at his disposal ; he was to dine by command with the Prince of Wales at eight p.m., and did not leave my house until past four, having taken an affectionate farewell of all the members of my family. Ten days later he quitted England, never to return, and on the 31st of the ensuing July, I received a telegraphic announcement of his death. It is a sad thought for every English musician, that the excessive fatigues imposed 132 THE ABB^ LISZT upon him during his sojourn in London, completely broke down his already failing- strength, and that, after leaving this country, he never really rallied from the exhaustion which was only too manifest in his appearance on the eve of his departure, when I pressed my lips upon his wonder-working hands for the last time. The Second German Emperor DURING my eight years' residence in the Fatherland, it was my good fortune to be frequently brought into social contact with the late Emperor Frederick III., who was Heir- Apparent to the Prussian Throne when I was presented to him, and who became German Crown Prince some fifteen months later, on his venerable father's assumption of Imperial rank, at the unanimous solicitation of the princes and peoples of Germany. To his Royal Highness — such was his style at the time to which I refer — I was indebted for numberless personal kind- nesses ; and I can truly say, that I never preferred a request to him, which was not unhesitatingly granted. There was not a nobler-looking man in Europe. He was as brave, gentle, and good as he was comely, indefatigable in the discharge of all his duties, a model husband and father, true patriot, and staunch friend to the poor. His fellow-countrymen, of all classes, loved and 133 134 THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR admired him as a Paladin among princes, and a paragon of manly worth. He served them as a shining example of spotless private morality, and intelligent public activity. Mainly through his instrumentality, and that of his admirable Consort, the Court of Berlin became the purest in Continental Europe. In every branch of the Prussian army he was regarded as an absolute pattern of military qualities, whereupon to model the conduct and demeanour of its officers and men alike. Among the bourgeoisie he was no less popular than with those who " wore the coat," by reason of his genial humour, frank simplicity of manner, cheerful affability, and inveterate domesticity. The burghers and peasants, moreover, were well aware that he was essentially a man of peace, although the force of circumstances compelled him to take a leading part in two sanguinary campaigns. They esteemed him highly for his undisguised detestation of war — a curse that has fallen with exceptional heaviness upon the German people, in modern as well as ancient times — and for the broad liberality of his views in relation to politics and religion. While I lived in Prussia, travelling much about that and other German realms, and foregathering with all sorts and conditions of men, I never knew a soldier or civilian chary of praise to the Crown Prince, THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR 135 or who did not pronounce his very name with a sort of devotional enthusiasm. At Stargard races, in the second week of September, 1869, I was introduced to this illustrious and amiable Prince by Colonel (the late General) Beauchamp Walker, at that time Military Attach^ to the British Legation at Berlin. A Royal Manoeuvre was being held in Pomerania, a Prussian province of which the Crown Prince was then Statthalter, or Lord- Lieutenant, and Stargard the ancient capital. The field operations took place within a radius of ten miles of the quaint old city, in which King William's headquarters were established for the best part of a week ; and the racing, confined to officers of the Second Army Corps, who all rode in uniform, came to pass on an off-day, while the troops of both divisions were resting from the fatigues of a sham-fight on a large scale ; about 24,000 men having been engaged, and an enormous quantity of powder burned. His Royal Highness received me very graciously, chatted with me for a few minutes de choses et auires, and finally told me that if I experienced any difficulty in obtaining a suitable mount for the remaining term of the Manoeuvre, it would afford him great pleasure to place one of his chargers at my disposal. 136 THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR This welcome offer I gratefully accepted, having, throughout the previous day or two, been as badly horsed as a man is bound to be, who is at the mercy of a soi-disant livery stable-keeper in a small Prussian country town, where a saddle-horse is not hired once in a blue moon ; and thereafter, until the mimic campaign came to a close, I rode a powerful chestnut mare, perfectly broken and steady under fire, which was brought to the door of my hotel early every morning from the Crown Prince's stables. It was on the fourth evening after the race- day, if I remember aright, that a "grand tattoo" was performed in front of the Royal Schloss at Stargard by the united bands of all the regiments belonging to the Second Army Corps — about twelve hundred instrumentalists — drawn up in a hollow square, and conducted with a flame-tipped baton by the senior bandmaster, perched upon a high platform that had been run up in the centre of the carr^. All the properly accredited foreign officers and newspaper corre- spondents who had attended the Manceuvre, were specially bidden to this open-air entertain- ment, places being reserved for them in the Royal circle, within the military cordon drawn round the huge paved Platz on which the bands- men were assembled. One of the pieces of THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR 137 music set down in the programme for perform- ance by all hands was Mendelssohn's " Wedding March." While that noble composition was being rendered with remarkable force and spirit, the Crown Prince, who had been standing on one of the stone steps leading up to the main entrance of the Castle, talking and laughing with some of the Court ladies invited to the " Zapfenstreich," suddenly quitted his fair com- panions with a courteous bow, came up to me, laid his hand lightly on my shoulder, and smilingly remarked : " I am not much of a musician, but of all tunes in the world, that is the one I like best. Would you like to know why? Because that is the very tune I heard played as I walked out of St. James's Chapel with my wife on my arm, a few minutes after I had been united to the Princess Royal, your countrywoman. You were only a boy on that wonderful day, the happiest in my whole life. I am reminded of it every time I hear the ' Wedding March ' ; and that is why I would rather listen to that tune than t;o any other that ever was written." I confess myself to have been deeply moved by this touching avowal, to which I gave publicity shortly after the Emperor Frederick's 138 THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR lamented decease, and which, I feel sure, could not be read without pleasurable emotion by any Englishman who remembered how strong, yet tender, were the links of love and esteem that bound Frederick and Victoria together in perfect trust and union of spirit for more than thirty years. Throughout the investment and siege of Paris — that is, from the commencement of October, 1870, to the end of January, 1871 — it was my high privilege to be in some sort unofficially attached to the headquarters of the Crown Prince, who commanded the Third Army, in which the South German contingents were incorporated, and "set up house" in Les Ombrages, a pretty little villa, situate in one of the outskirts of Versailles. At this modest pied-a-terre — for it was really nothing more — his Royal Highness dispensed a cordial and generous hospitality to the foreigners who were, at different times, en mission at Versailles on military or political business, or entrusted with journalistic commissions to observe and chronicle the incidents of the campaign. To the former category belonged Colonel Beauchamp Walker, her Majesty's Military Commissioner at the Royal headquarters ; Colonels Valentine Baker and Keith Fraser, Mr. Odo Russell (then Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR 139 and afterwards British Ambassador at Berlin), the U.S. Generals Sherman, Sheridan, Forbes, and Hazen, and other distinguished officers of non- German nationalities ; to the latter, Dr. W. H. Russell, the doyen of English war corre- spondents. Lord Adare (now Earl of Dunraven), Messrs. Alfred Austin, Robert Landells, Hilary- Skinner, Laurence Oliphant, Daniel Home, and myself. On the second evening after the date of his venerable father's proclamation as German Emperor, in the Hall of Mirrors of the Ver- sailles Palace, the Crown Prince gave a small dinner party at Les Ombrages. Among the guests — twelve in number — were two English- men, Colonel Beauchamp Walker, C.B., and the writer of these lines. The repast was plentiful, but succinct. In the tabagie, whither we adjourned at its conclusion, his Royal Highness more than once honoured me by engaging me in particular conversation. He was wearing the light blue uniform of his Silesian dragoon regiment, which set off his stately figure to great advantage. First of all he showed me a massive meerschaum pipe- bowl, which had been carved for him by the Crown Princess just before he started from Berlin to take command of the Third Army at Speyer, and in which he manifesriy took I40 THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR great delight, its deepening colour bearing witness to the assiduity with which he had smoked it throughout the campaign. Then he suddenly thrust his right hand into the breast of his tunic, and drew forth three glittering jewels, observing : " I always wear these about me, even when no ceremonial occasion requires their display. One, as you see, is the badge of our chief Order, the Black Eagle — in relation to this jewel I will presently tell you a little historical story ; another is that of the Golden Fleece ; the third is the George. I am very proud of my Garter, for I owe the dearest thing to me in life, my beloved wife, to the country the patron saint of which is also patron of that ancient order. I regard its insignia as of good augury ; so much so that the day before yesterday, when my father was pro- claimed Emperor, as you saw and heard, I put on the Garter itself when I dressed to attend the ceremony. It could not be seen by anybody, because I was in full cuirassier uniform, with high boots reaching above the knee, which of course completely hid it. But I had it on ; and I don't mind confessing to you that I should have deemed it an unlucky omission had I forgotten to don it upon so important, so momentous an occasion in the history of our House." THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR 141 Immediately after speaking these gracious words, so abundantly fraught with the most delicate flattery to the feelings of his English guests, the Crown Prince pointed out to rrle a peculiarity in the badge of the Black Eagle, as worn by himself, his august father, and the other male members of the Prussian Royal Family — to wit, that the central plaque was framed, so to speak, in a miniature facsimile of the Garter, bearing its device, " Honi soit qui mat y pense." "When my ancestor, Frederick I.," remarked his Royal Highness, "founded this Order in 1 70 1, he ordained that it should always be worn alone by any of his subjects upon whom it might be conferred, thereby implying that no other decoration was worthy of occupying a place by its side on a Prussian breast. But shortly after the accession of George I. to the English throne my forefather was led into an infringement of his own ordinance, by a splendid windfall that came to him in the shape of a British Garter — a distinction rarely bestowed by English Sovereigns upon foreign Monarchs in the eighteenth century, and which Frederick I. could never have had the least chance of obtaining, had he remained a Brandenburg Elector instead of becoming a Prussian King. His Majesty was so highly flattered by the unexpected honour 142 THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR conferred upon him by his cousin in England, that he caused the crachat of the Black Eagle, which he himself wore permanently upon his left breast, to be ' augmented ' by a tiny Garter, executed in enamel and gold — like the one I have shewn you — and thenceforth, to the day of his death, wore the star and badge on which the two decorations were thus blended. It was thus that Edward Plantagenet's jesting motto came to environ Frederick of Hohenzollern's sober device of ' Suum cuique tribuilo.'" To these pleasant souvenirs of my personal intercourse with the lamented Frederick III., which was renewed at Berlin and Potsdam during the winter of 187 1-2, and only ceased after the conclusion of my eight years' residence in the German capital — between which time and the date of his death I only saw and spoke to him thrice, and received two or three graciously worded letters, written at his immediate com- mand — I will take leave to add a few authentic anecdotes relating to his Imperial Highness, and illustrating some of the noble qualities that won for him the love as well as admiration of all who knew him. In 1879, during a brief sojourn in Berlin for the Christmas holidays, the Crown Prince took more than one occasion to express his strong disapproval of the attempts at that time being THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR 143 Strenuously made by Stoecker, one of the Royal Chaplains, and several other influential personages in Northern Germany, to get up a Jewish Persecution movement. A concert was given at the Berlin Synagogue for the benefit of the Silesian Relief Fund ; the Crown Prince attended it in person, and persuaded the venerable Emperor and Empress to do likewise. Next morning the Committee of the fund waited upon him to thank him for his presence, and in reply to the address pronounced by their Chairman, Frederick William impressively remarked : "I am extraordinarily rejoiced to have been able to prove, and in the most conspicuously public manner, by appearing at a concert given in the Jewish synagogue, my vehement objection to the agitatory anti-Semitic movement which has recently manifested itself in Berlin." A few hours later, in the course of an after- dinner conversation — allusion having been made to the agitation in question — the Crown Prince remarked with marked earnestness : "While I was abroad I heard a good deal about this anti-Semitic cabal. The impression it made upon me was, that the display of such a tendency could not fail to put Germany to shame before foreign countries. Some of 144 THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR us Germans are supposed to be Christians, and some philosophers. It is fine Christianity and philosophy, truly, to persecute God's chosen people ! " On "Kaiser's Geburtstag" (March 22nd) of that same year, Paul Brandt, a fatherless boy only nine years old — who, having dis- played remarkable musical aptitude, had been taken into the Victoria Institute, there to be instructed gratis in tone-art generally and violin- playing particularly — wrote a birthday congratu- lation to the aged Emperor, in which he embodied a pathetic petition for a new fiddle, upon the pertinent ground that the instrument allotted to him " scraped so dreadfully " that he did not know how he could bear with it any longer. Through the accident that young Brandt had addressed' his letter to " His Royal High- ness " instead of to "His Imperial Majesty," it fell into the Crown Prince's hands. He perused it attentively, and forthwith directed his Court- Marshal to make inquiries at the Institute respecting the youthful petitioner and his " dreadfully -scraping " violin. The truth of little Paul's complaint having been fully established by Count Eulenburg's investiga- tions, the Crown Prince at once proceeded to purchase a good sound violin by a celebrated THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR 14S maker, which he despatched to the Institute on the following Whit Sunday as a "Whitsun gift for the musical student Paul Brandt, from Friedrich Wilhelm, Kronprinz." Frugality was a principle of life-conduct which his Imperial Highness was never weary of recommending to his children and dependents, and to the officers of the regiments with which he was connected as proprietor, commander, or colonel a la suite. Just fourteen years ago the officers' corps of a crack Guard regiment, which had long enjoyed the annual privilege of being inspected during springtide by the Crown Prince— who not in- frequently wore its uniform on State occasions — invited him, as had theretofore been their wont, to lunch with them in the regimental mess- room after parade. The entertainment proved to be of an unusually splendid character. Champagne flowed profusely ; the tables were laden with all the most cosdy delicacies of the season. The Crown Prince, however, would not touch any of the comestibles, and even refused the sparkling wine tendered to him, drily remarking that "he only drank champagne upon extraordinary occasions." Moreover, as soon as the repast was over and coffee had been served, he took his leave abrupdy, to the consternation of his hosts. K 146 THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR The gallant Guardsmen were fully alive to the reproof implied in his steadfast abstinence and sudden departure. A year later, when it again came to their turn to entertain him, they ordered matters otherwise, so that the Crown Prince, when he entered their mess-room after the inspection, found a modest repast awaiting him, consisting of bread, sausage, cold meat, and beer. He at once sate down to the table with a cheerful smile, partook heartily of the simple fare, and — with the observation, " This is as it should be among comrades" — filled his meer- schaum, lit up, and remained for over an hour after luncheon, smoking and chatting with his entertai:ners in the most friendly and uncere- monious manner imaginable. The Crown Prince possessed a keen sense of humour, and was addicted to good-humoured practical joking, which now and then resulted in complications requiring him to prove that he could take, as well as give, a rough jest. Being himself one of the strongest and most expert swimmers in the German army, he was in the habit during the summer months of taking a spell of exercise before breakfast every fine morning in the vast swimming bath especially affected to the use of the Potsdam garrison. Every now and anon, when the "school" was THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR 147 full of huge Guardsmen undergoing their aquatic drill, he would amuse himself by swimming up to some clumsy son of Anak, seizing him by the back of the neck, and ducking his head under water till he gasped again. On one occasion he had succeeded in sub- merging two or three of the giant Grenadiers belonging to the " Body - Company " of the renowned ist Foot, in which he had served his own military apprenticeship, and, having had his fun in abundance, called out at the top of his voice : " Now, men, you may try it on with me, if you like — one at a time, of course." He had hardly spoken when his neck was grasped from behind, as in a vice, and he found himself compelled to execute several involuntary dives, so inconsiderately prolonged that he presently fell short of breath, and swallowed a considerable quantity of liquid. As soon as he could get his mouth above water he exclaimed that he had "had more than enough," and his colossal immerser let him go. The Crown Prince, when he had recovered his breath, turned towards the Grenadier — still in the water — and asked his name. " Schott, Imperial Highness," was the answer. "Whence do you come?" 148 THE SECOND CERMAN EMPEROR " From Nimmersett," a village on the distant frontier of East Prussia. "How long have you served?" " Two years, Imperial Highness." "Have you had any furlough yet?" "No, Imperial Highness ; my home is too far off, and the journey thither costs too much money." Two days later Grenadier Schott was summoned to the office of his regimental adjutant, and there informed that, a fortnight's leave having been granted to him to visit his family, he was ordered to apply for his travelling and diet expenses to the Court- Marshal of his Imperial Highness the German Crown Prince. One more story — the last — in illustration of the inexhaustible kindheartedness that prompted Frederick III. to perform generous actions without number. Early in March, 1881, he was walking to- wards the barracks of the Guard Lancers at Moabit when, on the Fennbriicke, his atten- tion was attracted by a group of shabbily- dressed persons, consisting of a middle-aged man and three strapping lads, ranged in line on the kerbstone, and giving the regulation military salute. He halted in front of the man, saying — "I see that you have been a soldier ; these THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR 149 are your boys, I presume. Have you any more of the sort ? " "No, Imperial Highness; I was discharged invalided, and have been bedridden for a long time, in consequence of fatigue and exposure incurred during the campaign of 1870-1. All my bones seem to have become soft, and poverty has well-nigh broken my spirit." "Where were you wounded?" asked the Crown Prince. "At the battle of Soor, June 28th, 1866; shot through the shoulder, right arm lamed for life." " Give me your hand ; I am heartily sorry for you. Now go home and write to me ; enclose your certificates, and inscribe the word ' Soor ' on the back of the envelope." So saying, Frederick William shook hands warmly with the astonished veteran, and went his way. A few days later the man received a handsome sum of money from the Imperial Field-Marshal's privy purse, with a letter in- timating that steps were being taken by the latter in person to provide him with a permanent appointment suitable to his capacities and physical powers of endurance. I can vouch for the absolute truth of the incidents above narrated, which were made known to me by members of the Crown I50 THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR Prince's household. The swimming story I heard from his own Hps : that is, the part of it relating to his discomfiture at the hands of Grenadier Schott. The sequel was related to me by an officer of the regiment to which Schott belonged. Two Roumanian Statesmen THE names of Jon Bratiano and Michel Kogalniceanu will live in the annals of Roumania for many ages to come, ineradicably identified with the establishment of a Royal dynasty in the Moldo-Wallachian Principality, and with the achievement of Dacian Indepen- dence. It was J6n Bratiano who negotiated the election of Prince Charles of Hohenzollern to the Hospodariat of the United Principalities, vacated by the deposition of J6n Alecsandru Cusa, and who convoyed his Royal Highness, carefully disguised, into his future kingdom. It was Michel Kogalniceanu who, while holding the portfolio of Foreign Affairs in the Bratiano Cabinet, brought to pass the Russo- Roumanian Alliance of 1877, one practical result of which was the final and permanent emancipation of Roumania from vassaldom to the Sultan. I was for many years personally acquainted with these eminent politicians and patriots, neither of whom, to the best of my knowledge, ever >5i 152 TIVO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN visited this country, where little is known of them beyond the bare fact that they were in office throughout the mighty struggle in the Balkan Peninsula. It is just possible that a brief record of some of my reminiscences of them may possess a certain interest for the readers of this book. My first visit to Moldo-Wallachia was paid in the early autumn of 1865, when Cusa was still seated on the Hospodarial throne with seemingly unshaken firmness. To this eccentric potentate I was made known by his cousin, Roscano, at that time the Prefect of Galatz, an important Moldavian town, in which I sojourned for several weeks before travelling to Bucharest to pay my respects to his Highness. I should mention, perhaps, that I had been entrusted with a confidential mission, bearing indirect relation to the Polish insurrection of 1864, which uprising had necessitated (under Russian pres- sure) certain military precautions on the Moldavian frontier, and that I had been fur- nished with secret credentials to several in- fluential personages in the Principalities, including the chief local authorities, and a few members of the foreign consular corps. One introduction led to another, in so primitive and hospitable a country as Roumania, and before I had spent three months in the '' scujnpa TWO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN 153 tseara," the name of my acquaintances among officials, Boyars, and politicans was legion. It was thus that I came to know the Morousis, Catargis, Florescos, Polisos, Alecsandris, Boeres- cos, Balatchanos, and Ghicas, and, through one of the latter — Dimitri, then president of the Senate or Chamber, I forget which, and brother to my kind old friend, Prince J6n Ghica, long afterwards Minister at the Court of St. James — J6n Bratiano, who had not then achieved the political renown he subsequently achieved, though he was a deputy, and somewhat of a thorn in the side of the Hospodar and his curiously subservient Ministers. Bratiano belonged to the " Red," or demo- cratic party, at that time absolutely under the inspiration and influence of Costaki Rosetti, an incarnadine Socialist of the deepest dye, for whose person and political principles the future king-maker entertained an enthusiastic affection. Not that Bratiano was one of the people, by any means. He belonged to an old family of Moldavian Boyars, or territorial patricians, and was himself the owner of a small estate in his native province, which he assiduously culti- vated, and from which — although it was pretty heavily encumbered — he derived a regular income sufficient to supply his modest needs. As long ago as 1865 he enjoyed the reputation of being 154 TIVO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN one of the most expert and successful wine^ growers in Moldavia, and took great pride in the excellent quality of the butter, cream, and milk produced in considerable quantities upon his model dairy-farm, and always commanding a top-price in the market. At Bratiano's table I have drunk both red and white wines, made from his grapes, that were every whit as sound and potent as the finest vintages of Upper Hungary ; and in after years, when the network of Roumanian railways had been completed, " Bratiano's butter " was in high request at the leading hotels and restaurants of the City of Pleasure. When Dimitri Ghica — a Moderate Radical in those days, while his elder brother Jon, who had been Prince of Samos, was an equally moderate Conservative — introduced Bratiano to me at a Parliamentary breakfast party, given in Hugues' Hotel by one of the Cantacuzenes, Rosetti's favourite disciple was a man of middle height, well set up, rather broad-shouldered, and wearing all his beard, in which not a single grey hair was discernible, although he looked considerably older than his age, then some- thing over forty. I found him gifted with a pleasant turn of humour, and very agreeable manners — a decidedly brilliant talker, profoundly versed in the history and literature of his TWO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN 155 country, and having a seemingly inexhaustible store of anecdote at his disposal. Like all the tites fortes of his party, he had not a good word to say for Cusa, who openly scoffed at the Democratic virtues — as, indeed, he did at every sort of political and moral principle — and though J6n Bratiano did not figure conspicuously in the conspiracy which despatched John Alex- ander I. to the frontier on February 11, 1866, in the dead of a freezing winter night, I subse- quently ascertained that he had been as deeply engaged in that masterly plot as any of the men who actually put it into execution. Oddly enough, I had had audience of the Prince a few hours before he was compelled to sign an act of abdication, spread out on the back of Lupojano — there being no desk or writing- table in his bed-room — and he had spoken jestingly to me of Rosetti, Bratiano, and one or two other advanced "Reds" as "long-winded but harmless visionaries," who did not in the least know what they wanted, but were dis- satisfied with their lack of influence, and who could always be kept quiet by being allowed "a share in the plunder." Early on the following morning, I was awakened from a sound sleep by a member of the Revolutionary Government, who calmly informed me that he and six other true patriots had "got rid of Cusa" during the night, iS6 TWO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN and that a triumvirate, consisting of Catargi^ Golesco, and Haralambi, was at that moment actually reigning in the stead of the deposed Hospodar. I found the incident pregnant with instruction as to "how they order matters" in Eastern Europe. At a little after nine p.m., I had taken leave of a Prince in the full enjoyment of all the attributes and accessories of Consti- tutional Sovereignty, and twelve hours later I was apprised that he had vanished from his realm like the shadow of a dream ! This, however, is a digression for which I must crave forgiveness. During the winter of 1865-6 I saw a great deal of Bratiano, and we became intimate acquaintances. He kept me au courant of the negotiations which were carried on for some time with a view to inducing the Count of Flanders to accept the vacant Hospodarship ; but my mission came to a successful close a few days after his Royal Highness's definitive refusal was signified to the Provisional Government, and I quitted Roumania not to return thither for several years. During the interval, although I entirely lost sight of Bratiano, I received three or four interesting letters and many friendly messages from him, through the Roumanian Diplomatic Agents in Vienna and Berlin. It was not until the spring of 1874, when I was sent to Roumania, in order to investigate and TWO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN 157 report upon the alleged persecution of the Jews in that Principality, that Bratiano told me how Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen had come to be chosen Prince of Roumania, and what part he (Bratiano) had played in the curious trans- actions that preceded his Highness's elevation to the throne of Dacia " by the will of the Rouman people." From notes taken at the time I here reproduce Bratiano's interesting narrative — in translation, of course, but otherwise pretty nearly as he related it to me nineteen years ago : " I dare say you thought it odd that I, an approved Democrat, should have done my utmost, after aiding in the overthrow of Cusa, to re-establish a monarchy in the land of my birth. In 1866, however, we were not fit for Republican institutions, such as Rosetti yearned for. Austria and Russia, our immediate neighbours, were irrevocably intolerant of Democratic experiments on their respective frontiers ; and we knew by experience what it was to be overrun by Haps- burg hosts and Romanoff hordes. A native prince was out of the question ; firstly, because every eligible candidate was certain to intrigue against every other, while none was sufficiently popular to carry the national majority with him ; secondly, because no Dacian of Hospodarian descent could count upon the common support of iS8 rtVO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN Turkey, Russia, and Austria, the three limitrophe, States, without whose goodwill no elected Prince could hope to keep his seat on the Roumanian throne for half a year. Therefore it behoved the Triumvirs to turn their eyes abroad in search of a scion of some Royal House who, not being positively repugnant to any one of the above- mentioned Powers, might be induced, with the consent of his parents or guardians, to accept the laborious office and hazardous position of Roumanian Hospodar. "It was no easy matter to discover a candidate at once eligible and willing. ' Plon-Plon ' would have suited our Democrats to a turn ; but Russia would not hear of him. You were here when Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg refused our offer, on the ground that, as Heir-Presumptive to the Belgian throne, he could not cast in his lot with any country save his own. The election of any Austrian Archduke would at once have been vetoed by Turkey and Russia. Nothing would have induced my compatriots to choose a Russian Grandduke, nor would the Porte and the H of burg have acceded for a moment to such a selection. " We were in a terrible fix, and our Hospodar- hunt lasted fully three months. The Triumvirs despatched special envoys to the chief Con- tinental capitals, in order to sound foreign TWO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN 159 Governments as to the choice of a Prince for Roumania. Golesco himself went to Stamboul ; Boeresco, Falcojano, and Costaforo were sent respectively to Vienna, Berlin, and St. Peters- burg ; Balatchano and I were entrusted with the mission to Paris, where my attention was first drawn to Prince Charles by Napoleon III. One day, in the course .of an audience granted to me by the Emperor, he passed in review the names of all the personages suggested by me as eligible for the Hospodarship from the Roumanian point of view, and raised more or less insuperable objections to one after another successively. All of a sudden he exclaimed, ' There is young Charles of Hohenzollern, by the way ; why not try for him ? I hear him very well spoken of ; besides, as you may know, he is a sort of connec- tion of mine. If you should choose him, your selection would be perfectly agreeable to me.' "The connection alluded to by Napoleon was the following. One of the Prince's grand- mothers was a Princess Murat, another the Vicomtesse de Beauharnais, adoptive daughter of Napoleon I. Before my audience came to an end his Majesty referred again, and more than once, to Prince Charles as an 'eligible candidate.' Therefore, immediately after leaving the Tuileries, I telegraphed the Imperial hint in cypher to the Triumvirate, which at once i6o TIVO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN empowered me to open negotiations with Prince Anthony, the young gentleman's father, and with the King of Prussia, the head of his House, in one of whose Guard regiments he was then serving as a captain. '■ Arrangements for bringing the Prince into the country of his adoption were speedily made, as soon as his father and King William had sanctioned his acceptance of our proposals ; but they had to be kept a profound secret, as he would be obliged to traverse the Austro- Hungarian Empire in order to reach Roumanian territory, and it was just possible that some obstacles might be thrown in his way should he undertake the journey in his own character, and as an avowed aspirant to the Dacian Throne. It was settled, therefore, that he should play the part of attendant to one of the German gentlemen — Messrs. Maifisch, Werner, and Linge — who accompanied him, occupying first-class places in trains and steamers, while he travelled second-class. On board the Danube accdlere, starting from Basiasch, he was berthed in the fore-cabin, among cheap tourists and servants. I went on board at Drenkova, a station close to our frontier, but no recognition took place between the Prince and myself, as he was still within Austrian jurisdiction. Our mystery was not n¥0 ROUMANIAN STATESMEN i6i unveiled till we arrived at Turnu Severin, where his Highness disembarked, and resumed the character which he had temporarily fore- gone at the urgent request of the Triumvirate. Having changed his dress, he drove with me in an open carriage to Piteshti, where Golesco and Prince J6n Ghica were awaiting him. They escorted him to Goleshti, where he passed the night ; and on the following day he made his public entrance into Bucharest, dressed in plain clothes, and seated in a landau drawn by four horses." During the stirring events of 1877 I frequently met Bratiano in the Roumanian capital, and he spared me a great deal of annoyance by steadfastly standing my friend whenever , the Russian authorities — who lorded it over the native officials with all but unbearable master- fulness — manifested a disposition to worry me. Prince Gortchakoff did not like correspondents of English newspapers, who contrived to evade the espionage of his agents in respect to letters and despatches ; and though he was uniformly polite — nay, bland — to me when we met in society, I was given to understand by my Roumanian friends that he more than once asked them to expel me from the country. On each occasion, however, Bratiano — and Kogalniceanu, too, for that matter — respectfully i62 TIVO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN declined to comply with the venerable Chan- cellor's request, and also refused to authorise a " domiciliary visit " to my apartments, for the purpose of examining and possibly con- fiscating my correspondence, ciphers, and private papers. It was, indeed, mainly owing to Bratiano's unrelaxed protection, that I enjoyed absolute immunity from Muscovite molestation through- out my sojourn "within the Russian lines," which lasted from early in May until the third week of December, 1877. A few months later he visited me repeatedly at Berlin, while the famous Congress was in session, and furnished me with a great deal of highly valuable informa- tion, which reached the public exclusively in the columns of The Daily Telegraph. After July, 1878, I never saw him again. He held the Roumanian Premiership until the spring of 1888, when dissensions in his own party, leading to popular disturbances, rendered his position untenable. After resigning office, he lived in retirement on his Moldavian property until May, 1 89 1, when he succumbed, somewhat unex- pectedly, to a severe cold, and was laid to rest, carrying with him to the grave the affec- tion and gratitude of his King and all true Roumanian patriots. My first meeting with Michel Kogalniceanu TWO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN 163 took place at Berlin, early in 1872, at the house of the Prussian Railway King, Dr. Strousberg — now her Britannic Majesty's Em- bassy. Strousberg was concessionaire of the Roumanian railways, in the construction of which some hitch had occurred ; the adjustment of the difficulty had been entrusted to Kogalniceanu by the Cabinet of which he was a member, and dur- ing a fortnight or so he was in daily confer- ence with the puissant entrepreneur, at whose table I was several times his neighbour. I really believe that he was the ugliest, as well as the wiliest, diplomatist with whom I ever foregathered ; but the brilliancy of his conver- sation more than atoned for the unique un- comeliness of his face and figure. He was an excellent judge of art and in- veterate picture collector, who allowed no obstacle to hinder him from acquiring a canvas to which he took a fancy. We spent a good deal of time together in Dr. Strousberg's famous gallery of modern paintings, at that time valued at nearly half a million of money, and the state of excitement into which he worked himself while gloating over certain chefs-d'oeuvre of Gerome and Meissonier, Knaus and Achenbach, was a sight to see, for the little man's eyes flashed and twinkled, like those of a boar at bay, while his moustache bristled 1 64 TIVO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN and his fingers twitched, as though making ready to pounce upon the objects of his admiration. Some years later he showed me — d plusieurs reprises — his own collection, which filled every available space in his villa on the Bucharest Chaussde, and included several ques- tionable "old masters," for the authenticity of which he would at any moment have willingly pledged his salvation. It was at his suburban dwelling, during the summer of 1877, that Kogalniceanu allowed me to witness the meet- ing of Alexander Gortchakoff, the incorporation of Absolutist governmental principles and old- world diplomacy, and Costaki Rosetti, the most out-and-out Social Democrat of his day, then President of the Roumanian Chamber, and exercising extraordinary influence upon public opinion by his writings in the Romanul, of which journal he was both editor and proprietor. The gathering, at which these representatives of the two opposite political poles met for the first time, was quite an informal one, in com- pliance with the privately expressed wish of the Prince- Chancellor ; at least, so Kogalni- ceanu told me confidentially. "This is why I am able to ask you," added he, chuckling grimly at the notion of bringing two such deadly foes into social contact under his roof; " it will be a memorable rencontre^ TWO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN 165 Rosetti was probably the last man of any nationality with whom Gortchakoff would have desired to spend an evening, had he not had a special purpose to fulfil by so doing ; nor was the Arch-Republican fiar excellence of South- Eastern Europe, likely to derive much gratifica- tion from an interchange of views with the most unscrupulous advocate and instrument of despotism who, not being a Czar, ever ruled the Russian roost. Hence the few guests — Bratiano was one of them — admitted by Kogal- niceanu's especial favour to contemplate that most incongruous of meetings, and who were gathered round the divan upon which Gort- chakoff had comfortably installed himself, after a brief inspection of some of his host's art treasures, awaited Rosetti's arrival somewhat nervously. Nor was the Roumanian Foreign Minister himself, though justly renowned for his self-possession at critical conjunctures, as entirely at his ease as I had seen him when parliamentary storms were raging around him. However, the dogmatist of despotism and the apostle of anarchy — though the latter was manifestly in liquor — got on together much better than might have been expected, con- sidering their rabid loathing of each other's political principles. They exchanged more than one keen word-thrust in the course of their 1 66 TWO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN conversational encounter, which lasted about ten minutes, but contrived to maintain a suffi- cient civility of demeanour to " save the situa- tion," and to relieve the Roumanian statesmen present at that historical interview from the disquietude suggested to them by the diametri- cal divergence of two masterful men's opinions. There was another alarming factor, more- over, in the social problem submitted to our consideration, to wit, the highly irritable temper of both interlocutors, Gortchakoff being the most choleric of septuagenarians, and Rosetti as " huffy " as a cornered tarantula, besides being brutally rough in manner, and irrepressibly addicted to coarse jesting. Their interview, however, gave rise to no catastrophe, and some of us, who had felt as though an explosion must be inevitable, while " Alexander Michailovich " was peering through his gold-rimmed spectacles at • one whom he regarded as a noxious firebrand, drew a deep breath of relief when Kogalniceanu's party broke up naturally, instead of being shattered to pieces by some fierce spasm of outraged Absolutism or infuriated Republicanism. The latter years of Kogalniceanu's life were painfully troubled by pecuniary embarrassment, and the public odium which he incurred through the exposure of certain incidents of his private TWO ROUMANIAN STATESMEN 167 life, which even the tolerant, easy-going Rou- manians found themselves unable to condone. His famous collection of pictures was brought to the hammer, and sold very badly, as I heard shortly after his death. As a statesman he was at once bold and astute, knowing alike when to insist with firm- ness and when to yield with suavity. To me he was a staunch friend in circumstances which rendered his support and protection in- valuable to me ; and throughout his official and unofficial intercourse with me I never had the least cause for reproaching him with any breach of faith, deception, or misrepresentation. A Servian Premier WHEN I was presented to Gospodin Garaschianin, then Servian Minister- President, by Mr. Longworth, H.M. Agent and Consul- General in the Principality of pigs and plums, the flag of the Crescent still waved over the Citadel of Belgrade. The Hospodars of Servia, Roumania, and Montenegro were vassals of the Padishah ; Bulgaria, Bosnia, and the Herzegovina, were integral portions of the Ottoman Empire ; Midhat Pasha was Vali of the Danube Vilayet, which then comprised all the territory between the Balkan range and the right bank of the greatest European river, including the Dobrudscha, and extended from Widdin, on the Servian frontier, to Sulina, a breeding place for mosquitoes, on the coast of the Black Sea ; Ali Riza Pasha was Governor of Belgrade fortress and commander of the Sultan's forces in Servia, the native ruler of which semi-barbarous realm was Prince Michael, the second son of Milosch the swineherd, founder i6S A SERVIAN PREMIER 169 of the Obreriovich dynasty ; JoTiri Alexander Cusa, to whom the peasantry of Moldo-Wallachia owed its emancipation from serfdom, ruled the roost in Bucharest, but was nearing the time of his overthrow and banishment; Nikita Petrovich was Kniaz of Czernagora, as he is at the present day ; Turkish Pashas dealt out summary justice, or the contrary, at Serajevo and Mostar. In short, it was during the late autumn of 1865 that I first visited the Servian capital, and, as a preliminary step to obtaining audience of Prince Michael, whose views upon a question of some political moment I had been instructed to ascertain, my friend and host, the British representative, made arrangements to personally introduce me to the President of the Council of State, who was also Minister of Foreign Affairs, and as Mr. Longworth assured me, the most able, honest, and patriotic statesman at that time holding office in the Czillak Princi- pality. Garaschianin and his wife lived in a modest suite of rooms on the ground-floor of the Servian Foreign Office, a building of the kind that, in any small English country town, would be considered an appropriate residence for the leading local physician or solicitor. Both the Premier's sons were officers in the Servian army ; I70 A SERVIAN PREMIER •the elder, being one of the Prince's aides-de- camp, had rooms and "freedom of the table" in the Kohak, while the younger was in country quarters with his regiment. The elder Garasr chianines, therefore, lived a very qiiiet Darby and Joan sort of life, neither entertaining nor being entertained ; for the salary of a Servian Minister amounted to considerably less than a thousand a year, and the Premier was not possessed of any patrimony or private means whatever. Besides, the " upper-crust " Servians of that day were by no means sociable people ; they seldom visited one another or the members of the Corps Diplomatique, whose informal recep- tions, held at the different Legations on certain fixed evenings of every week, were rarely attended by any of the native notabilities, There was only one really wealthy Servian in Belgrade, a merchant named Misha, who had made a large fortune in salt, but was kept at a distance by the Court and Diplomatic cliques because of his connection by marriage with the Kara- georgievich family, dynastic rival to the House of Obrenovich. Misha had built a handsome palace, about four times as large as that occupied by the reigning Prince, on the western side of the Terazia, then Belgrade's only broad and straight thoroughfare; but after a while he became weary of isolation in this stately edifice, A SERVIAN PREMIER iji and presented it to the City of Belgrade, whfch Utilised it as an university. As for the Prince, he gave three dinner- parties and a ball in the course of each winter, which were the chief social " events " of the season ; AH Riza entertained the foreign repre- sentatives sumptuously from time to time at the Imperial Konak in the citadel, and the Agents of the six Great Powers, as I have already mentioned, dined and played cards at one another's houses on wellnigh every evening of the week. There was no local aristocracy, well-to-do bureaucracy, or rich mezzo ceto in Belgrade ; wherefore, the social intercourse be- tween the Servian and foreign persons of distinction was limited to formal morning calls, during which it was de rigueur to serve cigarettes and black coffee, jam and cold water ; and to accidental meetings in the Topchidereh Gardens, or on the Kalemeydan, whenever a military band happened to play at either of those places of open-air rendezvous. Both were kept in order by convicts, linked together by huge leg-irons, and attired in a curiously hideous striped costume. The truculent appearance of these involuntary industrials, and the clanking of their fetters as they limped about the grounds, sweeping and garnishing, imported a certain element of grimness into the al fresco gatherings 172 A SERVIAN PREMIER of the "upper seventy or eighty" — that was about their number^ — of Belgrade society. But I have strayed away from the Servian Minister- President, to . whom^ craving pardon for the digression, I will now return. On arriving at the Foreign Office, which was only a few hundred yards distant from the British Agency, Mr. Longworth and myself were ushered into a small room, the walls and ceiling of which were painted in distemper, with stencilled designs, executed in different shades of dark green, matched by the stuffs with which a long divan and two capacious arm-chairs were covered. With the exception of a small writing table, there was no other furniture in this somewhat gloomy apartment, manifestly used by his Excellency as a tabagie, for it reeked of tobacco fumes, and probably as a place of retreat from his official bureau, convenient for the reception of visitors with whom he might wish to converse at his ease, undisturbed by secretaries or suitors. My kind chaperon observed, in an undertone, as we entered, "You are lucky to be admitted to Garaschianin's sanctum, for I have often noticed that he talks more freely and frankly in this dingy X\\A& fumoir than in the Ministerial salon, where he receives us when we pay official visits to him." A SERVIAN PREMIER 173 He had hardly spoken these words, when the door opened to admit one of the most remarkable-looking men I had until then ever set eyes upon. Garaschianin, though consider- ably past the meridian of life, was as upright as a dart, and thoroughly qualified, by breadth of shoulder as well as stature, to serve as fugleman to the foremost rank of Company No. I in the ist regiment of Prussian Foot- guards, consisting of the tallest and most stal- wart soldiers in the Hohenzollern realm. Had he lived in the reign of Frederick William I., that Royal giant -grabber would certainly have had him kidnapped, and conveyed by force to Potsdam, there to be enrolled in the famous corps of Anakim, that was disbanded by " the Protestant Hero" on the day of his accession to the throne. For Garaschianin stood six feet six inches in his stockings, measured fifty inches round the chest, and was altogether constructed upon a scale of colossal magni- tude. The hand he stretched out towards me, as Longworth pronounced the usual formula of introduction, was fully as large as an average shoulder of lamb ; it swallowed up mine, so to speak, as completely as a pillar-post absorbs a letter dropped into its lateral aperture. In size, his head was fully proportionate to his huge frame — the face long, the forehead high and 174 A SERVIAN PREMIER massive, the chin square and rugged, the nose large and rough-hewn, the cheek-bones promi- nent, the eyes grey, briUiant, and restless, the long hair and thin moustache grizzled and straggling, the complexion naturally dark, and deeply bronzed by exposure to the sun. This impressive figure was clad from head to foot in black cloth, somewhat the worse for wear, his only garments de luxe being a lawn-fronted shirt of dazzling whiteness, and a shiny satin neckerchief, tied in a broad, square bow. He " had no French," and I no Servian ; so German, which he spoke fluently, and which was perfectly familiar to Longworth, was the language in which my first conversation with him was con- ducted, as well as many another in that and later years. We talked for more than an hour, on the oc- casion above referred to, about the actual state and probable prospects of political affairs in South-Eastern Europe; the Turkish difficulties in Bulgaria, then assuming a formidable aspect, relative to which, although Servian sympathies were strongly enlisted on behalf of the Bulgars, Garaschianin displayed remarkable moderation and even impartiality • the threatening troubles in Moldo-Wallachia, in which Prince Michael, who owned large estates in that country, was deeply interested; above, all,; the great- local A SERVIAN PREMIER 175 question of the evacuation of the Servian for- tresses by the Suzerain's troops, respecting which confidential negotiations had aheady been opened at Stamboul with some faint hope of success : — a hope, I may mention, that was fully realised some eighteen months later. Respecting all these subjects, Garaschianin was a veritable mine of correct information and shrewd apergus, the interest of which, burning at that time, has long since been extinguished by accomplished facts. Though Servia was the country of his adoption — which he had served faithfully and devotedly ever since his boyhood's days — he was a Montenegrin by birth, and the emancipation of every variety of Slav from the Turkish yoke — light as he admitted the latter to be, as far as his native and adoptive fellow- tribesmen were concerned — lay very close to his heart. He had been the trusted friend and councillor of Milosch Obrenovich throughout more than twenty years of that astute semi- barbarian's public career, and had shared his temporary exile, when Black George got the upper hand of him, and — his life being at stake— he was compelled to seek refuge in Austrian territory. It was from Garaschianin, when we became more intimately acquainted, that I learned the true story of Karageorge's assassina- tion — a crime committed in cold blood and with J 76 A SERVIAN PREMIER hideous cruelty by the peremptory command of Milosch, prompted by an alarming dream — the offspring of a nightmare superinduced by a surfeit of pork and plum sauce — to murder his prisoner, for whose safety he had pledged his- solemn oath on the sacred Icons. Garaschianin described him to me as a "just and sagacious ruler of the people to whom he owed his elevation to princely rank and power, but of a savage temper, and addicted in private life to intemperance and incontinence. His will was indomitable ; his passions were extra- ordinarily violent and uncontrollable. He was uneducated and ignorant, but gifted with diplo- matic instinct, fervid eloquence, and a faculty for organisation which almost amounted to genius. A true despot, he dealt out justice according to his lights in a sudden, heavy-handed way peculiarly suitable to his stiff-necked subjects, whom nothing short of terrorism could keep in order. During the daytime he was indefatigable in personally superintending State affairs ; after dark he made a point of never denying himself any physical indulgence which his commanding position enabled him to procure. A voracious eater and deep drinker, he was wont to feast heavily, night after night, at his suburban mansion of Topchidereh, and to celebrate orgies which those who witnessed-them 'by command' A SERVIAN PREMIER 177 are not likely to forget. His compatriots were mortally afraid of him ; consequently, he secured their unbounded respect and obedience. Those who owned comely wives or daughters kept them sedulously out of his way during his periodical tours in the outlying provinces of Servia ; unless, indeed, they aimed at obtaining some special favour or boon at his hands, in which case they would sometimes bring feminine attractions to bear upon him — seldom unsuccessfully." It was during the spring of 1867 that Garas- chianin, in illustration of this particular trait of Milosch's character, related to me the following surprising incident. I took notes of his narrative shortly after I had listened to it with profound attention. Their reproduction in this place, and in his very words, as nearly as a careful transla- tion can render them, may not be devoid of interest, though Milosch is merely a nominis umbra to Englishmen of the present generation, and the veteran patriot, Garaschianin, has long since "joined the majority," full of years and honours. " You have probably noticed that my wife is lame of one leg. Shall I tell you how she became so ? Thirty years ago I was to Milosch what I now am to his son. I had not been long married to a very handsome young woman, to whom I was passionately attached. She and I M 178 A SERVIAN PREMIER were the Hospodar's guests at Topchidereh, his summer palace. Had I been his brother he could not have lavished upon me more demon- strative affection and consideration. One day he charged me with a message to the Skuptchina, then in session at Kragujevacz. My wife, who was chief lady-in-waiting to the Princess, re- mained in the palace. Our apartments were on the second floor, overlooking the flower-garden. Within twenty-four hours of my departure, Milosch aroused my wife from a deep sleep by knocking violently at her bedroom door — which was fortunately locked — and demanding entrance. Though well-nigh terrified out of her wits, she refused to open the door ; whereupon he burst it in with his shoulder, and rushed towards the bed. She, however, had risen and thrown open the double lattice of the window, which reached to the floor. As he advanced towards her, with outstretched hands, she sprang out into the air without a second's hesitation, fell heavily to the ground from a height of nearly forty feet, and snapped her right thigh-bone in two. It was badly set by a clumsy army-surgeon, and I returned from Kragujevacz, a few days later, to find her lamed for life. " What could I do ? I might have killed him, and no one would have blamed me — no, not he himself, for he was fully conscious that A SERVIAN PREMIER 179 he had violated the most sacred obligations of friendship and hospitality, and that his life belonged to me if I choose to take it. But I loved my country, and knew only too well that no other man save Milosch was capable of guiding it to a comparatively safe harbour through the sea of troubles on which it was then embarked. So I not only spared him, but continued to serve him faithfully to the last hour of his life. Nor did I lose his respect by abstaining from a well-deserved ven- geance, for he appreciated the motives that prompted my sacrifice ; and ever after, when my wife's name was mentioned in his presence, he would say, with a sardonic chuckle : ' Yes, -yes ; she is a noble matron ; in fact, she is the only absolutely virtuous woman I ever came across in Servia.' " Eminently characteristic of Garaschianin — who, in many respects, was " more an ancient Roman " than a Servian — is the following true story. On June 10, 1868, Prince Michael, while walking in the Topchidereh with his aunt and cousin, Anka and Katrine Obrenovich, and attended by his chief aide-de-camp, the eldest son of the Minister-President, was brutally murdered by three miscreants, who shot him dead, and then savagely mangled his corpse i8o A SERVIAN PREMIER with their kandjars. As the Prince fell, pierced by more than one bullet, he cried out, " Save me, brother!" to young Garaschianin, who was in the act of drawing his sabre wherewith to attempt the Hospodar's rescue, when Lazar Marich fired at him and brought him down, shattering his right arm so irremediably that it had to be amputated a few hours later in the day. While this hideous tragedy was being enacted, Garaschianin, the elder, was taking his daily " constitutional " in the Topchidereh gardens, not a quarter of a mile from the scene of the murder. Being slightly deaf, he did not hear the reports of the revolvers ; but very shortly after the catastrophe had occurred he was ap- prised that "his eldest son had perished in an attempt to defend the Prince against his assasins." The grand old patriot merely said, " That is well. He died, then, simply fulfilling his duty." Without another word, he strode away to Belgrade — about two miles distant from Top- chidereh — in order to take measures for seizing the murderers and preserving public order. It was actually he who, still believing his son to be dead, arrested the brothers Radavanovich on the Terazia, when they calmly walked into town after butchering their amiable Sovereign, A SERVIAN PREMIER i8i and had them heavily chained and cast into prison. Young Garaschianin, I rejoice to say, speedily recovered health and strength, and rose to high office and distinction in the service of his country. His father was, as 'loyal to Milan as he had been to Michael and Milosch ; but Ristich supplanted him, and he died in honoured retirement shortly after the main object of his life had been fully attained — to wit, the attain- ment of Servia's independence and her advance- ment to the rank of a European Kingdom. /t Roman Pontiff IN one of the many commonplace books — monuments of patient and useless labour — which I filled with ancient and modern anec- dotes, classical quotations, and extracts from "books of the day" between my eleventh and fifteenth years — a period during which I had the run of my father's comprehensive historical library — I well remember inscribing a complete list of the Popes and Anti-Popes, from St. Peter to Pius IX., the Pontiff who had succeeded Gregory XVI. in the Apostolic See about a year before I took to recording statistical, chrono- logical, and literary ana in parchment-bound volumes, each containing from two to three hundred pages of carefully-ruled bluish paper. I was much impressed at the time by the en- durance of the Papacy, as compared with that of the great secular dynasties, and by the large number of Pontiffs, regular and irregular, who had ruled the Catholic world throughout eighteen centuries and a half. I think there had been 182 A ROMAN PONTIFF 183 over two hundred and sixty of them, and, to the best of my recollection, Count Giovanni Maria Mastai-Feretti was the two hundred and seventh " Holiness " whose right to that exalted title had been indefeasibly and even unimpeach- ably established by the necessary majority of the Sacred College. In those days I entertained many extravagant fancies about Popes, their powers — which I knew included the faculty of excommunication, a dread- ful prerogative, as it then appeared to me — habits, and costumes. Having been somewhat strictly brought up in the Protestant faith, nothing seemed to me less probable than that I should ever look upon a Pope in the flesh. There was something almost awful in the very name of the Eternal City ; besides, Rome was such a long way off that the journey thither — involving the crossing of the Alps and the Apen- nines, if performed by land, or a tremendous sea voyage from some British port to Civita Vecchia, if per mare — presented itself to my mind as far too arduous and costly an enterprise for me to undertake, even when I should be grown up to manhood. Some twenty years later, however, I learned by experience the truth of the French proverb, ♦* Tons les chemins conduisent a Rome" and it became my enviable privilege not only to see, but i84 A ROMAN PONTIFF to converse with, a real live Pope. During the high summer of 1867 — the hottest theretofore on record in Italy as far as the nineteenth cen- tury was concerned — his Holiness Pius IX., then just completing the second decade, plus a twelvemonth, of his Pontificate, was pleased to promote to the celestial rank and terrestrial dignity of sainthood some twenty or so dis- tinguished Roman Catholics who had been dead for two or three centuries. I had been instructed to witness the ceremony of canonisation, which was appointed to take place in the Basilica of St. Peter, on June 29th. Only a week before that date I was in Belgrade, the capital of Servia, on a special mission, which was nipped in the bud by the arrival of a telegram, directing me to "get to Rome as quickly as possible." And a pretty scramble across Europe I had of it, in a temperature of sub-tropical heat, sometimes posting, sometimes in a steamer, sometimes on one or another railroad; before I arrived on the right bank of the Tiber, on the third day after my departure from the confluence of the Danube and the Save, opposite Semlin. My first visit in Rome was paid to a friend of many years' standing — Mr. Odo Russell, after- wards Lord Ampthill, and H. M. Ambassador at Berlin, but then Second Secretary of oui" Legation at Florence, unofficially representing A ROMAN PONTIFF 185 the British Government in the capital of the Papal States, and occupying a spacious flat on the fourth floor of the Palazzo Chtgi. To this accomplished diplomatist I communicated my ardent wish to obtain audience of the Sovereign Pontiff, who, I was only too well aware, had never before granted an interview to any English journalist desiring to approach his Holiness in a professional capacity. Mr. Russell remarked that " there would doubtless be difficulties to overcome," but pro- mised that he would do his best to procure me admission to the Presence. How he managed to surmount the obstacles to which he alluded I do not know, for he never told me — nor, indeed, did I commit the indiscretion of asking him. That he was on very friendly terms with the renowned Cardinal Antonelli, then Papal Secre- tary of State, was a notorious fact ; and I afterwards learned from Pio Nono himself that "my highly-gifted compatriot" (I quote the Pope's own words) was a persona gratissima at the Vatican. At any rate, about twenty - four hours after I had preferred my audacious request to Mr. Russell, I received an intima- tion to the effect that his Holiness, despite the heavy demands made upon his time by the Catholic prelates assembled in Rome to attend the Tercentenary "functions," had gra- 1 86 A ROMAN PONTIFF ciously consented to receive me on the following morning. While awaiting my audience I heard a good deal that was interesting about the preliminaries to the canonisation ceremony. The Archbishops, Bishops, and mitred Abbots, bidden to the cele- brations from all parts of the world, had for the most part brought with them valuable offerings to the Pontiff, embodying the devotion and homage of the faithful in the various shapes of costly gems, coined gold, and objels de fantaisie executed in the precious metals. Thus, on June 24th, the day of my arrival in Rome, the U. S. Episcopacy had presented to his Holiness a silver model of a yacht heavily freighted with double eagles ; the Latins of the Orient, a monster cake stuffed with bullion and jewels ; the Primate of Poland, gold currency to the amount of four thousand pounds ; a Transatlantic Sisterhood, a mighty silvern fish filled with louis-d'ors. In hard- cash the vene- rable successor of St. Peter had received that day over three hundred thousand pounds; and one of his chamberlains, who was under some- what considerable obligation to me, and whose communicativeness was proportionate to his gra- titude, subsequently assured me that the Holy Father kept all this treasure under his bed, and carefully locked his chamber door. A ROMAN PONTIFF 187- Financial busiiiess, indeed, was transacted with patriarchal simplicity under the Papal regime. My friend in the household told me that, a few days after the tide of gold had surged into the Vatican, Monsignor Ferrari, the Chancellor of the Pontifical Exchequer, had asked the Pope for a rather heavy sum of money, wherewith to defray some necessary outlay. His Holiness forthwith counted out the amount all in gold ; whereupon the Minister produced his pocket-handkerchief, filled it with coin, and tried to fasten the four corners, but in vain. He could not contrive to hold and tie them together. Presently, therefore, Pius IX., who had been much entertained by Ferrari's struggle with the unmanageable money, sent my informant into the bedroom for a towel, in which the Minister managed to pack and carry off the "extraordinary supply" granted to him by the Head of the State. He had hardly quitted the Vatican, I may mention, when Monsignor Wood, Bishop of Philadelphia, was ushered into the Holy Father's presence, bearing with him sixty thousartd dollars in specie, crammed into a travelling hand-bag, which his Grandeur had "personally conducted" all the way from his American see, and which a good deal more than made up for the sum borne away in the Papal towel by Monsignor Ferrari. 1 88 A ROMAN PONTIFF At the appointed hour I handed my credentials to an ofificer of the Swiss Guard in the great hall on the ground floor of the Vatican, and was by him confided to the care of a legionary of the Guardia Nobile, who led me up two broad marble staircases and through a long corridor and spacious saloon to a square antechamber. There I was courteously received by a reverend gentleman in violet silk stockings, who, having minutely inspected my invitation card, preceded me into a small room, quite plainly furnished, with a second door at its further end, and lighted by two windows overlooking the Vatican gardens. Between the windows was a richly-gilded console under a huge mirror, and on it the silvern yacht Henrietta already referred to, its cargo con- sisting exclusively of golden American eagles. With this costly vessel and her precious freight I was soon left alone, for my bland conductor, having murmured in my ear, " Have the kindness to wait here for two or three minutes ; his Holiness will enter by that door," pointed to the entrance opposite to that near which I was standing, bowed politely, and quitted the room. Presently, through the doorway indicated by the chamberlain, there entered a -portly, elderly gentleman, of ruddy countenance and benevolent expression, attired in a long, white robe, fastened A ROMAN PONTIFF 189 round his body by a girdle, to which was attached a plain black rosary. He was attended by a middle-aged ecclesiastic, in. a black silk suit and purple stockings. This dignitary, however, he at once dismissed by a wave of the hand which he then graciously held out to me saying, in French, "I am glad to see you ; Englishmen are always welcome here," An exact account of the interview that ensued having already appeared in print, I cannot do better than to textually reproduce it in this place. I bent low over the venerable Pontiff's plump and shapely fingers, and briefly expressed my deep gratitude for the favour he had been pleased to vouchsafe to me at a time when he was unavoidably beset by so many applications for special audience. His Holiness then asked me what was the immediate purpose of my visit to Rome. I told him, mentioning the length of my journey, and the place at which I had received my instructions to hasten to the Eternal City, and there describe, for the information of my fellow countryfolk, the im- posing ceremony of canonisation. He replied, " I am gratified to hear that the English press should have taken so lively an interest in the Tercentenary as to summon one of its repre- sentatives to Rome from the furthermost parts 1 90 A ROMAN PONTIFF of Europe in order to chronicle the coming celebrations," and added, " I am sorry not to be able to converse with you in your noble mother tongue ; but we Italians are seldom proficient in any but the idioms of Latin origin." I respectfully rejoined that I was sufficiently well acquainted with the Italian language to understand whatever his Holiness might deign to say to me in that tongue ; whereupon the Pope, changing his idiom at once from French to Italian, observed " I am very glad of that, for I am not a great French scholar. It has often surprised me to hear Englishmen speaking Italian with extraordinary fluency, correctness, and good accent. There is your distinguished compatriot, Mr. Russell, for instance — his Italian is simply wonderful. Your great statesman, Mr. Gladstone, again — he speaks Italian with amazing purity, and his Latin is quite Cicer- onian ; much more classical and elegant than the Latin spoken by poor Italian priests like myself." I explained that to Britons of the more highly-educated classes Italian was, above all, the language of music ; that cultivated English men and women were anxious to prove the musicality of their nation, upon which our Continental neighbours delighted in casting doubt ; and that, therefore, many of them took pains to perfect A ROMAN PONTIFF 191 themselves in the knowledge of Italian, as a first step towards the attainment of that object. The Pope smiled, and said : " That is very ingenious. You, at least, whatever may have been your motive, have studied our language much to the purpose." His Holiness then introduced the subject of British sectarianism by asking me if the Dis- senters in my country took any interest at all in the sayings and doings of the Papacy. I assured him — I hope, correctly — that they did, adding, " How could they, as Christians, fail to do so ? " " You are not a Catholic ? " he inquired. " No, Santita ; I am a Protestant," I replied, and related to him how, in Spain, when I had given a like answer to the same question, put to me by a noble Senorita, she had promptly rejoined, " Yes, yes, I understand ; the Senor is a Hebrew ! " At this, Pius I X. laughed heartily, saying : " You could excuse the mistake in a pious Spanish girl. To many such — in Italy, too — a heretic and a Jew are the same thing. They have not been taught to make so many dis- tinctions as you do in England, where, I am told, there are about seventy religions." " Pardon me. Holiness," I ventured to observe, 192 A ROMAN PONTIFF "not religions, but varieties of worship, more in form than substance." By this respectful correction I had impru- dently laid myself open to an examination which probably few Englishmen were less competent to sustain with credit than myself. The Pope interrogated me closely and with manifest interest respecting the differences and gradations of British Dissent, about which I unfortunately knew very little, and asked me all manner of pertinent questions about Plymouth Brethren, " Soutcotisti," as he called the disciples of Joanna Southcote, Psedobaptists, Shakers, and other sectarians. I may confess that I was extremely uncomfortable during this in- terrogatory, to which I returned the most plausible answers that I could evoke from the depths of my inner consciousness. Probably his Holiness noticed my embarrass- ment, for presently he changed the subject, and began to talk with cheerful animation about the rich gifts from foreign parts of which he had been the recipient during the previous day. While dilating upon this congenial topic, he called my attention to the gold - freighted " Henrietta," which he lifted with both hands an inch or two above its velvet stand, observing, with a humorous smile, " Vedi pure che non e vapore " (" You can see, however, that it is not A ROMAN PONTIFF 193 a steamboat "). There was a shrewd pun in this brief sentence, for vapore means smoke as well as a steamer, and his Holiness manifestly intended to give me a jocular hint that the Philadelphian offering was a solid one, worth a good deal of money. After I had paid due tribute of laughter to this Pontifical jest, Pius IX. brought my audience to a close with the kindly words, "As you wish to witness the celebrations, I will give orders that every facility be afforded to yoii. Whenever you may revisit Rome, have the kindness to come and see me. I shall always be glad to receive you." He then gave me his right hand again, and I took my leave with the customary obeisances. I may add that when I was sent to Rome two years and a quarter later, in order to chronicle the proceedings of the great QEcumenical Council, I applied to his Holiness for an audience, in compliance with the wish he had expressed during my first interview with him» and was once more honoured by a most kind and even cordial reception. On both the occa- sions referred to Pius IX. bestowed upon me one or two trifling souvenirs, "to remind me," as he was graciously pleased to say, " in times to come, of an old Italian ecclesiastic who wished me well" {"ckimi voleva bene"). The (Ecumen- ical Council made a great difference in the N 194 A ROMAN PONTIFF appearance of Pio Nono. It deepened the lines in his face; in March, 1870, he looked twenty years older than in the fierce sumtner of 1867, even after the tremendous fatigues of the Tercentenary ceremonies. He had lost flesh, and the once cheerful expression of his countenance had become sad. One of the strangest anomalies that ever came under my personal cognisance was the unques- tionable fact that the people of Rome regarded Pius IX. as a jettatore — that is to say, a person afflicted with "the evil eye," whose glance — ■ quite independently of his or her wish or will — is fraught with calamity to whomsoever may be unlucky enough to encounter it. Even the upper class of Romans entertained this absurd superstition twenty-five years ago, and, I dare- say, does so still. I know that several times Roman ladies — orthodox and " practising " Catholics — with whom I have been walking or driving in the Eternal City, as soon as they caught a distant glimpse of the Pope's escort in any main thoroughfare, hurried up some side street, or vicolo, in order to avoid meeting him, or turned sharp round and remained averted from his presence as he passed by, fearing to incur the baneful blight of his "mal' occhio." I have seen women of the lower orders, at his approach, snatch up the A ROMAN PONTIFF 195 children toddling by them, huddle up their faces in shawls, and crouch down in doorways, closing their eyes while making the sign of conjuration with both hands, in the hope of neutralising the Papal jettatura. Whenever he drove out, or strolled upon the Pincio, foreigners waylaid him, hustled one another for front places on either side of his path, and knelt in the mud or dust to court his apostolic benediction. Meanwhile the born Romans shrunk away into alleys, archways, and shops. Moreover, on ceremonial occasions calling for his appearance in St. Peter's, they shunned the Basilica as though it had been a lazar house. While the (Ecumenical Council was sitting daily, an Italian newspaper was privately circulated in Rome which had printed a detailed list of persons and undertakings smitten by deadly mishap during the previous twenty-four years through the immediate agency of Pio Nono's "evil eye." Could any notion possibly be more fantastic and amazing than that the head of the Catholic Church, claiming spiritual supremacy over one-sixth of the whole human race, should have been credited by the inhabitants of his own capital with the possession of a supernatural and malignant power, enabling him, however involuntarily, to wither with a malora or smite with an accidente anyone 196 A ROMAN PONTIFF who might come within his ken ? Truly, there are no limits to human folly and credulity ! at least, none such were discoverable in Rome in the year of grace 1870, which witnessed the promulgation of the dogma of Papal infallibility and the final overthrow of the Temporal Power of the Roman Pontiffs. The Belgian Brighton WHEN, nearly thirty years ago, I first contracted an acquaintanceship with Ostend that was destined to ripeh into a close and cordial friendship, the chief of Flemish watering-places, viewed from the sea, presented a very different aspect from that which it now- adays offers to the passengers by the superb Belgian steamers, which ply thrice within every twenty-four hours between the Admiralty Pier and the Estacade. At that time its marine frontage displayed a long broken line of dis- mantled fortifications — earthworks, crested and faced with green turf, from which the stone reviiements had been removed and utilised for building purposes within the enceinte — defenceless remnants of what had once been a strong fortress and extensive place d'armes, sustaining long sieges, and serving more than once as a solid base of operations for foreign armies, taking the field in Flanders and Brabant. In the outward slopes of these ruined and 197 THE BELGIAN BRIGHTON abandoned works the present sea-wall, or Digue, of Ostend — one of the handsomest marine promenades in Europe, adorned by scores upon scores of costly edifices, picturesque in archi- tecture and massive in construction — had its origin, well within my personal knowledge of the place. In the low dunes intervening between the old defences of Ostend and the high-water sea-line, a narrow path — it was really nothing more — had been traced out from a stumpy little light-tower near the harbour, to what is still called " La Plage," a part of the sands specially affected to the use of bathers. This path, roughly paved with tawny red bricks abounding in surface inequalities, of much offence to tender toes and delicate ankles — careful collectors of puddles after every shower, too, were those frequent " faults " in the old dusky Digue — was the precursor of the noble esplanade, paved with fawn-coloured tiles of admirable smoothness, which now extends from the King's chilet to the foot of the pier, crowning and following the undulating line of the stately sea-wall throughout its entire length. / In the early sixties there was no royal residence at Ostend ; it was not until 1872, if I remember aright, that Queen Victoria presented a " practicable " wooden chalet to her well- THE BELGIAN BRIGHTON 199 beloved cousin Leopold II., who had the unpretentious structure set up on a sandhill over- looking the coast-road to Marienkerke, added a brick duplicate to it, and has ever since spent his yearly summer vacation in this quaint hybrid building, one moiety of which is accessible to the other through a broad and lofty con- servatory. Until the King came to own a permanent pied-d-terre on the western dunes, he had, so to speak, lived in lodgings whenever he visited Ostend — that is to say, he had hired a villa by the month, like any ordinary head of a well-to-do family, and had apparently experienced no particular desire to qualify as a proprietaire Ostendais within the rayon of the municipal jurisdiction. His august kins- woman's timely gift of a ready-made residence, however, proved an irresistible inducement in that direction, and the King became a house- holder in Western Flanders, furnishing his wooden chalet with frugal simplicity — all the upholstery was executed in cheap wood, chintz, and cretonne — and establishing himself in it with his wife and children for a few weeks of each successive year, generally at the tail end of the fashionable season, which endures from July 15 to August 31. Since 1885 the Queen, who suffers from rheumatism, has been forbidden by her medical THE BELGIAN BRIGHTON advisers to stay at Ostend, sea air being con- sidered unfavourable to her complaint. Her Majesty, therefore, has regularly spent her summer holiday at Spa, whither her one unmarried daughter, the Princess Clementine, has always accompanied her; and Leopold II., who is never so well as when at the seaside, as regularly takes up his abode in the chalet, attended by one aide-de-camp, for from four to six weeks at a stretch, granting no audiences, communicating succinctly by telegraph with his Ministers when State business compels him to do so, and passing his time for the most part in taking long walks and assimilating ozone. Reverting to the plain, unvarnished Ostend of my salad-days, I may observe that, as late as 1866, only one building had been erected on the old Digue, within a few yards of the present Rampe de Flandres, an arterial thorough- fare connecting the esplanade with the inner town. The isolated edifice in question was the old Kursaal, a shabby, straggling structure of wood and glass, far too small, even then, for the company it professed to accommodate, and for the already justly renowned orchestra which per- formed of afternoons and evenings within its precincts. It contained a caf^, but no dining- room or ball-room ; the " cure-guests," therefore, were compelled to take their meals in the hotels THE BELGIAN BRIGHTON 201 and restaurants situate within the "lines," and to dance either at the " Soci^td," a barrack-like building, occupying one side of the Place d'Armes, or at the " Cercle des Etrangers," a spacious shed then standing on the site of the huge Hotel Splendide, the latest addition to Ostend's goodly list of colossal caravanserais. The Digue being then still divided from the mainland by a complicated system of' ditches, filled with green and slimy liquid, the happy home of frogs unnumbered, it was necessary to cross two swing-bridges and climb a flight of steps in order to reach the Kursaal from the town. Not till 1868 did Ostend follow the example of Vienna by converting its antiquated fortifications into streets and boulevards. Moats were then filled up, drawbridges carted away, and "lines" obliterated ; a handsome park, named after the King, was laid out ; and the plans were drawn up of a brand-new quartier, now completed, and consisting of handsome stone - faced houses, symmetrically arranged in squares and terraces, as modern and fashionable-looking as may be. As the town stood — and, for the matter of that, .still stands — on a much lower level than the sea- wall, it became necessary to construct new road- ways and trottoirs, gently sloping upwards from the former to the latter. These improvements, THE BELGIAN BRIGHTON the execution of which occupied several years, were preliminary to the destruction of the old Digue, and its replacement by the magnificent tiled promenade to which I have already adverted. Later on, at a cost of over ^100,000, was built the new Kursaal, at the festal opening of which I was present during the broiling summer of 1878, shortly after the closing of the Berlin Congress. By that time Ostend had been transformed from a quaint, old-fashioned burgh, pervaded in its every nook and corner by "an ancient and a fish-like smell," into an elegant marine city, semi-engirdled by a belt of broad terraces com- manding an unbroken view of the sea. The Kursaal itself contained an enormous circular concert - hall, in which a couple of 'thousand people could sit at their ease at tiny refreshment tables, ranged at will around the orchestra platform occupying its centre. This vast hall was, and is, a fair-weather ante-cham- ber, so to speak, to the main corps-de-logis of the Kursaal, to which it affords easy access by sundry spacious doorways and corridors, leading to banqueting and ball-rooms, salles de lecture, billiard, card, and music rooms — all lofty, light, and well ventilated. The principal restaurants of the Digue and the Plage are within easy reach of the com- THE BELGIAN BRIGHTON 203 prehensive establishment, which, however, bids for the patronage of gastronomes with a gigantic restaurant of its own, abutting on the concert-hall. As to the architectural style of the Kursaal, it may be generally defined as "miscellaneous and enigmatic." Perhaps it most nearly resembles a colossal cruet-stand, in the centre of which has been inserted a mon- strous raised pie, with a pale grey lid. A suc- cessful effort has been made to reproduce with conscientious fidelity the stoppers of the oil and vinegar bottles ; the mustard-pot is a thought less accurately rendered, but the pepper-casters are true to nature, and worthy of the Regent's Park between York and Hanover Gates. More- over, the entire building is so low in tone as to lack boldness and even distinctness of relief from its background of sky, and foreground of tawny sand and nankeen-coloured tiles. If, however, it cannot advance any valid claims to grace of form, or beauty in colour, it may confidently assert its right to rank as primus inter pares among latter-day edifices exclusively devoted to the accommodation and entertainment of holiday-makers in quest of health and recreation. To the fulfilment of this, its special purpose, all mere artistic con- siderations have been severely subordinated. As much room as is available has been placed 2 04 THE BELGIAN BRIGHTON unreservedly at the disposal of throngs of pleasure-seekers, attracted to the Kursaal during their annual play-time, out of which they aim at extracting a maximum of amusement, being for the most part prepared to pay handsomely for theirdiversion. Keeping the "cure -guests'" requirements steadfastly in view, the Kursaal architect, M. Naert, designed an agglomeration of buildings covering over eight thousand square yards of ground, and teeming with every resource of comfort and pastime,- save and excepting such "sports" as a moral municipality has . decreed shall never be tolerated within the territory subjected to its mildly austere jurisdiction. : The frequenters of Ostend can, if they list, pass their whole waking time .agreeably enough under the domed roof of the Kursaal ; short of bathing, sleeping, playing prohibited games, and shooting at a mark, there is no seaside pursuit which they may not engage in without quitting the domain of M. Armand Lutens, the supreme director of the Hablissement, to whose intelligent and kindly sway they may unhesita- tingly submit themselves throughout the period of their sojourn upon the sands of Western Flanders. His realm is accessible from the lower level of the town by a handsome new boulevard, bearing the name of a former THE BELGIAN BRIGHTON 205 burgomaster. In wet weather conveyances — I should mention that Ostend has been faithful to its lumbering old citadines, resembling hackney coaches that have suffered domestic bereavement and gone into half mourning — can be driven through a flowery enclosure into a wide covered way, from which flights of intramural steps ascend into the body of the building, where rain and wind may be defied with impunity. All the staircases and passages converge upon the huge Rotunda, which, with its broad al fresco terraces, massive plate-glass panels rising and sinking by hydraulic power, dazzling sunlights, smooth, inlaid flooring, and lofty cupola, is certainly the most attractive feature of the great Ostend Kursaal. One of its chief charms, in daily exercise throughout the season, is the powerful and well- balanced orchestra, which, conducted by Emile Perier, discourses excellent music, in which the classical, operatic, and terpsichorean elements are nicely and judiciously combined in such sort cis to suit every variety of musical pre- dilection. Before the Franco- German War, Ostend was a favourite place of holiday rendezvous for the aristocratic denizens of "the Faubourg," who were then wont to associate on friendly terms with the members of the great patrician houses 2o6 THE BELGIAN BRIGHTON of Prussia, Bavaria, and Suabia, to several of which they were closely allied by kinship or marriage. The Talleyrand-Perigords, Pourtalds, Sagans, and other illustrious families, different branches of which had established themselves respectively in Germany and France, took yearly occasion to meet, as on neutral ground, on the Belgian coast, where they were sure to encounter \htfine fleur of Austrian, Hungarian, and Russian nobility, at that time accustomed to take their "after-cure" of healing waters at Ostend. In 1867 I remember seeing there represen- tatives of all the above-named families, and of the Rohan - Chabots, Rochefoucauld - Bisaccias, Rosenbergs, Rochechouart - Mortemarts, and Hohenlohes, as well as Prussian Princes of Reuss, Salm, Stolberg and Sayn-Wittgenstein, Austrian Lichtensteins and Schwarzenbergs, and Magyars of the very first flight, such as Festetics, Batthyani, Szechenyi and Palffy — all "knowing one another at home," in school- boy phrase, and getting on conspicuously well together, in restaurant and ball-room alike, as well as on the Digue and bathing - grounds. Since the breaking-up, however, of uncounted international friendships by the terrible events of 1 8 70- 1, the French aristocracy has ceased lo frequent Ostend, not choosing to be brought THE BELGIAN BRIGHTON 207 into contact with the Germans, patrician or plebeian, who continue to haunt that cheerful watering-place in their thousands yearly. Indeed, among the foreign " cure-guests," the Teutonic element largely predominates ; for English " society " would appear to have, as yet, not discovered Ostend, although it is so easy of access from our southern shores, and so incom- parably more entertaining than any British seaside settlement. Of course, the Belgian haute volie patronises Ostend with steadfast assiduity, taking its cue from King Leopold, who, as far as his subjects of the upper social stratum are concerned, certainly is one of the chief attractions of the place. His Majesty's daily "constitutional" is usually performed upon the Plage, Digue, and Estacade, or on the well-paved road to Middel- kerke, along which, attended by one or other of his aides-de-camp, he walks rapidly for an hour or two before and after luncheon, the briskness of his pace being quite unaffected by the slight lameness that compels him to adopt a halting gait. As a rule, during these diurnal peregrinations, the King wears a dark morning jacket, light duck or flannel trousers, and a broad-brimmed, low-crowned Panama hat. He carries a stout stick, generally in his left -hand, reserving th.e right for returning the 2o8 THE BELGIAN BRIGHTON respectful saliites by which he is continually greeted as he vigorously strides along. Leopold II. punctiliously returns every coup de chapeau, not merely by lifting his hand to the brim of his hat in military fashion, but by raising his couvre-chef some inches from his head, and slightly bowing. He often stops to speak tg personal acquaintances, and is immensely popular among the fishing -folk and their numerous progeny, for whom he always has a pleasant smile, and a kind word or two, when he encounters them in the vicinity of the port, or on the jetty. With Belgian magnates and foreign diplomatists he is given to holding long conversations sub Jove, no matter what the weather may be, these casual causeries standing in stead of the private audiences which are never accorded in the Chilet while his Majesty resides there. Only the other day I observed him leaning against the rails of the Digue, opposite to the Kursaal main entrance, and chatting for nearly twenty minutes to the Governor of Bruges, a spectacled old nobleman, with a beard as grey and nearly as long as his own. It was raining hard, and the King, his aide-de-camp, and the Governor were all three under umbrellas, seem- ingly quite unconscious of a throng of inquisi- tive spectators gathered together on the &tepS THE BELGIAN BRIGHTON 209 and terrace of the Kursaal, and staring at the group with stony persistence. Presently, the Governor, having withdrawn himself and his umbrella from the " presence " with a deferen- tial bow, the King and Colonel Chapelid tramped away towards the Estacade, making no more account of the wind and rain than if they had been fully equipped in waterproofs and sou'-westers. And with this rough word-sketch of a thoroughly constitutional and single-hearted monarch on holiday, my reminiscences and im- pressions of Ostend in time past and present may fitly find the conclusion of their hasty and imperfect record. o A Christmas Dinner in Prison JUST forty years ago, when I was a junior clerk in her Majesty's Civil Service, and a young man very much about town, it happened that four of my intimate personal friends were at one and the same time detained within the precincts of the Queen's Bench Prison by circumstances over which they had no control. They were all some years older than myself, for, at the time to which I refer, I was still a minor, and only those who had attained years of discretion, and given proof of their legal qualification for incurring pecuniary responsi- bilities which they were unable to discharge, could be incarcerated for debt. I regret to say that my four friends, who all belonged to the " golden youth " of the early fifties, have "joined the majority" — the last of them died barely a twelvemonth ago, affluent, high in office, and sincerely regretted by a host of eminent personages, his associates throughout a long and distinguished public career. They had "overrun A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON 211 the constable," each one after the manner most congenial to his individual taste or fancy, and were more or less cheerfully "paying of their persons," as the Vicomte de Florae would have put it, for excessive indulgence in that enter- taining but costly pastime. " Kite-flying '' was one perilous variety of the sport in question, Another was the odd sort of equitation which consisted in "getting up behind" an embarrassed acquaintance on the back of a bill of acceptance. A third was a kind of commercial pedestrianism — to wit, the " running- up " of long accounts with trustful tradesmen, unattended by any ability to meet the liabilities thus incurred when the day of reckoning should dawn. In the practice of this particular exercise my friends had displayed an alacrity and perseverance worthy of a better cause. They had consequently become " Benchers," as it was the playful habit of persons interned in " Hudson's Hotel," to describe themselves; restrained for the time being from ' ' taking their walks abroad '' or elsewhere ; doomed — but only in the language of romance — to moulder in the deepest dungeon beneath the castle-moat, and with no immediate prospect of restoration to liberty. For they were men to whom "going through the Court " would have meant either professional ruin or social disgrace. On the one hand, their 212 A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON creditors were deaf to proposals of " composition," feeling confident that by waiting long enough they would secure an integral settlement of their claims ; on the other hand, parents, trustees, and family lawyers were obdurate, probably deeming that a longish term of detention, involving certain vexatious restrictions, and even a few trifling privations, would teach these involuntary " Benchers " a salutary lesson, likely to linger in their memory throughout after life. Mean- while the latter rubbed along, not uncheerfully, in a happy-go-lucky sort of way, living from hand to mouth, as it were, with odd alternations of luxury and penury, but always looking forward to the time when something would turn up to effect their deliverance. If ever hope was the nurse of young desire it was in the case of these sanguine recluses. They had their " bad quarters of an hour," of course ; but when their spirits were at the lowest, a timely windfall in the shape of a "fiver," or even less, would tune them up to concert pitch, so to speak, and suggest some small convivial celebration, involving the temporary banishment of "dull care," or even the drowning of that baneful bugbear "in the bowl" — a ceremony invariably performed with "musical honours." The reclusion of my friends was by no means a matter of public notoriety. One of them^ A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON 213 the doyen in age of the quartet — was a French marquis of the highest fashion, as well-known and popular in London as in Paris society. He had taken the precaution — not choosing to evade his English creditors when a crisis in his affairs became inevitable — to pay a certain number of farewell calls at the houses of his influential acquaintances, who took the P.P.C. on his cards to be an intimation that he was leaving town for his family place in Auvergne. This assump- tion speedily grew into a certainty, and for a whole week after he had been transferred from a spunging house in Cursitor Street to the Bench, people who professed to know all about him went about saying "Ah, by the bye, of course you have heard that De M has been summoned home quite unexpectedly ; something wrong with his mother's health, it seems ; .charming old lady ; and he 's a capital fellow, too, for a Frenchman ; everybody misses him, and it must be rather a bore for him, don't you think, to be called away from town in the height of the season ? " Being a particularly astute man of the world, . well aware how difficult it is to " keep dark " anything unpleasant concerning a well-known personage, De M had contrived, it matters not how, to get himself proceeded against and -arrested under his family name, which had a 214 A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON no less English than French aspect and sound, and was altogether different from the territorial appellation by which he was known in London drawing-rooms and clubs. Consequently, his incognito was successfully maintained during his reluctant sojourn in Belvedere Place. Only two of the inmates, his intimate friends, and myself, an outsider, were in the secret of his real personality and title, and we kept it strictly to ourselves. De M was not only a man of unimpeach- able birth and breeding, but an Admirable Crichton in the way of accomplishments. Though a Frenchman, he spoke English, Italian, and Spanish as if to the manner born ; was equally at home in water-colour or black and white, as draughtsman and caricaturist ; played the piano, and sang quite delightfully ; was a really great swordsman, equestrian, swimmer, and sporting shot, a dangerous adversary at pyramids or picquet, and a superb partner at whist ; and finally, had a talent for cooking, which would have made the fortune of any professional aspirant to culinary renown. I have dined at the tables of a good many famous epicures in my time, and partaken of unnumbered " test-repasts," at which club committees have submitted the achievements of competing chefs to the judgment of gastronomic experts ; but A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON 215 even at these crucial banquets I never en- countered ''omelettes aux points d'asperges," "perdrix aux choux" or "macaronis au jus," that could compare with those which De M was wont to prepare, manibus suis propriis, for his cronies at his chambers in Bolton Street, in the days of his splendour, or in his single room, " F 4." on the third flight of the fourth staircase in Belvedere Row, Q.B., where "Mr. Charles Mordaunt " manipulated his cottage Erard and his silvern batterie de cuisine with equal skill and maestria. Another of my friends in Banco Reginse was the Hon. W. H., captain in a cavalry regiment of the Household Brigade, affianced to a lovely Australian heiress, whose parents would have whisked her off to the Antipodes had they had the least notion that he was " under a cloud " ; hence his people, while sternly declining to pay his debts, had given Society to understand that he was somewhere on the north-western frontier of India, absent on "long leave," and entrusted with a mysterious mission to some indefinite Maharajah or Ameer. There was a certain vagueness about this statement; but exactitude is not a social necessity, and " Billy's " colonel, who always stuck to his youngsters when they were in trouble, made a point of replying to any indiscreet questions addressed to him in relation 2i6 A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON to the evanished guardsman, that " H was all right, but keeping close for excellent reasons, with which the authorities were fully acquainted." This was literally true, for the Hon. Billy's friends kept him well supplied with creature- comforts and pocket-money ; and what better reason can a man have for "lying low" than his absolute inability to do otherwise ? In the meantime, while "cabined, cribbed, confined," he underwent a severe attack of literary influenza, constraining him to address letters of inordinate length to the daily papers on the subject of " the iniquitous system of imprisonment for debt." None of these com- munications ever obtained publicity ; for H , having spent several years of his boyhood at a great public school, wrote a curiously illegible hand, and besides, was hopelessly at sea in his native language, as far as its orthography and punctuation were concerned. Writing, however, as he understood it, eased his mind and solaced the tedium of "confinement to barracks," as he was wont to describe his unwilling tenancy of D4, flight 2, staircase 4. It was only irksome to those of his friends — residents and visitors alike — whom he deemed worthy to "look over" his effusions from time to time, and " touch them up " for the press. W O , the third of my four A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON 217 "Benchers," was also a soldier, holding a lieutenant's commission in the Rifle Brigade, and the owner of the sweetest light tenor voice in that distinguished corps. His liabilities, by the way, were of so overwhelming a character that he eventually had to undergo the " white- washing " process, quit the army, and emigrate to New Zealand, where, just as he was begining to do well, he died quite suddenly of heart disease. The fourth, S T , was a briefless barrister, who shortly after being " called " had put his name to an accommodation bill "just to oblige an intimate friend," with the result usual in such cases. A cleverer and more amiable fellow I have never known, When, after passing twenty weary months in the Bench, he was extricated from his difficulties by a generous relative, and recovered his freedom, he soon made a mark, though not in the profession for which he had been originally trained, and ultimately obtained a lucrative post under the Crown, which he held with honour and distinction to the end of his days. The crop of wild oats that he reaped within the spiked walls environing Belvedere Place was the last of S T 's sowing. Thereafter he set his contemporaries a shining example of un- flagging industry and irreproachable conduct. 2i8 A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON A visitor " from outside," if unreproachful and well freighted . with social news, was always sure of an enthusiastic welome from these involuntary hermits. I had known and liked them all when they were free and "prosperous gentlemen," and, having a good deal of time to spare after office hours — especially during the late summer and autumn, when the town was empty, and there were no afternoon calls to pay — I used to look in upon them twice, sometimes thrice, a week, and spend a few hours merrily enough in one or other of their rooms until the bell rang, at a quarter to ten, warning all "outsiders" that they must clear out of the prison within fifteen minutes or be locked up for the remainder of the night, taking their chance of an impromptu shakedown on some hospitable captive's sofa. The contingency fell to my lot more than once, by choice as well as through carelessness. Hence I can truthfully say that I have guiltlessly slept in jail. Moreover, the officials in charge of " the lock " came to know me so well, by reason of my frequent visits to the " Row," that they soon civilly exempted me from the inquisitorial proceedings to which casual callers were generally subjected, with a view to preventing them from smuggling in strong liquor and other prohibited articles, to the prisoners. A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON 219 I used to walk in and out of the "lodge," not only unchallenged, but politely saluted by the warders ; and if I happened to have with me, as was sometimes the case, a basket of fish or game they never asked me to open it, but contented themselves with enquiring, pro forma, "Any wine or spirits, sir ? " and accepting my negative answer as final. The place had many attrac- tions for me ; not the least among them, the devil-may-care tone that prevailed among its inmates, and the touch of romance underlying the fact that, light-hearted as they often seemed to be, they could not pass through the gates that were readily unclosed at my request. Again, my four friends were all fair whist players, so there was always a good rubber, with one to cut in and out, and the disagreeable contingency of an incomplete table omitted. I was still too young to belong to any London club, and even could I have been a member of such an institution, I should never have been so absolutely certain of finding a congenial partie Carrie there as at the " Bench," where my fellow-players were sure to be on the spot, pour cause. Moreover, there was some sort of a dinner every day about six — a scratch meal, varying curiously in quantity as well as quality — to which I was always bidden, and from which 220 4 CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON the element of surprise was never absent. They were incongruous but cheery repasts, for the most part consumed in De M 's room, which was exceptionally resourceful in the way of furniture and ingenious contrivances for prac- tical illustration of the culinary science, in which the Marquis was an adept. The petits plats canailles and entremets deftly prepared in that abode of faded splendour still linger in my memory — in particular a sublime civet, into which a hare of my providing was trans- muted one day, by the lineal descendant of one of Francis I.'s most illustrious and valiant captains. When, towards the close of the year to which I am referring, the question of ways and means, wherewith to provide a banquet worthy of the Feast of the Nativity, came to be discussed, with fervid interest and fertile suggestiveness, by my friends in the " Row," I found it so absolutely taken for granted that I was to play a leading part in the organisation and celebra- tion of the contemplated festivity, that I lacked courage to assert the prior claim on my presence of the family gathering, hallowed by long custom, from which I had never theretofore been absent on Christmas Day. And thus it came to pass that, while still in my nonage, I ate my Christ- mas dinner in prison, instead of in my father's A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON 221 house. To obtain the sanction of the home authorities to so unexampled a proceeding, was no easy matter for a youngster of eighteen. However, after much negotiation, I succeeded in effecting a compromise, in virtue of which I might dine " early " with my friends in carcere, pledging myself to spend the evening at home in due fulfilment of the prescribed convivial rites. Accordingly the hour of the prison ban- quet was fixed for four p.m., and my hosts bound themselves by a solemn promise not to detain me by force or guile after the clock should have struck eight. In connection with the menu of the repast, more than one strange project had been mooted and even adopted early in December ; but these were happily eliminated, or substantially modified, by the arrival of timely gifts from " outside," which poured in upon my friends with splendid profusion as the festal anniversary drew nigh. It had been proposed, I remember — mainly on financial grounds — that the piSce de resistance should consist of a boiled shoulder of mutton with caper sauce — a combination which to me sounded appalling. Shoulder, I was impres- sively informed, was a penny a pound cheaper than leg. At the time this seemed to be a con- vincing argument in its favour. I shall never forget De M 's horror and consternation 222 A CHRISTMAS DIJSNER IN PRISON when the boiled shoulder was propounded to him. Such a culinary barbarism lacerated his tenderest and holiest feelings, both as refined gourmet and accomplished cook. Unshed tears glimmered in his bright, fearless grey eyes, as he besought us, with a passionate pathos that stony hearts could not have withstood, to abandon this execrable notion. " Take all I have," he exclaimed ; " let even my cashmere dressing- jacket be pendu au clou; but do not require me to countenance such an abomination as a boiled shoulder of mutton ! " Other hideous schemes had floated in the minds of his British fellow-captives ; but they were one and all dispelled when the first hamper, crammed with good things, was delivered at H 's quarters. The Hon. Billy's lady- mother had provided him with sufficient first- class Christmas fare to feed a score of his hungriest troopers ; a prize turkey, two brace of pheasants, a leash of woodcock, a stately plum-pudding, and twelve corpulent mince-pies. Two more turkeys arrived soon afterwards, accompanied by terrines de foie gras, Cam- bridge sausages, plum-puddings, and a masterly p^td de Perigord. These were contributed by tbe families of S. T. and W. O. Like good fellows, they sent their turkeys over to the "poor side," where — thanks to these and other A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON 223 dainties given by kind-hearted spendthrifts Hke themselves — the indigent prisoners enjoyed a copious and succulent Christmas dinner. And when my friends' superfluous comestibles had been thus charitably disposed of, there remained to them the material for one of the most sump- tuous meals I ever sate down to. The accom- modation, truly, left much to be desired, and startling incongruity characterised the plates and dishes, knives and forks, decanters, and omnium gatherum, culled from four prison manages. By special favour her ladyship's " Norfolk Giant" was cooked in the "common" kitchen, as well as the sausages with which it was garnished. The feast was held in De M 's room, the lessee of which sate on his bed, while the other convives occupied an old leathern fauteuil, two cane-bottomed chairs, and a camp-stool. Flannel shirts were worn without collars, and we did the waiting ourselves. " The foaming vintage of Champagne," and several other varieties of vinous liquid, were conspicuous by their absence from the banquet; but there was creditable whisky in the miscellaneous decanters, and plenty of sound beer in tall tin cans — half- and-half, fresh drawn from the "Belvedere" tap. j)e M 's neat little piano, draped in a clean sheet, served as a sideboard until our Gargan- 2 24 A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON tuesque repast had come to an end, when it reverted to its true function as an exponent of sweet melodies and rich harmonies. Two of our number could play "above a bit," and all could sing old songs and new, especially such as culminated in a rousing chorus. One convivial ditty succeeded another — "Old Simon the Cellarer," " Le Dieu des bonnes gens," " Im Kuhlen Keller," " Gaudeamus igitur," " Sulla poppa," and many more, suggestive of convivial memories and hearty hilarity ; until, as the parting time drew nigh, someone who happened to be at the piano began to play " Home, Sweet Home," and cast a spell of silence upon his hearers that contrasted strangely with the mirthful uproariousness theretofore prevailing among the joyous crew. And so, after all, our festivity ended somewhat sadly, for only one of us was free to return to the home that all cherished in their inmost hearts ; and he, after he had passed through the gloomy prison-gates and heard them clang behind him, and the warder's keys clash as they dropped from the lock to his side, repented his compliance with the sudden impulse that had prompted him to strike up that particular tune in the hearing of men who, like a certain memorable starling, " couldn't get out." This is a true story of a Christmas dinner in A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN PRISON 225 prison, partaken of by the writer forty years ago and one, at the time when thousands of valiant Englishmen were encamped and en- trenched on the hill-slopes south of Sebastopol, ill- fed and worse clothed, during the coldest weather experienced in the Chersonese through- out the century. Our Crimean heroes knew to their cost, that terrible winter, that there were worse places to spend Christmas in than " Hudson's Hotel," alias the Queen's Bench Prison ! The Great Diamond Show THE most universally interesting display in the Antwerp Palace of Industry was un- questionably that of the " De Beers Consolidated Mines," a Company which has acquired the principal diamond mines of Griqualand West, and is at present extracting from them diamonds to the value of over three millions sterling per annum, in the production of which several thousand operatives, white and black, are remu- neratively engaged. This gigantic enterprise, having resolved to illustrate practically all its latest mechanical developments, and every stage of its working activity, in the Exposition Universelle, secured a large space in the Belgian Section, upon which, at a cost of some ;^ 10,000, it erected machinery, driven by steam power, which showed the processes undergone by the most precious of precious stones during its slow and laborious progress from the pit's mouth — whither, in the form of "blue ground," a dusky stratum of indurated volcanic mud, it is conveyed 226 THE GREAT DIAMOND SHOW 227 from a depth of 1200 feet — to the jeweller's shop, in which, symmetrically cut, brilliantly polished, and daintily set, it bids irresistibly for favour at the hands of the fair sex, as at once the most beautiful and most costly object provided by Nature and Art for female adornment. The Company brought over and stored in Antwerp a thousand huge sacks of diamond- iferous earth, rock-like in substance, drawn from the "vasty deep" of its principal mines, and triturated, sifted, and washed a portion of this material daily, coram populo, throughout the whole duration of the exhibition. On the stones yielded by the " blue ground " under treatment, after they emerged from the colossal " Pulsator," were practised with like publicity the several operations of cleavage, cutting, polishing, and setting; the finest machinery at present in use, and the services of the most skilled workmen in Antwerp, having been secured for these purposes. About 30,000 inhabitants of Antwerp are employed in different branches of the diamond industry, and it was probably in consideration of this important circumstance, involving local interests of such exceptional magnitude — per- haps, also, in delicate compliment to the King of the Belgians, who for some years past has played so important a part in developing the 228 THE GREAT DIAMOND SHOW natural resources of the Dark Continent — that the directors of the De Beers Company decided upon locating their superb exhibit in the Belgian rather than in the British section, in which latter the " eternal fitness of things " would certainly have appeared to suggest the propriety of dis- playing the products of any and every dependency of the British Crown. The actual arrangement, however, met with general approbation in Belgium, as one certain to furnish the Antwerp Exhibition with a paramount and unprecedented attraction, and as a handsome tribute of recog- nition to the extent and merit of a leading local industry, by the greatest diamond producers in the world. The installation of the huge washing and sifting machine, with its accessory driving engines was completed early in May, 1894, in addition to which the Company built an elegant pavilion, fitted with a number of crystal italages, in which its unique collection of diamonds was displayed to great advantage on velvet-mounted standards, and a hive-shaped cage, resembling that in which the Koh-i-Noor was enshrined during the World's Show, in Hyde Park, of 1 85 1. This cage eventually harboured the famous " Belgian Star" and a few other brilliants of extraordinary size and lustre, set out to view within its bars, which also enclosed the Company's safe, bearing the well-known name of Chubb, in THE GREAT DIAMOND SHOW 229 which the aforesaid collection, valued at half a million sterling, was deposited, and which in itself was a curiosity, bristling with ingenious contrivances for the protection of its precious con- tents. Nine several performances with quaintly- shaped keys, slender levers, and a revolving winch, had to be gone through before this massive receptacle could be induced to open its sliding door of steel, and disclose the spark- ling treasures hidden away within its various compartments. This elaborate function was enacted in my pre- sence by Mr. Atkinson, with the aid of one of the muscular young Zulus, who acted as body-guards to the diamonds, by night as well as day, as soon as the exhibit was ready for public inspection. Having crept into the cage, which could only be entered on the ground level, through an opening made in the grating and usually closed by a hinged panel, Mr. Atkinson applied one imple- ment after another to the apertures by which the outer casing of the mighty chest was pierced on three of its sides. This done, its intricate fastenings unloosed, and the Zulu outside the case bidden to turn the winch, the roof of the safe — or rather, the two steel plates of which it is fashioned — slowly glided asunder, revealing a square brown- paper package, about the size of a 41b parcel 2 30 THE GREAT DIAMOND SHOW of tea, profusely studded with postage stamps of abnormal dimensions, varied hues, and high denominational values. This package was handed to me with the words, " Kindly hold this for me while I close the safe " ; and for at- least a couple of minutes I held in my hands the equivalent, in uncut diamonds, of ^500,000, an amount which I should imagine very few living Englishmen have ever had in their keeping for a single second. To me it was certainly a new and somewhat startling experience to find myself the temporary custodian of so stupendous a sum, and it was not without a strange feeling of inward per- turbation that I clutched the precious packet in a strenuous grasp, casting watchful glances at each casual passer-by, with the vague notion floating in my mind that a swift and sudden raid, planned by some confederacy of des- peradoes, might at any moment wrest my charge from me, and carry it off in triumph to " other climes." There are in every country such predatory organisations, not to be deterred by any abstract moral considerations from taking a dozen lives, if need be, in order to secure such a prize as that which had been confided to my custody, and which I felt ready to defend to my last gasp. No suspicious -looking person, however, hove THE GREAT DIAMOND SHOW 231 in sight ; the Zulus and EngUsh carpenters attached to the exhibit, all good men and true, contemplated the tempting packet and its keeper with bland indifference while their chief was disengaging himself from the cage. Never- theless, when he took it from me, and tucked it under his arm as calmly as though it had been a box of cheap sweets or a cotton umbrella, I experienced a sensation of profound relief "We will take these home to my rooms," he then observed, "where you can look through them at your leisure and in perfect security." Forthwith, attended by a Zulu escort — which subsequently took up a strategical position out- side Mr. Atkinson's drawing-room door, and remained there on guard while we were engaged in inspecting the diamonds — we left the Industrial Palace and drove in an open carriage to my friend's quarters, situate in a quiet street near one of the new boulevards, where he proceeded to undo the parcel and disclose its dazzling contents to my admiring eyes. ' The diamonds, assorted in accordance with their respective nuances of colour, peculiarities of shape, purity of water, and other special characteristics of each several class of stones, were loosely wrapped up in eleven paper 'envelopes, .enclosed in two oblong tin cases, ;nearly resembling those in. wJiich the. finer sorts 232 THE GREAT DIAMOND SHOW of cut Turkish tobacco are usually packed for transmission abroad. Some of these envelopes contained from 300 to 500 diamonds apiece, few of the individual stones weighing less than eight carats, while many ranged between 100 and 200 carats, and a few even considerably exceeded the latter dimensions, one in particular — a superb black diamond, displaying a curious overgrowth of rough diamondiferous matter — being just double the weight of the Royal Koh-i-Noor, Of the eleven categories into which this in- imitable collection was " classified," the most curious and interesting was one which exem- plifies every known freak and fancy of Dame Nature, expressed in vagaries of form and colour, which she had indulged in throughout the countless ages of her own original activity in the manufacture of diamonds. Among the specimens of her fantastic eccentricities, over 100 in number, and all extracted from the Company's mines in the Kimberley district, included in this unique assortment were twin diamonds of various sizes, centrally united in Siamese-twin fashion ; perfect octahedrons, as symmetrical as those freshly turned out by the cutter's wheel, although displaying only eight faces instead of fifty-eight facets, a flat " table," and pointed "culet"; rectangular square stones THE GREAT DIAMOND SHOW 233 flattened at the poles, like their mother earth ; perfectly spherical diamonds ; diamonds shaped like fingers, eggs, twopenny loaves ; diamonds of many colours, ranging between jet-black and pure white, and passing through various grada- tions of brown, green, blue, rose-pink, and a dozen yellows from deep old-gold to pale primrose. One of the finger-shaped diamonds, exactly two inches in length and weighing nearly 160 carats, was of a faint salmon tint, giving ont a strange uncanny sheen. Some of the black diamonds in this miscellaneous parcel emitted a surprising lustre, while the blue ones, to my uninstructed eye, were undistinguishable from dark-hued sapphires. None of the green ones could have passed for emeralds, being of a far more delicate hue than the genuine Oriental smaragd. For the most part, the stones con- tained in the other parcels were absolutely white or light yellow, such as is seen in the paler varieties of topaz. I took up handful after handful of these beautiful uncut gems, and was struck by their icy coldness, as well as by a heaviness that seemed disproportionate to their size. From thirty to forty " medium-sized " diamonds, which may without inconvenience be held in the closed hand, represent a handsome competency to any person who takes a moderate view of life's 234 THE GREAT DIAMOND SHOW necessities. There are thousands of such stones in the De Beers' collection, and hundreds more were added to their number in the course of the Antwerp Exhibition's duration. These Jatter, at the time to which I refer, were lying perdu in the masses of "blue ground" brought over by the company, and awaiting treatment by the potent " Pulsator " machinery. The amount of the yield could be accurately foretold in advance of the washing and sifting operations, for experience had taught specialists in this department of the Company's work, to appraise the diamondiferous product of the " pulverised " earth with such approximate correctness, that their calculations were seldom " out " by as much as a quarter of a carat in a load (i,6oolb) of " hard-blue." It is a noteworthy fact, moreover, that each of the four , extensive mines owned by the Company has a distinct individuality in respect to the colour, weight, faultiness, Or freedom from flaw, of the diamonds yielded by it. Such an expert as Mr. Atkinson, therefore, familiar with every stage of South African diamond production, and of the treatment -processes to which the excavated stones are subjected in Europe, could tell at a glance, whether a diamond hailed from the " De Beers" or the " Kimberley," from "Du'Toit's Pan" or " B.ul- THE GREAT DIAMOND SHOW 235 fontein," or from the " Wesselton," otherwise " Premier " Mine, all of which belong to the Company's enormous complex of diamondiferous estates, yielding about two and-a-half millions of carats annually. Before showing me all the marvels which the De Beers Company displayed in their Antwerp exhibit, Mr. Atkinson had procured me the privilege of inspecting the famous " Belgian Star," one of the largest and most lustrous brilliants hitherto extracted from any South African mine, and then in the possession of Mr. Louis Coetermans, Consul - General and Chief Commissary for Persia, and the principal diamond merchant of Antwerp. The great stone, a superb exemplar of the cutters' craft, is of a deep straw colour, weighs exactly 200 carats, and gives out a radiant, ineffable glow, un- equalled in richness and brilliancy by that of any other gem I had theretofore beheld. It was found at Kimberley, and shortly after its transfer to Antwerp, where it underwent the process of cutting and polishing, was publicly exhibited for the benefit , of the local poor. Though the charge for admission was only fifty centimes per head, the amount of lo.ooof, equivalent to £ipo of our currency, was realised by the sale of tickets in the course of three days. 236 THE GREAT DIAMOND SHOW This magnificent diamond, worthy to adorn an imperial diadem, figured in the De Beers exhibit, as well as an exceptionally fine set of pure white brilliants, selected from Mr. Coeter- man's collection of South African stones. The set in question was arranged on a white velvet ground in the form of a riviere, the unmounted brilliants being graded according to weight, from about four to thirty carats, each pair in the necklace a perfect match in respect to water, size, and value. Should the goldsmith's art ever complete the obvious mission of these noble diamonds, by combining them, clear set, in the form of a necklace, they will, to any one versed in French eighteenth-century history, surely suggest a miraculous resuscitation of the mem- orable "Collier de la Reine," that played so momentous a part in the terrible drama of which Marie Antoinette was the heroine little more than a century ago. A few words about the gigantic washing machine exhibited by the De Beers Company may not be without interest to those who, in their mind's eye, associate the process of disengaging the diamond from its " vile trappings " of volcanic ddbris, with the rude implements used for that purpose before science took the matter seriously and systematically in hand, with the astonishing results that THE GREAT DIAMOND SHOW 237 were practically illustrated in the Antwerp Exhibition. This gigantic apparatus is twelve feet in height and nearly twenty-four feet in length, and deals with the so-called "blue ground," during the stage which that material passes through between its partial pulverisation by exposure to atmo- spheric influences and its final investigation by experienced diamond-searchers. The earth is deposited in a "hopper," whence, by means of an elevator, it is carried to a perforated cylinder at the top of the machine, through which — somewhat diminished in bulk — it passes into a rotary pan, in which radiating knives rapidly revolve, thoroughly stirring it up. This " treatment " causes the lighter particles of the indurated mud to flow over the top of the pan's centre, while the heavier diamond- containing deposit gravitates through an aperture in the side of the pan into the pulsator, where a rotary cylinder conducts it into sieves meshed in three sizes. While the earth, always in movement, is lodged in these sieves, water is pumped through it upwards, with a considerable degree of force, driving the lighter material over the sieve edges into vessels set for its reception, while the heavier matter, in which diamonds are found, passes through the sieve, and is compelled to escape through valves situate at 238 THE GREAT DIAMOND SHOW the bottom of the pulsator. It is there collected, and placed on the sorting tables, upon which the ultimate and minute search for diamonds may be said to commence. So exact are the processes of trituration and examination carried out in connection with this elaborate mechanism that a half-carat diamond, cast into the hopper at the upper end of the machine with a couple of hundredweight of earth, is certain to be collected at the lower end of the pulsator, where the automatic treatment ceases and determines, being supplemented by trained human discrimination. It is by this combination of inanimate machinery and animate intelligence that the De Beers Company yearly extracts ^3,000,000 worth of diamonds from its South African mines. Antwerp was of course en fSte throughout the opening proceedings, her houses beflagged, military bands performing in her stately squares as well as in the Exhibition grounds, the ninety- nine bells of her magnificent cathedral chiming almost incessantly from rosy morn to dewy .eve, and drawing quite recklessly upon the resources of its musical rdpertoire. In relation to this particular method of giving expression, in melody and harmony combined, to the joyous feelings that may be assumed to animate a loyal population on the occasion of a Royal visit to THE GREAT DIAMOND SHOW 239 its abiding place, I may perhaps be permitted to remark that while, generally speaking, a carillon of nearly five-score bells is, no doubt, an admirable institution, of which any city, however commercial, has just reason to be proud — and , while, in particular, I am ready, nay eager to admit that of all existing carillons, that of Antwerp is the most comprehensive, versatile, and effective — it is just a little trying to the nerves, in the case of a light sleeper, to live in the immediate neighbourhood of a carillon which goes in for playing anthems, overtures, national airs, popular tunes, operatic selections, and excerpts from oratorios, say at four o'clock in the morning, and which repeats or varies its performances, at intervals of from three to four minutes, until midnight, when it really does outdo itself in the way of sampling arrangements for ninety-nine bells one of which weighs 16,000 lbs» A Modern Italian Statesman SHORTLY after his accession to the throne, the third German Emperor signified his intention of paying a round of calls to his European fellow-Sovereigns of the first-class, with whom he expressed himself desirous to exchange views and opinions respecting some of those momentous international questions which were then, as they are now, more or less prominently on the tapis, awaiting violent or pacific solution, as well as to enhance the cordiality of his personal relations with his Imperial and Royal kinsfolk reigning in foreign parts, and with the leading Statesmen in the realms submitted to their rule. The first of his visits was paid to his second cousin, Alexander Alexandreivich, Tsar of all the Russias ; the second to his august grand- mother, our venerable and beloved Queen- Empress, During the autumn of 1888, William II. further took occasion to put in an appearance at the Courts of his puissant 240 A MODERN ITALIAN STATESMAN 241 allies, the Emperor of Austria- Hungary and the King of Italy. A few days before the date appointed for his arrival in Rome, it was semi-ofificially announced by the leading Press organs of the German and Italian Governments that his Majesty had intimated, through his representa- tive accredited to the Vatican, his wish to pay his respects in person to the Supreme Pontiff, and that arrangements of an unusual character were being made for his reception by Leo XIII., during his Majesty's sojourn in the Quirinal Palace as the guest of Humbert I. As soon as this interesting notification became known to the proprietors of The Daily Telegraph, they lost no time in instructing me to betake myself forthwith to the Eternal City, where it would be my task, not only to chronicle the principal events of the Kaiser's visit to the Pope and King, but to gather interesting and trust- worthy information from the lips of the chief actors in the political drama then about to be "staged" on either bank of the Tiber. After I had received my orders, a few bewilderingly busy hours were spent in obtain- ing certain facilities, indispensable to the suc- cessful accomplishment of my mission. Being personally known to the Sovereigns of Germany and Italy, I fortunately required no special Q 242 A MODERN ITALIAN STATESMAN credentials to those potentates. Two of my oldest and kindest friends, .the late Cardinal Manning and Antonio Gallenga, promptly pledged themselves to open the portals of the Vatican and the Italian Foreign Office to me ; strong in which auspicious assurances, and having gleaned a small sheaf of diplomatic introductions at two or three of the Foreign Embassies, I quitted London with the precipi- tancy that characterises Queen's Messengers, newspaper "special" correspondents, and male- factors bent upon escaping from justice. When I arrived in Rome, after travelling without cessation for nearly forty-eight hours, I found, to my intense satisfaction, that I had ample time before me wherein to make adequate preparation for the carrying out of my instruc- tions ; inasmuch as the German Emperor was not expected at the Quirinal for several days to come. During the interim I could deliver my letters of introduction, pay my official visits, apply for certain necessary cards giving access to Royal and municipal ceremonies and festivities, pick out a good mount for the grand review to be held at the Cento Celle, and provide myself with passe-partouts, enabling me to "circulate freely" in the streets of Rome by day or by night, throughout the term of the A MODERN ITALIAN STATESMAN 243 Imperial visit, all military and police regula- tions nevertheless and notwithstanding. Gallenga had kept his promise. His letter to Signor Crispi, requesting that statesman to grant me a private interview, was already in the hands of the Italian Premier when I wrote to him on the morrow of my arrival, intimating my presence in Rome and craving his permission to call upon him. Within twenty-four hours I received a note from the Under-Secretary of State, informing me that " His Excellency would be glad to see me at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the course of the following afternoon." At that time Signor Francesco Crispi was extremely popular in his native country, and might be said, without exaggera- tion, to " rule the roost " throughout the Italian Peninsula. Hitherto I had never met him, and I was the more desirous to make his acquaintance, in that I had enjoyed the per- sonal friendship of more than one of his pre- decessors in office — more particularly of Baron Ricasoli, " Commander " Rattazzi, and that gifted, high-souled patriot, Signor Minghetti. I was under the impression, moreover — subsequently deepened into certainty — that Signor Crispi's popularity at the time to which I refer, was not so much due to his cleverness as to other of his attributes. The great majority of Italians 244 A MODERISI ITALIAN STATESMAN is composed of clever men ; downright dullards are as remarkable for their rarity in that country, as military heroes in Servia, or light-hearted jesters in Germany. It is nothing out of the way for an Italian to be talented ; but it is unusual that he should be industrious and per- severing as well. That Signor Crispi, being chief of a Cabinet which commanded a com- fortable working majority in the Chamber, should be a person of conspicuous ability went almost without saying. What awakened and kept up his fellow-countrymen's admiration for him was his sustained energy, inexhaustible power of application, constant readiness to take trouble, and unappeasable appetite for hard work. The Italians are essentially an indolent people ; no wonder that un homme remuant, a man who was never happy unless busy, fertile in projects, fond of detail, indifferent to fatigue, and chronically on the look-out to secure some advantage for his country at the expense of its neighbours, appeared to them the very person of all others to whom the direction of their State affairs ought to be unreservedly entrusted. As might be expected in so many-sided and capable a public servant as Signor Crispi, that gentleman was a pluralist, as far as office was concerned. Besides being President of the Council of Ministers, he held the two most A MODERN ITALIAN STATESMAN 245 important portfolios in the Cabinet, those of Foreign and Home Affairs. Hence he was also a pluralist as to residences, being the tenant of a magnificent suite of apartments in the Consulta, which he gallantly ceded to a Princess of the Royal family for the duration of the f3ies, as well as of a more modest dwelling in the Home Office, and of a spacious alloggio in the Via Gregoriana. It was to Signor Crispi's official residence in the Palazzo Braschi — a huge edifice, situate at the southern end of the stately Piazza Navona — that I betook myself, on the loth of October, 1888, in obedience to the official communication above referred to. Though I sent in my card to his Excellency a few minutes before the appointed time, I was called upon to exercise the virtue of patience throughout five successive quarters of an hour ; for just as I arrived the President of the Chamber was admitted into Signor Crispi's sanctum, where these two eminent personages remained shut up together in con- fidential conference from five to a quarter -past six p.m. At length, however, the Italian Speaker, a brisk little grey-whiskered man of about sixty, stepped lightly into the ante-room where I was sitting in crepuscular solitude, struggled into his drab overcoat, and hurried away with an air of being pressed for time that 246 A MODERN ITALIAN STATESMAN was irritating, considering how long he had been the means of keeping me waiting. A minute later I was ushered into the presence of the Prime Minister, whom I espied standing by a low doorway at the farther end of a long dark room ; and who, as soon as he caught sight of me, advanced some steps to meet me, shook hands with me very cordially, and bade me welcome to Rome, "the capital of United Italy." Signor Crispi is a short, compactly-built Sicilian, some sixty-seven years of age, white- haired, and grey-mustachioed, with a round, well- balanced head, a firmly-set mouth, and a pair of keen, quick eyes, conveying the impression that their owner has kept them open to no incon- siderable purpose for many a year past. His is a watchful, earnest, energetic face, the prevailing stern expression of which is only softened for a second or two now and anon, when the tension of its clear-cut features is relaxed by a pecu- liarly pleasant and winning smile. I had not exchanged half a dozen sentences with him ere I recognised in him a man to whom waste of time and verbal banalities were surely little less than intolerable. Having briefly bartered a few items of "latest intelligence" concerning one or two common friends in our respective native lands, we turned simultaneously to the questions du A MODERN ITALIAN STATESMAN 247 jour, relative to which the President of the Council appeared as ready to pronounce his opinions as I was desirous to hear them. " Let me beg you to understand clearly," he began, "that what Italy wants is what I want; and that is peace — once, twice, and thrice, peace. Whatever they may say in France, whatever our enemies in the foreign Press may write about the Government of which I am the head, and about myself, the one strenuous and incessant effort of Italy has been for many months past, and actually is at the present moment, to avert every European complication that may lead to war, or even to estrangement between any of the leading Continental Powers. This we consider our chief task, and we have addressed ourselves to its fulfilment in perfect accord with the Governments of Germany and Austria- Hungary, which are animated by peaceful resolves identical with our own. Our understanding with them is unaltered, and — I hope and believe — unalterable. With your Government, too, our relations are all that we could wish ; we are ■ pursuing, hand in hand with England, a policy having for its main object the preservation of .universal peace and the maintenance of amity and goodwill among civilised peoples. " Throughout the differences that have accrued during the past summer between Italy and 248 A MODERN ITALIAN STATESMAN France, and to which perhaps too much importance has been attached by the Press of other countries, I can conscientiously say that I have observed a temperate tone and correct attitude, free from anything approaching provocativeness. If any exaggeration of susceptibiHty has made itself manifest in the course of these discussions, it has not been displayed by us. With respect to the questions that have arisen between the two Governments — for instance, that of Massowah, that of the schools in Tunis, and others — we have found it difficult to convince ourselves that France has not sedulously endeavoured to check and even to humiliate Italy. Every nation, great or small, is bound to vindicate its indepen- ence and keep up its self-respect, as well as to make itself respected by its neighbours. In this country, no Government could hope for national support if it should fail to fulfil so primary a duty. Must we accept slights and uncalled-for rebukes with equanimity, and even smilingly ? " (Signer Crispi repeated this ques- tion more than once, and very emphatically.) " You must see that such undignified tameness on our part is impossible. " I did not create the Massowah enterprise, I found it made ready to hand when I took office. Whether or not I should have advised the nation to undertake it is not now to the purpose. A MODERN ITALIAN STATESMAN 249 It is an accomplished fact, and we must make the best of it. If England had taken it in hand, instead of Italy, who would have had a word to say ? In any case, Italy's legitimate interests and justifiable aspirations must receive due con- sideration from the nations with which she stands on a footing of international equality. To that rule there can be no exception. Throughout this country the visit to Rome of the German Emperor is hailed with joy by the whole Italian people ; not only as a flattering compliment to our chivalric Sovereign, but as a pledge of the confirmation and strengthening of Italy's alliance with the great central European military Powers, and as a solid and conclusive guarantee of peace. While the noble German Monarch and people are our firm friends, as this visit proves thein to be, we fear nothing. I say again, all we desire is peace ; and in the continued trust and support of our mighty allies we have assurance that our wish will be realised. "As far as Italy and England are concerned, it cannot be too frankly admitted, or too empha- tically insisted upon, that we want you, and you want us. With immense sacrifices we have created, armed, and organised a vast military host. We are now in a position, at a few weeks' notice, to send out of Italy from five to six hundred thousand_excellent soldiers, and yet to 2SO A MODERN ITALIAN STATESMAN keep at home a force fully adequate to defend our frontiers and coast against foreign attack. As a land military Power, disposing of such resources as these in the way of effective fighting troops, our alliance may some day be of paramount importance to Great Britain. On the other hand, we may require your support in the Mediterranean, and it must always be of the greatest moment to a country, in the geographical position occupied by Italy, to have the strongest naval Power in the world for its firm friend and staunch ally. I am glad to say that not only are the official relations between England and Italy of the most cordial character, but that the strong sympathy which has existed for so many years, between English and Italian peoples, has never been more sincere than it is now. Italy owes a great deal to your country, and we are not ungrateful, believe me. It is natural that English- men and Italians should be friends ; they are so, fortunately, and we, for our part, shall leave nothing undone in order that they may continue to be so. " I know England a little. I have been there several times, and well remember the foundation of your great journal, which commenced its extraordinary career at a time when I happened to be in London. My first visit to your capital was paid in the year 1855. When I arrived at A MODERN ITALIAN STATESMAN 251 London Bridge Station, I could only command six words of English. They were, ' Cab. Take me, hotel, Golden Square ! ' London is much livelier now, as well as bigger, than it was then. On Sundays, thirty-three years ago, it was like a vast tomb. There is a change, I hope, in that respect." I was unable to assure Signor Crispi that our metropolis, even nowadays, positively teemed with popular Sunday amusements, inasmuch as all its theatres, art galleries, concert rooms, and museums remained still inaccessible to the people from Saturday till Monday. " As long as these prohibitions prevail in obedience to your own will," he replied, "there is nothing to complain of; and this must be so, because you are a self-governing nation, and the original example to all other nations in that regard. Every people must amuse itself in its own way, only your way is, perhaps, a little depressing to your foreign visitors. "You will be glad to hear," continued the Presidente del Consiglio, " that the finances of Italy are in a satisfactory state, despite the great outlay entailed upon us by the achievement and consolidation of our unity and independence. Rome is being rapidly Italianised. She is already accustomed to the proud feeling that she is the ' intangible capital of Modern Italy,' and 252 A MODERN ITALIAN STATESMAN intensely appreciates her recognition in that character by the illustrious ruler of Germany. Our new municipal law, making the office of mayor elective, and introducing other reforms akin to those recently adopted in England, has passed the Chamber, and will probably be adopted a few weeks hence by the Senate. I have carefully studied your last great measure of municipal reform. Here it is ! " and, suiting the action to the word, Signor Crispi unlocked a drawer in his writing-table, took from it Mr. Ritchie's bill, and, pointing to the printed matter, observed, " I have found this most interesting and instructive." Shordy afterwards, having thanked his Ex- cellency warmly for having spared me so much of his valuable time, and at so momentous an epoch — it was the eve of Kaiser Wilhelm's arrival in Rome — 1 took my leave. In the course of the following afternoon the German Emperor bestowed upon Francesco Crispi — probably the most out-and-out Radical in United Italy, which may be termed the "happy hunting- ground " of that variety of politician — the Collar, Riband, and Star of the Black Eagle, an Order ranking in dignity and distinction with the Garter, the Golden Fleece, and the Annunziata. Prince Bismarck at Home WHEN, twenty-eight years ago, I first enjoyed the privilege of conversing tete-a-tite with the greatest of modern states- men, at that time Prime Minister of Prussia, Count Bismarck received me at a late hour of the evening in his study, a little corner room on the first-floor of his official residence in the Wilhelmstrasse, overlooking a large garden that separated the shabby old Foreign Office from the fine new street skirting the eastern end of the Thiergarten, and bearing the name of the Austrian township near which, a few months previously, the Prussian Army had won the crowning victory of its sensational Seven Days' Campaign in Bohemia. Before visiting his Excellency on the occasion referred to, I had made the personal acquain- tance of more than one Continental Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and, when I had called upon those gentlemen by appointment, had invariably found them dressed en civil — 253 254 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME sometimes in a morning jacket, sometimes in the conventional evening black-and-white, accord- ing to the hour at which they had pleased to give me audience, but always in one or other variety of what Englishmen are accustomed to designate, somewhat vaguely after their manner, as "plain clothes." On crossing the threshold of Count Bismarck's sanctum, however, I was encountered by a tall, powerfully-built officer, wearing the dark undress uniform of a Prussian cuirassier regiment — as soldierly-looking a man as I had ever set eyes on — who took me by the hand, and greeted me cordially in my own tongue with the words, " Glad to see you ; sit down, take a cigar, and make yourself comfortable. You see, I receive you without any ceremony, and rather late, so that we may not be interrupted by any business claims upon my time and attention." It was the first time I had seen a Minister of Foreign Affairs in martial array, and I remember that the circumstance impressed me strongly, as typifying the militarism per- vading official life in Prussia, even in so pacific and diplomatic a department of the State service as the Foreign Office. Count Bismarck, then in his fifty- third year, was a magnificent specimen of German man- hood, considerably over six feet in height, weigh- about seventeen stone, admirably proportioned, PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 255 and a thought broader of chest and shoulder than even the King and Crown Prince, two of the most stalwart and stately soldiers of the Fatherland in the year of grace 1867. His figure and bearing were those of a formidable warrior, familiar with every kind of military exercise, and inured to all the perils, alarms, and hardships of campaigning ; but his wide and lofty forehead, gleaming grey eyes, and extra- ordinary mobility of facial expression, bore con- vincing testimony to intellectual developments of a far higher order than those usually characterising even the most valiant and as- siduous followers of the profession of arms. Throughout his ministerial career, however, as Prussian Premier and German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck — except when travelling abroad, or taking the waters at some German spa — steadfastly preserved the outer seeming of a soldier. Whenever, during my long resi- dence in Berlin, I saw him at his own house or in the Chamber, met him at Court or Ambassadorial entertainments, or encountered him driving, riding, or walking in any place of public resort, he was always clad in the uniform — -petite or grande tentie, as the case might be — of the 7th " Magdeburg Heavies," to which regiment he was attached a la suite with the rank of General. On the 6th of June, 1890, 2S6 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME I was once more his guest, after a long lapse of years, and — for the first time in our acquaint- anceship of well-nigh a quarter of a century's duration — saw him dressed en bourgeois, with all the careless simplicity that characterises the attire of German country gentlemen, while residing on their estates " far from the madding crowd." On his special invitation I had betaken myself, early in the forenoon, from Hamburg to Fried- richsruh, in an easy-going train that sauntered smoothly enough through the lush-green Lauen- burg meadows, smitten and flecked with the glistening gold of buttercups, and streaked with long, broad bars of sheeny silver-grey water. Here and there were to be espied compact cottages of a dull red hue, all aglow under the burning sunlight — now and anon a russet-tinted solitary windmill, lazily flourishing its straggling limbs, like a weary daddy-longlegs. At a dis- tance of two miles or so from Friedrichsruh, the face of the country changed from flat pasturage to undulating woodland, the rising ground on either side of the iron highway being crested with thick belts of forest trees, and its slopes richly graced with thriving plantations of young larches and Scotch firs. This increase of picturesqueness in the sur- rounding scenery, as I learned later on, PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 257 commenced at the northern boundary of the Bismarck domain, through a portion of which the ten o'clock " Personen-Zug " lounged for some five or six minutes, passing close by the Schloss itself, just before it pulled up easily in the unpretending little station of Friedrichsruh. The red walls enclosing Prince Bismarck's country house and grounds can be seen from the platform, and are approached by a primitive country road, fringed with trees. A brief stroll of some two hundred yards brought me to a plain door of boards, painted in a neutral colour, something between buff and gray, which I passed, not thinking for a moment that it could be a main entrance to a Prince's mansion. On inquiring a little further on at the postal and telegraphic office that has been, so to speak, let in to the ex-Chancellor's park-wall, I was informed that the door in question was the only one by which visitors could gain access to the Schloss. Accordingly I retraced my steps, and was standing before the perplexing gateway, looking in vain for a bell-handle or electric button by means of which I might announce my arrival, and wondering how I should obtain admission to the invisible regions behind the high brick wall, when, fortunately, a servant out of livery happened to open the mysterious door from inside, and, seeing an "entire stranger" slowly 2s8 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME broiling in the doorway, was good enough to inquire very politely " what the Herr might be pleased to want." I gave my card to this cour- teous functionary, requesting him to convey it to the Prince, which he proceeded to do, carefully shutting the door as he vanished from my gaze. .At the expiration of a not inconsiderable " wait " he reappeared, and conducted me along a shady pathway to the chief entrance of the Schloss, where I was apprised that " Durchlaucht " would receive me at once. Passing through a spacious antechamber lined with oaken bookcases, I entered a long narrow drawing-room, in the centre of which stood his Highness, talking to the Princess and another lady, the fourth and fifth members of the group being two fine Danish hounds, one a singularly handsome black dog named Tyras, after the old original " Reichs-Hund, " of world-wide celebrity in connection with his spirited attempt to throttle Prince Gortchakoff, shortly after the first meeting of the Berlin Congress. Tyras I. had been gathered to his fathers at a good old age some three years previously; he expired painlessly in his master's bedroom, conscious of the latter's presence to the very last. To quote the Prince's own words: "A few minutes before the faithful old dog died I spoke to him. He had not the strength to wag his PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 259 tail ; but he opened his eyes, and as he looked at me, an expression came over his face that told me — as plainly as if he had spoken — that he recognised me, and wished me well." Tyras II. was the gift of the present Emperor and is "more even-tempered, but of a less strongly marked individuality " than his predecessor. The other stately hound, a glossy, slate- coloured female, of great strength and beauty, is own grand-daughter to the famous " Realm- Dog," to which she bears a striking resemblance. Both dogs, as soon as they caught sight of me, advanced hurriedly, bent on an investigation, which, I rejoice to say, turned out satisfactorily to me as well as to themselves. The Prince also came forward to meet me, shook hands with me very warmly, and welcomed me to Friedrichsruh, saying, " I am very glad to see you again ; we have not met, I think, since 1872." The congratulations I hastened to offer him upon the manifestly excellent state of his health, were fully warranted by the magnificent robustness of his appearance. At the age of seventy-five, Prince Bismark was as upright as a dart, and as firm of foot as many a strong man forty years his junior. His complexion, which used to be sallow when I first knew him, was clear and ruddy ; his eyes sparkled with all their old fire and brightness ; 26o PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME his voice was mellow and sonorous ; his heavy moustache and bushy eyebrows were no whit greyer than they had been twenty years previously. He looked younger than his age by a decade at the very least. As I walked by his side through the long suite of apartments, in the first of which he had received me, I could not help saying that he had manifestly benefited by his recent rest from the fatigues of office. " Rest ! " he exclaimed ; " yes, a definitive rest. Official life, as far as I am concerned, is all over and done with. Now I shall have time for some of the recreations I have foregone throughout thirty years. Repose is good ; still better is the certainty that I shall not have to change houses any more. You English have a proverb that says ' three removes are as bad as a fire,' and it is a true one." I had heard from one of his old friends in Hamburg, to whom he had paid a recent visit, that he had announced his intention of accepting dinner invitations, and attending theatrical repre- sentations, in the grand old Hanse-town during the following winter. Knowing how secluded a life he had been wont to lead when in the zenith of his power, I asked him whether he had spoken in jest or in earnest on the occasion referred to. PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 261 "In earnest," he replied. "Don't you think it is high time that I should have a little amusement, and enjoy a few social pleasures ? " It was just eleven a.m. — the loveliest weather imaginable, I may mention — as we passed the dining-room clock, glancing at which he stopped short, and said, "Will you walk with me? I am going for a stroll through the woods near the house, to make my daily round." A minute later we had quitted the Schloss, and were pacing briskly down a gentle declivity, leading to a sort of green, half lawn, half meadow, skirted on the right hand by slowly-running water, neither pond nor river, but broad, still, and clear, the obvious home of carp. Let me try to describe the outward seeming of my illustrious host, as he strode firmly along through the leafy paths and umbrageous winding ways of Friedrichsruh Park, manifestly as sound in " wind and limb " as the toughest of his foresters, or the hardiest of his keepers. He wore a soft, broad-brimmed hat, a thick white neckerchief, knotted in front, a long, dark, loose coat, buttoned up to the throat, grey trousers, and strong double-soled boots. In his right hand, ungloved, he carried a black stick, with a slightly-curved handle, upon which he rarely leaned while walking on level ground. His moustache no longer overhung his whole mouth, 262 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME as of yore, but had been trimmed comparatively short, so as to show the under lip. He bore himself in his old martial fashion, with head erect, and shoulders well thrown back ; the incipient corpulence which had made him appear somewhat over-bulky about ten years previously had entirely vanished. While we were walking along a broad path traversing the lower ground of the vast park, we met with more than one party of manifestly " out-for-the-day " people, who stood aside, un- covering respectfully to his Highness, and with whom he did not once omit to exchange a few kindly words. After the third rencontre of this kind, I asked him if there were any public right of way through his woods. " No, none at all," he replied. " Indeed, to keep up my own prescriptive rights of way, I am obliged to put up many boards of warning to trespassers. But my threats of pains and penalties are seldom if ever enforced, and these good folks don't seem to pay much heed to them. My keepers strongly object to holiday encroachers, who disturb the deer, they say. Pheasants ? No, I have no pheasants — my woods are too large. The pheasant is a stupid bird, apt to lose itself in extensive cover. You see, I have about twenty thousand English acres here, only four thousand of which are under PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 263 farming, the rest being woodland. The estate costs me more than it brings in ; but I am very fond of it, for all that. I have no gardens here, not even close to the house — nothing but wood and water. My gardens are at Varzin, where my wife grows roses. This is altogether a simple, old-fashioned place ; it was an inn once, and I have had to make many alterations. I haven't finished with them yet, either, for my writing- room is too, small for me, so I 'm going to have one of its walls knocked down, and build on to it. I '11 show you what I mean to do by-and-by." Here we turned off to the left from the water- .side into a narrow side- path, winding its way upwards (by zigzags, provided at each turn with rustic benches, offering solace to a " climb- ing sorrow ") to the summit of a grassy, copse- crested knoll. Having reached the top, we sate down on one of these opportune seats for a few minutes, and, while resting, fell to talking about Nihilism and the difficulties of carrying on any sort of government in Russia. I asked the Prince whether, in his opinion, there was no method' of reconciling the Czar with his discontented subjects — no way of defeating Nihilism by timely and generous concessions? "No," he replied, rather severely ; "no concessions can be made to the Nihilists, who 264 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME are would-be murderers, one and all — assassins by premeditation, if not by deed. The only way to deal with them is to strengthen and sharpen the law, and to bring it to bear upon them with increased stringency. There can be no question of yielding to these wretches ; nothing kindly or conciliatory can be offered to people who do not even know what they want, but are perfectly ready at all times to commit any sort and number of hideous crimes. Doubtless there are many amiable, reasonable, intelligent Russians who desire moderate reforms, but somehow they don't seem to come to the front, or to exercise any real influence on the authorities in power. With the masses, too, they count for nothing. Over-education in Germany leads to much disappointment and dissatisfaction ; in Russia, to disaffection and conspiracy. "Ten times as many young people are educated there for the higher walks of life than there are places to give them, or opportunities for them, in the liberal professions, to earn a decent living, far less wealth and distinction, Perhaps it is not quite the right kind of learning, too. There are too many free scholarships and presentations by half, by appointment to which poor people's children are taught to be unhappy and useless. Priests' children, for instance, mostly get their PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 265 high school and university education for nothing. What good does it do them ? When they have gone through it, in nine cases of ten there is nothing for them to do, and their learning is worse than a superfluity to them, for it makes them discontented — ^nay, miserable. They have been painfully prepared to compete for greater prizes than life really offers, save to a very few, who rarely spring from their class. I have come across street watchmen in Russia .who had studied in Universities, and taken bachelors' degrees. Could anything be more cruel, as well as absurd ? Such people, filled with envy and hatred of all that is prosperous and high placed, readily take to conspiracy and crime. They are not fit to construct, but know just enough to qualify them for destroying. It is much easier to damage than to redeem ; so they do evil, and call it redemption. Their training is scholastic, pedantically administered to them ; not political or even practical. tience the difficulty of admitting them to any share in the management of public affairs. "Constitutional parliamentary government is a very high order of regime, based on special and diffused knowledge, as well as on many judicious compromises — what you English neatly call 'give and take.' To entrust it to the hands of ignorant men, theorists, visionaries, enthusiasts 2 66 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME Utterly unversed in political history and actualities, is sheer folly, or rather dangerous madness. The only thing for such people is strong authority, which of course should be just, high-minded, and, if possible, benevolent. On the other hand, unrestricted authority and its exercise harden officials, who are but men, after all. Too much red-tapeism is noxious ; but neither is it wise to set too narrow limits to the power and dignity of the State. With you I think Parliament has too much faculty of interference with the State authority and of harassing Governments. Russia, if you like, is in the other extreme. But you are an old Parliamentary people, accustomed to party life, and familiar with the necessity of mutual concession at the right moment. The Russians, as I said before, don't know what they want, nor when to stand out, nor when to yield. They are extremists in the politics they don't understand, and are the prey of dogmas or of ideas, as the case may be. At present there is nothing for it but to rule them with an iron rod." As, at a leisurely pace, we were strolling down hill by another tortuous woodland path, the Labour question cropped up, apropos of the then recent Miners' Congress in Belgium. After frankly recognising and praising the moderation of Mr. Burns' address to the delegates, Prince PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 267 Bismarck abruptly broke out with " Tell me, did you ever know a banker with a million who was contented — or a scientist, politician, artist, lawyer, satisfied with his gains and position? I will go further, and ask you, Have you ever known a contented man ? I mean, among the rich, the successful, the highly-born, or highly- placed ? How then shall the working-man be contented, whose life is necessarily one of few pleasures and many troubles, of frequent privation and rare indulgence ? Suppose you give him a pound a day ; in a fortnight's time his wife will want an extra shilling or two per diem, for her children's adornment or her own dress, and will perseveringly inoculate the husband with her own dissatisfaction. The more operatives get, the more they want. I don't say it is not natural, nor that they differ from other men in this respect ; but the fact remains. You know how enormously, how amazingly, their life-conditions have been ameliorated during the past fifty years. Have they ever achieved contentment for one single day? Let what real grievances they still have right themselves by natural processes, as they will gradually and in due time. Above all, let them continue to improve their position without State interference, which can only do them more harm than good, besides inflicting irretrievable injury upon 2 68 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME numbers of other people, quite as worthy of consideration as artisans. I call it intrusive and impertinent to dictate to a labourer how many hours he shall or shall not work, and to usurp his rightful authority over his children in respect to bread-earning occupations. " It is said that I first set the example of meddling with workmen's affairs in Germany, and took the initiative in introducing a sort of State Socialism. This is by no means correct. What I did was in the direction of benevolence, not of interference. I advocated the making of some provision for workmen enfeebled by old age, or incapacitated for labour by sickness or accident. I felt that if a mechanician were maimed by some engine, or a miner mutilated by a colliery explosion — or if a man broke down through over-work or bodily illness — something should be done to save him from starvation, or even from an extremity of want. I also thought it desirable, in the true interest of the working classes, that the management and control of funds raised for these purposes should be transferred from red-tape officials to self-supporting corporations, like your be- nevolent societies, and in this way to promote the development of corporate spirit and en- terprise among our working men. I wanted to emancipate them from official restraint and PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 269 surveillance, to foster in them a passion for self-help, and a love of manly independence, and to inspire them with a feeling of security against the utmost calamities that can befal them — infirmity, crippledom, old age, embittered by abject poverty. " When I first recommended my scheme to William I. he did not at once understand it in all its bearings ; but as soon as they became fully and clearly apparent to him he took it up eagerly, and during the latter years of his life it was his favourite project. Nobody was more deeply interested in it, or more fervently anxious for its success, than he. But to make workmen contented by legal regulations is a mere ex- aggeration of the fancy — a phantom, evading the grasp whenever approached. If human contentment could be attained, it would be a misfortune. What could be more disastrous than a dead-level of well-being, a millennium of universal satisfaction, blighting ambition, paralysing progress, and leading to moral stag- nation? There is plenty of useful work to be done, however, in the way of imparting technical instruction to operatives, loosening the hold of bureaucracy upon them, and encouraging them to undertake the intelligent management of their own affairs, and the safeguarding of their interests by lawful and orderly means. 2 70 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME instead of making war upon their employers. Capital and labour ought to be the firmest of friends, and would be so, no doubt, but that each desires to take a little advantage of the other. That, of course, is a purely human characteristic, and we cannot hope to change the nature of mankind. The rights of capital are no less real and respectable than those of labour. We must not forget that ! " As we were nearing the Schloss, Prince Bismarck spoke to me very favourably of his successor in the Chancellorship, General Caprivi, as "a fine soldier, a man of remarkable intelli- gence and varied information — above all, a thorough gentleman. I am sure," continued his Highness, "that Caprivi's appointment as Reichskanzler was an absolute surprise to him, that he accepted it from a lofty and loyal sense of duty, and that he is quite free from any charge of overweening personal ambition. He has a clear head, a good heart, a generous nature, and great working powers. Altogether a first-class man." I may mention that the Prince's conversation with me was chiefly carried on in the English language, which he speaks with extraordinary force and purity, and to which he invariably reverted from brief episodical lapses into German and French. FRINGE BISMARCK AT HOME 271 It was nearly one o'clock when our stroll through the home park of Schloss Friedrichsruh ended, and the Ex-Chancellor led the way up a steep flight of stone steps, which we ascended to the strains of a sentimental barrel-organ, ground by a swarthy Neapolitan who had effected a lodgment on the carriage drive fronting the main entrance. From a broad flagged terrace, corresponding in length to the dining room, we passed through a lofty glass door into that apartment, in which luncheon was laid out. The Princess, with three friends, was awaiting us in an adjoining drawing-room. Without further delay we took our places at the table, where we were joined a little later by Count Herbert, much sunburnt, and looking the picture of health, strength, and good humour. Against the right- hand wall of the Friedrichsruh " Speisesaal," exactly behind the seat occupied by the " Schloss- herrin," stood a life-size full-length portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm II., copied from the original oil painting by Professor Angeli, and representing the young Ernperor in full uniform, resting his right hand upon a table, on which are displayed his helmet and the Imperial diadem. It is a huge canvas, about ten feet by six, and somewhat dwarfed all the other pictures in the stately room. During luncheon — at which the two noble hounds assisted, with keen but decorously restrained 2 72 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME interest — the conversation was general, touching lightly on many topics of interest, and affording to the Prince abundant opportunity for the display of his unrivalled anecdotical powers and inexhaustible mother-wit. As the meal pro- gressed, I observed that he drank nothing with his food, and asked him whether "eating dry" were a habit of his own choice, or an article in the dietetic code drawn up for him by his famous " Leibarzt," Dr. Schweninger. "The latter," he replied. " I am only allowed to drink thrice a day — a quarter of an hour after each meal, and each time not more than half a bottle of red sparkling Moselle, of a very light and dry character. Burgundy and beer, both of which I am extremely fond of, are strictly for- bidden to me ; so are all the strong Rhenish and Spanish wines, and even claret ! For some years past I have been a total abstainer from all these generous liquors, much to the advantage of my health and my ' condition,' in the sporting sense of the word. Formerly I used to weigh over seventeen stone. By observing this regimen I brought myself down to under fourteen, and without any loss of strength — indeed, with gain. My normal weight now is 1851b. I am weighed once every day, by my doctor's orders, and any excess of that figure I at once set to work to get rid of, by exercise and special regimen. I ride PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 273 a good deal, as well as walk. Cigar-smoking I have given up altogether, of course under advice. It is debilitating, and bad for the nerves. An inveterate smoker, such as I used to be, probably gets through a hundred thousand cigars in his life, if he reaches a fair average age. But he would live longer, and feel better all his time, if he did without them. Nowadays I am restricted to a long pipe, happily with a deep bowl, one after each meal, and I smoke nothing in it but Dutch Knaster tobacco, which is light, mild, and soothing. You will see presently ; the pipe comes in with the pint of red Moselwein. It will be a whole bottle to-day, and you must help me out with it. Water makes me fat, so I must not drink it. However, the present arrange- ments suit me very well." A few minutes later coffee and cigars were brought in for the male guests, followed by the Prince's prescribed pipe and allowance of "sparkling." I may mention that, about the middle of luncheon time, a superb bouquet of full-blown Mardchal Niel roses made its appear- ance, and was handed to his Highness, with the card of its giver — a Hamburg lady, who had in person carried this graceful offering to the mys- terious gate of the Schloss, at which, it seemed she was still standing. On learning this. Prince Bismarck at once rose from table and. went s 2 74 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME out to express his thanks viva voce to the kindly giver of the flowers, who doubtless returned to Hamburg a proud and happy woman. As soon as the reign of tobacco had definitively set in, the ladies left us, and I changed my seat for one near the head of the table, next to that of his Highness. After some desultory talk, having reference to times long past and to persons with whom we had been acquainted in common more than a score of years previously — a propos of whom he made the remark, " My memory is fairly tenacious ; but I have personal acquaintance with at least thirty thousand men whose names escape me, though they are mostly people of some note" — I casually observed that his retirement had been unexpected in English political circles, and had taken the general British public quite by surprise. He replied, " I daresay it seemed rather sudden to you. Even my kind friends here in Germany scarcely expected it — those dear friends who rejoiced over my renouncement of all my offices, who greedily coveted my politi- cal succession, and who now wish me to become one of the living dead — to lurk in my retreat, dumb -foundered, silence -stricken, and motionless. It would be somewhat difficult for me, don't you think so, after forty years' PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 275 occupation and absorption in incessant political study — after such a tremendous spell of activity and responsibility — to play a part the two in- violable conditions of which are speechlessness and immobility ? That is what they want me to do — my kind friends who even sedulously forbear from alluding to my past services to Germany, and from referring to what I have done in the world, lest by comparison they should stunt their own pretensions to recogni- tion, distinction, and advancement. But I am not so easily silenced and paralysed. I can continue, in retirement, to serve my country, and I mean to do so to the last. In some respects I have a freer hand than I had when I was in office. Abroad — for instance, in France and Russia, the only countries possibly bearing us a grudge — I can in many ways promote the propaganda of peace, my main object and aim for twenty years past, now that I am unfettered by any official restraints. "What is the actual state of Germany's relations with France ? you ask. Excellent, indeed ; all that both countries can wish it to be. The attitude of the French Government is exemplary ; the French people are sin- cerely pacific, alike in views and hopes. I need not tell you how peaceably disposed the Germans are ; no one is more earnest for peace 276 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME than his Majesty the Emperor, whose attention is eagerly bent upon Home Affairs, upon national consolidation, . internal improvements, and the establishment of a cordial understanding between class and class. We Germans want nothing from our neighbours but fair dealing and civil treatment. We fought two terrible wars to achieve our unity ; we have got it, and mean to keep it ; we ask no more. All . our arma- ment is purely defensive and precautionary ; not a bit of it is intended for attack. No idea of aggression or of further frontier extension finds a lodging in the head of any intelligent German." I asked if, in his opinion, there were no possibility of finally extinguishing the French grievance against the Fatherland by some voluntary and spontaneous concession on the part of Germany — some rectification of frontier involving the retrocession to France of the French-speaking populations now unwillingly submitting to German rule — some arrangement, in short, that would satisfy France without imperilling the security of Germany. " There is none," he answered, quite decisively: " We can yield no territory to them, except after a lost battle. Were the cession small or large, it would only stimulate their appetite for more. They have held provinces inhabited by German- PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 277 speaking populations for centuries — provinces of which they robbed us by force. Let us now have our turn at holding territories peopled by a French-speaking race. Germany has never wilfully or unprovoked entered France. France has invaded Germany in arms between twenty and thirty times. In 1870 the French- men had all but forgotten their ' rights ' over Cologne and Mayence ; but the Rhine- Line cry was revived fiercely enough then, and would be again if we were to show any disposition to restore any part of Lorraine to them. As far as the subsidence of their resentment against us is concerned, we can only trust to time, as you English did in the case of Waterloo. That grievance died thirty years ago. Victor Hugo did his best to resuscitate it ; but the pale ghost he raised soon fell flat, and vanished. It is scarcely possible to content the French, because their self-appreciation knowns no reasonable limits. " I remember that, whilst I was Minister in Paris, one of my best French friends was old Marshal Vaillant, then Governor of the Tuileries. He W3s a charming old gentleman, and really had a great regard for me. One day, in 1867, he said to me, " See, my friend, I like you ; I like the Germans ; in particular I like the Prussian ; but I know that we shall have to 2 78 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME cross bayonets with you one of these days. We other Frenchmen are Hke a barndoor cock, ruling the roost, and we cannot bear that any other cock should crow audibly in Europe except ourselves.' It was through him I found out that the troops of the Paris garrison had had an eye on me. I had been present at a review in Paris, at the Emperor's invitation, and had watched the march-past closely — not more closely, however, than the soldiers had watched me, it seems. The next day old Vaillant came to see me, and gleefully repeated to me some of the professional comments to which I had given rise. One was En voila un qui na pas froid aux yeux ! Voyez-vous, mon cher, added the Marshal, j'aurais bien volontiers donnd mon baton et ma plaque pour qu'ils Veussent dit de moi! It was very nice of him, and showed that though a Frenchman, he did not overrate himself or his military reputation. "What are our prospects in connection with Russia ? Quite satisfactory ; as good in every respect as they are with regard to France. We wish well to Russia, and she will certainly not attack us. The Russian people is as peaceably inclined as our own. The evils that befell them after, and in consequence of, the last war were so much more cruel and terrible than any they had had to endure in time of peace that they PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 279 conceived a horror of all military enterprises abroad, and this antipathy has lasted, un- diminished in force and intensity, until the present day. Russia owes us no real grudge, and we shall not give her the least cause of quarrel. I have been honoured by the regard and confidence of the present Czar. Whilst I was in office he placed implicit trust in my personal assurances, and I am happy to say that Russo-German official relations were of the most friendly character. Czar Alexander III. is really an amiable, kindly, well-meaning Sovereign, fond of his home, deeply attached to his wife and children, amicably disposed to Germany, and sincerely averse to conquest. He also extremely dislikes, violent physical exertion, and this is a fact by no means without importance to the peace of Europe. As to the look-out in .Bulgaria, I can really give no opinion. Bulgaria is of no direct interest at all to us Germans, and we pay very little attention to her, as long as she keeps tolerably quiet. The Triple Alliance is strong enough to make sure that European tranquillity shall not be seriously disturbed on her account. " How does the Alliance stand just now ? As steadfast as ever ; firmly founded on a broad basis of mutual trust and common interests. It is no less close in its cohesion than immovable 28o PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME in its resolve to maintain peace. It will endure, because it is for the good of all, and the natural outcome at once of salutary aspirations and of common sense. There are plenty of good reasons why the principle of its being should be ' Each for all, and all for each.' A strong Austria is not only essential to the preservation of the European balance of power, but is especially necessary to Germany, Were there no such realm, it would have to be created in our interest. Both the leading elements in the Dual Reich — the German and Hungarian — are well disposed towards us ; the former for many obvious reasons, the latter because, knowing itself not strong enough to stand alone, it feels the need of a potent foreign friend who will stand by it at a pinch, and does not believe that it could find that friend in Russia — an absorbent Power greatly feared by all its weak neighbours. The friendship, again, binding Germany and Italy together is a perfectly natural one, as they are not limitrophe States, and neither desires to deprive the other of aught. Amity between Austria and Italy is equally necessary to both, seeing that their frontiers join — a circumstance which always entails many potentialities of mutual molestation and consequent quarrel. A more sensible and useful League was never formed than the Triple Alliance, a grand PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 281 mainstay of which, most fortunately, is the sincere, hearty, faithful friendship subsisting between the Sovereigns of Germany, Austria, and Italy, who entertain the highest personal regard for one another, and are all three ex- tremely popular with their respective subjects. In such supreme contracts Ministers are far less important than Monarchs, even in con- stitutionally - governed countries blessed with Parliamentary institutions. "Thanks to the Triple Alliance, I am enabled to believe, and to openly declare my belief, that the peace of Europe is soundly guaranteed, and that its continuance is well assured for a long time to come, unless the Almighty should think fit to ordain one of those tremendous accidents that defeat all foresight and reasonable calculation. As for England and Germany, I regard it as an impossibility that these two countries should ever be at war, and as singularly unlikely that they should even quarrel seriously. Were that to happen, however, it might lead to a Continental conflict, even if England should abstain from taking any active part against us by sea or land. But this contingency is as wildly improbable as that we should draw the sword against England. Differences of course, may occur, as in this African colonial matter, still awaiting equitable settlement. Every such difference between your- 282 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME selves and us, however, can only be of altogether inconsiderable moment compared to the con- sequences of an appeal to arms. If we growl a little at one another, that is nothing to be alarmed at. Looking this African affair straight in the face, what does it amount to ? In your British Company, I believe, about half a million sterling is embarked ; in our German Company, some- thing less. Put the two amounts together, and the sum total at stake does not equal one day's expenditure in mere preparation for a great war. For every man drawn into the ranks by the mobilisation process we must reckon, on the average, a loss of two shillings a day, his earnings, and an outlay of three shillings a day for his food, clothing, pay, and transport. A general European war means the mobilisation of at least four millions of reserve troops, so there you have your waste of a million per diem, for two or three weeks, perhaps, before a shot is fired. After hostilities commence, we may take that waste as doxlbled in daily amount. All this is without counting the cost of com- mercial standstills, panics, depreciation of securities, which are more ruinous than war- expenses. "In the case of England and Germany's colonial rivalry, the object to be attained on either part or both parts — if their double success PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 283 could be estimated — can never, appraise it as high as you will, be anything like equivalent to the certain calamity that would result from a serious Anglo-German encounter with hot lead and cold steel, all about the partition of regions the worth of which is altogether problematical. For few trustworthy Europeans know anything about these mysterious territories — scarcely even their names. No fear that England and Germany will ever come to blows about them. For my part, I feel sure that Lord Salisbury's temperate and statesmanlike utterances are more to the English taste than Mr. Stanley's hot exhortations and bitter denunciations. Between Germans and Englishmen it is always easy to come to a righteous and amicable understanding. We are both fair-dealing peoples ; we know one another well, and respect one another sincerely. There has been so much arrant nonsense talked and written about this paltry affair that a few plain words, dictated by common reason, can do no harm." On my happening to mention that the country through which I had passed that morning on my way to the Schloss had struck me as very well cultivated and prosperous-looking, the Prince rejoined, " Yes, this Lauenburg is a well- to-do district. It only accommodates 50,000 inhabitants, and the amount of savings-bank 284 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME deposits per head of the total population is 300 marks — about ;^i5 of your money. This is perhaps, exceptional ; but it is not much above the average of all the provinces — including the Elbe Duchies — in which Low German is spoken. The profits on savings-bank operations are chiefly applied by the authorities to parochial outlay and local improvements." A little later our conversation turned upon the late Emperor Frederick, of whom Prince Bismarck spoke in terms of deep reverence and warm admiration. "He was indeed a most remarkable and estimable man, perfectly amiable, exquisitely kind, and yet no less intelligent, clear-sighted, instructed and resolute. He knew his mind thoroughly, and his determinations, once adopted, were immovable. As German Emperor, had he lived, he would have con- siderably astonished the world at large by the vigour and personality of his rule. His views of his duties to his subjects, and of his subjects' duties to their Sovereign, were accurately defined and quite unchangeable. He was a true Hohen- zollern, of the very finest quality and most brilliant capacities. As for his courage, it was heroic. In respect to the gentle courtesy and delicate consideration he showed to his servants, he resembled his noble father. " Let me give you a pathetic instance of this PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 285 fine and gracious trait in his character. During the latter days of his illness, in which he could still — sitting up and dressed — receive me, he never once failed, when I took my leave, to accompany me to the door of his room, nor to open it with his own hands in order to let me out. One day, as he was walking by my side across the room for this purpose, I saw him stagger with pain and weakness, and was just raising my arms to catch him — thinking he was about to fall down — when he managed to seize the door-handle, and, by holding on to it, to keep his feet. Opening the door, he leant back so much, in his agony, that his coat-tails were hanging at least six inches distant from his body ; but he neither complained nor groaned, and bore his sufferings so bravely, in manly silence, that it was pitiful to see. Yes, to the very last he evinced a lofty sense of Imperial dignity, authority, and fortitude. Nothing could shake his self-command or ruffle his temper ; he was every inch a Kaiser, to the hour of his death. To me, all through that dreadful time, he was in every way admirable — I can find no better word. We perfectly under- stood one another, and I ^as his true, devoted servant, as I had been his father's for so many years. Since her awful bereavement, by the way, the Empress -Victoria's attitude towards 286 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME Germany has been, and now is, absolutely irreproachable — the complete realisation of a high ideal." Before permitting me to quit Friedrichsruh, Prince Bismarck took me over all the ground floor rooms, accompanied by Count Herbert, who, as well as his illustrious father, was at great pains to point out to me countless objects of historical and family interest. In a corridor, leading out of the hall, hangs a metal open- work screen, to which are affixed the armorial bearings of all the five branches of the House of Bismarck, as well as the arms of the noble families quartered with those of the Prince — all correctly emblazoned. In the rooms of the reception-suite, my attention was called to two life-like portraits of his Highness, taken, com- paratively recently, by Professor Lembach ; two masterly busts of the first German Emperor and of Count Wilhelm von Bismarck, the Prince's second son ; to a stirring battle-piece repre- sentating the memorable charge of the ist Guard Dragoons, at Mars-la-Tour, " in which tussle," observed the Prince, " Herbert was badly wounded, and Bill had his horse shot under him. You can see Herbert in the pic- ture, charging just behind his captain" ; fine portraits of the ex-Chancellor's father, grand- father, great-grandfather, and a few ancestors PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME 287 contemporary with the Spanish Armada and the Thirty Years' War respectively, as well as a striking likeness of himself, taken in the year 1850, and well-executed "counterfeit pre- sentments" of our Queen, of Frederick William IV., of the King of Saxony, Lord Beaconsfield, Cardinal Hohenlohe, and many another exalted personage of past and present times. When we had looked at the new Lauenburg flag sent to him lately, with the old Bismarck trefoil embroidered in one of its corners — I don't think his Highness is likely to fly it, nor to use the new title conferred upon him by William II. — he said, " Now let me show you my own particular rooms, where I am going to carry out the alterations I spoke of before luncheon." So saying, he led me across the hall and up a few wooden steps to his sanctum, a good-sized square apartment communicating with his bed-room and dressing-room. Its walls are adorned with portraits of "King" William, taken shortly after his accession in i860, of "Crown Prince" Frederick, a pied, in the full cuirassier uniform he wore while riding in the Jubilee Procession ; of the Prince's only daughter, Countess von Rantzau, taken when she was a girl of eighteen ; and of several other intimate friends. Then, having earnestly thanked the stately Schlossherr for 288 PRINCE BISMARCK AT HOME all his kindness and graceful hospitality, I shook hands with him once, twice, and thrice, and took my leave, carrying away with me from Friedrichsruh the pleasantest and most interest- ing of remembrances. Father and son saw me off at the chief entrance, and waved a final adieu to me, as I passed through the park gate into the grey roadway skirting the railway line and leading to the station. Pope Leo XIII. WHEN I quitted the Eternal city in the early spring of 1870, one of the most memorable years of its " strange, eventful his- tory," Rome was still the capital of the much- diminished Pontifical States. Over Hadrian's gigantic tower-tomb waved the white banner of the Cross-keys. French lignards, "myrmi- dons of the Third Empire," shared the duty of guarding his Holiness's person, and pre- serving Papal sovereign independence, with the men of all others to whom the Napoleonic regime was most repugnant — French gentlemen of high lineage, enthusiastic Legitimists and fervent Catholics, who, having refused their allegiance to a usurper in their native land, had vowed it to a foreign Monarch — the vener- able Priest- King, Pius IX. — in whose cause they shed their blood no less lavishly than they did later on for France, in the hour of her extreme need. In the left arm of the gigantic cross constituting the ground-plan of T 289 290 POPE LEO XIII. St. Peter's Basilica, the GEcumenical Council " still was sitting, still was sitting," in solemn, long-protracted deliberation over a foregone con- clusion. I forget how many archbishops, bishops, mitred abbots, archimandrites, and other digni- taries of the Roman Church, and of Oriental churches affiliated to her, were then sojourn- ing in the Eternal City ; but I am- under the impression that their number was greater than that of the garrison of San Angelo ; and certainly more ecclesiastics than soldiers were to be seen daily in the dirty, malodorous, in- describably picturesque streets of Pontifical Rome. Troops of mysterious personages, robed and hooded in all the more livid hues of a "low- toned " palette, glided about the Transteverine vicoli, doubtless on errands of mansuetude and benevolence, such as it was then the privilege of the Roman Confraternita to perform in the forbidding guise of inquisitorial bogies. Eighteen years later, when, charged with a journalistic mission of no inconsiderable general public interest — as its results subsequently proved — I revisited Rome, I found that all the old familiar symbols of Papal rule, and visible evi- dences of ecclesiastical predominance had vanished from its streets, piazze, and State buildings. The ancient city teemed with sur- POPE LEO XIII. 291 prises for one who had known, loved, and reverenced her in the days of her dignified and picturesque decay, and was " after long years" again brought face to face with her, as she courted admiration and challenged criticism in virtue of her new developments and adorn- ments. For the most part, her innovations struck me as more startling than satisfactory, and particularly where they had assumed the architectural form, as distinctly out of keeping with any one of the great and impressive cities, each built upon the ruins of its immediate pre- decessor, which made up the Rome so graphically described by Byron ; Rome of the Csesars, the Barons, the Popes, alternately mutilated and embellished by its successive possessors, and bearing a romantic cachet of its own that, even in 1888, was being rapidly dispelled by "improvers" of the "free and united" regime. These un- compromising disciples of progress and reform had manifestly set themselves the task of raising up a new Rome, which should have nothing in common with Imperial, Baronial, or Papal Rome, once the chef-lieu of an Empire as exten- sive as our own of to-day, and subsequently the capital of all Christendom, but that should be typical of modern Italy ; that is to say, prosaic, matter-of-fact, somewhat showy, and not a little vulgar. The Rome that had sprung up since 292 POPE LEO XIII. the memorable summer of 1870, and was being rapidly proceeded with under this particular creative scheme, seven years ago, was obtru- sively meant to be Italianissimo, the most Italian city of Italy as she is, one and indivisible ; democratically constitutional or constitutionally democratical, according to the terminological fancy of whatever political coalition may happen to be in office ; a country ruled in great measure by revolutionary rhetoricians, the survivors of a period of splendid and successful agitation, who care nothing for Rome's past glories ; and, indeed, would gladly efface them from the memory of her actual citizens, were such a feat possible. I had spent a regretful fortnight in this modernised and vulgarised Rome, amid the noisy and pretentious splendours of the State and municipal celebrations, in honour of the German Emperor's visit to his august Ally, the " Chivalrous King," when, during the forenoon of October the 22nd, 1888, I had the honour of being received in special and private audience by the Sovereign Pontiff, who deigned to con- verse with me at considerable length, and upon subjects alike of special and general interest. In obedience to the Holy Father's command, signified to me shortly after the departure of the German Emperor from Rome, I presented POPE LEO XIII. 293 myself at the main entrance to the State apart- ments a Httle before half-past ten, and, upon giving my name, was at once ushered through a suite of stately saloons to the Throne Room, at the open door of which a Monsignor — one of the Papal Chamberlains — met me with out- stretched hand and kindly welcome, begging me to wait for a few minutes, as his Holiness was just then occupied with some unavoidable business ; my advent had been announced, and I should be admitted to the Presence almost immediately. En attendant, Monsignor was good enough to bear me company, and to point out to me the " new splendours " of the State saloons, which had been lately refur- nished in crimson and gold, and adorned with beautiful tapestries, vases, and objets d'art chosen from among the venerable Pontiff's jubilee gifts. The throne, from which the Sala del Trono takes its name, is the one presented to his Holiness by the Spaniards— a magnificent piece of workmanship, daintily carved and richly gilt. In the framework of its deep crimson velvet baldaquin are encrusted two superb agates, about the size of ostrich-eggs. The windows, draped in white silk, of this fine room command a panoramic view of Rome, Cis and Transteverine, including the entire district known by the name 294 POPE LEO XIII. of " Prati del Castello," upon which many scores of huge barrack-like houses, utterly forlorn of architectural merit, have of late years been erected, and cannot but be a painful eyesore to the august occupant of the Vatican, whenever he passes through the suite of rooms overlooking the Prati, once so genially picturesque and now so ignobly vulgarised. The apartments in question are situate on the fourth floor of the vast Papal palace, that is to say, two storeys above the summit of the Scala d'Onore, leading from the great entrance hall to the Belvedere Court ; and like the hall itself are guarded by Swiss halberdiers, in striped yellow and red uniforms, whose former becoming fifteen-century head-dress has been replaced by a leathern helmet of the " Pickelhaube " pattern. All the Papal attendants, not belonging to his Holiness's military and ecclesiastical households, are dressed in scarlet silk costumes of ancient fashion. For the most part they are elderly men, grown grey in service, and trained to a gentleness of utterance and deferential courtesy of manner, which might be imitated with advantage by the loud-voiced and patronising lackeys of the Quirinal. Shortly after the innumerable clocks of the State apartments had ceased striking the hour — oddly enough, no two of them sounded POPE LEO XIII. 295 simultaneously — my summons came, and I was conducted to a small, somewhat dimly-lighted room, at a right-angle to the ante -chamber leading out of the Throne-room. At the further end of this apartment, enthroned on a dais raised a few inches above the ground, sate Pope Leo XIII., his white robes and mozzetta and pallid complexion cast into high relief by the dark crimson hue of the hangings covering the walls. On either side of the throne were ranged three chairs, to one of which — that nearest to him on his right hand — he motioned' me, after I had made the customary salutations, in acknow- ledgment of which his Holiness half rose from his seat, and bent his head towards me. Then, addressing me by my name, he said : " I have been told that you represent a great and influential English journal, and that you wished to be received by the Pope. Your request, as you see, has been granted. What do you desire to learn from me ? Ask, and I will tell you what can. Upon my observing that the state of his Holiness's health was a subject of deep interest to many millions of my fellow countrymen, the Pope quickly rejoined " You may tell the English Catholics that I am well, considering my advanced age, and the multiplicity of my occupations. Yes, my health is really good, though I have 296 POPE LEO XIII. had a good deal to trouble me of late, and have also worked very hard." This reply gave me a wished for opportunity of inquiring into the nature of the important literary work upon which, as was generally understood, the Pontiff had then been more or less continuously occupied for some months, and which — it had been asserted by certain organs of the Press — treated of Roman history, in connection with the Papacy, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. "I know of no such work," said Leo XIII. " If it exists, it has certainly not been written by me. My time has been too fully occupied with the discharge of my duties as Head of the Church, to permit me to undertake a literary enterprise of such magnitude. Some time ago I instructed one of my most intelligent prelates — a very learned and industrious man — to write a history of the Roman Episcopate ; not dealing, of course, with any century in particular, but with all the successive periods of the Episcopate, from its commencement down to present times. That history is written and finished, but by him, not by me. In the way of composition I have had enough to do, too ; I mean to say, with the Encyclical letters I have written to my bishops about Church matters and questions of universal importance, as, for instance, education, social POPE LEO XIII. 297 reforms, and the great labour question, all of which it was my duty to deal with. On the question of slavery, for example, I have just completed an Encyclical, addressed to Cardinal Lavigerie, which will be published to-morrow. You may be glad to know that in it I. make reference to England, which has done so much and incurred such great sacrifices to effect the abolition of slavery. Cardinal Lavigerie is a good and very energetic man, who has taken up a sacred cause. I believe that he has been in England, and that he was well received by your compatriots, who, of course, sympathise with his righteous purpose. With all these grave questions to examine, and with much State business to transact, not to speak of the countless incumbencies of my office, you will understand that I have had no leisure to devote to a historical work on a large scale, such as you allude to." I then ventured to ask his Holiness if the German Emperor's recent visit to the Vatican had proved satisfactory to my august interlocutor. "I cannot say," he replied, "that we are either satisfied or dissatisfied with the Emperor's visit. That he came to Rome was not at our request ; nor was his object in coming favourable to us, but rather to those who are against us — to those who, for ten years past, have practically 298 POPE LEO XIII. compelled me to restrict myself to this palace, from which I cannot issue. My dignity forbids me to do so. This young man (questo giovane), having acceded to the German throne, has been making a round of visits to European Courts ; to St, Petersburg, Copenhagen, Vienna, and finally to Rome, where his presence was calculated to strengthen our adversaries and consolidate their position, not to benefit us. He came to see me ; it was an act of courtesy, and I was glad to receive him. I had much to say to him ; but, just as I was beginning my discourse, he interrupted me by calling in his brother, in order to present him to me. After that, I had no further opportunity of speaking privately with him. I did not find that the young Emperor resembled his late father, whom I personally knew and liked, and with whom I have conversed for more than an hour at a stretch. He was a wise and good Prince, very well read (molto istruiio), intelligent, and large- minded. His manners were perfect. What he said was always full of good sense and kind- ness. "With regard to our modus Vivendi with Germany, in many respects I have good reason to be satisfied. From the German Government I have obtained many valuable concessions. Bismarck is a reasonable man ; he can be POPE LEO XIII. 299 convinced, and I have found him wiUing to accede to just requests. His son, too, who had a long audience of me on the evening of the 17th, seems very sensible and earnest. With our episcopacy and clergy in Germany all is going smoothly and satisfactorily. The vacant offices have been properly filled up with the accord of Church and State alike, and to the contentment of both. Of our religious Orders which had been expelled from Germany, three have been authorised to return to their spheres of duty — the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Benedictines. We are in negotiation about the withdrawal of the prohibitions affecting our Educational Orders ; but there is great difficulty. The German Government desires to keep in its own hands the exclusive instruction of Catholic children. To this I cannot consent. The teaching-rights of the Church must be recognised, and their exercise must be duly authorised by the State. With less than this I may not be satisfied ; and, as you know, when the Pope is dissatisfied, the Catholics are dis- contented. In the German Empire there are fifteen millions of Catholics, whose wishes and feelings must be respected, it being the interest of their temporal rulers to keep them contented When civil authority is righteously exercised, it is always supported by the Church. As the 300 POPE LEO XIII. head of the Church, I cannot countenance injustice done to those who are committed to my care, and whom I am bound to protect and defend." The above, allowing for certain invincible differences between the Italian and English idioms, is the exact purport of the chief state- ments and observations to which Leo XIII. deigned to give utterance, in the course of his conversation with me, during an audience that lasted twenty minutes. I have only here set down those of the venerable Pontiff's remarks to which I feel justified in giving publicity, having heard from his Holiness's own lips that he was fully aware of the capacity in which I had approached his august person, and no restriction whatsoever, express or inferential, having been imposed upon me by the Holy Father, as to the publication of any sentence or word spoken by him on the occasion in question. Whatever I have omitted has been personal to myself, or to illustrious personages in England, with verbal greetings and messages to whom his Holiness did me the high honour to charge me. In manner, as well as appearance, the reigning Pontiff offers a striking, and in more than one respect advantageous, contrast to his immediate predecessor, Pius IX., of whom, during his long POPE LEO XIII. 301 Pontificate, I twice had audience. The late Pope, when I knew him, was a vigorous old man of burly presence and jovial manner, liking to question rather than to be questioned, and displaying a marked predilection for " le petit mot pour rire" — of his own saying, of course, for what layman would dare to make jokes or even say "good things" to a Pope? Leo XIII. is slightly built, fragile-looking, exceeding grave in manner, and dignified of bearing. His features are strongly marked but finely pro- portioned ; his cheeks and lofty brow are almost colourless — "sicklied o'er by the pale cast of thought." When his face is in absolute repose, its expression seems to betoken that he is reflecting profoundly, but mournfully. When lighted up by one of his peculiarly fascinating smiles, however, it beams with gentle bene- volence and tender loving-kindness. Altogether, it is one of the most interesting, attractive, and memorable physiognomies I have ever yet contemplated. That Leo XIII. is one of the most amiable as well as intellectual of living potentates, no one who has seen him smile and heard him speak can doubt. But consciousness of power and strength of will are no less manifest in the glance of his bright eye and the tone of his clear voice, than is geniality of temperament. 302 POPE LEO XIII. During a brief visit that I paid, after my audi- ence, to one of the chief dignitaries of the Papal Government, I was given to understand — by delicate hints rather than by downright state- ments — that, as far as the Vatican was concerned, William II.'s visit to Rome had been heavily fraught with pain and disappointment. Obviously the improvement that had lately accrued in the character of the relations between the German and Papal Governments had inspired hopes which have been rudely dispelled. From the eccle- siastical point of view, naturally enough, the House of Savoy and its present advisers are regarded as the enemies of Holy Church. To gratify them the German Emperor went to Rome ; on their side he took up his stand ; their prestige throughout Europe was augmented tenfold by his demonstrative behaviour through- out his stay at the Quirinal ; he announced to the world at large his absolute and unqualified recognition of Rome as the capital of Italy, inalienable and intangible. Was it to be wondered at that the magnates of the Vatican were downcast and depressed ? They had good reason to regret the "young man's" visit, and to wish that he had stayed at home, instead of coming so far to grieve and discomfit them. Out of Doors AT different times within the past thirty years I have resided or made lengthy sojourns in several Continental realms ; indeed, in every European country, with the exception of the Scandinavian, Hellenic, and Lusitanian king- doms, to which, as it has happened, neither duty nor pleasure has ever directed my frequently- wandering footsteps. Germany and Austria, France, Italy, and Spain, Russia and Turkey, Belgium and Holland, Roumania, Servia, and Bulgaria, are as familiar to me as "my own, my native land " ; more so, indeed, for whereas there are few cities of importance in those countries which I have not visited and stayed in, I know nothing, save by hearsay and novel- reading, of Scotland or Ireland, and have never even caught a glimpse of any of the great English commercial and industrial provincial cities, which, I am told, are so much more numerously populated and wealthy, so much better drained and lighted, than a good many 303 304 OUT OF DOORS capitals of full-blown foreign kingdoms with which, at different times, I have cultivated a close and instructive acquaintance. Hence, in respect to the habits and ways of daily life, I have enjoyed more opportunities for observation and study abroad than at home, and have observed that one characteristic in particular of Continental peoples, whether in- habiting Northern or Southern, Eastern or Western regions, is their marked predilection for taking their meals— and even, when con- veniently practicable, their amusements — out of doors. This characteristic manifested by our fellow Europeans, with more or less insistance, from Portugal to Muscovy, and Sweden to Sicily, is in striking contrast with the deeply-rooted British prejudice in favour of eating, drinking, and being amused under cover ; a prejudice the more unaccountable because the inhabitants of these islands are more inveterately addicted to field sports and al fresco athletic exercises than any other people on the face of the globe. Even the Germans, who are accomplished and inveterate gymnasts, perform their calisthenic feats for the most part in lofty-roofed Turn- hallen, and by far the greater number of students' duels are fought out unter dem Dache, not sub Jove. There is a fair amount of pedes- trianism, no doubt, in the Fatherland, and the OUT OF DOORS 305 German "upper ten" are indefatigable sportsmen and equestrians ; but as a people our Teutonic kinsfolk are not given to playing open-air games. Cricket, football, and rounders have never " caught on '' among them ; rowing is only practised with anything like assiduity on a few of their rivers, chiefly on the Rhine, Elbe, and Neckar ; in respect to foot-racing, wrestling, and glove-play, it may be said of them that, Gallio- like, they " care for none of these things." But they dearly like to refresh the inner man under the canopy of heaven, whenever they can get half a chance of doing so, and though much more sensitive to draughts indoors than any other people in Christendom, will breakfast, dine, and sup in the open, with the brisk breezes of fitful spring or chill autumn blowing boisterously about their ears. Whereas we English, who spend well nigh all our leisure time in yachting, boating, field sports, and outdoor games — cycling from Land's End to John o' Groat's, and slaving at lawn-tennis as though it were a bread-earning profession, instead of a thirst-generating pastime — cannot bring ourselves to dispense with walls and a roof when we are eating and drinking. As far as I know, there is not at the present moment one open-air restaurant or cafd in this enormous capital city, with its five millions of inhabitants and score of more or less rural 3o6 OUT OF DOORS suburbs, each of them populated by upwards of a hundred thousand human beings. Not even in the grounds of so-called exhibitions, thronged as they are evening after evening during the summer months by well-to-do idlers — many of whom would infinitely rather dine sotto le verde fronde than in a stuffy room where the thermometer is persistently recording sixty -five degrees after sundown — has such an al fresco establishment yet been organised. At the great holiday hostelries within the twelve-mile radius — for example, the Ship at Greenwich, and Star and Garter at Richmond — the feasting is done indoors ; and diners — with the exception of those who choose to be served in private rooms — only take their coffee and liqueurs on the outside terraces, even in the dog- days, because it is not yet customary in this land of prohibitions and restrictions that people should smoke after dinner in public eating-rooms. Oddly enough, English folk when abroad are eager and constant patrons of open-air restau- rants and caf6s, as well as of beer-gardens. In my mind's eye the faces, figures, and insular accents of my estimable compatriots are as inseparably associated with airy banquets in the umbrageous Champs Elysdes and " Bois," the Prater and Thiergarten, the Stadtwaldchen and Gradina Herestreu, as with sparingly- OUT OF DOORS 307 ventilated feasts in the Royal, Bristol and Berkeley, amid all the oppresive splendours of gilding, gas, or electric light, and massive upholstery. In Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Pesth, Bucharest, and a hundred other Continental cities, Britons love to look upon green leaves and flower-beds while they allay hunger, and assuage thirst during the months forlorn of an "r." In London, cceteris paribus, they prefer to contemplate dark-hued wall papers and plush, the very aspect of which is heating. In the words of a never-to-be-forgotten jester, "Why is this thus, and what is the reason of this thusness ? " Our metropolis abounds in public parks, which are generally believed to be the property of the nation ; in open spaces, such as Hampstead Heath, Prim- rose-hill, and sundry suburban commons, to which the toiling classes resort for fresh air and pastime on statutory high days and holi- days ; and in squares, many of them tastefully laid out with green lawns, gay parterres, and variegated shrubberies, and profusely adorned by superb forest-trees — ideal "locations" for al fresco refectories. It can boast of two chartered institutions — the Royal Botanical and Zoological Societies — to which have been assiged by the Crown large enclosures within the precincts of Regent's Park, their raison d'itre 3o8 OUT OF DOORS being obviously recreative as well as instructive. Kew Gardens, too, with their inimitable collec- tions of native and foreign trees, shrubs, and plants, are situate within the twelve-mile radius, and may be reckoned among London's most popular places of public frequentation, whenever our capital is favoured by a brief spell of fine weather. In none of these establishments, despite the fact that they are chiefly attractive during summer-tide, is there any accommodation, sub Jove, for would-be out-of-door luncheoners and diners. Nor is a single cafd- restaurant discover- able to human ken throughout the whole extent of the different Thames Embankments — although, by reason of their colossal dimensions, they are far more suitable to the requirements of the cafitier and his clients than the quays of the Seine at Paris, the Arno at Florence, the Elbe at Dresden, or the Danube Canal at Vienna. Presumably, the peculiarities of our native climate have in some measure checked British enterprise whenever — if ever — it has experienced a "call" in the direction of starting open-air restaurants and cafds. Even under cover, by the way, the latter class of refectorial and recreative establishment does not appear to be at present urgently wanted in this country. OUT OF DOORS 309 Englishmen are not accustomed to take coffee after luncheon — a meal to which they devote less time and attention than Frenchmen accord to the dijeuner a la fourchette, or Germans to the Gabelfruhstuck. On this side the "silver streak" luncheon is regarded as a necessity, not as an indulgence. Ninety-nine Britons of every hundred are too busy, or believe them- selves to be so, to waste a couple of hours in the middle of the day upon the deliberate and judicious assimilation of solid and liquid creature comforts. They must eat and drink, however, between early breakfast and late dinner, so they devour chops, steaks, or other barbaric viands, exacting no forethought and requiring brief preparation. Over such a mid- day repast there is no temptation to linger. The sooner it is over, the sooner to business. Coffee after luncheon means leisure as well as luxury, and few Englishmen — except privileged idlers — are leisurely. The after dinner coffee- drinkers, on the other hand, generally partake of that decoction at table, in the room they have dined in — whether at home or at a friend's house, at a club or restaurant. It rarely occurs to them to seek the post -prandial demi-tasse and chasse at a cafd organised on the Conti- nental principle, and offering to its clients a considerable variety of recreations, such as 3IO OUT OF DOORS chess, draughts, and dominoes, backgammon, and newspapers galore, not to mention cards and billiards, which are freely played, coram publico, in the vast majority of cafds abroad. There are, indeed, very few of these estab- lishments in our metropolis ; personally, I only know of three, and their frequenters, for the most part, are foreigners. Manifestly, there- fore, they do not constitute a national require- ment, and climatic inclemencies cannot justly be held accountable for their scarcity under cover and absolute non-existence al fresco. Upon the fitful uncertainty of English summer weather, however. Is generally laid — and plausibly enough, it must be admitted — the main respon- sibility for the total absence of open - air restaurants from our parks, public gardens, "exhibition" grounds, and embankments. 1893, with its drought of almost unexampled duration — lasting with scarcely a break of rainfall, from the end of March to the middle of August — was a striking exception to the old familiar rule of showery springs and rainy summers, which reasserted itself so vigorously during those seasons of 1894. In a country where people addicted to giving garden-parties issue their invitations to those entertainments in fear and trembling, and where picnics ^xAfHes champdtres involve maddening speculations in the " rise or OUT OF DOORS 311 fall" of the barometer, it is possibly somewhat unreasonable to expect that business-men should invest capital in the installation of out-door restaurants, which can only be made remuner- ative in warm, and, above all, dry weather. The east wind, too, which searches this island with a persistence worthy of a better cause throughout some eight months of the annual twelve, is another element of discouragement to those enterprising purveyors of edibles whose names are popularly associated with all the great refreshment contracts of the day, and who would in all probability provide • London with ample accommodation for out-door lunching and dining, if by so doing they could secure a reasonable profit on their outlay. I have discussed the question with more than one of these mighty restaurateurs, whom I have found to be unanimously of opinion that the prospect of getting wet to the skin or chilled to the bone, even in high summer-tide, is one that may be counted on to deter English bans vivants from partaking of the most succulent, daintily -prepared, and featly-served food under the canopy of heaven. Rain, they observe, is not the correct liquor wherewith to " wash down " hors-d'ceuvres ; the only thing that should be breezy about a vol-au-vent is its name ; a soujflS ceases to be enjoyable when it presents itself 312 OUT OF DOORS to the consumer in the guise of a keen wind- gust. Doubtless these are irrefutable statements ; but the disabilities implied by them with respect to out-door meals apply to other climes as well as to ours. Britannia is by no means a monopolist, as far as rain and wind are concerned. She has more of both, in an unseasonable sort of way, than her neighbours ; but I have spent many a wet summer day dismally enough in Paris and Berlin, and have been half stifled by hot dust- storms in Vienna, Pesth, and Bucharest between the months of May and September. Abroad, somehow or other, bad weather does not seriously affect the open-air refreshment industry. While it lasts, of course, it drives breakfasters and diners indoors and keeps them there ; but as soon as it is over they flock back to their favourite haunts, "where trees are green and freely flows the beer." I have seen them at the " Neue Welt," in Vienna, and the " Bock " Gardens in Berlin, selecting tables and chairs ere these articles of furniture had been dried after a heavy shower, and settling down to enjoy their copious repasts in an atmosphere that would have been considered damp in Devonshire or on the West Coast of Scotland. By the time they had emptied their first seidel or krugel the musicians, who are always on OUT OF DOORS 313 hand or at hand in such establishments, had emerged from their place of shelter, taken up position on the band-stand set apart for their accommodation, and commenced tuning their instruments. Within a quarter of an hour after the cessation of rain, as a rule, the whole enntertainment, refectorial and musical, was in full swing, and, in the figurative words of Mrs. Nickleby's distraught wooer, " all was gas and gaiters." This ready adaptability to circumstances was, of course, ascribable to the permanence and completeness of the requisite " properties," which in every German and Austrian open-air restauration are plain, solid, and inexpensive. Considering the luxuriousness of our domestic habits, especially in relation to the pleasures of the table, it may be doubted that English folk of the " upper ten " would put up with the rough- and-ready " installation " that is regarded as perfectly satisfactory by out-door diners of the highest fashion in Vienna and Berlin, though it only consists of painted deal tables and chairs — the latter as hard as the nether millstone — blunt cutlery, coarse napery, and cast glass. Among these unpretentious dinner accessories, the only ones which the heaviest shower is capable of rendering unserviceable for more than a minute or two at a stretch are the table 314 OUT OF DOORS cloths and napkins. Besides, all the open-air restaurants with which I am acquainted — and their name is legion — are contiguous to covered dining-rooms, upon which their frequenters can fall back when Aquarius is seriously " on the job " and will not be denied. A typical restauration of this class, able to accommodate its customers in fine and wet weather alike, is that of the Berlin "Zoo," a place of entertainment the management of which is really remarkable for the intelligent practicality governing its arrangements for the health and comfort of its furred and feathered attractions, as well as for the accommodation of its two- legged visitors. In summer-time it realizes the average Prussian's ideal of a terrestrial paradise, in which he can take the sort of ease he thoroughly appreciates, with the " blue vault " over his head, and abundant and cheap refresh- ment hard at hand, acquaintances to argue with, and absolute license in the matter of smoking, combined with the contemplation of the lower animals and the performance of a military band. There is an excellent restaurant just opposite the huge wooden shell in which the " trumpet corps" of the Guard Cuirassiers is usually put up to play on high days and holidays ; an enormous pavilion fronted by broad platforms overlooking the main promenade, and so OUT OF DOORS 315 resourceful — as far as its material equipment, culinary capacities, and staff of waiters are concerned — that it succeeded, in the course of one particularly fine Sunday twenty years ago, in lunching and dining no fewer than 30,000 guests. The building stands on a slight eminence, the " hub," so to speak, of the Zoological Gardens, and I can recall to mind no pleasanter place of refreshment than its great terrace overlooking the bears and the bandsmen, a colossal effigy of Neptune water- ing a four-storeyed rock with the seemingly inexhaustible contents of a classic urn, and a spray fountain — "silver-footed, diamond-crowned, rainbow -scarfed" — springing upwards from the pellucid surface of a miniature lake, the haunt of countless fancy water-fowl. Among such surroundings, how much more agreeable to dine or sup, where you have spent the afternoon, than to curtail your holiday and hurry home- wards, in order to dine stuffily within four walls ! In this regard the Germans are wiser than we. Having made up their minds that it is more agreeable in warm weather to eat and drink out of doors than indoors, they have induced their restaurateurs to furnish them with ample accommodation for so doing, thus prov- ing their healthy contempt for conventional formalities. Scores upon scores of times, during 3i6 OUT OF DOORS my long residence in Vienna and Berlin, I saw ladies and gentlemen of noble birth and high fashion taking their meals in the open air, to the strains of cheerful music. By con- forming to this harmless custom did they in the least diminish their social prestige, or damage their reputations as adepts in the science of savoir vivre ? I venture to think not, and to cordially admire people of such unassuming and sensible habits, contrasting so favourably with the fantastic refinement that denounces all manner of simple enjoyments as "bad form," presumably because they are easily and cheaply procured. Fortunately for the northern and southern Germans, as well as the Teutonic Austrians, the " upper crust " tendency to stigmatise as vulgar every pleasurable practice that is neither exclusive nor costly is not a characteristic of good society in the Fatherland. W, Brendan and Son, Printers, Flymtntth, EIGHTEKNTH THOUSAND. BOG-MYRTLE AND PEAT. By S. R. CROCKETT, Author of "The Raiders," "Stickit Minister," &c., &c. Large Cro-wn 8vo, cloth, 6/- SOWIE PRESS OPINIONS. Academy. — "It is the most important book that Mr. Crockett has published, for it contains in ' Saint Lucy of the Eyes ' by far the best and most promising story he has yet written." Times. — ^" A fine piece of descriptive writing, reminding us strongly of Jefferies — this midsummer night's vigil in a plantation." Speaker, — -"Excellent from cover to cover, and will certainly increase the number of Mr. Crockett's admirers." Daily Chronicle. — " Could only have been written by a man of genius." 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By MONA CAIRO, Author of "The Wing of Azrael," &c. Cro-iwn 8vo, cloth, 6/- Vanity Fair. — "This strange novel, so powerfully written, comes like the writing on the wall at Belshazzar's Feast .... engrossing .... soul-stirring .... a book that is calculated to preserve a place in contemporary literature." Daily News. — "The grace and vigour of its style, the variety and vividness of the character-drawing in its pages, lend to it an interest and charm apart from its motive Whether the reader agrees or disagrees with Mrs. Caird's views he must be interested in the story she tells, and entertained by the briUiancy of its telling." Aberdeen Free Press. — "A remarkable work .... the stamp of high ability is undoubtedly on the book." Glasgow Herald. — " The novel is undeniably able .... the workmanship is of a high order." A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL. By EDEN PHILLPOTTS, Author of "The Laughing Philosopher," "In Sugar Cane Land," "The End of a Life," &c., &c. Cro-wn 8vo, cloth, 2/6. 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