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KING FERDINAND
3
to attract him, to make him, if possible, the instrument
of his political designs concerning Russia. It was just
in the midst of these favours, always very uncertain,
that the Russian Minister fell ill and died, furnishing the
King with an opportunity of displaying his grief by
spectacular funeral ceremonies, which were to serve as
a proof of his Russophile sentiments.
Although I had no intention of having recourse to
such extreme measures in order to collect proofs of
royal good-will, yet I entirely shared the Minister’s
point of view as to the necessity of establishing—inter
vivos—good personal relations with King Ferdinand.
One may have had a lurking feeling of distrust for him, but
it was all-important that this should not be perceived by
the public of Sofia, which is strongly addicted to intrigue
and feverishly busy with political tittle-tattle. I had
been a witness at the outset of my career of the troubles
and disappointments undergone by Russian policy
through the attitude which we had taken up with regard
to the first Prince of Bulgaria, Alexander of Battenberg.
In the very midst of the reaction prevailing in Russia
in the eighties, we had vehemently supported the
grievances of the Bulgarian Radical party against the
absolutist inclinations of the young Prince of Hesse;
we ended by quarrelling completely with him and with
the Bulgarian Radicals ; we succeeded in bringing about
the downfall of the Prince, but only in order to deliver
the country over to the Stamboulovists, to give birth in
Bulgaria to an entirely Russophobe party, and finally to
end in the kingship of Ferdinand of Coburg! He was
far more dangerous and a thousand times more crafty
than Battenberg, and yet we began to flatter him, after
having heaped insults and contempt upon him for years !
Certainly, I should not allow myself to fall into the same
mistakes again; I said as much quite frankly to M.
Sazonoff, who agreed entirely with my point of view.
A few days later I received an audience of H.I.M.
the Emperor. My reception was a particularly gracious
B
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