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i9i4] BANQUET AT THE PALACE
necessary to introduce M. Nekludoff to me!" he exclaimed
amiably when my turn came; "he is an old friend of
ours !" Then grasping my hand and lowering his voice,
the President said to me: "We are going through a
truly alarming crisis; I have no time to discuss it with
you, but I hope that we shall have a little talk this
evening." M. Viviani, however, pausedjfor a few minutes
to exchange impressions with me. " What do you say
about the situation, M. Nekludoff?"
"Alas !" I replied, " I greatly fear that it means war."
" It is terrible, terrible," exclaimed the French
President of the Council; "for if it means war for you,
it-most certainly also means war for us"
" I did not expect to hear anything different from you,"
I said to M. Viviani ; "but let us still hope that things
will settle themselves !"
" Yes, yes, we will hope so ! We shall have an
opportunity of talking at greater length this evening,"
added M. Viviani, taking leave of me.
The banquet served at seven o’clock in the evening in
the grand state gallery of the Castle was stormy. The
guests could only talk of the ultimatum and of the perils
of the hour. At the foot of the stairs I met the
Austro-Hungarian Minister face to face; he had left for his
holiday two or three days previously, and had not put in
an appearance either in the morning on the terrace of
the Castle, or in the afternoon at the presentations to
M. Poincare.
"Oh! So you have come back, Count Hadik ? " I
accosted him.
"Yes, I have come back," and with that the Count
turned his back on me and disappeared in the crowd.
The German Minister was paler than usual, and
wore an expression of restrained emotion. He insisted
on coming up to me to exchange a few commonplaces
about the beauty of the room and of the magnificent
Louis XVI. Sevres dinner-service on the long table. We
took our seats ; the music began; at a given moment,
the King and the President of the Republic exchanged
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