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i9i3] FERDINAND’S AUDIENCES 145
" M. Sabler is the son of the Procurator of our
Holy Synod"; I went on with my introduction without
allowing myself to be the least perturbed.
"Horrible! . . . horrible! . . . horrible!" continued
the King, casting at Sabler, who was much
disconcerted at this reception, such stern glances that
one would have thought that he suspected him—01
even his pious and illustrious father—of having
participated in the abominable assassination at Salonika.
Then calling out to me once more his "horrible! . . .
horrible! . . . horrible!" the King hurriedly left the
cathedral.
In February, 1913, after the election of M. Poincare,
the French Minister was to present to the King—
according to etiquette—an autograph letter from the
new President of the Republic. After three weeks of
negotiations and delays, M. de Panafieu was at last
granted an audience. I naturally was interested to
know what the King would tell him during this audience,
and my French colleague, with whom I was very
intimate, promised to call on me on leaving the Palace.
"Well, and how did your audience go off? What
did the King say to you ? " I asked M. de Panafieu, who
came to me at the hour agreed on.
" His Majesty was excessively kind and amiable,"
replied my colleague, smiling. " He kept me for half
an hour, and this half-hour was taken up by a
monologue, bright and charming, from the King! He spoke
of his recent journey to Paris (in 1910), of M. Fallieres,
of the way in which he had made the acquaintance of
the present President, even of the scientific studies of
the President’s cousin, Poincare the mathematician; in
short, he tried not to let me get in a word, afraid
evidently that I might try and put in a question or a remark
of a political nature. When the half-hour was over, he
dismissed me with the same studied friendliness; and
here I am ! "
The German Minister, Herr von Below, was invited
by the King to a tete-a-tete luncheon with him at Vrana,
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