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270
ON THE EVE OF WAR [chap. xvi.
advice and contrary opinions that are clashing in the
country!" . . . The King, doubtless, was alluding to
his own recent troubles over the Bondestog and the
change of Ministry. Perhaps, also, he had other
obsessions of a still more serious nature in view, which I
at the moment had no idea of. However that may be,
His Majesty’s sincerity—a sincerity piercing through
much reticence—made an impression on me; it was a
decided change for me after Ferdinand, and the duplicity
which I always felt was underlying all the effusions and
all the confidences of the King of the Bulgarians.
From the King’s room I was conducted to the Queen’s
apartments, where I found myself in the presence of a
grcinde-dcime sovereign, correct and kind. The following
days I was received in audience by the other members
of the Royal Family. First by the Crown-Prince and
his wife, nee Princess Margaret of Connaught. He
struck me as being a serious young man, serious beyond
his years, with unaffected manners, very guarded in his
speech. She—quite charming, and also thoroughly
unaffected.
Prince Charles, brother of the King, enjoys the
sympathy and the respect of all surrounding him. He
is tall, good-looking, and in his appearance has
something typically chivalrous—an impression which
increases when one gets to know the admirable qualities
of his character, his great and active goodness, his
upright mind. His wife, nee Princess Ingeborg of
Denmark, possesses all the taking and real charm of her
own family. Pretty, intelligent, extremely unaffected in
manner, and yet "every inch a princess," she reminds
me forcibly of her aunt, the Dowager Empress of
Russia, who had sent many messages to her niece by
me. Three delightful young girls, of which the eldest
made her debut while I was in Stockholm, and a fine
little boy, made up the family.
The King’s youngest brother, Prince Eugene
Napoleon, the only one of the family in whom the
French type is still very apparent, lives almost like a
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