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CHAPTER XVI
on the eve of war
Two days after I arrived in Stockholm, I was received
by the King in a solemn audience. The King was
going off the very next day to shoot elk in the northern
provinces—some said to inspect troops and forts there—
and he was in a hurry to get through the audience. He
had been, moreover, seriously indisposed for some
months, and his physical sufferings, added to political
tribulations, according to all accounts, made him nervous
and even irritable at times. I did not notice this during
my audience, but I was struck by the looks of His
Majesty, who appeared to be really ill. As is known,
his journey to the North was interrupted by an acute
attack of the internal malady from which he suffered.
He was brought back to Stockholm, where he underwent
a very serious operation, which was wonderfully
successful, but which left His Majesty enfeebled for a
long time. The King did not entirely regain his
strength for a year, but then he was able to resume his
normal life and the sports in which he excels: hunting
and tennis.
The reception of foreign Ministers who come to
present their credentials to the King takes place in
Stockholm in the setting prescribed by time-honoured
etiquette. At the appointed hour, a master of the
ceremonies came to fetch me, and conducted me and my
suite in gilded coaches to the Palace. We had no
escort; but instead, at the Castle of Stockholm—
majestic in its simplicity of an old Roman palace—the
Dragoons of the Guard were drawn up on the grand
staircase in their historic uniforms of Charles XII.’s
268
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