Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XX. War sufferers
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of Russians in enemy countries, and had, on our
account, to resume a more strenuous daily task than the
one he had just left in Madrid. Nevertheless, each
request that my compatriots or I addressed to him was
met by a kind and charming smile; entire records,
admirably kept, often in the beautiful handwriting of the
Duke himself, prettily tied up with “ribbons,” were
perused and quickly yielded the information required.
The translator of the sonnets of Heredia into Spanish
verse—a work which made the great literary reputation
of the Duke of Amalfi—knew quite as well how to direct
his office as he did his poet’s pen; but above all he was
capable of putting his whole heart into everything that
he did for our unfortunate compatriots.
Two years later, when I was in Madrid, during my
brief term of office in Spain, I noticed that this noble
way of doing humanitarian acts was truly Spanish:
under the orders of the King’s private secretary—the
very sympathetic Señor de Torres—there was an entire
department, admirably worked, devoted to the protection
of the prisoners of war, a work Spain had so generously
taken over. And the incentive was given by His
Majesty Alfonso XIII. himself, who took great interest
in this humanitarian work and imbued it with a
character of frankness, energy and Christian piety.
How many persons owe their life to the King’s
intercession, how many thousands and hundreds of
thousands of unfortunate people owe to him the gradual
amelioration of their miserable condition! When the
impartial history of the terrible war comes to light the
friends of humanity will be able to rest their eyes,
wearied by the sight of so much hatred and so much
unnecessary cruelty, on the figures of King Alfonso XIII.,
of Prince Charles of Sweden and all those who were
their assistants and agents in their great work of charity
and generous protection.
I must be allowed to mention, side by side with these
princely philanthropists, the characteristic figure of one
of the representatives of the eminently democratic
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