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ign] PORTRAIT OF THE KING 13
concern, displaying, however, more elasticity than
perseverance, more audacity in conceiving his plans than
determination in carrying them out.
The portrait that I am drawing of the King of the
Bulgarians may appear to be very black and much
exaggerated. And yet, in passing judgment on this
complicated character and on this person so universally
disapproved of, I am ready to plead extenuating
circumstances.
The exercise of the rights of sovereignty in a Balkan
country does not come within the category of callings
which ennoble the characters of those who pursue them.
More especially must one admit this when it is a question
of Bulgaria and the Bulgarians, a people already cursed
once by history—for it is they who brought the Turks
into Europe—and who then, during five centuries of a
particularly cruel yoke, being deprived of the slightest
vestige of national autonomy, became uncouth and less
civilised than any other nation of the Near East.
In a word, for thirty years Ferdinand and the
Bulgarians have mutually corrupted each other.
But we ought to place to the moral credit of the King
of the Bulgarians the fact that in the whole course of
his existence as prince, he has lived exclusively in the
political life of his people, interesting himself deeply
and solely in the problem of the raising of Bulgaria, and
consecrating himself to that at all hours and on all
occasions. This undoubtedly endued him with strength
in comparison with other sovereigns, especially with
those whose private life meant far more to them than
their public life and that of their subjects. Some were
mainly occupied in increasing their fortune; others gave
themselves up to sensual pleasures; others again
subordinated everything—even their most sacred duties—
to the joys and cares of family life; Ferdinand had two
passions only : the consolidation of his throne and the
career of his people.
In Ferdinand’s defence one must also plead the fact
that he was born neurasthenic, and that the circumstances
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