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i9i7] SAD REFLECTIONS
507
imperative to mention them as little as possible. "So
long as the present Government, including M. Kerensky,
is in power, one can feel assured as to the fate of
Nicolas II. and his family. Heaven forefend that all the
power should pass to the Soviets ! then one could answer
for nothing; but even so all intercession would only be
fatal!"
The two gentlemen were sincerely grateful for the
complete frankness of my explanations; from that hour
relations of sympathy and perfect confidence were
established between us, relations of which I allow
myself to be proud, for M. Dato and the Marquis de
Lema can rightly be considered the most esteemed
politicians of Spain—esteemed even by their opponents.
A quarter of an hour after I had got home, I received
a visit from the same two Ministers—still in full dress.
Then nunc dimittis: I was at last free to discard my
official finery, so particularly oppressive on these
Madrid dog-days, and to rest.
But when I found myself alone in my room, with the
blinds carefully drawn down, I was struck by the tragic
contrast between what I had just seen and what had
just been said to me so nobly and humanely by King
Alfonso XIII. Over there, at the far end of Europe,
also magnificent palaces stood in a setting of power
and glory, and pompous and imposing ceremonies were
held of which the centre of attraction was an Imperial
couple surrounded by four enchanting princesses and a
delicate and attractive boy. This was but yesterday . . .
and to-day this family, before whom all bowed low, who
saw no one and nought save in brilliant array and in the
attitude of obedience—this same family was languishing
in the solitude of distant exile in some mean and
common dwelling, and, what is far worse, exposed to
the continual supervision and the insults of brutal and
dirty keepers. . . . The Royal family in the prison of
the Temple; the two children of Edward V. listening
with anguish for the footsteps of the assassins on the
staircase of the Tower ; the wretched John Antonovitch
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