Courts And Countries After The War

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H.R.H. INFANTA EULAUA

Courts and Countries
After the War

By H.R.H.
THE INFANTA EULALIA OF SPAIN

NEW YORK

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1925

T, 1025
BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC,

Q. * - w

PBINTIJ3 W tf, S, A,

y \ THE VAH..BAU.QU fN W

SE 25 '26

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAOH

I PARIS DURING THE WAR .... i
II SPAIN AND HER KING 1 8

III THE DUKE OF TOLEDO, AND THE STORY

OF LAS URDES 40

IV MORE ABOUT SPAIN 67

V ENGLAND AND THE ENGLISH ... 90

VI AMERICA 114

VII GERMANY . . . . . . . . 136

VIII THE ROYAL WAR CRIMINALS "Gorr

STRAFE ENGLAND" 155

IX BELGIUM, SWITZERLAND, AND AUSTRIA 176

X THE THREE GRACES, AND THE PERIL

OF THE STRICKEN BEAR . . . .192

XI THE SUPER-MAN OP EUROPE EX-
KING FERDINAND OF BULGARIA . 211

XII RUMANIA GREECE THE UNSEEN

FORCE OF EUROPE 229

XIII ITALY 244

XIV POST-WAR MORALITY THE MENACE
OF DEGENERACY MY IMPRESSION
OF PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS . .267

ILLUSTRATIONS

H.R.H. Infanta Eulalia Frontispiece

FACING
PAGK

Queen Christine, widow of King Alfonso XII ... 20

HJVt. Queen Victoria of Spain 24

The Royal Palace, Barcelona 42

Infanta Beatrice, Infante Alfonso, Prince Alonso, Prince

Ataulfo, Prince Alvaro 44

The entrance to the Royal Palace, Barcelona ... 50
The Prince of Asturias, heir to the Spanish throne . . 62

H.M. the Queen of Spain in the National dress of Sala-
manca 68

The Queen's room at the Royal Palace, Barcelona . 72,

Queen Victoria of Spain with her daughters, Infanta

Beatrice (right) and Infanta Cristino (left) . 76

Infanta Eulalia going to church with her sister, Infanta

Paq, in Madrid 84

Infanta Eulalia talking to an old schoolboy of King

Edward's School ....., 92

Infanta Eulalia inspecting the boys of King Edward's

school . 100

The Ex-Kaiser walking in Doorn with his second wife 156

M

ILLUSTRATIONS

3TAOINO

Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria with his second wife,

Princess of Luxemburg 170

Infanta Eulalia 1 86

Empress Zita of Austria with her children . . . .190

H.M. King Gustaf V. of Sweden 198

Ex-King Ferdinand of Bulgaria . . . . , .212

H.M. the Queen of Roumania 230

H.M, Queen Maria of Serbia 234

H.M. Queen Elizabeth of Greece 240

H.M. King Victor Emmanuel of Italy 246

Benito Mussolini, the Italian Dictator 256

[vi]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES
AFTER THE WAR

CHAPTER I

PARIS DURING THE WAR

I WAS staying in Brussels in August, 1914, with
my friend the Princess de Ligne, when war was
declared between France and Germany . . .
and how well I recall that lovely summer's day,
when we received the news of what was destined
to prove a world-wide catastrophe. True, I had
heard vague rumours of unrest when I was in
Munich, but my sister, Princess Ludiviez Ferdi-
nand of Bavaria, and my nephew had laughed at
the mere idea of war. This was only a few
weeks previously, so when Elizabeth de Ligne
rushed, all excitement, into the dining-room,
crying, "War is declared," I naturally disbe-
lieved hen

"Elizabeth, you don't know what you are talk-
ing about," 1 said.

"But, madame, tfs true/' she persisted, "Us
arriventour troops are now mobilizing, war
must inevitably come to Belgium . . . you had
better make arrangements to return to Paris as

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

quickly as possible ; it's really no distance from
the German frontier, and I am apprehensive
for your safety."

"The best thing is for me to wire to my Em-
bassy/' I told her; "we shall at any rate know the
exact truth from the Spanish Ambassador."

The reply from the Embassy left us in no
further doubt. War had been declared between
France and Germany, and my Ambassador
counselled me to make up my mind at once as
to my movements.

"Your Royal Highness must either remain in
Belgium, or return to Paris without delay," he
advised.

I could see that my presence at Mons would
necessarily embarrass Elizabeth de Ligne, now
encompassed by terrible anxieties, so I told her
that I must leave for Paris that same afternoon.
Never shall I forget that journey. A compart-
ment had fortunately been reserved for me, but
the train literally crawled: hour after hour
passed, and still we crawled ; and it was late the
next evening before we reached Paris. Here
everything was confusion and excitement, the
very air was charged with electricity; for France

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

as well as for Germany the day had cornel
And I had a fantastic idea that even the crepe-
wreathed statues of the Lost Provinces would
presently become animate, and join the hurry-
ing crowds who were singing the Marseillaise,
and vowing retribution for 1870.

It was impossible to get any conveyance at
the Nord Station, so I was obliged to walk part
of the long distance to my flat, until I obtained
a "lift" in a fiacre by telling the kindly driver
that I was a Belgian refugee.

Next morning the tumult was, if anything,
worse. From my balcony I watched the sol-
diers passing and repassing the men sat
happily on the straw-strewn boards of the
waggons, all of them laughing, all imbued with
a fierce patriotism allied to a desire for revenge,
and all sustained by the dramatic instinct which
is inseparable from the Latin race,

Class distinctions were swept away, and the
French became as one united family opposing
a common enemy to domestic life. . . . "Ill
bring you back William's moustache," shouted
a poilu, waving his hand to me in greeting. He
spoke as freely as if he were addressing his

[3]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Maria or Susanne and yet, two days before,
this same man would have been the first to
realize the importance of showing deference to
any lady! "You shall have a nice dish of Sauer-
kraut/' called a boy full of enthusiasm. Every-
one uttered some plaisanterie; nobody seemed
to count the cost of .war; although at that
moment death must have been following close
on the heels of some of these laughing, singing
soldiers.

The French have always been described (es-
pecially by the English) as a nation swayed by
superficial emotions, but I assert with absolute
conviction that their patriotism is remarkable
and deep-rooted. The behaviour of the French
during the War was wonderful, and it displayed
much of that spirit which made those con-
demned to die during the Revolution smile as
they ascended the steps to the guillotine. I am
proud to say that 1 remained in Paris through
all the fateful days: I felt that I could not
desert the city which had afforded so kindly a
a sanctuary to my mother in her hour of need ;
and I have never regretted the privations and
discomforts which I thereby endured, For 1

[4]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

was thus enabled to see the best and the worst
side of humanity, the strength and weakness of
the soul, and the fineness and corruption which
are the inevitable results of any great war.

I am a courageous woman, but, let me admit
It, the raids were certainly nerve-shattering;
these were often as many as four a night . ,
No lights were allowed after ten o'clock, our
windows were sand-bagged, and, by Govern-
ment orders, only ground-floor and first-floor
tenants were allowed to remain upstairs after
the first 'warning. It was one recurrent trek
u to the cellars," But many marriages resulted
from these communal hours of danger. And
here again history repeated itself; for just as
during the Revolution the condemned of both
sexes found love under the shadow of the gull-
litine, so love came Into the darkness where
youth and age sat, wondering whether the next
bomb might not launch them into eternity.

But nothing quelled the heroic spirit of
France; the Parisians after their first alarm
laughed at Big Bertha -that miracle of exacti-
tudefor so exact was she that we were able at
last to time her firing, and to know where the

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

shells -would fall. After the War, I was told
that one of my nephews had been entrusted with
Big Bertha, and that, greatly troubled in his
mind, he had written to his mother saying:
"Whenever we fire, Fm terrified lest Aunt
Eulalia should be hit" Certainly, I had one
or two narrow escapes: once when the cannon
was changed, and when by chance 1 took the
left side of the rue de Ponthieu if I had gone
to the right, I should have been killed! An-
other time, when I was at Auteuil, a shell fell
close by me and I was plentifully besprinkled
with stones and earth. A gentleman sitting on
a neighbouring seat went on reading his news-
paper with admirable composure, but he found
time to bestow a passing glance on me. Notic-
ing my sorry plight, he remarked : Madame is
not afraid?"

"Yes, I am afraid," I said desperately; "but,
after all, what can I do?"

At the end of 1917 we had no milk in Paris,
and hardly any nurses. One day, when I was
waiting for a train on the Metropolitan, 1 no-
ticed a soldier, evidently very ill, who was sitting
on the same bench as myself, The poor man was

[6]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

spitting blood, and he told me that he was then
going to the hospital. ... As I felt that I could
not move without hurting his feelings, I re-
mained, knowing that in all probability I should
soon be down with malignant influenza. My
forebodings proved true: the next day I was
stricken, and for weeks I lay between life and
death. Even now I suffer from recurrent at-
tacks of fever a legacy from the complaint 1
One of the most interesting (to me) experi-
ences in Paris during the War consisted in
watching the effect which the brutalities of life
had on the average young girl. French girls
have always led more or less "cloistered" exis-
tences until after their marriages when, in a
spirit of contradiction which lacks a sense of
proportion, they become too emancipated. It
is not to be denied that many French girls are
now more or less English in their ideas, and
that they are infinitely more cosmopolitan and
broad-minded than their mothers. But some-
thing inseparable from their vie de famille still
creates a barrier around French girlhood; tra-
ditions of centuries are strong, and it is not
considered desirable to brush the veloute from

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

the fruit or to allow the eyes of Innocence
to be prematurely opened to the crudities of
life.

The stern necessities of war opened the eyes of
innocence without any warning, and, with this
enlightenment, a certain sex curiosity was inevit-
ably aroused. . . . The Italians, however, were
the first nation to recognise this, and the Gov-
ernment rightly insisted that all nurses who at-
tended the sick and wounded must be women
of a responsible age. This wise provision re-
sulted in the soldiers being more efficiently and
more "steadily" nursed, and there was less of
the emotional and temperamental side of nurs-
ing than was shown in other countries. I am
not, of course, saying that all young war nurses
and all young V. A. D.s were victims of insati-
able sex curiosity, but many of them suffered
from it; and I do not think that it is advisable
for even the most level-headed girl to be sud-
denly confronted with the helpless "brute" in
man when he is powerless to show any refine-
ments towards those who tend him, and as often
as not unable to exercise physical control, since
control, moral and physical, is only possible

[8]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

for the strong. The great awakening of sex
came on many girls who (by reason of their up-
bringing) were utterly unprepared. Those
who were by inclination and by nature vicious
have been enabled thereby to satisfy their sen-
suality; and those of a colder type, disgusted at
the meaning of sex as thus conveyed to them,
have resorted to forbidden vices and have fore-
sworn marriage. Others have retired to the
peace of a conventual life; and I know of six
girls, daughters of duchesses, who, in a spirit
of disgusted reaction, have taken the veil, and
who do not apparently regret their choice.

In many cases the nurses' uniform in France
was a mere travesty of the original model, and
it became a kind of revue garment, which barely
reached to the wearer's knees, and exposed limbs
encased in filmy stockings and expensive shoes.
Small wonder that a celebrated surgeon of my
acquaintance declared that all nurses ought to
be temperamentally" certified, and examined,
before entering upon their duties,

I shall probably be most severely criticized
for my condemnation, but let it be clearly un-
derstood that I am only condemning a certain

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

aspect of nursing, and showing the danger that
lies in it as a profession for sexually unbalanced
individuals. We must never lose sight of the
fact that sick-nursing is the most intimate of all
professions adopted by women: the practical,
clean-minded nurse comes as an angel to the
house of suffering, but the super-attractive
woman or girl (clever nurse though she may
be), who practises the art of allure, knowing all
the dangers of sex adventure, is more to be
dreaded than the plague, and, as often as not,
she is responsible for countless sorrows and mis-
understandings in the families of her patients.
During the war, the absorbing passion for in-
discriminate dancing provided another outlet
for sex curiosity, and girls, who before 1914
would have considered it almost a social inde-
cency not to have been conventionally "intro-
duced," now swayed to and fro with young men
in the closest embrace, sleeveless, almost
corsage-less, and practically skirtless. It was
suddenly considered permissible for the most
discreet Parisiennes to dance in public, and
the history of dancing during the Revolu-
tion repeated itself, with the differences

[10].

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

that the Carmagnole of '93 was the Shimmy
Shake or the Bunny Hug of 1914. I re-
member a tragic-comic result of this com-
munal dancing which happened to a daughter
of a friend of mine .whose name ranks
high amongst the noblest in France. This
charming girl often danced in public with an
equally charming and well-bred man in fact,
I think she would not have been unwilling to
become his dancing partner for life. He, how-
ever, never divulged his name or his position,
and one can understand her feelings when she
was calling with her mother for the first time
at a certain house, and recognized in the discreet
butler her partner of the day before; but, to do
him justice, he did not betray the slightest knowl-
edge of her identity.

Corruption and sensuality are the accepted
camp followers of war ; and the mistaken open-
ing of the prison doors let loose a mass of the
dregs of humanity, whose evil trail has spread
everywhere. Surely, in the interest of the pub-
lic, no criminal, even the most patriotic, should
have been allowed his freedom solely on ac-
count of his desirability as a soldier?

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

France Is Indeed a land of contradictions.
Republican in her government, she remains in-
tensely aristocratic at heart, and she realizes
even more so perhaps than England the neces-
sity of keeping the different classes apartsince
the philosophy of the War shows that classes
cannot mix with any good result Kach class
possesses a different mentality, and you cannot
expect small minds to realize the value of a
larger outlook. In France, too, marriage is
much more "tied" than in England : the stage
and peerage rarely, if ever, intermarry; the
common-sense mentality of the French, teaching
them few such unions are successful, owing to
the fact that any woman whose life lias been
one false excitement of the senses rarely settles
down to domesticities. In Spain you are
noble or nothing; we do not recognize any
middle class, so marriage is of necessity entirely
of the nobility with the nobility.

As a good Catholic, I suppose I ought to con-
demn the very name of divorce, but, as an open-
minded individual, and an observant "onlooker,"
I maintain that it should exist on certain
grounds, first and foremost on those of extrava-

[12]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

, gance on either side. Taken as a whole, the
bedrock of life is money; too much of it, or
too little of it, are equal destroyers of comfort;
and I know many instances where divorce might
have afforded protection for the children, as
well as a protection of morals. Marriage,
however, remains a sacrament, and we cannot

tp dispense with it; and so strong is the feeling in

@ Spain, that ill-assorted couples will live openly
n with their affinities rather than attempt to up-

<? set "dogma."

Q Marriage is the greatest illusion of youth;

IP other associations come later friendship, that
amour sans ailes, being perhaps the most sat-
isfying of all ties. One must be initiated in the
mysteries of love in the days of one's youth,
wen if the initiation should prove a failure.
The average middle-class person is usually

00 most unpoetical, hence middle-class marriage is

00 about as dull as the catechism; but, with money
to create a mise-en-scene, it is possible to avoid
the fretting trivialities which make failures of so
many marriages. The first rhapsodies generally
-**" terminate with the honeymoon, an adventure
-/} which nobody seems to be courageous enough

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

to begin in the new home, and which is usually
passed in somebody else's house, under the eyes
of strange servants, or else in the publicity of a
large hotel. Why do people never attempt to
begin their lives together under different con-
ditions? And the newly-weds arc, more than
anyone else, absolute slaves of an obsolete and
more or less mediaeval convention.

Man's point of view and that of a woman
are essentially different: man's affection is more
or less sexual; with woman it is usually heart.
Women want men to read life to them as a poem,
but unfortunately, they invariably render it as
prose. The capricious woman holds the aver-
age man longest, because she embodies the spirit
of change which most appeals to him; and al-
though occasionally a great friendship may rise
like the Phoenix from the ashes of a great pas-
sion, life, love, friendship and happiness are
mostly questions of temperament

When peace .was declared, Paris, always
emotional, became more so than ever: the pop-
ulation frankly went mad; the Lost Provinces
were lost no longer. Germany was humbled to
the dust, her sweeping wings were well and

04]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

thoroughly clipped, and her rulers were notl 1
But no victory will ever quell the spirit of
hatred which exists between France and Ger-
many; and between these countries there can be
no lasting peace. Germany will never forgive
the Ruhr, or the introduction of "coloured"
troops into Silesia, any more than France for-
gives the theft of Alsace-Lorraine. It is now
a question of revenge on both sides at times
childish on the part of the French, who, emu-
lating the Philistines, bait the stricken Samson,
and do not remember their fate. The majority
of Frenchmen believe in their inmost souls
that the only way to avoid another world war
is to treat Germany like a dangerous wild
animal, which, once trapped, is- consigned to
imprisonment for life. It is almost impossible
to convince them otherwise, or to impress upon
them the fact that a great nation like Germany
must have industrial freedom, if she is expected
to meet her financial liabilities.

During the War, France insisted upon a uni-
versal acceptance of a period of national mourn-
ing: France was an invaded country, the
Germans were actually on her soil; therefore 'it

. COURTS AND COUNTRIES

was not permissible for any patriot to Indulge
in the gaieties of social life ; and I remember one
thoughtless and charming woman who was

"cut" because she gave a dinner-party. No
visiting, as visiting, was allowed; and when we
met at various houses our conversation was not
of yester-year. Where once we had talked
of chiffons, we now discoursed learnedly on ra-
tions; and at last I knew more about "arrang-
ing" than 1 had ever done. Literature, the arts,
the beauty of life, gradually disappeared, lost
In a labyrinth of wool; we knitted as assidu-
ously as any tricotcuseswe were all that was
most domestic; nevertheless, 1 for one, have
learnt a great deal from this curious phrase
through which the French aristocracy passed
during the Great War!

The Idea of writing a book dealing with
countries and Courts after the War first oc-
curred to me during the days of domesticity in
Paris, and I decided to note and store my Im-
pressions until the fitting moment arrived for
their publication, I always adapt myself to my
environment; if it happens to be that of a Court,
I am In the Court, but never of it I live years

[16]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

years ahead in my mental outlook, In fact, I can.
best describe myself as a pioneer royalty; but I
can also lay claim to a certain clarity of vision
and a complete detachment, which enables me
to write as an unprejudiced observer who is en-
tirely large-minded in her outlook.

[17]

CHAPTER II

SPAIN AND HER KING

THE position of Spain during the War was, in
many respects, unenviable. She was blamed, for
not joining the Allies, she was deluged with
propaganda from both sides, and it .was openly
asserted that commercialism alone prevented
her from being a combatant But the truth
was, that nobody from the highest to the lowest
in Spain wanted to be drawn into the War; in
this, perfect unison prevailed, and the women
even threatened to put their bodies on the rails
should their husbands be taken.

It was, however, the destiny of Spain in this
world crisis to produce a figure of chivalry in
the person of her King, who showed In himself
an example not easily forgotten by posterity.
We must picture him as he was in this fateful
August of 1914, a young man of twenty-eight,
married to a beautiful wife, devoted to his
children ... he had everything that makes

['8]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

life enjoyable: an exalted position, wealth, the
facility for getting the utmost out of existence,
as the King of Spain is not the usually stolid
monarch who merely represents an ornamental
figurehead. He was then, as now, vivid, mer-
curial, temperamental, the superfine product
of the Houses of Spain and Austria, a represen-
tative who embodies all their best traditions and
none of their degeneracy.

From his birth Alphonso XIII. had been sub-
jected to a stern and sombre education; and
although romance had attended his birth, she
had been rigorously banished from his child-
hood and early manhood, and she had only
made her re-appearance when he wooed the
golden-haired girl who now shares his throne.

Thus, the King was full of the joie de vivre
when the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
were freed from hell, and the thunder of their
horses' hoofs was presently heard in Spain.
But presently, above the fateful sound, arose
the voice of suffering, and the pitiful sighing
of the prisoners from their prison-camps and
fortresses, where those condemned to death
waited in uncertainty as to their fate.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Alphonso XIII. Is a very "perfect knight";
all his Ideas of chivalry are mediaeval, and he
would have been a great figure in a romantic
age, but in modern history he will be known as
the universal healer of hearts, a title gained by
his splendid and whole-hearted work for the
prisoners of war. . . .

Great events have usually small beginnings,
and the despairing letter from the mother of a
prisoner appealing to him, as the Ruler of a neu-
tral country, first awakened the King's sense of
his moral duty towards all those who were deso-
late and oppressed. His vanity was perhaps
flattered by this personal compliment, but this
counted as nothing in comparison with his kind-
ness, his generosity, and his sense of chivalry,
He resolved henceforth never to disregard the
humblest petition, and in making this decision
he undertook a gigantic task, and a more stu-
pendous 'burden than has ever fallen on the
shoulders of any monarch past or present,
Thus the King's "thoroughness" (one of his
most striking characteristics), and his love of
detail, eventually produced the organization

[20]

QUEEN CHRISTINE, WIDOW OF KING ALFONSO XII,

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

which had its headquarters in Madrid, and its
branches in every capital in Europe.

This human detective work was often heart-
rending, and the story of many of the investiga-
tions is stranger than fiction, the most terrible
being the endeavours to trace the fate of
men who had disappeared, and who are, even
now, numbered with the unknown. . . . The
mind can hardly bear to dwell on the possibili-
ties of their lot, should any be living to-day
to whom the sound of their own name conveys
nothing, and for whom memory's gates are in-
exorably closed.

And in this manner the pallid spectres of
death, suffering and sorrow passed silently into
the gay and smiling land of Spain. . . . They
took up their unseen stations by the young King,
and whispered to him of foul atrocities, of
prisons full of cruelty and disease, of men lost
to all semblance of humanity. They also bade
him remember the women of the war : beautiful
mothers like his own wife, girls who had kissed
and parted under the shadow of death, brides
widowed before their orange blossoms had

[21]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

faded, older women who had given their all to
their country: the incessant and heartrend-
ing voice of the Rachel of Europe, weeping for
her children, and refusing to be comforted be-
cause they were not.

It is with great pride and pleasure that I am
able to state publicly for the first time that all
letters sent to the King were personally attended
to by His Majesty. He never relinquished one
iota of his actual responsibilities to others,
although the practical working details of this
ever-growing organization were placed in the
hands of trustworthy employes.

The trial and condemnation of Nurse Cavell
was destined to bring Alphonso XIII. into great
publicity in his role of mediator and healer of
hearts. Directly after Nurse CavelPs sentence
was promulgated, the King received a telegram
urging him to exert his influence with Germany
to save her life; he was informed .with perfect
truth that the Kaiser himself wished to spare
her, but had declared himself powerless to in-
terfere with the military Governor of Brussels.
This officer rigidly adhered to the strict letter
of the law ; he reasoned that the nurse had com-

[22]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

mitted an offence of which others had pre-
viously been guilty, and for which they had been
punished. He argued that no exception ought
to be made in the case of Nurse Cavell he only
saw the punishable crime, and not the u uni-
form" of the criminal. This Spartan outlook
has given rise to endless discussions as to the
justice of administering the same judgment for
one offence to all offenders. It has been said
that women, now sharing the rights of men,
and protesting their equality with them, should
not expect different treatment under the mili-
tary law. As little or no mercy was shown by
the Allies to women spies, Germany doubtless
considered herself justified in carrying out the
sentence on Nurse Cavell, but I am of opinion
that had Nurse Cavell not been a nurse, no great
outcry would have been made; the fact that she
was a member of the Red Cross aroused a storm
of indignation (not entirely free from senti-
mentalism) against her judges*

Queen Victoria Eugenie was especially
moved to pity, and she never desisted in her ap-
peals to the King; English by birth and up-
bringing, but, since her marriage, more of a

[23]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Spaniard than a Spaniard, the Queen reverted
to her English instincts, and wept for Nurse
Cavell as a sister. The Queen-Mother, Haps-
burg, and Austrian Archduchess, forgot her
reserve, her own family troubles and anxieties,
and added her prayers to those of the Queen.
All sorts and conditions besought mercy for
Nurse Cavell.

There is no doubt that the effects of this
period of strain and horror have left indelible
marks on Alphonso XI II. He has certainly
become more human, and by reason of the lev-
elling and humanizing process to which he was
subjected, he is more tolerant and understand-
ingwar and the necessities of war have com-
pleted his educationand although he lias lost
none of his capacity to live every moment of his
day, his character is stronger, his sense of
responsibility greater, and his outlook has
broadened with his riper judgment lie relies
on himself alone, and as in his work for the
prisoners of war he was sole manager of the
enterprise, so he is now sole manager in his
kingdom, entirely captain of his soul and master
of his fate. The Spanish Government, with

[24]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

curiously protective instinct, has forbidden him
from participating in the joys of aviation at the
station of the Quatro Vientos, but it cannot con-
trol the wings of his soul wings which, in his
upward flight towards enlightenment, will
never share the fate of those of Icarus.

The King, my nephew, provides me with an
inexhaustible source of interest; and although
his modesty shuns publicity, I consider it is
right to enlighten the world as to his multi-
tudinous interests and his practical activities.
During the war and after it, his life became
full of new and innumerable interests ; he is now
in touch with everything that concerns his coun-
try, and no private enterprise is too small to
command his attention.

It is erroneous to suppose that Spain is so
lethargic that she cannot appreciate the im-
portance of worldly affairs ; she has still within
her the indestructible spirit of the days of
Ferdinand and Isabella, and the King, whose
mind is imbued with the traditions of his House
and the past glories of Spain, dreams of reviv-
ing these by re-uniting the Latin races, and
bringing Spain and South America into unison.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Nothing can disprove the fact that at one time
Spain was the dominant nation of the world, and
that she represented the glory, the wealth, and
the intellect of Europe; and, if the King's life be
spared, I see no reason to doubt that his hopes
for her future will be realised.

Alphonso XIII. regards himself as the
father of his people, and especially as the
father of the Spanish race in South America,
which he singles out for signal recognition
whenever he is brought into contact with it
To-day, through the King's love of South
America, the old-time subjects of Spain are
building houses which bring into New Spain
the architecture and colour of the "Mother Coun-
try, and old wrought- iron work, Moorish tiles
and even nails are being imported from Spain
into South America for building purposes,
Thus, Spanish eyes still look through the ancient
"grilles," and Spanish feet still tread the pave-
ments trodden by their ancestors. These new
Spaniards absolutely fit in the picture, and they
live as picturesquely as did the Hildalgos and
great ladies of former times,

The King is greatly in favour of inter-

06]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

marriages between the noble families of Old and
New Spain; for, always far-seeing, he wishes
to encourage the admixture of the best blood
enriched with the best traditions. The women
of South America make excellent wives and
mothers. They have been brought up in a
milieu of ancient Spanish life, and they are
often more Spanish than any Spaniard. Relig-
ion and family life are all in all to these women ;
they bring to their husbands absolute chastity, a
devout religious spirit, a love of home and its
duties and, above all, a passionate devotion to
the Mother Country; and although modernity
will undoubtedly come to Spain, it will be
rightly balanced by the new generation born
from this healthy stock. But the wise young
Ruler, who has allowed for these changes in the
future, never attempts to interfere with the cus-
toms of his country, and thus Spain is in no real
danger from any discordant foreign elements.

South America is even now preparing a recep-
tion for her "King," and when Alphonso XIII.
arrives an New Spain, he will find himself In
in his own country. The King makes no secret
of his dearest wish; and although he will prob-

[27]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

ably seize the moment to put it into execution,
any seeming delay is caused solely by what 1
can best describe as the maternal instinct of
Spain, since the jealous mother-love of the na-
tion cannot endure the thought of parting with
her King, so to speak, for foreign service. This
love is one of the highest tributes to the King's
individuality, but national jealousy will not
admit of any rival, even should this rival be of
her own blood. However, the Mother Country
must remember that courtesy is inborn in her
King, and Alphonso XIII. will never permit
himself to show discourtesy towards South
America. Sooner or later he will go there.

I am sure that the King, in his role of a
dreamer of dreams, plans a bloodless rcconquest
of Peru, a conquest accomplished by sheer force
of personality; and, as a patriot, he ranks as the
greatest that Spain has ever produced. I re-
member that my mother, Queen Isabella, once
told me that our national flag dates from the
conquest of Peru, and that its colours typify a
river of Spanish blood flowing between two
rivers of gold, I like to think that to-day it can
also be said with truth to represent the purified

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

blood of New and Old Spain, still flowing be-
tween rivers of wealth beneficial to both coun-
tries.

The King is responsible for most of the exist-
ing ventures which have been started of late
years with the object of bringing money into
Spain. His great idea is to combine modernity
with a strong background of old traditions but
it requires extraordinary tact to effect this dif-
ficult combination, and not to offend a country
steeped in ecclesiastical and historical tradi-
tions, a country whose religion is inseparable
from its national life. Thus, just as England
can never become a Republic, so Spain will
never be denied her State and Church; and it
would be a black day if any such separation
took place.

I have often been asked to express my views
on King Alphonso's adaptability to the new
situation in Spain, and my opinions on the re-
forms in this country of traditions.

King Alphonso is primarily a patriot before a
monarch, and from this fact arises his adapta-
bility to all methods of goverment, provided he
believes that they are for the ultimate good of his

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

country. I am not In a position to criticize the
reforms instituted by the Directory, but one
thing is certain, the Directory Inspired every
true Spaniard with a sense of relief, as It was
universally accepted that we were living on the
edge of a slumbering volcano, which might at
any moment have overwhelmed Spain and re-
duced her to nothingness.

The public must, however, clearly understand
that the name of "The Spanish Mussolini' 7 is not
correct, and, furthermore, It Is absolutely devoid
of sense. Neither the man, his mentality, his
position nor his methods have any likeness to
Mussolini's position in Italy.

The "arrival" of Mussolini and Primo de
Rivera arose from totally dissimilar causes, and
the march on Rome by the " Black Shirts,"
headed by a "civil plebeian," has no resemblance
to the aristocrat and soldier who appeared In an
emergency to show his loyalty to the King of
Spain by dissociating him from the stern meas-
ures necessary for the extinction of foreign
undesirables who were engaged in fomenting
revolution in Spain.

Mussolini had solidly and carefully paved the

[30]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

way to save Italy; General Primo de Rivera
was not so fortunately situated, but the sound of
the tocsin of revolution carried him first to his
sovereign, with, as all the world recognizes, the
happiest results for Spain.

There is no such thing as any middle course
for Alphonso XIII. , for him it is the best or
nothing; and just as he excels as a sportsman, so
he means to excel as a king, never forgetting the
value of the commercial idea as allied to mon-
archical traditions. His sons are being edu-
cated for the country; the Prince of Asturias
and his brothers have the same military teachers
who superintended the King's education, and
who have made him so remarkable a soldier.
The King follows the movements of an army
during a war as painstakingly as though the war
were his own, an interest primarily due to the
spirit of militarism inculcated in his mind from
his earliest childhood by his mother, and care-
fully fostered by the wonderful soldiers around
him.

I have often heard my nephew described as
"unstable," but this conception of him arises
from his extreme versatility; and although he in-

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

dulges in many and varied pursuits, he does all
of them thoroughly. But to live with him is
like living with twenty different persons at once!
This modern Mercury is always poised for an-
other flight, whether it be for some commercial
speculation for the benefit of Spain, or for one
of those gorgeous ceremonies where the Church
walks hand in hand with the King,

It is easy to see the entire control which the
Church exercises on the lower classes in Spain,
and how their mentality is influenced by her
guidance. Spain would be like a lost sheep
without such direction; but whilst one moment
she bows her head in spiritual adoration, she
raises it the next moment to gaze at the colour
and spectacular movement in which her soul
delights, and of which the practical and
artistic side of the King so rightly estimates the
value.

Spain has never cheapened herself, or be-
come the bon marche of Europe in her pag-
eantry, for which she posseses immense
climatic and natural advantages over other
countries, England in particular. Imagine,
for instance, a State procession where every

[32]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

house en route is hung with draperies of velvet
and heraldic shields, and where colour dazzles
the onlooker in Oriental profusion (for let it
never be forgotten that we Spaniards are dow-
ered with the Spirit of the Orient!) where
everything appeals to the imagination, and
where even the climate is beautiful.

But 1 am digressing from the subject of this
Ruler who possesses the spontaneousness of
youth combined with the understanding and tact
of a diplomat It must also be remembered
that he was never the Heir to the Throne, but
was born a king; and I have often heard him
say that he would like (as an experiment) to
know what heirs-apparent really think of their
positions. The king, the heir apparent, and his
next brother, are those royalties who appeal
most to the populace, the remainder of princes
and princesses are merely the chorus ladies and
gentlemen on the royal stage. All royal jeunes
premiers ought to be young and progressive,
middle-aged heirs-apparent who become mon-
archs are apt to lose interest in their kingdoms;
there is usually not much time between their
coronations and their burials they are frankly

[33]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

tired they inherit too late! My nephew does
not know the meaning of the word fatigue; as
often as not he works until three in the morning,
and afterwards he is early astir. Even when he
is forced to consult Dr. Moure at Bordeaux, he
usually turns his visit into practical advantage,
notably last October, when he obtained copies
of the documents relative to the harbour works,
in order to see if they could not be applied to
the harbour construction at Seville, the river
Gaudalquivir possessing certain similarities
with the Gironde. He also had an idea that the
wine industry in this part of Spain might be
carried out on the lines of the wine industry at
Bordeaux, and, mindful of the direct route from
Bordeaux to Africa, he is desirous of instituting
a like service from Seville. The King studies
France like an open book, he avoids her disad-
vantages, but applies her advantages and attrac-
tions to benefit his own country as far as
possible.

The King of Spain, like that amazing mon-
arch, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, believes that
the prosperity of a country lies in its possi-
bilities of rapid communication, and in the com-

[34]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

fort of its interior arrangements; thus he encour-
ages the development of the railways, and the
the modernizing and readjustment of the large
hotels, now mostly run on American lines. . . ,
My brother Alphonso XII. was the first king
to make Spain cosmopolitan, and he was like-
wise the first King of Spain to be brought up in
a foreign country. His son has followed his
lead both in national interests and also as a
sportsman. The King thoroughly appreciates
the value of Spain as a country and as an a in-
vestment," and he views its possibilities as a
king, a sportsman, an agriculturist, a man of
affairs, and a man of the world. But, as an in-
dividual, the King is alone responsible for the
growth of the sporting instinct in Spain; it is he
who has made polo popular. Polo-grounds are
to be seen everywhere; and the quarters of his
racing stud, and his estate at Lorutoki near San
Sebastian are run absolutely on the lines of
Sandringham. The King has popularized golf,
approved of play on the Spanish Riviera, and,
in short, he has done everything possible to bring
foreign money into Spain, and to suit the ever-
increasing demands of the new generation.

[35]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

I have heard various of the King's detractor's
remark that, like King Edward VIL, he dis-
plays no interest in the arts, and that he cares
not a jot for literature. This is partly, true, but

the King is by no means insensible to the claims
and attraction of these pursuits;; he protects
them, but he cannot indulge in them owing to
his heavy duties; and it is not to be wondered
that, as an active young man, his moments for
relaxation are devoted mainly to outdoor pur-
suits.

His popularity is assured, and he is no one's
enemy but his own, as his contempt for mali-
ciousness and adverse propaganda occasionally
leads him to underestimate their danger to him-
self and his family. Some kings are saved from
publicity by the mediocrity of their appearance,
and the dullness of their lives; but young and
gallant monarchs, like the King of Spain, are
inevitably marked down as victims. Nowa-
days, the private lives of crowned heads are
brought down to the dead level of domesticity,
and the Press does not scruple to attack defence-
less persons who cannot defend themselves by
reason of their exalted positions. Directly any

[36]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Royalty shows signs of possessing a definite per-
sonality, he, or she, instantly becomes the butt
for all kinds of untrue and sensational gossip
gossip which causes not only pain, but which is
also extremely harmful! My nephew's inabil-
ity to see the mud beneath his feet has often
made him the victim of a corrupt Press, as when
Royalty does a kindly action it is liable to be
looked upon as a lapse of dignity; and to-day
many Royalties fall into constant traps owing
to the present "flair" for monarchs to lead pri-
vate lives out of their own countries.

If they act in a friendly fashion, the Public
and the Press decide that they are cheapening
themselves; if they are ultra-dignified, it Is said
that "there ought to be a revolution, and get
rid of them" ; and when some wearied Royalty
seeks privacy and repose in an "incognito," the
charitable comment is invariably, "I wonder
what they're up to!" The world never seems
to realize the need that Royalty (more than any
other class) has for privacy, but I believe it
would be better in the long run if crowned
heads did no visiting out of their own countries,
for whenever, like the dove, they go forth over

[37]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

the face of the waters to seek land (or rather
rest) they find none, and they return In disgust
to the dullness of the royal ark, which, at any
rate, represents some sort of privacy and peace.
Even the cinema has become a menace to
Royalty! I do not, of course, allude to the films
of royal weddings, ceremonies, and other pub-
lic events in the daily lives of kings and queens,
but to those concocted dramas of royal happen-
ings, incorrect as to detail, untrue in scenario
and substance, and in which the most ludicrous
mistakes in etiquette and Court dress arc glar-
ingly apparent Surely the producer should be
advised in these matters by someone conversant
with them, as it is not fair to the Royal dead or
to their living descendants to allow such films
to be shown publicly, and even as I write I can
recall several which are deserving of supreme
censure. But it gives me great pleasure to
praise where praise is due, and I can remember
one lovely film, featuring the late Crown Prin-
cess of Sweden, the ever-lamented Margaret,
which showed her in her garden and in the
sweet intimacy of her homea beautiful and
touching record of a young life untimely cut

[38]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

off in all Its promise and happiness. But here
again I am wandering, like any adventurer off
the beaten track! I have touched on the dan-
gers which threaten crowned heads by reason
of an unscrupulous Press, and I shall be better
able to point a moral to adorn a tale when I de-
scribe the King In his dual personality of King
of Spain and Duke of Toledo.

[39]

CHAPTER 111

THE DUKE OF TOLEDO, AND THE STORY
OF LAS URDES

WHEN the King of Spain decided to adopt an
''incognito" for sport, and one which he hoped
would also ensure him privacy on his travels,
he chose that of the Duke of Toledo, a romantic
and chivalrous title, well suited to him who
bears it

Alphonso XIII. and the Duke of Toledo are
two distinct persons; they even differ facially.
One is the King, the father of his people, and
the other is the sportsman, and, paradoxically,
the knight of the Middle Ages, who personifies
the Spain which occasionally lifts the curtains of
centuries, and reveals her past glories to a won-
dering world-

I have already touched on the King's love of
sport, and his admiration for horse-flesh, but I
do not think that he ever becomes on { mtl~
mate" terms with his mounts; to him they are

[40]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

merely horse-flesh of varying qualities and he
has no real affection for the animal world, a
curious trait in one whose sympathies are so
widespread and so understanding. The King
races and plays polo in his role of the Duke of
Toledo, and to me, as to all women, he appeals
most strongly when he appears on the ground,
a living bronze, on a pony as light and graceful
as himself: it is impossible not to be proud of
him, for he presents a wonderful picture. Polo
is the sport which he loves best The Spanish
team is world famous, and, like a magnet, polo
draws the King wherever it is played. Al-
phonso XIII. visits Deauville and other resorts,
but whenever he does so he invariably becomes
the subject of most regrettable and entirely un-
deserved criticism which I, for one, greatly re-
sent In my opinion, many of these fashionable
watering-places are merely immoral resorts,
their "atmosphere" is bad, and too many de-
classees are in evidence. But the King has
hitherto not perceived the danger to which he
exposes himself in the mistaken belief that at
Deauville, and elsewhere, he will be ranked as
Duke of Toledo, and not as the King of Spain.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Dancing at Deauville, and elsewhere, is the
prevalent craze, and although the King does
not care for dancing, he nevertheless dances in
public, solely from a desire not to spoil the
pleasure of others, and in order to put them
entirely at their ease. But woe betide the Duke
of Toledo if he dances with, or talks much to,
any young individual, as should he do so, the
news is at once cabled far and wide. The next
morning the ultra-sensational newspapers are
full of his "affair," and, last year, a hitherto
unknown young girl wrote a preposterous ar-
ticle on the "King of Spain as a dancing
partner" thus changing a kindly attention into
blatant self-advertisement

It seems impossible for people to take into
consideration the fact that the King has real
need of relaxation, and that in Spain he is con-
stantly forced into a milieu of older minds.
Realizing this, it should not be deemed extra-
ordinary that occasionally, as a young man, he
requires to exchange thought with more joyous
souls. The public dares not criticise kings in
their palaces (fortunately the sanctuary of sov-
ereigns), but directly Royalties attempt to

[42]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

mingle with the people, they are lost! This un-
pleasing fact proves that classes cannot mix,
and it is far easier to blend races than classes.
A certain antagonism between classes has always
existed, and it will continue to exist until the
end of time. But why treat such an accepted
"sport" as the King in such an unsportsmanlike
manner?

Although my nephew has undergone a severe
upbringing (one steeped in the strict Court
etiquette of Spain and Austria), his soul remains
unaltered. The divine fires of youth, and the
artistic temperament, will glow for ever in his
soul, and he will never become old in mind.
In the eyes of psychologists he represents the
most refined product of the House of Spain and
Austria, and the race has been kept so pure
that it repeats itself facially line by line in.
many of its present-day descendants. Hence
the King is almost the twin of his ancestor
Philip IV., and the famous picture of Philip
IV. hunting at El Pardo might well be that of
Alphonso XIII. in fancy costume.

I am sufficiently romantic to be appealed to
by the King's chivalrous instincts, and by that

[43]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

aspect of his Individuality which reverts to the

medieval monarchs of Spain. This spirit of
chivalry prompted him to offer a shelter to the

ex-Empress Zita of Austria, when she was pass-
ing the Spanish coast as a broken-hearted and

friendless exile; but, in offering her rest and

repose, the King was not actuated by any
especial liking for Austria, and his family con-
nections and his Hapsburg blood were not un-
duly stirred. lie only saw a woman in dis-
tress. . * The ex-Empress resided for some
time at El Pardo, which, in many ways, resem-
bles the old palace at Kew, and in his choice of
her residence the King's chivalrous spirit was
balanced by practical considerations. He did
not wish, or intend, to cause any complications
for the Allies, and he realized that the solitude
and environment of El Pardo could not afford
her any temptations to meddle in the political
situation which had previously led to such dis-
astrous results.

The King also rightly estimated the value of
pure air for the delicate children of the ex-
Empress; his own children had thrived at El
Pardo, and for centuries the formal gardens

[44]

INFANTA BFAIRICK, INFANT!- ALFONSO, PR1NCK ALONSO, PRINCE ATAULFO,
PR1NCK AIA'ARO

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

have been known as the Playground of the In-
fantas. ... It is a home-like place, large, as
are all Spanish palaces, but not over-gorgeous,
although its tapestries rank as some of the finest
in Europe.

An article recently appeared in an English
newspaper which purported to give an authentic
account of the pitiful condition of the ex-
Empress and her children at San Sebastian
whither she repaired after a prolonged sojourn
at El Pardo. The writer dwelt at considerable
length on the "meanness" of the King of Spain
in permitting the ex-Empress to live at San
Sebastian in penury, and he even thought it nec-
essary to point out that a shabby old hotel omni-
bus was the only means of conveyance offered
to this distressed family by a king whose ideas
of comfort have always been on the luxurious
side.

As one who knows, I must emphatically con-
tradict these statements. The King's treatment
of the imperial exile was invariably generous,
but my own discretion, and my regard for His
Majesty's dislike of "self -advertisement," for-
bid me to relate the extent of this generosity.

[45]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Suffice it to say, that on various occasions the
King's practical kindness relieved the ex-
Empress from many material anxieties which
had arisen from her own lack of financial ex-
perience, or from thoughtlessness on the part
of her entourage,

The account of Alphcmso XIII/s journey to
Las Urdcs, the Land of the Forgotten, affords
a striking instance of old-time chivalry, and a
stranger adventure has never befallen any mon-
arch of modern times. The origin of Las
Urdes goes back to the end of the seventeenth
century, when the Jews were banished from
Spain by order of the Church and the State*
Some of them, however, refused to leave their
adopted country, and escaped into the moun-
tains, where they formed a colony which has
existed to the present day -"the world for-
getting by the world forgot," in a most literal
and horrible sense. Few people arc known to
have had any transactions with these pitiful
refugees, as the place of their asylum was almost
inaccessible, chiefly by reason of there being no
roads; gradually they became forgotten, and if

[46]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

their name was ever mentioned, it was merely
as a legend.

The present Bishop of Coria, who combines
great intellectual qualities with a passion for
humanity, has been told of Las Urdes, and his
interest in the "legend," combined with his per-
sonal interest in the story as possessing possible
truth, led him to make investigations which
proved that Las Urdes was no fiction, but a
sombre and distressing truth, and that it con-
stituted a plague spot on the reputation of Spain
as a civilized country.

The Bishop, shrewdly appraising the King's
incurable love of adventure, lost no time in
awakening His Majesty's sympathy and curios-
ity in respect of these forgotten outcasts. At
last, as a result of their many conferences, the
King decided to visit Las Urdes in person, and
he accomplished this dangerous and difficult
undertaking in the spring of 1922.

I have always pictured the two enthusiasts
discussing the project in the light of the proph-
ecy of Daniel, those forceful words in which
the prophet says : "Je regardais dans les visions

[47]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

de la nuit, et sur Ics nuces vint comme un fils
d'hommc. Et il lul fit donne domination,

gloirc, et regnc, et tons Ics pcuplcs, nations, ct

langues, le servirent." I can imagine the
Bishop describing the people who longed for
consolation; and he may have suggested that
they would meet the King as their "redeemer,"
the "redeemer who frees them glory to him,"
and before now, some passing shepherd might
even have enlightened them that a redeemer and
a king existed in the person of Alphonso XIII.!
Thus, with his imagination afire, and his pres-
tige and his religious sensibilities appealed to,
the King set his face toward Las Urdes the
Home of the Living Dead! Tt was, in many
ways, as desperate an expedition as a journey
In search of the Poles! Las Urdes lies far
away In the mountains, and it is first approached
through immense tracts of gorse and under-
growth, . . . The initial difficulties of making
a passage-way through the gorse were many,
and progression became almost impossible when
the gorse disappeared and gave place to a hor-
rible growth of some malodorous, glutinous
plant peculiar to this sinister locality. . * . Even

[48]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

the tents brought by the travellers to serve as
sleeping quarters were practically useless. The
atmosphere was as dense and baleful as the
vegetation, miasma rose from the steaming
ground, the heat was intense, the fever-haunted
nights were sleepless, and hosts of flies and mos-
quitoes abounded. The King was urged to
return; he was told that his presence in such
surroundings absolutely courted danger; he was
reminded of the value of his life to Spain, and
of his duty to his family, but he turned a deaf
ear to all these promptings. . . . "I am the
father of my people, as well as the father of
my children," he said. "I am acting now as a
king and as a father; these dreadful conditions
of our own life en route doubtless exist at Las
Urdes, so it is more than ever my duty to go
there, and find out what can be done to allevi-
ate the horror of the lives of the people." Use-
less to argue with such a young knight! And
I am sure that the King actually saw him-
self living, and thinking, as some long-dead
chevalier. He made light of the innumerable
discomforts, and perhaps he was secretly glad
when automobiles proved impracticable and he

[49]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

was obliged (In true knightly fashion) to ride
on horseback through a track cut yard by yard
in front of him. . . ,

At last the distant mountains grew percep-
tibly nearer, and through the poisonous haze
the little company were able to discern signs
of life in these solitudes. But surely they had
only discovered the Inferno, and those who
therein dwell? For the creatures who ad-
vanced to meet them were terrible and grotesque
caricatures of humanity; visions of monstrous
heads set on misshapen and shrunken bodies,
others were eaten up with sores, some were crip-
ples, some idiots, and, above all, many were
lepers! . . ,

These dreadful beings emerged from cave-
dwellings, mud-huts, and shelters unworthy of
a beast; they gibbered and chattered in a sort of
broken Spanish, but they all essayed to greet
their King, hitherto as remote from them as
GocI in His highest heaven* And in this wise
Alphonso XIII. came to Las U riles!

He came, this ultra-modern King of Spain,
heralded by no impressive procession, no glitter-
ing escort of soldiers, with no colour and music,

[50]

THE ENTRANCE TO THE ROYAL PALACE, BARCELONA

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

no smiles from beautiful women, and no wel-
come from diplomats and statesmen. He sat on
his tired horse, under the blazing vault of
heaven, a lean, bronzed young figure with his
passionate eyes aglow, heedless that the fever-
laden wind was the breath of death, and that
death itself might await him in this pest-ridden
place. For him there was no protection, no
guard of honour, no display of pomp and cir-
cumstancesonly diseased and miserable out-
casts crawled to greet him the living dead of
Las Urdes.

The King was profoundly moved and im-
pressed by his reception; but he had entered
upon this strange adventure as some crusade,
in which he featured the Great Healer. He
dismounted, and prepared to make a minute
survey of the social and sanitary conditions of
Las Urdes. There was not the slightest trace
of either. The primary conditions of hygiene
were unknown, there was little or no water,
and the Las Urdes lapped up the stagnant pools
like cats do milk. I have described these peo-
ple as being akin to monstrosities ; but a few fine
specimens of manhood existed, the last flickering

[Si]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

efforts of this dying race, men whose Jewish
features betrayed their origin, and who seemed
more intelligent than their fellows.

Suddenly a man emerged from one of the
palmetto huts. He was a leper . . , he ad-
vanced towards the King . . . his hand out-
stretched. . . .

For the first time the courageous soul of
Alphonso X1IL failed him, and he shrank back,
with the natural distaste that any healthy man
experiences when he is confronted with some-
thing unclean. . . * The man's hand remained
outstretched, and still the King hesitated to grasp
it. . . He realised that the risk of personal
contact might mean that he might also become
a lepera being cut off from all that makes life
desirable. He thought of himself as one set
apart from his beautiful Queen, and from his
young children; he pictured his changeless, rest-
less soul imprisoned in a rotting body" -it was
impossible to contemplate such a fate. Then . . .
the dauntless spirit of Spain asserted itself, the
mantle of the Great Healer descended upon the
King, and once again he heard the voice of the
Bishop of Coria: "With spirit in your words

[52]

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you can bring peace to their troubled hearts;
you are the symbol of Life and Light, and you
can bring blessings to those who have lived for
centuries under the shadow of malediction."

Alphonso XIII. hesitated no longer; he took
the man's proffered hand, shook it heartily, and
passed with him into his hut, where a woman
shared her mate's hopeless lot. . . . But the
storm of conflicting emotions had claimed its
toll . . . and the King was relieved when the
little party left Las Urdes to the sinister guard-
ianship of its mountains and its fever-haunted
plains. The King has told me that, for weeks
afterwards, he could not shake off his haunting
dread of possible leprosy, and that for many
nights he, like Peter Ibbetson, "dreamt true"
of Las Urdes and the living dead.

The problem of what best to do with these
afflicted people is now under grave considera-
tion: the majority of them are weak in intellect,
as intermarriages for generations have produced
degenerates as well as wrecks ; they are, taken as
a whole, morally and physically unclean. What
will be the ultimate fate of Las Urdes? Many
solutions have been advanced, the most practical

COURTS AN-D COUNTRIES

and brutal being that of a noted physician.
"Tell the Bishop of Coria to inaugurate a new
auto-da-fe, and burn everyone," said he, "for
by fire alone shall Las Urdes be cleansed."

Alphonso XIII. is more concerned with the
future of the miserable babies than by that of
their parents, as one of his strongest interests Is
an insistence upon the child welfare of the new
generation of Spain, and he is known as The
Father of the Foundlings, when he visits the
various foundling hospitals, in order to ascer-
tain for himself if the little inmates are healthy
or the reverse.

In all his charitable undertakings, the King
acts in unison with the Church, as ultra-modern
though he may be, Alphonso XIII. fully recog-
nizes the temporal Influence wielded by the
spiritual power in Spain. This temporal in-
fluence will never permit the existence of the
power which governs modern Italy. In Spain
the Vatican and the Quirinal could never exist
together ; a condition entirely due to the adapt-
ability of the Italian character, and no two
Latin countries are more dissimilar than Italy
and Spain. The King is, primarily, a good

[54]

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Catholic, but although his keen mentality does
not permit him to accept certain obsolete tradi^
tions, he would be the first to admit that with-
out religion Spain would cease to exist. Each
town in Spain possesses a variation of the orig-
inal Blessed Virgin, every province has its
especial apparition, although ghost stories are
unknown, as opposed to the teachings of the
Church. Religion both in Spain and in van-
ished Russia was primarily arranged and stage-
managed to appeal to the eyes of ignorance;
religious festivities are therefore a part of
every-day life, and the Oriental strain in the
peoples of these two countries responds to
teaching which glows with colour and dis-
play. The King wishes, above all things, to
preserve the cachet of Spain; he knows that it
must retain its national characteristics as well as
its religion, as its exterior representation repre-
sents the real heart of the nation. He therefore
takes part in the great Pageant of Religion as
thoroughly as he enters into his other manifold
duties ; and although the ceremony of a corona-
tion is unknown in Spain, many of her great
religious festivities are almost as impressive.

[55]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

The Blessed Virgin of Atocha is as insepar-
able from Court life as she is from religion ; to
her are sent the wedding-gowns worn by the
queens, the infantas, and the highest aristocracy
of Spain. The custom of giving valuable
jewels to the Madonna is another feature
of our faith, and many of the best-known
Madonnas have their attendants, self-styled
ladies-in-waiting, whose duty it is to change the
dresses and jewels worn by the figures of the
Blessed Virgin. "Exactly like dressing and un-
dressing a doll. How silly and blasphemous,"
I hear some staunch Protestant remark; but I
can state with truth that these "toilettes" are
undertaken in the most reverent spirit. . . . To
regard the waxen, plaster or wooden figure of
the Virgin as a doll never enters into the minds
of her votaries; they only see the representation
of the loving Mother of God, whom they thus
delight to honour on earth.

It may be argued that religion as practised
in Spain during the Inquisition was essentially
a religion of fear, and not a religion of love:
This is true, but as most European countries
have passed through this phase of fear, religious

[56]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

persecution is not peculiar to Spain. It is im-
possible to deny that outward forms, combined
with Spanish sacred legendary lore, in its
strange mixture of splendour and homeliness,
have served to bring heaven and its visitants
nearer to the Spanish peasant than would the
sound of Church bells which ring out hymns, or
harvest festivals which turn places of worship
into the similitude of an overcrowded green-
grocer's shop. ... If I may venture to say so,
I think it is better for the lower classes to feel
on friendly terms with the Deity, than to regard
Him as something unapproachable and terrible,
possessing no knowledge or understanding of
human weakness except in the capacity of a
severe judge.

It is, however, interesting to notice the after-
War changes in the lives and mentalities
of many of the religious orders in Spain
pre-eminently the country of the monks and
nuns. In some cases our religieuses now only
make their vows yearly, and do not even wear
distinctive dress! I suppose they, like the rest
of the world, crave for freedom and reform,
and desire to breathe the fine air of morning

[57]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

instead of the incense-scented odour of sanctity.
Very few girls of the lower or middle class are
entering convents, and the "Cathechists" (as
the emancipated nuns are called) are com-
mandeering them into their service, thus form-
ing a kind of modified Salvation Army, whose
members teach the Gospel and preach morality
to the working classes, who receive their minis-
trations with less suspicion than they would do
were they to present themselves in the austere
habits of an austere Order.

The King gives largely to the Church from
his private fortune, but royal personages are
very much misjudged by the world as regards
money, and the public is too prone to assume
that any appearance of wealth on our part im-
plies a drain on the State. This is not the case.
The private fortunes of Royalty usually come
from marriage or by inheritance, so surely the
management of such monies is a private matter!
In an age where all classes demand an increase
in wages, Royalties alone are excepted ; they
make no fresh demands, although the cost of
living has increased as much for them as for
others. Monarchs are obliged to cut their

[58]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

coats according to the cloth, and as a result
of the expensive conditions of life, kings and
queens now travel with much more simplicity,
and are content to leave extravagance in
"specials" to American plutocrats and the new
rich.

It must not also be forgotten that the capital
of all royal fortune lies in the hands of the na-
tion, and that the 'Government provides for the
king's children, according to their necessities.
But many a prince, or princess, with small
means, will "live," better than others who are
more liberally dowered, since necessity is the
mother of the best investments. The majority
of people do not realize the many calls that are
made on the private purses of Royalties, so
many, in fact, that it often becomes impossible
to meet them all, and it would be charitable if
the public also looked upon us as beings who
have hitherto been unable to take up lucrative
professions.

The future of royal boys presents a difficult
problem in post-War conditions, for what career
has hitherto been open to a prince save a mili-
tary one? Alphonso XIII. fully recognizes the

[59]:

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

importance of combating this difficulty, and
although he has given his sons to the Army and
Navy, he has decided to offer them the chance
to augment their incomes, should necessity arise.
The new idea of sending the heirs-apparent to
European thrones on world tours does not ap-
peal to me. It may be intensely modern, but
until now this universal entente has not resulted
in bettering the lives of princes, neither has it
brought any material good to their countries.
King Alphonso XIII. has acted wisely in
refusing to allow the Spanish Heir- Apparent to
make the grand tour, and no monarch and no
heir-apparent are more beloved by their sub-
jects, who invariably allude to them as "our

Importing habits, rules and customs from one
country to another requires immense care, as it
resembles implanting vegetation in a soil which
is not ready to receive it

Drastic changes in living or habits are usually
productive of discomfort and discontent where-
ever they are introduced; and foreigners who
settle down in foreign countries invariably as-
sert that "we don't live like this at home," for-

[60]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

getting that conditions of life are probably,
totally different in the land of their birth. I
consider that one of the greatest dangers to hu-
manity lies in "bettering" any nation by intro-
ducing a too sudden civilization to people who
do not understand its meaning, much in the
same way that the cleverest speakers are liable
to forget the class of their hearers, and in con-
sequence their words convey little or nothing to
the "crowd" who are not a la hauteur to grasp
their true meaning. Thus, to the Prince of
Asturias, Heir- Apparent to the Spanish Throne,
belongs the distinction of having introduced
bacon into Spain, and, as a "gentleman farmer,"
he runs an extensive pig farm at El Pardo, to
develop later into a sausage and bacon factory
worked absolutely on business lines. The
Prince of Asturias is as keen as his father on
outdoor life, and he is thoroughly engrossed in
his 5,000 pigs, and his ham-curing and his pig
rearing English pigs being especially wel-
come. It is now quite the usual thing for us to
give the Heir-Apparent a pedigree pig as his
birthday or Christmas present. Nothing ap-
peals to him so much!

[61]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

I sometimes smile at his enthusiasm, and won-
der whether the English blood of his mother is
responsible for his fondness for bacon, since
domestic life in England would surely be in-
complete if bacon and eggs were absent from
the breakfast table.

The Prince visits El Pardo every day to feed
his favourites and to hear the latest pig
news ... he knows their parentage, their
breed, their intermarriages ... in short, he is,
at the age of sixteen, an absolute authority on
pigs, cooked and uncooked.

The King encourages his son's interest in this
eminently practical venture (so unlike anything
hitherto associated with former gay, gloomy,
clever or stupid heirs-apparent), but the King
has always appreciated the value of agriculture
in Spain and the possibilities of its future, as
he rightly estimates the results and good profits
to be derived from present-day farming when
science walks hand in hand with agriculture.
Mr. P. J. Hayes, a member of the South-
Eastern Agricultural College at Wye, who
visited the El Pardo Pig Farm, and drew up a
special report on its management, told me that

[62]

THE PRINCE OF ASTURIAS, HEIR TO THE SPANISH THRONE

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

he was amazed at the King's practical knowl-
edge of agriculture. "His Majesty was even
conversant with the technical terms used in
England . . . one could hardly believe that he
had not gone through a complete college
course," said the astonished Englishman.

It will be interesting to see into which
families the children of this amazing father
will eventually marry. Royal marriages have
now become especially difficult, except in the
case of minor Royalties, who need not, so to
speak, "marry to order." But class should still
predominate, allied to a suitability of tempera-
ment; unequal lives can never meet, and very
often royal marriages are made solely to please
someone else, and also out of anxiety to seize
the right moment.

England and Italy have set the example of
democratic royal marriages, but it is impossible
to compare the customs of England with those
of any other country. In England the rank of
the husband remains the same, in consequence
of which he is subjected to various awkward
Court predicaments, and in Victorian days the
Prince Consort often experienced the disadvan-

[63]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

tages of having married "above" him. Lady
Patricia Ramsay is a member of the English
Royal Family who has descended to her hus-
band's social level, and thereby followed the
sensible examples shown by certain Royalties
in Sweden and Denmark. In these countries
it is usual for any Royalty who marries out of
his, or her, position to renounce their rank to
forget it absolutely, and to start a new life under
another name. This happy idea has helped to
destroy what might otherwise have caused
friction in married life, as it certainly goes to
test the value of affection, and it provides the
best possible advertisement for the joys of re-
nunciation.

The English Royal Family form part of the
English flag, and their private lives, their
clothes and their conversation belong to the na-
tion. But I must confess that I do not con-
sider it dignified to allow the English Press
to publish the intimate details of a royal
trousseau, when in conversation the mention of
such garments is tabooed. But, as I have said
before, you cannot lay down any hard and fast
lines for English convention ; it has always been,

[64]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

and it will continue to remain, an amazing mass
of contradictions. For my own part, I say:
"Please allow us to wear our private garments
as private people, and not as advertisements for
a lingerie shop."

Before the War, Austria was the accepted
marriage ground for princesses, but as Austria
is non-existent in this capacity, and Germany
does not present many matrimonial advantages,
the choice is now somewhat restricted. The
three great Roman Catholic countries in Europe
are Spain, Belgium and Italy, all of which
offer suitable brides and bridegrooms in em-
bryo capable of carrying out the traditions and
upholding the prestige of their families. One
cannot conjecture as to a future Princess of
Wales, since this particular Prince Charming
shows no inclination to change his condition,
and his brothers will probably, like the Duke
of York, seek English brides from the English
aristocracy.

The Balkan States will undoubtedly produce
the strongest race of future Royalties; already
the blood of Elena of Montenegro has
strengthened that of Italy, and the Queen of

[65]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Rumania has welded Servia and Rumania
together in the marriage of her daughter to
King Alexander, just as her supreme manage-
ment arranged a union between the Crown
Prince of Rumania and a Greek Princess.

My own great nieces, the Infantas Beatrice
and Cristina, are charming girls, who will soon
be of marriageable age. I often speculate as
to their futures.

But, in remembering the various eligible
princesses, it is pleasant to think of the happi-
ness which awaits the prince whose good fortune
it will be to win the Bulgarian princesses, who
are domesticated, elegant, and de race to their
finger-tips. Royal home life in Bulgaria is one
of the most beautiful examples of domesticity,
and the sisters and their brother, King Boris,
live together under the happiest conditions
yes, fortunate indeed will be the suitors whose
lot it is to transplant these sweet Bulgarian vio-
lets to shed their fragrance in another country.

[One (the eldest) of the Bulgarian princesses
has been married after this book was written.]

[66]

CHAPTER IV
MORE ABOUT SPAIN

QUEEN VICTORIA EUGENIE of Spain is one of
the most decorative queens in Europe, and, as
she is gifted with a charming disposition, she
makes both an artistic and personal appeal to
her husband's subjects.

To me, she has always been an interesting
personality, as I have watched her gradual de-
velopment as a girl and a woman in the country
of her adoption, and have thus been enabled to
appreciate her courage in surmounting many
difficulties.

I shall never forget the effect produced on
our family by this girl from the North, a radiant
creature of eighteen, with pale golden hair,
wild rose complexion and eyes of malachite-
blue. My nephew was then twenty, a dark
youth with the Hapsburg jaw and features rem-
iniscent of his ancestors. One thought instinc-
tively of a combination of snow and Southern

[67]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

sun, of darkness and light. They were indeed
a striking contrast. The Battenberg princess
displayed no sign of nervousness in her new
surroundings, she was entirely English in her
outward emotions, her "poise" was admirable,
and her self-possession something to marvel at,
even in our austere Court, hide-bound with
etiquette and ceremony.

The royal wedding was the most beautiful
wedding I have ever seen. Imagine a perfectly
cloudless sky a dome of deep azure a sun
pouring molten gold on the earth, flags of all
nations and all colours, a profusion of decora-
tion, music, enthusiasm : a living romance with
a fairy princess as the heroine. The young
Queen typified the embodiment of purity as she
stood on the threshold of the unknown world
which lay before her, a world which many of us
Royalties have reason to remember with sad-
ness a world where freedom and privacy are
rarely to be found, where one encounters dis-
illusion, regrets and deception, and where it is
practically impossible to be true to one's self or
to one's ideals.

The story of the attempt on the lives of the
[68]

H.M. THE QUEEN OF SPAIN IN THE NATIONAL DRESS OF SALAMANCA

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

newly-wedded King and his Queen has been
told so often that I need not repeat it. The
horses attached to the royal carnage were killed,
and their blood bespattered the gleaming white
robe of the bride an ordeal which would cer-
tainly have terrified the majority of women.
But this English girl was apparently unmoved,
although her lovely rose-leaf complexion per-
ceptibly paled; but she won the love of her
subjects as well as the devotion of her husband
by this baptism of blood, which sealed Victoria
Eugenie of Battenberg indissolubly to Spain.
Not until she regained the palace did her com-
posure give way, and then only in the privacy
of her own apartments the poor child at last
showed signs of the nervous strain to which she
had been subjected. She was so very young,
so very lonely, that one instinctively wanted to
"mother'' her, especially when she whispered to
me with infinite pathos: "Oh, how glad I am
to see you here. Yours is the only familiar face
in all this crowd of strangers."

At the time of her marriage, the Queen's
character was more or less unformed. She had
had the simplest and the most home-like up-

[69]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

bringing, and her childhood and early girlhood
had been passed in seclusion. As a little girl
she was the spoiled darling of two old sover-
eigns her grandmother, Queen Victoria, and
her godmother, the Empress Eugenie but as
the shadow of bereavement was never really
lifted from the hearts of either, I often wonder
that Victoria Eugenie's sunny disposition has
remained untouched by it. The King's choice
was peculiarly acceptable to us as a family, and
to Spain as a nation : the Princess brought new
blood, health, and youth into our midst ; in her
we had no reason to fear the curse of heredity,,
her "background" was untemperamental, noth-
ing better could have been wished for in short,
the advent of Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg
was entirely welcome.

My nephew lost no time in moulding his
wife's pliant disposition and fitting her for the
great responsibilities and duties consequent on
her position as the Queen of Spain. The young
girl proved herself an apt pupil; she had
already exchanged the Protestant faith for Ro-
man Catholicism, so there were no religious
difficulties to contend with but it must have

[70]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

been a very strange environment in the early
days of her married life.

Everything was changed. The formal mag-
nificence, and (let me confess it) the occasional
dreariness of our palaces, were in complete con-
trast to the comfortable royal residences to
which she had been accustomed. Our family
life must also have amazed her, since it is led on
patriarchal lines, the palace not being given
entirely over to the reigning monarch, but af-
fording a residence for many of his relations
a state of things unheard of in England. The
daily conditions of existence were utterly
foreign to the Queen ; even the food was differ-
ent! The Court etiquette was unlike anything
she had as yet encountered, and Victoria
Eugenie realized that, like all Queens of Spain,
she had to live to please three important factors
her husband, society, and the Church.

In the case of Queen Christina and my
brother Alphonso XII. , matters were easier,
as both of them possessed Austrian sympathies,
and met on a common ground of understand-
ing: between my nephew and his wife no such
sympathies existed. They met as two young

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

creatures who found companionship in a deso-
late sea of age and middle age, but who after-
wards discovered love and happiness in the
more serious roles of husband and wife.

The Queen made it her first duty to become a
Spaniard; she is now, in many respects, more
of a Spaniard than many Spaniards, and she
speaks Spanish like a native. With his unerr-
ing intuition the King has completely gauged
his wife's mentality, and he has developed it
with the thoroughness which he displays in any
task undertaken by him. He has, therefore,
exploited it to the best advantage, with the re-
sult that the Court of Spain is one of the most
moral and smoothly run institutions of its kind
in Europe. The'* Queen's practical domestic
interests have made her the best of wives and
mothers, just as her English tact makes her life
the most amenable of politics-shunning queens.
Victoria Eugenie never attempts to meddle in
politics, and I am sure that she prefers to be
known as a Queen of Beauty and a Queen of
Hearts, rather than as a queen intrigued by
diplomacy and questions of State.

The beautiful girl of eighteen has now be-

[72] '

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

come a woman, and the Queen frankly admits
that she likes to be considered beautiful. Her
taste in dress is certainly not a heritage of her
English ancestors, since none of them has
ever displayed the Queen of Spain's taste and
elegance. . . . Her gowns are perfection, her
coiffure the last word in fashion and her jewels
are gorgeous but these are her own private
property, as, during the Peninsular War, the
French took away all the Spanish Crown jewels,
so now all jewels worn by the royal family
are purely personal belongings. A tradition,
current in the palace, relates that the Crown
jewels are still in existence, hidden in a secret
place in the thickness of the walls, and the dis-
covery of a quantity of priceless clocks during
the demolition of a room certainly favours this
idea. I often wonder whether the famous
parure and necklace of black diamonds for-
merly worn by the queens of Spain on Good
Friday will ever see the light of day, as it is
said that these, also, are to be found in the se-
cret cache.

A propos of these recently-discovered time-
pieces, I cannot imagine why the theft of clocks

[73]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

is peculiar to all wars, past and present, as
clocks have invariably formed part of the
"loot" So, in justice to Germany, we must re-
member that although she has been bitterly ac-
cused of "clock-lifting," the Boche, after all,
only followed the example of the French of
Napoleon's day.

The Queen of Spain and her first cousin, the
Queen of Rumania, are par excellence, Queens
of Beauty and in both cousins the marvellous
Coburg strain manifests itself in many similar
yet, paradoxically dissimilar ways. This Co-
burg strain presents a most fascinating study for
psychologists, and the House of Coburg, which
at the dawn of the nineteenth century was not
considered of any European importance, has
since provided amazing intellects, and amazing
contrasts. Its Pagans, Puritans, misers, spend-
thrifts, poets and men of action have astonished,
and will continue to astonish, the world, and
there is no doubt that the chameleon-like men-
tality of the Coburgs is primarily due to the
Oriental blood which is also part of their heri-
tage.

The two cousins Queens sprung from this

[74]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

extraordinary stock, are curiously alike in fea-
tures, build and expression. The Queen of
Rumania is many years older than the Queen
of Spain, and, like her cousin she is beautiful;
but whereas the younger woman loves her
beauty because it represents much of the joy
of life, the other Queen depends largely on
a mise-en-scene, and she is often the slave of her
artistic temperament. To the one, her palace
embodies a home, just as she embodies the ideal
of beautiful English womanhood. To the other
a palace represents a temple, a stage, or "un
coin du temps du Paganisme!" Both Queens
love colour, jewels, beautiful clothes, and in
this the Orientalism of the Coburgs is strikingly
apparent, which has probably developed since
their marriages, since the countries throb with
life, and differ absolutely from the soft greens
and greys of England. But, as I shall point
out later (when I deal with Rumania), the
Queen's Orientalism is mingled with the flair for
splendour which is inborn in all who possess
Russian blood, and on her mother's side the
Queen of Rumania is purely Russian.

It may be indignantly denied that any

[75]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Oriental strain exists in the House of Coburg,
but it is nevertheless an open secret that it ac-
counts for many things peculiar to members of
the family. The Coburgs have rarely inter-
married with the older royal blood of Europe ;
they are a race set apart, a race that has tri-
umphed, and that will continue to triumph,
because it represents all that is artistic, com-
mercial managing and creative, allied to the ne
plus ultra of finesse and diplomacy.

The Queen of Spain remains English in her
love of sport and outdoor enjoyments. She is
fond of tennis, and plays a good game; she
rides well, and looks extremely handsome on
horseback. Her two daughters, the Infantas
Beatrice and Cristina, are charming girls who
are being most carefully brought up under the
care of English and French governesses. Their
mother displays the greatest interest in the
morale of the home life of her children; their
educational system is perfect, most of their
lessons taking place in the early morning; and,
as the Queen believes in the benefit of plenty of
fresh air, the two infantas and their governesses
spend some part of every afternoon at the El

[76]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Pardo. There, the young girls emulate the ex-
ample of their long-dead prototypes, and amuse
themselves in the old gardens known from
time immemorial as "The Playground of the
Infantas." Life with their beautiful mother,
and their amazing father, is one long day of
happiness for these royal children. Both
parents are entirely in sympathy with them : the
Queen, who adores pretty clothes and pretty
surroundings, encourages her daughters to fol-
low her example, and the infantas will never
be dowdy princesses; the King, joyous, light-
hearted, and "alive," is like an elder brother
to his sons, none of whom, however, is en-
dowed with his versatility. The Heir Appar-
ent and his brothers are more "serious," more
"Northern," but all the children share their
father's "thoroughness," and although this
Northern "seriousness" is doubtless an admirable
asset in a country like Spain, I am too prone to
make comparisons. And I am so intrigued by
my nephew's brilliant mentality, that I find it
difficult to rightly appreciate the more "set"
individualities of his children.

I have said that the Queen is now Spanish,

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rather than English, in her sympathies. This
applies only to her public life, as led for Spain,
and in her private relationships. But she re-
mains English in her love of home comforts,
her admiration for law and order, and in her
flair for domesticity, chintzes and interior de-
corations. She is also insistent upon questions
of English hygiene in her nurseries and school-
rooms, and in all institutions in which she is
interested. But although the ordinary hygienic
conditions in Spain are usually bad, the general
health is very good, and any tendency towards
consumption arises solely from unhealthy con-
ditions of life, and is not due to the constitution
of the nation. There are few lunatics in Spain,
and only one State asylum is required for men-
tal sufferers a striking contrast to the mental
requirements of other countries! The average
Spaniard usually attains extreme old age, re-
sulting from his, or her, frugal life and con-
tented spirit our people do not overeat them-
selves and liver troubles are unknown indeed
it is common knowledge that the waiting lists
for admission into charitable institutions are
made up of "ancients" who rival Methuselah!

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In many ways, Spain retains much of her
ancient dignity, inasmuch as she disdains ad-
vertisement. The stage refuses to allow its
plays to become "pegs" for the names of milli-
ners, dressmakers, or house furnishers. The
best shops do not mention the patronage of
Royalty as an inducement for others to sample
their goods; and with us, cinema shows are
really beautiful, and entirely free from the de-
grading sensationalism and cheap sentiment of
many American and English productions. The
misuse of a novel for film purposes is also un-
known in Spain ; the producer does not attempt
to alter the plot conceived by the novelist, and
he would scorn to use the title of any popular
novel merely as a "draw." I feel very strongly
against this misuse of power, and I consider
that authors ought to make a firm stand against
it; but many authors with whom I have dis-
cussed the question declare themselves power-
less to interfere.

Spanish cinema producers do not pay the im-
possible sums paid by England and America
for the name of a star! We rely on talent, and
we do not think it necessary to have beauty

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competitions in order to discover it The
prerogative of the cinema is the art of adver-
tisement; but we do not need it, and I am sure
that we enjoy our film representations equally
well without it.

The keen zest in life shown by the King has
produced a similar result throughout Spain; our
watering-places are now more popular with
foreigners, our hotels are entirely up to date,
and travelling is no longer synonymous with
discomfort. The average Englishman travel-
ling in Spain need not fear for his comfort,
although I have always been secretly amused to
hear persons who refused to visit Spain because
it was "uncomfortable" set forth uncomplain-
ingly to darkest Africa, a proposition surely
attended with far more discomfort than a
journey through Spain and a sojourn in its
hotels?

Spanish women and girls are gradually be-
ginning to follow the example of the Queen,
and are now devotees of outdoor sports; but
although the climate conditions are antagonistic
to much violent exertion, I am all in favour of
this "outdoor" hardening process for young

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girls, as I believe it helps them in future ma-
ternity.

Childbirth in Spain is usually attended with
great family ceremonial; but "twilight sleep"
is looked upon with disapproval by all classes,
as it is thought that mothers are endowed with
spiritual capacity to bear pain in what is, after
all, a purely natural function. Spanish women
harden themselves to physical pain in much the
same way that certain people harden themselves
to mental pain; but this insensibility to mental
agony is usually peculiar to the higher classes
menial work is impossible for them, but they
can, and do know how to endure.

People have -sometimes asked me why Royal-
ties seem able to undertake so many engage-
ments without showing any apparent fatigue.
I can only answer that I think we are better
inured to fatigue, and since we become public
property from our cradles, we are obliged to
eliminate the "tired feeling" as much as pos-
sible. At one time I thought nothing of coming
over from Paris to London for a dance, and re-
turning without even going to bed, my apparent
delicacy being, like that of the King, entirely

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deceptive. I have never resorted to artificial
sedatives, or stimulants, and I have a great
horror of drugs, although I am aware that their
use must be extremely beneficial to commerce,
as fifty years ago the tabloid and cachet were
unknown !

The Spanish nation should be profoundly
grateful that it has escaped the nervous ill-
nesses which have affected many countries as
a direct result of the War. These diseases are
usually the result of over-crowding ; some come
from the Far East, and the black troops are re-
sponsible for many complaints hitherto un-
known. And, because of these things, it is the
duty of nations to realise that the after-effects
of war are more to be dreaded than war itself.
Thus, any war should be a double war a mili-
tary combat, and a civil war against disease.
The Red Cross typifies the care of the wounded,
the sufferings of animals are protected by the
Blue or the White Cross, but no flag of sickness
exists no cross marks the protection of civil-
ians. Surely, then, one cross more is required?

America has done wonderful work in extermi-
nating the plague of flies which constitutes

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

such a menace to humanity. In the Spanish
Colonies yellow fever is now non-existent, con-
sequent on the extermination of poisonous flies
and mosquitoes. . Spain is a victim to malaria
a complaint primarily induced by stagnant
water. Stagnant water is unknown in America.
There is no need to point the moral to adorn
this tale! The terrible Spanish influenza, or
the Peste Pulmonaire, in the course of which
the lungs are eaten away, and the sufferer
usually dies within three days (his or her corpse
black and horrible after death), is caused by a
plague microbe due to uncleanness. This and
other epidemics are the foes which threaten the
family life of a nation, but nowadays the ma-
jority of workers are affected by what I can best
describe as a war lassitude. One sees this as
a daily object lesson on any long-distance train
journey. One begins one's travels under quite
possible sanitary conditions, but the usual state
of a train at the end of long journeys is horrible
the labour of keeping the lavatories clean en
route seems a task beyond the capacity of the
officials, and I especially commend the French
idea of placing a woman attendant on long-

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distance trains, in order that she may be of use
to ladies in need of her services.

As I have mentioned, Spain ought to be very
thankful that she is not affected with the pres-
ence of the five principal attendants on the War
paralysis, lunacy, shock, loss of memory, and
blindness. The dangers resulting from nervous
diseases are better realized now than they have
ever been, and in France lunacy and nervous
complaints are treated absolutely in separate
departments. The majority of people are in
the habit of condemning everything and every-
body who constitutes a reflection on their well-
ordered lives; therefore, any illnesses outside
the accepted conventional category (especially
mental troubles) are invariably mistrusted.
And yet lunacy, in its most pathetic and terrible
side, has come into many "worthy" families as a
result of the War. It is to be hoped that these
conventional individuals will now awaken to
the fact that mental trouble is not a crime, but
an affliction, and recognize it accordingly, in-
stead of treating it as a slur, and placing the
sufferer beyond the pale of understanding. This
curious attitude came under my own notice in

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the case of one of my friends, who had a bad
nervous breakdown, which necessitated her tem-
porary seclusion. When she saw her relations
after her recovery, their first question (put
in scandalized and reproving accents) was:
"Why did you go mad? Nobody in our family
has ever been mad. How odd of you! 3

As the successful treatment of mental cases
largely depends on the human-understanding of
the doctor, and the special understanding of the
nurses under him, I am inclined to advocate the
employment of nuns as nurses in mild forms of
insanity, where physical strength is not neces-
sary to cope with the patient Nuns would be
far kinder, and more tolerant, of the ailing and
tired brain than the usual type of mental nurse,
and the idea also possesses this advantage nuns
regard the care of the sick as a vocation, not as
a profession, and they return to their devotions,
and not to the world, after their hours on duty.
One of the greatest mistakes ever made by the
French has consisted in banishing the nuns from
the hospitals. Their need is still very much
felt, and will continue to be felt in France.

One of the most curious "illnesses" of the war

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was known as the displacement de Yair which
came into existence owing to the currents of
air set in motion by the heavy firing. This
displacement de Vair was an everyday occur-
rence in Paris, in the days of Big Bertha, and I
remember that once, when I was driving to my
dentist's, a shell fell near by and the current of
air was so strong that my hat was literally
lifted off my head, the hat-pins were carried
away like straws in the wind, and a piece of my
hair was actually torn from my scalp. The
coachman fortunately escaped, but occasionally
this curious phenomenon seized pedestrians and
bent them, like a cornfield sways in the wind,
with the result that some of them afterwards
walked on all fours, like animals, and their
necks were so badly twisted that they were
never able to turn their heads again. This
displacement was not known in London, btit it
was of common occurrence at the Front, and it
was recognized and provided for by the English
when they undertook the defence of Calais.

Few people rightly estimate the dangers of
the poisons left in the air by the various chemi-
cal gases employed during the war. These

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gases produced an effect on the lungs and
respiration, even out of their immediate danger
zones, and the unfortunate soldiers who were
gassed constituted a danger to those who at-
tended on them, as the poisons left in their
systems still emanated from them. This was
especially noticeable at the Red Cross hospitals
for the gassed in Switzerland, where, after a
time, the nurses themselves showed symptoms
of acute gassing.

The very air during the War was as defiled
as the earth, and those responsible for this strife
of hatred and greed have proved conclusively
that modern fighting has entirely done away
with any idea of sport in connection with it
The young human animal is always game for a
fight, but it cannot cope with the subtleties of
science applied to war. It is to be hoped that
any future fighting will be undertaken by R. U.
R.s, and that towns will be destroyed automati-
cally by automatons. Such a proceeding would
achieve the desired results of any war, and
hollow treaties, and, equally hollow peaces,
could be arrived at without the sacrifice of so
many young and valuable lives.

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The League of Nations must primarily go
into the horrors of war, their possibilities and
their prevention. A siege war was never con-
sidered as probable in this century, but the mo-
men when the earth apparently swallowed up
the Germans, the Allies were faced with a land
siege, and not a siege of towns. But in the next
great war the civilians will occupy the trenches,
and the fighting will take place in the air.

In dealing with post- War Spain, I fear I
may be accused of not paying sufficient atten-
tion to her artistic and literary aspects. It is
indisputable that commerce and industries have
now absorbed the artistic senses of the nation:
the modern Spaniard is intensely practical, and
owing to the increased cost of living, he has
wisely decided to relinquish art in favour of
necessities.

What remains of art is on the lines of Velas-
quez, and our greatest artist to-day is Sorolla
Zuluaga, who lives in a lovely Basque house
a veritable museum near San Sebastian.

Literature in Spain is not at a high standard.
Blasco Ibanez is our piece de resistance, and
he has lately achieved fresh notoriety by reason

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of his attack on the King of Spain. His opinion
of the rights of Spanish authors and journal-
ists is nil, since, according to Ibanez, "to read
a Spanish newspaper is simply to read the works
of Primo de Rivera." He further states that
modern Spanish "thought and thinking are in
bondage, and at the mercy of the censor's ca-
price, or of illiterate braggards, uniformed as
generals, making the whole country subservient
to their whims, and presuming even to put the
mind of the nation in a strait-jacket"

Senor Ibanez believes that when the Director-
ate falls he will be able to return to Spain as a
conqueror who has spoken the truth and nothing
but the truth in "unmasking" Alphonso XIII.
I have my own views on this heroic attitude,
but political and private reasons prevent me
from undertaking the defence of my nephew,
the King. After all, any author who damns his
subject on one page and then ascribes his actions
as solely due to thoughtlessness, is not worth the
consideration of any serious-minded person!

However, the unexpected is always happen-
ing in Spain, but the unexpected has saved her
many times and in many ways.

[89]

CHAPTER V

ENGLAND AND THE ENGLISH

I FIRST came to England in 1886. In 1924 I
can truthfully say that I know and love it from
end to end, and there is not a county where I
have not stayed at some time or another. This
familiarity with England, and things English,
is due to the fact that the branch of Orleans
family into which I married lived in England
for many years; but both before and after the
War I have never departed from my original
impression that the English are always at
school, and that they are for ever wondering
what other people think!

I frankly adore the nation. I like the "com-
fortable" feeling engendered directly one sets
foot on English soil, by the atmosphere of clean-
liness, reliability and hygiene, but at the same
time I feel that few English people have any
individual liberty, that the smallest things of
life attain undue proportions, and that the a ac-

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cepted Idea" is the only one permissible.
Whenever an Englishman says that such and
such a thing is the accepted idea, nothing in-
duces him to change his opinion and the same
Englishman always makes you feel that you are
obliged to say "thank you."

It is curious to think what a difference a
few 'miles of sea between two countries can
make, and how totally dissimilar are the coun-
tries which it separates ; the French are all tem-
perament, and almost childish in their joie de
vivre; the English so essentially safe and solid.
But I do not think the English ever thoroughly
appreciate the beauty of life; perhaps their
aloofness as "islanders" makes them so secure
in themselves! However, notwithstanding this
"aloofness," the English make their presence
felt in every Court of Europe where English
is talked freely, and where English influence,
secret or otherwise, is never absent from the
family life of Royal Houses. In short, if the
private history of the Courts and aristocracy of
Europe were written, it would surprise many
people to know the important parts played in
both by certain English women.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

The "security" of England never fails to
strike me anew whenever I return to her shores,
and I feel it outwardly and mentally. . . . She
welcomes you in her comfortable, dignified man-
ner, and I find my old friends of over thirty
years as unchanged as their country with them,
friendship is as unmovable as its surroundings.
They are not easily swayed by their emotions;
they do not blow hot and cold : so after the war,
I found them the same soothing and delightful
people as before.

I fear that in many ways the War has de-
stroyed some of the comforts of English daily
life. That piece de resistance breakfast is
not so substantial as of yore; the increased cost
of living and taxation is felt very keenly; but
no increased cost of living and no taxation can
seemingly affect the love of dress which is so
evident in all classes of society.

The post- War English woman is not original
in her ideas of chiffons. With her, dress is
prone to become a fad, and she runs her especial
fad to death, commerce largely benefiting there-
by as fashion usually gives birth to many mon-
strosities. This super-importance given to dress

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is now especially noticeable in school-lif e, and
I confess it strikes me both unpleasantly and
forcibly, as it implies that the boarding-school
will ultimately represent the middleman for the
shops. The principle is bad, and, frankly, the
education of both society and middle-class girls
is planned on far too expensive lines. I myself
wore a uniform, and no difference was made
between me and my schoolfellows; but if an
infanta of Spain were to go to one of the best
English boarding-schools, and be unable to dress
as well as her companions, her rank would avail
her little, and doubtless she would be looked
down on, since there is no snobbism so intolerant
and so cruel as that of young girls. Convent
schools are infinitely preferable, as rich and
poor, high and low, dress alike ; and my English
friends have confided to me their dread of the
expense entailed when their girls attain years
of discretion, and are sent away to "finish."
They then require an absolute trousseau of din-
ner dresses, dance frocks, tailor-mades, riding-
habits, woollies and "gym" garments (these
last, I admit, necessities) , with many blouses and
one-piece frocks included.

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This premature love of luxury will have a
devastating effect on the next generation in Eng-
land. It is impossible to reduce the mind of
young people to a scientific basis. The first
education should be that of simplicity, and I am
sure that one's start in life tells on one after-
wards.

In France the faubourg considers it bad form
for its girlhood to be otherwise than modest and
simple in outward forms; French mothers re-
alize that no good purpose is served by giving
young people too advanced ideas, well knowing
that these are inseparable from later life, and
they also feel that vanity ought not to be unduly
developed. Many modern "finishing" schools
are simply and solely forcing houses for vanity,
the young human plants therefore develop too
soon, and often astonish the "gardeners" with
the results of their system. Surely the flower
of youth should gradually unclose and not have
its petals forced into bloom whereby the beauty
and wonder of the white blossom of innocence is
lost for ever!

This abnormal awakening of the soul brings
in its train many foes unthought of, and un-

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

reckoned with, and when once sex-curiosity is
aroused, there is also the danger of vice develop-
ing in youthful minds. Present-day Enlighten-
ment" now reduces everything to a mechanism,
and this "pure" corruption of the mind banishes
much of the poetry of life from the heart of
youth, leaving instead an ever-growing curiosity
about sex relations.

At a certain age, protection against moral dan-
ger is absolutely necessary, but the time for such
warning should v be judged with immense care
after a comprehensive study of the boy or the
girl for whom it is intended. No child ought
to read the book of life at express speed.

I am sorry to see so many blase and frankly
artificial English girls. All debacles whether
public or private, usually have their origin in
luxury, and a great proportion of social life in
England seems to consist in playing a role for
others, and existing in a state of perpetual criti-
cism. Certain Englishwomen never know the
right adjustment of a craze or the right mo-
ment to stop; they have worn the vogue for
Spanish combs and Spanish shawls threadbare,
oblivious to the fact that in Spain, shawls repre-

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

sent the national costume, and are only to be
seen at bullfights, never in the stalls and boxes
of a theatre 1 Poor Spain and equally to be
pitied Tut-ankh-Amen wherefore have our
countries deserved such indignities!

The daily round of life now appears to be
one perpetual bacchanal danced from hotel to
hotel, from club to club, from cabaret to cabaret.
Girls are doing too much; they will never be-
come the mothers of a strong race too great
a strain is being imposed on their natural func-
tions; and even their "outdoor" lives will not
prove strong enough to counteract the nightly
evils of innumerable cocktails, "rushed through' 7
dinners, "late" early mornings, endless dancing,
and the false mental stimulants- afforded by
emotional plays and picture shows.

The pride of birth is the only thing to-day
that money is powerless to purchase, and in con-
sequence it is naturally envied and condemned.
Thrones may vanish, and riches take wings unto
themselves, but birth is inalienable ; if you hap-
pen to be a thoroughbred, you cannot become
a cart-horse!

Dignified old age does not exist, nobody has

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any use for it, one must not grow old; and I
remember what a shock I received when I re-
cently met a many times grandmother who wore
an extremely abbreviated one-piece dress, and
whose hat was the mode of the day after to-
morrow! I wondered whether she ever felt her
age.

This attitude of old people is not all due to
vanity, but chiefly arises from the fact that
modern life has no use for them as old people;
it decrees them to solitude. Few people like
solitude, hence December often imagines her-
self to be May, both in love and in age ; and she
also realizes the bitter truth that the present
generation is usually undisguisedly "bored," if
its hostess happens to be, or to seem, older than
her guests.

I have never experienced this especial bitter-
ness of heart, because I have had the wisdom to
retire before my time; thus I have been able to
rightly estimate the superiority of woman in the
question of age. Women can, then, if they will,
become infinitely better balanced, and because
they are born to endure, they can take refuge
in many small and varied interests unknown to

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

men. Men have so little resources in them-
selves! There ought to be some especial
manual labour for them at the critical period
of late middle age, as occupation alone would
save them from many and pitiful follies. The
average business Englishman has no real interest
in the home which is forced on him as a home;
it is a more or less unfamiliar dwelling to which
years of office routine have accustomed him.
Therefore the London clubs often present the
sickening spectacle of quantities of "workless"
old men who refuse to stay at home because they
"have nothing to do."

The fate of the modern man-woman is like-
wise open to conjecture. Will she in old age
revert to type, and become domesticated, or will
she, too, become an "old" clubman? All
women ought to remember that their heritage is
the priceless gift of freedom; women are able to
be alone, but men feel, and fear, loneliness, being
more easily swayed in their judgments when once
they have lost their vitality. They are never
recompensed by time, but time is kinder to
women. To them he gives back something of
their lost kingdom.

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A favourite English aphorism is the well-
known saying that "An Englishman's home is
his castle." That may be so in theory, but in
practice it is a glass castle especially constructed
to enable the world to look inside, and to throw
stones accurately. If any foreigner wishes to be
really happy in England, he must, like the
leopard, change his spots and relinquish his
personal freedom of thought and action to the
hands of others. Life in England is one con-
stant public and private criticism. It is dif-
ferent in France, where personal details about
strangers do not interest the public, "les affaires
privees n'interressent personne" ; each individual
leads his own life, there are no "paragraphs."
In France, life alone matters; with personal
morals the French have no concern, the pre-
valent idea being that your doings under your
own roof ought never to be criticized.

Therefore, there is no large foreign element in
England, and this condition arises, I am sure,
through a subconscious dislike of criticism.
There is a Spanish colony of 80,000 people in
Bordeaux; and when one thinks that this town
is not the capital of France, it says much for the

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way in which France treats strangers within her
gates!

I always feel drawn towards England as a
possible home; the climate suits me, and I have
endless happy associations with it. But, let me
confess it, I shrink from the publicity such a
course would entail. . If I were to choose any
one of those gossip centres a country village
I should probably experience the disastrous hap-
penings which befell Princess Priscilla in her
"Fortnight," and suffer accordingly. At my
villa near Arcachon my desire for privacy is
respected, and I lead my simple life apart. Far
be it from me to disparage England and her
ways ; I admire her morale, her people, and her
Constitution, and I am fair-minded enough to
understand that this spirit of criticism is inborn
in her, and inseparable from her it is only my
dominant quality of independence that causes
me to resent it. There is no greater loneliness
than to be constantly surrounded by people, so,
more often than not, I choose to be alone I

England, fortunately for herself, realizes the
importance of class separation, and although a
strong democratic element exists, England never-

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

theless preserves her "class," and the very saying
"He (or she) is no class," goes to prove that the
mind of the lower orders relegates people into
class-sections. I also think tliat special juries of
class should be recognized in legal matters, since
the judgment of one class applied to another
class is usually unfair, as it is unable to see eye
to eye. If class met on a common ground of
understanding, it would be far better, and it is
certain that the lower orders always see any
other class than their own in a distorted mirror
and judge it accordingly.

Since the War many other things have be-
come distorted. Sculpture, in some instances,
is merely a caricature of beauty and physique;
painting is likewise often a name for coats of
many colours ; and my general impression is that
much of life is clean outwardly, but inwardly
impure, and that this growing impurity of the
senses will inevitably result in the unspeakable
evils of mental orgies. The English facon de
vivre is a strange combination of decadence and
strength, and until its mentality and morals are
rightly adjusted, it will continue to remain open
to criticism.

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attendants, and ask yourselves whether it is un-
reasonable to suppose that certain of the servant
class now refuse to return to what they term
slavery? False excitement and false sentiment
have been responsible for revolutions, so why
should they not equally cause a revolution in
domestic service? The girl who earned 4 or
<_$ a week by making shells was looked upon
(and regarded herself) as a heroine. And as
this heroism enabled her to walk in silk attire,
and envelope herself in furs, she naturally pre-
fers to rest on her laurels (and the dole) rather
than sweep rooms, or make beds in a house
where, even if caps are unknown and outings
plentiful, she still remains a servant.

A great deal was said at the enquiry as to the
desirability of baths and rest-rooms for servants,
but these would-be champions of the down-
trodden did not appear to take into consideration
the paramount difficulties of the housing prob-
lem. It is always possible to allow a servant
to use a bathroom, and she should be encouraged
to look on a daily bath as a necessity, but space
conditions do not usually permit sitting-rooms
for servants. I am not, of course, dealing with

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great establishments, where the world below 8
stairs is often more exigeant and dazzling than
the milieu of the employer, but rather with flat
life in London, where rents are excessive, and
space is exceedingly limited. In flat life the
comfort of the kitchen does not lie so much with
the mistress as it does with the cook ; an untidy
cook creates an untidy environment, and in this
case a girl has no other refuge save her bedroom.
The comfortable solidity of English life
formerly led by servants in large houses has be-
come a thing of the past. People are now mi-
grating into small houses and flats as the result
of reduced incomes, excessive taxation, and the
increased cost of living and wages. But the
mentality of the average servant does not allow
her to rightly estimate these conditions, which
are far more difficult for her mistress than for
herself. She therefore nurses her especial
grievances in the shape of higher fares when she
goes home, higher prices of shoes, stockings and
aprons (all liable to wear out quickly), and,
most of all, her comparative loss of freedom.
The present-day maid is not a creature of mono-
syllables, and submission; she has learned in-

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dependence of thought and action, and she con-
siders she has a perfect right to state her opinion,
whether asked or unasked.

The usual run of mistresses will not admit the
existence of the odd workings which ferment in
the minds of servants ; but these should be both
recognized and dealt with. It is quite impos-
sible to get at the bed-rock feelings of any girl
if she is not approached in the right manner, or
if a mistress does not try to understand her point
of view. It may not coincide with her own, but
at any rate she will not be working in the dark.

It is most difficult, however, to preserve a
nicely adjusted balance of power; too much
familiarity breeds contempt, and since "no man
is a hero to his valet,' 5 still less does a mistress
remain a heroine to her maid. But to treat any
human being as a machine is equally fatal ; and I
think that the real secret of success with servants
is for a mistress to attract, and not to repel, those
who work in her house. It also seems a pity
that the majority of English servants never ap-
pear to save. In France and Italy the has de
lame are full of war savings and industrial se-
curities, but foreign servants do not attach the

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importance to dress which is so predominant
with English servants. Personally, I never
allow any of my servants to consider themselves
indispensable, having endured much from the
polite tyranny of devoted retainers in Spain, and
I believe that change is occasionally desirable on
both sides. Habit is the easiest thing of which
to take advantage, and the domineering instinct
is inherent in most women. Family servants
inevitably know too much of family life the
skeleton in the cupboard is their familiar
friend and as few homes are immune from dis-
sensions, old servants are occasionally prone to
use their knowledge wrongly.

The enquiry, however, lost sight of a supply
of higher domestic service which would meet
an undoubted demand, and which would not
come under the category of the detested name of
"living in." This new employment (which
exists already in France) could be confined
almost exclusively to hotels, as the heavy ex-
penses connected with travelling and hotel life
have affected ladies hitherto accustomed to
travel with a maid, on whom they rely as a
packer and a dresser, but the cost of whose keep

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

has risen in proportion with her employer's
hotel bills a serious problem which often now-
adays curtails a visitor's stay.

Some of the Parisian hotels have wisely recog-
nized the loss likely to arise from this state of
things, and they now provide "packers" for their
guests. The emballeuses who come to the
hotels, and pack and unpack for visitors in a
very efficient manner, make a duplicate list of
the garments handled by them, one list of which
is given to the visitor, and they retain one for
themselves. In this manner, pretty and delicate
clothes receive careful treatment, and the visitor
is not confronted with that bane to the traveller
the satisfactory disposal of one's wardrobe in
a limited space. This idea is worth following
up, and I might suggest an hotel staff of emer-
gency "maids-in-waiting," whose duties would
consist of "maiding" ladies who do not require
the monopoly of their services, but who would
be at hand to fasten up gowns, help in the ad-
justment of a dinner dress, and "tidy up" chiffons
and frivolities after a strenuous day. Women
need never complain of any lack of minor em-
ployment, and this new suggestion will appeal

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to many girls who possess a certain refinement,
and who do not care to be forced into monotony
of indoor service, and few people can say that
life ever becomes monotonous at the best hotels.

In all classes of English society I notice a
certain lack of modesty, due perhaps to the pre-
valent style of dress that even Queen Mary's
salutary influence seems powerless to affect.
No one can accuse the English Queen of being
"dowdy" her gowns are in perfect taste; she
appreciates beautiful materials, beautiful lines,
and the art of dressing to suit her personality.
But I wonder when the bare-backed brigade will
realize that the art of attraction consists in partly
concealing and not unduly revealing! Few
men like to know that their future wives' backs
are familiar by sight to all and sundry, and the
unpleasant moral aspect of baby bodices and
short skirts lies in their appeal to the sensuality
of the disgusting type of old men who constantly
babble about their preference for youth and
"little girls."

The same lack of modesty which followed
the French Revolution was noticeable under the
Directoire and the First Empire, and this li-

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cence invariably results from any great war.
Excess is usual both before and after the up-
heaval of a nation, but, thank God, the worst
moment of European excess is over, and the
pendulum will doubtless swing once more in the
proper direction.

I have left my impressions of the Royal
Family until the conclusion of this chapter.
Time deals very kindly with them and their
home life. Queen Mary remains the best em-
bodiment of a queen, a mother, and a woman,
and the King is still the same charming and un-
affected individual I have known for so many
years. Always serious-minded, I find that, if
possible, they have become more stabilized, more
one with the nation, than ever. To-day the
Crown lives for, and thinks with, the people.
The super-smartness of Edwardian days is per-
haps a thing of the past; there is less Court dis-
play, but there is infinitely more heart, and a
feeling of order, and common-sense is apparent
everywhere. The King and Queen have mas-
tered the art of allying democratic sympathies
with their metier of monarchs. With them any
period of private mourning now becomes sub-

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servient to public considerations, and with few
exceptions no claims of grief or death are
allowed to interfere with their public duties.
What an amazing contrast this attitude presents
to the late Queen Victoria's abject slavery to
bereavement, a slavery which not only made her
virtually a prisoner behind drawn blinds, but
which also affected the Court, and made exist-
ence there akin to a perpetual sojourn in a ceme-
tery.

The secret of Queen Mary's popularity lies in
her complete understanding and her boundless
sympathies. She plays her varied roles in a
manner which disarms criticism, and one in-
stinctively feels that her interest is always real
and never simulated. She enters into her life
and her duties with whole-hearted zest, and I
am sure she possesses an equal capacity for work
and for enjoyment

As a mother she stands unequalled ; well may
her children arise and call her blessed! Her
heart has been their home since their birth; to
them she has always been the mother and friend,
the "queen" has come last, and no shadow of the
throne has ever darkened the happy youth of

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her charming sons and her idolized daughter.

This wise upbringing has been completely suc-
cessful. The princes have become self-reliant,
human, tactful, and resourceful. Their popu-
larity, like those of their parents, is assured.

I was the first person to see the Prince of
Wales after he was born ! I was then living at
Sheen, and I was asked to "come at once to see
'the baby' at the White Lodge. 55 It seems im-
possible to realize the flight of time when I look
at him to-day!

Queen Mary has been my personal friend for
thirty-six years, and during this period she has
never changed. I have always found her the
best of friends, mothers, women and wives. I
cannot pay her a higher tribute, and it is one
which comes from my heart!

Revolutions and upheavals cannot affect Eng-
land; she- will continue her course undisturbed
by time or temperament. But I never actually
realized her conservative instincts until I
chanced to be staying at Cornwall, and stopped
at a wayside cottage to ask for a cup of tea.
Just as I was about to take my leave, my hostess
went to a cupboard, and with immense solem-

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nity produced a china cup, in the bottom of
which was deposited a little brown sediment

"Do you see this cup, ma'am?" she asked in
an awed whisper.

"Yes," said I, "you seem to prize it greatly.
What is its history?"

"Well, ma'am" (in impressive tones), "Queen
Victoria herself drank tea from this very cup
when she passed this way in grandmother's time.
So, naturally, we think a powerful deal of it;
'twas never rinsed out, and it never will be. JJ

No the land where the dregs of a queen's
teacup are treasured as an heirloom will never
become a Republic.

[us]

CHAPTER VI
AMERICA

MY first duty towards America is to protest
against the prevalent idea that she came into the
War solely for commercial purposes. I under-
stand the American mind, the mind that makes
America a nation of idealists, and I am con-
vinced that it was in order to undertake an
"ideal" mission that she sent her men to fight for
the liberty of nations.

America remembers what so 'many people and
so many nations too often forget the name of
Gratitude; she has never forgotten the assistance
given her by France in the days of Lafayette, and
right nobly has she repaid it If France had not
been invaded, America might perhaps have hesi-
tated to interfere, but the words "oppression"
and "invasion" make a direct appeal to Ameri-
can idealism, and anything that appeals to the
sentiment of the nation meets with a prompt
response. To be helpless means that help is

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instantly forthcoming, and the figures of Justice
and Liberty signify the real spirit of America.

I have always been proud of the fact that
although Christopher Columbus discovered
America, I have been the first and only Infanta
of Spain to rediscover it, and to appreciate its
beauties and its worth. There is a link between
us which will never be broken: my independ-
ence of soul responds to that of America, my
progressive ideas walk hand in hand with those
of America, and I render her my heart's homage
as the head of civilization and the leader of the
world.

Immense wealth, and the super-refined taste
of connoisseurs, have made America the
treasure-house of the past The old world has
yielded to her the most priceless jewels, pictures,
manuscripts, books and furniture and Amer-
ica accepts these as insignia of Royalty and bears
her honours right regally. Europe has been
depleted of her possessions by reason of prog-
ress, order, and the magnificent power of unity,
but America, idealist, and yet paradoxically,
lover of sensational advertisement, never loses
her sense of justice. Her Press may display its

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wares blatantly and boldly, but it never attacks
anyone in an underhand manner. This I can
bear witness to in my own person, as when I was
faced with many private troubles, and thereby
realized the influence and publicity of the Press,
I was able to compare American methods with
those of other countries to the entire advantage
of America. So I am eternally grateful to the
American Press, which in a time of stress re-
spected my position and protected me as a
woman once more proving the existence of the
national spirit in its defence of the helpless.

This idea of protection applies to all things
American, notably in the case of women. Men
work for women in America, and the man's first
aim in life is to beautify his woman, thus en-
abling her to carry the flag of beauty and wom-
anhood into other countries. Europeans will
never understand why so many pretty young
women are allowed to wander about alone,
spending money and frankly amusing them-
selves, and they argue that such domestic free-
dom implies a lack of personal interest. But
"this freedom" springs from a condition of per-
fect trust and when incompatibility of trust

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arises, parting at once ensues. No time is
wasted in domestic speculation if it is a bad
investment, the American husband cuts his losses
at once.

"Why do you allow your wife to flirt so
openly? Aren't you ever worried? 7 ' I once
asked an intimate acquaintance of the U.S.A.

"Why, your Royal Highness," drawled the

big unemotional man, "I guess Mrs. B

knows when to stop, and when she don't, Til
stop her"

American women are probably the best-
dressed women in the world ; and as they never
indulge in a rainbow of fashion, their concep-
tion of the art of dress is refined, dignified and
unostentatious. Feminine taste in Southern and
Central America is more exotic, as here is to be
found the emotionalism and colour of the Latin
race, which blends so well with life in France
and Spain, and makes intermarriages with these
countries so successful, just as the super-
refinement and slight coldness of American girls
ensure matrimonial success when they wed mem-
bers of the Old Country.

The independence of the American woman

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arises primarily from the respect paid by men
to her sex, and without respect the real value of
woman's independence as a factor for good be-
comes impossible. Hence it is the accepted
thing for American women to manage their own
fortunes and to take a prominent part in social
and political life. They are essentially thor-
ough, and I shall not easily forget the astonish-
ment in France when American war workers
arrived wearing military uniforms ! There was
no half-heartedness about these Amazons the
hothouse orchids had suddenly transformed
themselves into hardy oak saplings !

I am sure that the success of America as a na-
tion is primarily due to her proper estimate of
the value of money. Money is made so rapidly
in the States that it does not attain the value
placed on it by European countries. Americans
spend money both lavishly and wisely in the
majority of cases, although I remember various
freak dinners and sensational balls indulged in
by a certain class of millionaire. These people,
however, do not represent the real America,
therefore they need not be considered in her so-
cial history, and the superior class acquire the

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rare and the beautiful solely from the joy of pos-
session, and not as an investment or an advertise-
ment

It is as impossible to compare America with
England as it is to bring these two countries to-
gether, since the Atlantic Ocean represents the
same difference that the Channel constitutes be-
tween France and England. Their mentalities
are different, and their tastes are opposed,
thereby proving that uniformity in taste is not
consequent upon two countries speaking the same
language. They differ on points of plays,
books, and, last but not least, they differ on mor-
als. America is just now, par excellence, a land
of promise and fulfilment, so far as morals are
concerned. She is setting her house in order
with a vengeance; and just as she knows no mid-
dle course in her total abstinence from intoxi-
cants, she has decided to ignore any middle
course for morality in literature and "screen
work." Her own private morals may even be
subjected in course of time to this ordeal by fire,
but at present they remain in a condition where
sensuality is held in bondage by reason of hard
work and iron mentality.

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If divorce is too usual in America, it may be
urged in its defence that it often provides broken
home-life with another fair chance. I am the
last person to advocate quick changes in mar-
riage, but I believe in fair play, and the whole
trend of American ideas is based entirely on the
lines of "if at first you don't succeed, try, try
again."

If America as the modern Achilles possesses a
vulnerable spot, it exists in her dislike of the
name of America being given to anything but
the United States, and whenever this is done, her
temper and her dignity suffer accordingly. She
bids the world remember that Chile, Argentina,
Bolivia or Mexico have their own Ministers, but
that the United States has only one Ambassador.
She likewise resents the name of Republican be-
ing mis-applied to Communists, as in America
the name of Republican embraces the oldest
class of Conservatism just as the names of
Democrats, and Liberals, represent the people.

The majority of Europeans are too prone to
imagine that money levels all classes in America.
This has never been, and will never be, the case,
and such a wrongful impression would often

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cause pain and annoyance If Americans were not
superior to such petty considerations. There is
a vast difference between the status of families,
but although there are no titles, a tremendous
aristocracy of birth exists, of which the May-
flower stands as the representative symbol.
People should never speak of Americans as "vul-
gar Americans," when many of the old colonial
families can trace their ancestry back to the best
English stock; some of the bluest blood of
France flows in many Southern veins, and the
best traditions of Holland are embodied in the
important Dutch families of the United States.

In writing my impression of post-War Amer-
ica, I want my dear friends across the ocean to
feel that my memories of my first visit to them
remain as vivid as ever. My souvenirs are in-
effaceable, the flowers in my garden of friend-
ship are immortelles! And perhaps it will not
be out of place if I recapitulate the story of my
discovery of America.

My visit to the United States took place at the
time of the first Chicago Exhibition, when
Queen Christina was Regent of Spain. I had
always (like the King) longed to visit America ;

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to my spirit, even then, struggling for emancipa-
tion, it typified freedom, especially as ever since
my childhood I had been assured by all and sun-
dry that I was "only fit for America!"

We sailed from Santander, and, after staying
at Coruna for a few hours in order to hold the
inevitable reception, we went on to the Canary
Isles.

My first impression of Las Palmas was that it
was entirely English the presence of England
there, as in all foreign countries, made itself
felt; it was a little difficult to realize that Las
Palmas belonged to Spain, and also a little sad
to reflect that the Canary and the Balearic Isles
were the only island possessions of Spain! But
I always think of the Canary Isles as an English
rolony, recalling the "hurrahs" which greeted
me instead of the "vivas"; and I wonder whether
the English rightly appreciate how much they
are beloved in these fortunate isles, as no other
foreigners would be tolerated as they have al-
ways been, especially after their charming but
drastic readjustment of Spanish life.

I am not losing sight of the fact that English
interests in our islands are responsible for the

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employment and well-being of hundreds, nota-
bly in the case of the amazing enterprise of Yeo-
wards of Liverpool, who own immense fruit and
vegetable farms and banana plantations at Las
Palmas and at Tenerife. This firm has done
much during late years to increase the popular-
ity, and to facilitate travel to the islands for
health and pleasure at prices well within the
reach of most people. Nothing is more restful
or enjoyable than a "round" voyage, without the
discomfort of breaking the journey, and the Yeo-
ward Line gives invalid travellers in search of
pleasure three weeks' absolute enjoyment and
rest, with the minimum of fatigue.

Through a friend who went out to the islands
in 1919 on one of Messrs. Yeoward's boats I was
enable to hear a little about post- War Portugal,
and I must confess that what I heard filled me
with apprehension. I therefore feel at liberty
to treat Portugal in this chapter as a sort of half-
way house to America, but it may be more fit-
tingly described as the present augean stables of
Europe.

Portugal presents wonderful possibilities for
the right speculator she would represent mil-

OsJ

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

lions to any financier who took her in hand, and
who realized her enormous possibilities as
what is best described as a "going concern." At
present she is rapidly rushing to ruin ; her sen-
suality and corruption are indescribable, and her
gravest indictment lies in the fact that she is pri-
marily responsible for the deplorable race mix-
ture which has spread over Europe.

The Black Peril originally began in Portugal,
and it still continues to contaminate her, as the
negroid element introduced into Portuguese
blood is invariably attended with disastrous re-
sults, since the black strain dominates the feebler
stock, and reproduces and intensifies the vices of
the negro, allied to the more refined decadence
of the Portuguese. Lisbon of to-day rivals old-
time Hayti in its nameless sins and its savagery.
Many Portuguese and English girls now give
themselves soul and body to black men, and par-
ents who contemplate sending their girls to
Portugal as companions or governesses are tak-
ing a tremendous responsibility upon themselves.
Immorality of all kinds is rife, and men who
call themselves gentlemen do not consider it be-
neath contempt (as they might once have done)

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to live and prey on women, Lisbon, as I re-
member it years ago, was a smiling city with
clean streets and gay shops. To-day it is desti-
tute of charm, life and beauty. The hotels ask
exorbitant prices, and when on$ complains of
the accommodation and the inferior food, one is
told with a shrug: "Ah! we have a Republic;
we are taxed beyond our strength we cannot
help ourselves."

The roads have gone from bad to worse, es-
pecially that leading to Cintra, which, in parts,
is little better than a ploughed field. Here
again one is told that the Government will do
nothing, and that money destined for public en-
terprise finds its way into private pockets.

I believe that Portugal is monarchist at heart
the royal exiles are invariably referred to in
terms of affection and respect. But the loyal
Lisbonites are the first to acknowledge that the
climate of Portugal is not conducive to the
health of the House of Braganz, and that
the "poor little King" is happier away from his
native land.

Nevertheless if man is vile, Nature has en-
dowed Portugal with a beautiful climate and

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

wonderful scenery. The Bay of Lagos rivals
that of VigOj and the wonder and loveliness of
Algarves deserves to be better known. Why
does not the unseen force of Europe act in co-
operation with England and take Portugal in
hand? A protectorate of these two Powers
would be ideal, and Portugal, cleansed from her
iniquities, and with her house in order, could
resume her ancient and ; honourable place in
Europe. But her glory is departed ! Her nav-
igators, writers, poets, soldiers and kings have
vanished with the snows of yester-year, and their
places are filled with a dreadful mixture of half-
breeds! Her aristocracy exists, and fortunately
remains more or less uncontaminated, and pure
blood still flows in the veins of the fisher girls of
Lisbon a clan unto themselves.

The only redeeming feature in this sinister
home of the Black Peril is shown by the care
which the Government has hitherto taken of the
ancient and historical monuments. The royal
palaces are untouched, the churches remain
churches there was no desecration of souvenirs
until the present Government decided to abolish
the famous Rolling Stone Square and to allow

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the tram-cars to circulate over part of it. To
this end the square was re-paved, and the curi-
ous black and white inlay from which it derived
its name was destroyed. In vain a deputation of
architects from various countries besought the
Government to spare the unique feature which
commemorated the great earthquake of 1755,
and which constituted a Mecca for tourists by
land and sea who chanced to find themselves in
Lisbon. This act of vandalism is utterly in-
excusable, and it represents one of the senseless
and wanton misuses of power which remind us
of the truth of the words, that many crimes are
committed in the name of Liberty. But this
safeguarding does not spring from a desire to
protect history, but is solely a commercial
proposition to attract foreigners. At any rate,
let us be thankful that it exists, and that one is
thereby still able to see some of the jewels which
once sparkled in the crown of fame so proudly
won by Portugal in the days of Henry the Navi-
gator.

But I have absolutely gone off the map in
my denunciation of Portugal. I ought now to
be six days away from Santa Cruz, watching the

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flying fish, and admiring the lovely Sargasso
which floats on the bosom of the sea and reflects
its delicate colours on the water. The stars
here are unlike any other stars. They blaze
like great lamps in the temple of night; and the
moon is as gorgeous as the sun. I shall never
forget my impressions of the Cruz del Sud,
that marvellous constellation, or the dense black-
blue of the sapphire night sky. Fire was in the
air and mine was a journey on an enchanted
sea towards the enchanted Island of San Juan
de Puerto Rico!

This delightful island was discovered by
Christopher Columbus in 1493, and when I first
saw it in all its tropical loveliness I completely
forgot my dignity as an infanta in my excitement
and enthusiasm. Imagine a road by the sea,
bordered on one side by a forest of banana trees,
and here and there charming villas set in a blaze
of many hued flowers. The air was heavy with
the scent of magnolias and gardenias; the eye
rested on the luxuriance of sugar-canes, palms,
immense laurels, and the lovely "framboyanos"
which, tall as poplars, shelter the coffee plants
from the all-devouring sun. And these tender

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and vivid greens, these scarlet pinks, creams and
orange were spread under a sky of purest
azure the whole effect was indescribable! It
thrilled me then, and the recollection of it thrills
me now.

The military band was playing, people were
dancing, and the feathery palm-trees seemed (to
my excited imagination) bending the heads in
greeting.

I knew that at last I was in the new world :
I felt my "race" calling me: I heard the voice
of long-dead Isabel, telling me that, as her only
descendant in the direct line, I must represent
her, and that after four centuries I must bring
the "salute" from the old Spain to her far-away
daughter. Yes, I felt the blood of the great
queen coursing through my veins I was indeed
one with her.

In this exalted state of mind I wrote several
letters to my mother, Queen Isabella, two of
which I venture to think may prove of interest
to the reader, as typical of my feelings at this
period.

Mine was indeed a triumphal progress. I
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remember the intense heat, a review at 4 a. m.
(when nearly all the staff fainted), the linen-
clad soldiers, and myself in a thick Busvine
habit on a horse which was warranted never to
have carried a lady! Flowers everywhere, and
unbidden tears rose in my eyes when I suddenly
remembered other flowers which had been
strewn at my beloved brother's feet on his first
entry into Spain as her king.

Although the excitement aroused by my visit
did not diminish, I felt a presentiment of mis-
fortune in my soiiL The presentiment increased
hourly, and at last I wrote to my mother that I
was sure that much of the devotion and chivalry
by which I was surrounded emanated primarily
from a desire to render personal homage to the
representative of the widowed Queen Regent,
and, secondly, out of a feeling of admiration
for a woman as young as myself. "The
'Colonies are lost to Spain" I concluded. "That
is my paramount impression; on every side I
sense the heart's bitterness of our compatriots."

Prophetic words! But to this day I believe
that if a royal representative of Spain had re-
mained in our colonies, they would not have

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been lost so irretrievably I They are now lost to
us for ever, but their memory remains eternally
within my soul, and when I bade farewell to
Havana I left something of myself on those
green and fragrant shores once more Spain
flared comet- wise across the new world; once
more Spanish voices saluted a Spanish princess.
It was, indeed, worth while to have lived I
And just as Mary Stuart once bade an eternal
farewell to France, so I bade farewell to
Havana. "Adieu, te quitter c'est mourir."

" Adieu oh, Havana, the well-beloved . . .
this is perhaps an eternal farewell. ... I feel
my heart is breaking at thought of leaving
you. ... I must try and sleep in order to gain
a moment's forgetfulness."

* * * *

From romance to reality is but a step ! And I
was soon destined* to exchange the perfumed and
slumbrous beauty of Havana for the sheer
materialism of New York. Perhaps it was the
best physical and mental tonic for me, as I had
been too greatly carried away by my emotions,
too prone to sojourn in the past

In a more or less strenuous life, kaleidoscopic

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impressions of places and people are apt to get
blurred, but I remember, as if it were yesterday,
the excitement which pervaded everyone when
we found ourselves actually near New York on
the President's yacht Dolphin. Then followed
a hurried journey to the waiting "special" at
Jersey City, and then on by the Pennsylvania
railroad to Washington.

"What a contrast," I thought, "to our Spanish
railways. Why, the American trains cover the
same distance in five hours that it takes one
twenty-four hours to accomplish in Spain."
(The journey to Madrid has now fortunately
been curtailed!)

Washington and our hotel, "The Arlington,"
remain in my memory chiefly as a mass of
flowers. There were roses all the way, and I
literally walked on them!

A hundred in sequence of small happenings,
and then I recall the charm and distinction of
President Cleveland, the beauty of his wife, and
the courtesy of Mr. Gresham, the President's
Secretary of State.

We reached Chicago on June 6th, where I
enjoyed the hospitality of Mrs. Potter Palmer,

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and a friendship sprang up between us which
lasted until her death. She had a charming
flat in Paris, where she received a crowd of
interesting people, and she and I often discussed
the delightful days in Chicago when we first
met.

Lake Michigan almost bewildered me at first
by its immensity, and the weather helped to
make the surroundings more beautiful; but,
let me confess it, Chicago and its sky-scrapers
spoiled the view! Everyone in Chicago was
all excitement concerning me, and I was equally
on the qui vive! I was young not yet thirty
very gay, very much alive, and interested in
everything and everybody around me. I even
adventured into the streets with my lady-in-
waiting, and nobody recognized me; I listened
to the newsboys shouting, "Latest about the
Spanish Infanta," and I nearly laughed when
someone asked me if I had come out in the hopes
of seeing her!

We spent a week in Chicago, and then I trav-
elled to Niagara Falls in Mr. Pullman's pri-
vate car. I remember being especially struck
with the ferry-boat on Lake Erie, and also by

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Lake St. Clair. There one is on Canadian soil,
the English flag flies over the pretty country,
but on arriving at the suspension bridge you are
again in the U. S* A.I

I returned to New York after one long suc-
cession of fetes, presentations, entertainments,
and State functions. As the representative of
Spain, I achieved great popularity; but, as in
our Colonies, my popularity was more or less
personal, I think the American nation loved me
because I loved America. I still love her, and
I am proud of her affection.

We stayed at the Savoy Hotel, New York
another flower garden! And on Decoration
Day I laid a wreath on General Grant's tomb.
I had known this brave and good man per-
sonally, when he came to Spain to visit my
brother, King Alphonso XII., and it afforded
me a certain melancholy pleasure to make my-
self acquainted with his last resting-place. This
simple private tribute to the memory of a great
man called forth a frantic ovation, and re-
doubled my popularity.

My visit to the United States has been pro-
ductive of two very interesting features in

[1-34]

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American social life. I refer to the foundation
D the bodies known as "The Colonial Dames"
and "The Daughters of Isabella." The first
formation is more or less social, but the latter
society was instituted on the lines of "The
Knights of Columbus," with the idea of doing
for Catholic women what the knights were doing
for Catholic men. The order progressed, and
made wonderful strides during the War, but
when peace was declared the name was changed
to "The Catholic Daughters of America." I
have always been interested in it, and I take
this occasion to wish it well in all its under-
takings.

We sailed from New York on the French
liner La Touraine my official rediscovery of
America was over! Shall I ever revisit the
United States? I confess I am anxious to do so.
I should like to see post-War America, to see
for myself how "dryness" affects the Land of
Freedom, and to find out how the average
American really feels about laws which censor
his "domesticities."

[135]

CHAPTER VII

GERMANY

I AM rather at a loss to know what title best
befits the Germany of to-day. I have heard her
described as a Patient Griselda among the na-
tions; she has had her sex changed and is
alluded to as Samson in the midst of the Philis-
tines, she is depicted as everything that is con-
temptible, mendacious and secretive a stubborn
slave who must be subjected to torture before
she will work, and her greatest offence consists
in daring to plead poverty over the vexed
questions of reparations.

My task must be to write of Germany, solely
as an onlooker, and from a point of view permis-
sible to any person who possesses a faculty for
seeing the rights and wrongs of both sides of a
question.

The late President Ebert represented the head
of the vast Republic which took the place of
Imperial Germany. He rose into prominence

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from the more or less humble position of
Stahlmeister to Prince Max of Baden, a posi-
tion best described in English as that of a trusted
official in the Imperial Stables. Ebert was
always transcendently honest, and so honest was
he that, after the Kaiser's abdication, Prince
Max sent for him, and then and there handed
him over full control of the vacant "Empire."
. . . The President possessed a curious person-
ality. . . . "When I was a Stahlmeister," he
once said to a friend, "I occasionally drank too
much beer in consequence I went to sleep, and
my wife always teased me about it. Now, I'm
President, I drink champagne but it doesn't
have the same effect; instead, I become quite
wide-awake and amusing."

Ebert lived a retired life, and always main-
tained his respectful attitude towards his former
"employers" ; but although he refused to reside
in their palaces, he insisted these should be kept
up in their former condition, as he appreciated
the fact that nothing can destroy the orderliness
of the German mentality so essential to the
country. As a matter of fact, the palaces in
Germany which once belonged to the vanished

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Houses, are treated with consideration, and one
of my cousins, who lately visited her old home,
found it full of flowers which had been placed
there as a token of silent homage to her former
important position, but at the same time she
was clearly made to understand that Germany
had no further use for her or for her family!
The pension allowed to President Ebert's
widow, Frau Luise Ebert, throws light upon the
salaries on which Civil Servants live under a
Government which is compelled to keep down
State expenses to the lowest figure. Frau Ebert
will live in future upon an income of 622 reichs-
mark and 16 pfennig a month, which represents
her legal pension as the widow of the highest-
paid official in Germany. The Constitution of
Weimar laid down that should a president die
in office, the pension of his widow should be
regulated according to a statute of 1907, which
fixed salaries and pensions of all civil servants.
This sum, it was provided, "must not be less
than a third of the lowest income of the men in
Class Ai, nor more than half of that of those
in Class 62." As the salary of the man in
Class 62 includes a bonus for high rent in large

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towns, it is now the approximate value of 14,000
marks, or 700 sterling, per annum. Frau
Ebert will receive half this sum, which works
out at 3 1 a month, rising automatically when
the salaries of the men in Class 62 rise, but
this sum halved .will not make any appreciable
difference.

The interesting aspect of this grant consists
in the problem of how to live in Germany on
8 a week, for unless Frau Ebert is granted
free rooms, at least 5 a month of her pension
must go in rent A competent maid is not to
be had under 2 a month, and although rent
and wages are cheaper in Germany than in
other countries, a percentage is tacked on to
compulsory insurance to provide the "dole";
weekly stamps are obligatory against old age,
and these items, in conjunction with 10 per cent,
taxation, count on a small income. Thus cer-
tain radical members, who often accuse Presi-
dent Ebert of loving smug bourgeois comfort,
will certainly have no cause to complain that
his widow indulges in riotous living at the
country's expense.

Germany is invariably deferential defer-

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ence to rank is inseparable from her and, in
connection with this "Republican" country, I
remember an amusing incident that occurred at
Tegernsee after the War, when I arrived at my
hotel late one afternoon, and omitted to report
myself to the police.

The next morning I was awakened at 6 a. m.
by a loud and insistent knocking.

"Who is there?" I demanded.

"The police/ 5

"What do you want?"

"We must see you at once."

"It's impossible at this hour."

"This is the right hour for us" was the reply.

There was nothing for it but to dress and re-
ceive my visitors! In a short time I was ready,
and an official, note-book in hand, entered my
room.

"You arrived here yesterday afternoon?" he
queried. "I want details of your journey "

"I am here to visit my family," I answered.

He looked at me. I produced my passport.

"I am the Infanta Eulalia of Spain, visiting
my sister, Princess Louis Ferdinand of Bavaria."

On hearing this, the old spirit of respect
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shown to Royalty reasserted its supremacy in
the mind of this new "Republican."

"Oh, your Royal Highness, forgive me
forgive me for intruding on your privacy," he
stammered.

"Why did you come?" I said. %

"Well, your Royal Highness, if s like this (but
it ought never to have affected you). The
Austrian Spartacks are causing a lot of trouble ;
they're mostly women who come into Germany
through the Tyrol, and they give us the slip
before we can interview them. That's the
reason for our early visits!"

He withdrew, still murmuring apologies,
thereby proving that the German Revolution,
unlike those of other countries, has not destroyed
class respect, and it also proves that Radical
Socialism in Germany merely represents what
is known as Conservatism in other countries.
The German nation gives willingly, and, in
a philosophic spirit which remembers that after
all, the Kaiser admittedly did good work for
Germany in the past!

And how ungrudgingly the nation works : the
eight-hour day is, in reality, one of ten hours,

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out of which two hours are given free to the
Government! War and its results have been
powerless to affect the heart of the nation, and
the cleverness of England has enabled her to
recognize the existence of this impregnable
fortress. She therefore made no attempt to
conquer the Mind, but marshalled her forces
against Matter; she touched the German
stomach! Only hunger made Germany lose her
head; and the Allies have been a little mistaken
in their estimate of Germany, as her people are
imbued with a philosophy which gives them
the power to rise superior to misfortune. It is
impossible to treat Germany like a naughty
child. She is different to all others. . . .
Europe will be obliged to parley with her;
Europe will never be able to do without her!
And as Germany is sensible enough to realize
that " 1'union fait la force," she knows that her
great strength lies in her solidity of interests.

Thus she refuses to acknowledge any attempt
to separate her, and, par parenthese, it is like-
wise impossible to disunite 70 millions of people.
Germany is certainly undergoing a very drastic
cure, but she will arise from it stronger than

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ever. The increase of the population is greatly
encouraged by the Government, and six children
are now considered quite a small family! In
France, three children are looked upon as the
height of luxury! But Germany begets chil-
dren in order to teach them how to work, and
how to estimate the value of work: the French
beget children, and then begrudge their per-
sonal cost even the housing question in France
adopts this outlook and in many instances the
new race there runs grave risks of suffocation!

This state of things is unknown in Germany,
where the Government expects the owners of
large flats to share them with other families.
The authorities also make it their first duty to
inspect all houses, and they insist upon their
right to commandeer unused space in order to
meet an abnormal demand. In these cases the
owners are compensated by the Government,
and it ds quite understood that this compulsion
is only for the time being!

The Law of Compensation is one which every
German has studied and will always continue
to study. Her chemists, inventors, doctors, and
her whole mental resources are subservient to

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it The Allies do not choose to recognize this
fact, but it will be forced on them when another
European war becomes an actuality.

The newest Piqures come from Germany;
she has already mastered the art of sterilizing the
human lungs, and she now begins to sterilize the
whole body: everything created, must be re-
created and used again by her. Germany never
ceases thinking; and as she is ingenious and
practical, she harnesses the forces of Nature and
invention, and commands them to do her bid-
ding.

Before the War, consumption was practically
unknown, and most ordinary illnesses were ob-
solete: even mad-houses were placed in close
proximity to the public pleasure-grounds, in
order that patients in need of distraction might
feel themselves in touch with the rest of hu-
manity! The worker invariably comes first in
Germany, and is invariably considered first,
notably in the case of the removal of the Kaiser,
which only affected the higher classes the poor
felt nothing and suffered less I

The great upheaval taught German chemists
and doctors more than the Allies ever dreamed

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

of. German scientists are determined that in
the next struggle every necessity of life shall
have its artificial substitute, the nation shall no
longer be starved into subjection, and they are
already studying how to render the next blockade
useless. When the danger arises, Germany will
be ready to meet it

During the War, special chemists were re-
tained to compensate by invention the sudden
deficiencies in food and materials. They did
wonders then, but their work to-day is still more
wonderful.

The imitation cotton wool and surgical dress-
ings now surpass the real thing; soap made from
earth is identical with the best makes; and cac-
tus threads triumph in their masquerade as silk
linen briefly, the name of "Ersatz" will inevit-
ably become synonymous with victory.

Food, which in 1915 came under the heading
of "Ersatz," was carefully tested by specified
chemists in every town, and the inhabitants were
ordered to report to the authorities whenever
their especial "Ersatz" disagreed with them.
The "case" was given the most careful consider-
ation, and the offending "Ersatz" was eliminated

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

from the patient's dietary, and replaced by
another !

With that sentimental conscientiousness insep-
arable from Germany, the feelings of the ani-
mals were even studied, and "Ersatz" was
applied to fodder; corn, barley, and hay being
so carefully imitated that it was almost impos-
sible to differentiate between the real and the
artificial grain.

Perhaps the most wonderful medical triumph
of "Ersatz," is its maiden substitute for the un-
wedded, or the wedded, foster-mother, with
which I came into direct contact when I was
staying near Coburg, where the clinique and the
foster-mother farm exists.

This farm clinique purports to be able to
supply wet-nurses who have never been mothers,
but whose maternal capacity of suckling has
been arrived at by diverting another natural
function from its accepted duties. However,
I am not sufficiently clever to describe the med-
ical details 1 , which are entirely beyond me, and
which might perhaps be considered out of place
in these pages.

I do not propose to touch on politics or to

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

discuss the serious question of the advisability
or the non-advisability of the Ruhr Occupation.
One thing was always certain, only Germans
could work the Ruhr, as they can never be re-
placed in certain of their own industries, of
which mining is one.

The revanche of Alsace-Lorraine is nothing
compared to the revanche which at some future
date will be exacted for the gift of Silesia to
Poland, and the indignity imposed upon Ger-
many when the French sent coloured regiments
to occupy part of the Fatherland. Few people
realize the bitterness which exists; and the Ruhr
fades into insignificance in comparison with the
scandals created by the votes in the Silesian
question. Personally, I fear that the seeds of
another war were sown again at that disastrous
period.

Germany is, par excellence, the opportunist of
commerce her toy industry, and the secrets of
many of her dyes, have never been captured
and realizing that after the War there would be
an instant demand for cheaper toys, she met that
special demand, as she is ready and willing to
meet any others.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

During the last year many important changes
have taken place in Germany. The stabiliza-
tion of the mark has given the country a new
impetus, and her disarmament has stimulated
her commercial and industrial strength, as all
the young men who were, or might be, "called
up" as the soldiers, are now employed in the
various industries, or act as extremely efficient
commercial travellers.

This stimulation of commerce will, I think,
prevent any monarchial coup d'etat, as Germany
is ascending the commercial ladder too quickly
to wish to disturb her new-born prosperity.

A "partie monarchique" is inseparable from
any fallen throne, but it often dies for lack of
nourishment, killed by new generations born
under a republican regime.

Germany was undoubtedly prosperous under
the Empire, and her prosperity received a stun-
ning blow immediately after the War, sufficient
to destroy a lesser nation. But Germany will
never be destroyed; to-day she lifts her head
stronger than before, her children are fighting
for dear life, and they all work in unison for the
good of their Fatherland* never was the truth

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of the words "L'Union fait la force" more ex-
emplified than in present-day Germany.

The maimed limb of "interior debt" exists no
longer. Germany has gone in for self-amputa-
tion, seeing the urgent necessity of saving her
finances. "The end justifies the means," and it
is not for me to criticize her methods, but to
judge the results.

I have always regarded Germany as a tacit
Republic with an ornamental Emperor at its
head. Everything in Germany has been "Volk
und Verein" since time immemorial, as the
"Volklieder," the "Volks Theater," and Volks
innumerable testify; the Emperor himself was
simply retained as an Emperor, because he was
clever enough to identify himself with the
people. Socialism and reform in Germany
walk hand in hand, and the nation was already
a secret Republic long before the European
debacle. Everything was arranged, no re-
adjustment was necessary; and, in consequence
of this solidity of thought and interests, the Allies
will never be able to split up United Germany
or disassociate her from the concrete spirit of
the Fatherland. "Work and method" should be

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

the slogan for every country which aspires to
prosperity and greatness. Germany knows the
value of both: Europe may waste her energies
in dealing Germany a succession of industrial
blows, but after every blow Germany will only
become a more formidable opponent with whom
to reckon one day. Germany can never be
driven, and only friendship will lead her to any
desired end. Millions of Germans perished in
the World War, but millions will still rise up
who are as keen to fight a bloodless battle for
supremacy in commerce and industry, as their
predecessors were ready to battle for (what they
at least had been taught to believe) was a right-
eous cause.

I do not wish to attempt to portray this
"United Germany" entirely en couleur de rose,
as her domesticity has been shaken to its founda-
tions as a result of the War. The type of the
former well-disciplined German servant has
almost entirely disappeared, the craze for out-
door amusement has bitten him, or her, and their
demands for hours of relaxation are excessive
and disproportionate.

Before the stabilization of the mark, I re-

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

ceived letters from Germany telling me that the
smallest room in an hotel cost 5,000 marks a
day, and "living" expenses represented 3,200
marks daily! Butter was 600 marks per pound,
and white bread was sold at 20 marks the loaf.
Carriage hire for a short drive cost 1,000 marks,
lined gloves were priced at 27,000 marks, a
simple gown was not obtainable under 25,000
marks ; and this financial condition was certainly
much worse and more lasting and demoralizing
in its effects than the Great War with all its
useless sacrifice of life. x

To-day the German Republic remains as ab-
solutely thorough as the Empire was in August,
1914, when a descent on Paris had already been
mapped out Each officer entering the Army,
before the War, was given a sealed packet, which
he swore not to open until ordered to do so.
These packets contained details of the bearer's
life during the War, even comprising notifica-
tions of ambulance stations in different localities !
Nothing was forgotten by the marvellous men-
tality which devised the plan of campaign!

The German system of espionage has been

1 These prices are naturally non-existent to-day.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

dealt with so many times, and by so many abler
writers than myself, that I shall not attempt to
discuss it. German agents .were everywhere in
Europe, and with complete understanding of
human nature, the " Powers" often placed well-
born "spies 1 ' in quite menial positions, well
knowing that this class cannot be bought as
easily as the lower orders.

A friend of mine in Paris was the fortunate
employer of a priceless manservant a factotum
who managed her affairs and her household in
a wonderfully effective way. This man was, to
all appearances, the unassuming, well-bred ser-
vant accustomed to good service, but one evening
my friend returned unexpectedly, and entered
her flat unannounced. Imagine her surprise
when she heard Wagner interpreted as only a
master could do justice to the master, and, on
going into the room whence the sounds pro-
ceeded, she found her butler playing as one en-
tranced. He did not realize Her presence, and,
in spite of her amazement, my friend was music-
lover enough to appreciate his exquisite art
When at last she spoke, the musician, covered
with confusion, apologized profoundly, and ex-

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

cused himself on account of a secret and pas-
sionate devotion to music* . . . But he left
his situation the day before war was declared.

Comment is needless!

Even as I write, time has brought many of its
traditional "revenges" into our midst, and the
spring of 1925 is noticeable as witnessing the
election of Marshal Hlndenburg as President
of Germany, the leader in command of the Ger-
man army in the Great War, now an idolized
old man, whose election may perhaps be a prel-
ude to the restoration of a purified monarchy.

According to Sir John Foster Fraser, Hinden-
burg will concentrate his energies upon destroy-
ing the monster of Bolshevism primarily created
by Germany. Sir John does not hesitate to
assert that "Germany was the parent of Bolshe-
vism as we know it to-day " and that Herr Luther
may also fear "the spectre of Bolshevism" is
gathered from his declaration that a "weakened
Germany has a right to expect that security will
be provided to protect it from aggression on the
part of any neighbours."

At the first meeting at Hanover between
Hindenburg and Dr. Luther, the President de-

[153]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

clared his opinion that the questions of the
Dawes Agreement, the Security Pact, and the
League of Nations, must be left entirely to the
discretion of the Chancellor. His personal view
is that none of these measures will be of any
value, neither will the peace of Europe be as-
sured, unless Germany is given the conditions of
existence which are imperative for her legiti-
mate development

The old warrior also rightly realizes that
class war and party strife are the most deadly
foes to any intelligent nation, and in view of this
"bloodless" war against internal dissension, he
has granted an amnesty to all political prisoners.
As these were comprised mainly of Communists,
this unexpected attitude has, metaphorically,
drawn the teeth of Communism in Germany,
and in consequence the most advanced Com-
munists have agreed to bury the hatchet and
to refrain fom their usual methods of violence.

CHAPTER VIII

THE ROYAL WAR CRIMINALS
"GOTT STRAFE ENGLAND"

THE number of ^Illustration for November
nth, 1922, contained an Interesting portrait of
an individual who appeared at a first glance to
be none other than the late King Edward VII.!
But a closer inspection revealed the- fact that
the wearer of the military overcoat was not one
of Queen Victoria's sons risen from the dead,
but her most troublesome grandson, the ex-
Kaiser Wilhelm !

Yes, by some subtle irony of fate, the seal
of the Victorian Royal Family is set on the one-
time All Highest and he cannot escape from
his English ancestry. The soldier has vanished,
and the ex-Kaiser, with his peaked white beard
and heavy build, has reverted to type, and now
closely resembles the monarch to whose policy
and to whose personality he was always so
diametrically opposed!

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

It is not necessary to waste any pity on the
fallen Emperor. The conditions of his life are
perfectly satisfactory, and a great deal of his
creature comforts are due to his popularity with
the nation which so cheerfully maintains him.
Compared with the fate of Napoleon at St.
Helena, the fate of the ex- Kaiser at Doom is
paradise. He is anchored; his harbourage is
safe. At the time of his abdication, the end of
his reign was approaching, and he has been prov-
identially spared from perpetuating the usual
fatal mistakes inseparable from the generality
of aged monarchs. Behold him then, freed
from all cares of State, residing in a charming
home, favoured by climatic conditions in a
country where even the language resembles
German! The vexed problems of life are past;
the end of his life will be peaceful, and crown-
ing blessing he has married a lady of means,
mentality, and charm.

His discipline-impregnated mind never per-
mits him to misuse his position ; he never exceeds
his limitations. He is dignified, devout, de-
corous and domesticated. No one, seeing this
truly patriarchal "English" figure, could pos-

THE EX-KAISER WALKING IN DOORN WITH HIS SECOND WIFE

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

sibly even whisper the ancient slogan of a Hang
the Kaiser"; it would almost be commensur-
ate with a wish to exterminate one of the English
Royal Family!

The ex-Kaiser has completely shed his respon-
sibilities ! He is in good health ; he chops wood,
plants Dutch bulbs, works in his garden, pos-
sesses no ministers, and intrigues in no politics.
Knowing him intimately, I occasionally spec-
ulate as to whether he is the stoic he appears to
be, and whether life's tempest is effectually
stilled. Is he able to dispense entirely with his
former vassals? I ask this question, remem-
bering his one-time retinue of kings, when he
advanced as an emperor followed-monarchs,
guarded by the ancient royal families, who
figured as his "troops." Small wonder that he
suffered from folie de grandeur, for although
devoid of the real artistry of Ferdinand of Bul-
garia, the Emperor William possessed a certain
flair for spectacular effect, and delighted in the
glamour of pomp and circumstance. But the
Imperial exile pursues his quiet life, seemingly
untroubled by remorse, regrets, or heart-
burnings. He considers that he has nothing

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

with which he can reproach himself : he has done
his best for Germany, and if he has failed it has
not, after all, been his fault

The only so-called war criminal who ex-
perienced any actual punishment was the ex-
Crown Prince of Germany, who alone repre-
sented the one prisoner bound to the chariot
wheels of the victorious Allies.

The Crown Prince was a little over thirty
years of age when he was sentenced to solitary
confinement at Wieringen. He was still young,
and he must certainly have been able to rough
it, since his existence on the Island of Desolation
was completely devoid of all luxuries and most
of the comforts of life. The Crown Prince
lived like a poor man when his father lived like
a well-to-do retired tradesman, as the turrets and
solid masonry of Doom represent a mansion
vastly different to the Crown Prince's jerry-
built house, with its cramped space and non-
descript garden, where Roland, the Alsatian
sheep dog, imitated Diogenes and lived, tout
simplementj in a tub.

It is the duty of some unprejudiced person to
break a belated lance in defence of the Crown

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Prince : he has a right to a hearing. For years
he has been reviled, laughed at, lied about, cari-
catured, and grossly and deliberately insulted.
To say a word in his favour was, and is even
now, anathema, and it is seemingly his due to
be handed down to contemporary history as a
profligate, a drunkard, a thief, and a contemp-
tible soldier.

He is none of these: if the seeds of evil and
degeneracy had been so deeply rooted in his
being, William of Hohenzollern could not have
sustained his life in these impossible conditions
for a single day. I do not deny his affairs with
women. Few princes are votaries of an Eve-
less Eden: their lives expose them to all kinds
of temptations; they are rich, flattered, and,
above all, they are men. Few women exist who
are not subtly flattered by the notice of any
crowned head, or the admiring glance of a
Crown Prince . . . and it is easy to rank one's
self among the Puritans when one has no inclina-
tion to become a Pagan. As the ex-Crown
Prince himself once remarked, a propos of the
scandals attributed to him during his visit to
India: "I'm not the only man whose car has

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broken down ten miles from anywhere. 55 He
was right; most men have experienced a break-
down of some kind and many others have been
known to miss a train, which was not on the time-
table. But these accidents are not circulated in
the evening papers. Princes wear their rue
with a difference. Even as I write, a book is
on the eve of publication which purports to deal
with certain lurid love adventures attributed to
the ex-Crown Prince, or, as the newspaper
politely bills it, with "Little Willie's Love
Affairs.' 5 It is hinted that great influence was
exerted in order to suppress the publication of
these stories, but that the high-souled author was
above sordid consideration in his desire to add
one more indictment to the sum total of the ex-
Crown Prince's varied wickedness. Hence the
public is to be regaled with an intrigue with an
opera singer, the all-consuming passion of a
"spy 55 ; and other chronicles. It is to be hoped
that the ex-Crown Prince will take some steps
to refute these statements : his sons are no longer
children, and this sort of scandal is indescrib-
ably hurtful to family life.
Even supposing the ex-Crown Prince to have
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been a great lover, and also an unwise one, no
good purpose can possibly be served in a
rechauffe of scandals which are not wholly true.

The Crown Prince hoped to obtain a fair hear-
ing when he published his "Recollections."
But even this was denied him his work, like
himself, was taboo; probably many of the critics
were disappointed that he expressed himself like
a gentleman, and did not pander to the popular
demand for the scandals and "initialled" innuen-
does, without which few intimate souvenirs are
acceptable to the public.

This campaign of vituperation in England
extended to any luckless person who had the
courage to defend the ex-Crown Prince, or to
give the lie to his calumniators. A woman
writer who interviewed him at Wieringen,
through the courtesy of the Dutch Government,
had her article rejected by every English news-
paper, although a leading American newspaper
published it in full.

Kings and princes have had their favourites
from the earliest dawn of history, but fortunately
for their peace of mind the art of bookmaking
was not then so easy, and the sensational Press,

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with Its "live wire" copy and horrible snapshots,
was non-existent True, lampoons and pam-
phlets were circulated whenever another fair
face became especially noticeable at any Eu-
ropean Court, but gossip in the past was more
talked than written. Monarchs like Louis XIV.
and Louis XV. knew the uses of the Bastille,
and in those days it would have been very un-
wise if any newspaper proprietor had headed
his columns with "Louis' Love Affairs," or sup-
plemented it with a representation of the Sun
King kissing La Valliere in a secluded corner
of Versailles !

In view of my previous statements, I shall
endeavour to convey some idea of the Crown
Prince's environment to those who said "Serve
him right," whenever his name was mentioned.
The Island of Wieringen is a low, torpedo-
shaped island, wind-swept from end to end,
almost destitute of trees or vegetation, criss-
crossed by innumerable dykes, and intersected by
long white ribbons of roadway. There are no
houses of any importance, no shops worthy of
the name, and no society of any kind. In sum-
mer a blazing sun devours the earth; there is

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no shade, no oasis in this desert: in winter the
island is the meeting-place of the four winds ; it
is encircled with sea-fogs, and damp mists rise
from its sullen dykes. The skies are grey, the
land is hard and cruel, and the sea beats cease-
lessly on the dunes, where withered reeds sway
in a dance of death to the accompaniment of the
music of tempest

The Crown Prince could not have been ade-
quately warm during the winter. His former
dwelling stands in an exposed situation, at best
only suited for a short summer sojourn, as it is
an utterly insignificant, double-fronted villa bor-
dered by a ragged hedge enclosing a derelict
garden. His loyal and efficient aide-de-camp,
Major Miildner von Miilnheim, occupied a zinc
"hut" in which he slept and used as an office,
where he dealt with the Crown Prince's exten-
sive private and business correspondence. The
Crown Prince is a great reader, so his book-
shelves were full of standard English books, the
latest novels, the most talked-of memoirs. A
water-colour painting of Doom afforded a strik-
ing study in contrasts, and some of his own
sketches of his sons decorated the walls nothing

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else remained to him. Therefore, oh, most just
judges! Put yourselves in his place, and ask
yourselves how would you have borne such an
undignified exile? This "criminal" had the
world at his feet ; he knew luxury of which you
have only the faintest conception; his life was
led under beautiful and artistic conditions.
Those of you who have toured Germany, and
who have been shepherded through her "Show
Palaces," can now pause because you reiterate
your parrot cry of "Serve him right," when you
contrast his exile with his former glories.

In his five years' solitary confinement, the
Crown Prince became master of his fate, and
captain of his soul, and because of these things
he has shown himself greater than many of his
ancestors whose names are written in golden
letters on the Roll of Fame.

The Crown Prince was a very lonely man:
the Crown Princess and his sons only visited
him twice a year, and then only for a short time.
Journalists were not encouraged at Wieringen ;
the Crown Prince has usually suffered at their
hands, as certain "reporters" showed a Judas-
like disregard of the laws of hospitality and

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grossly mis-stated facts relative to the Crown
Prince's conditions of life. He was accused of
participating in drunken entertainments shared
by fair and frail ladies from the Mainland, and
of possessing a double who remained at Wierin-
gen whilst he enjoyed life in Amsterdam and
Berlin! There is not a single word of truth in
this. The Dutch Government was an Argus-
eyed guardian, and Mynheer Kan, who was
cognizant from A to Z of the daily life of the
exile, greatly deplored the senseless lies which
were broadcast about his illustrious "charge."

William of Hohenzollern represents a force
to be reckoned with: he has developed in aa
amazing degree, his intellect is sharpened, he
has had time in which to think , time in which to
reflect as to the future, and time in which to re-
view his own part in the World War, miracle of
miracles he has conquered himself!

The Crown Prince is one of those individuals
whose weak points are accentuated by the camera
in an unmerciful degree, and I remember how
I once used to call him "Squirrel," by reason
of his resemblance to the nimble and malicious
little woodland creature.

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No one could call him "Squirrel" to-day.
His ice-blue eyes have the glint of tempered
steel, his mouth is firm, his expression, dignified,
and his physique is as fit as that of the ideal
boxer. He is "Little" no longer, and the adjec-
tive best befits those whose aim is to forget the
primary laws of justice on every possible oc-
casion.

His literary productions proved that he is now
above the mud of the streets : it laid in his power
to write a chronique scandaleuse of pre-War
German society, which would have amazed
Europe, and put thousands in his pocket; in-
stead, he wrote his recollections with restraint
and common sense, and, moreover, refrained
from criticism or comment on the judgment
which decreed that his place of exile should be
Wieringen!

Germany to-day is full of imperial and royal
ex-princes. Like them, the German aristocracy
has accepted the unusual conditions of post-War
existence with the greatest philosophy, and the
system of discipline inseparable from Germany
has justified itself by the adaptability with
which they have readjusted their lives.

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The Kaiser's sons are living quietly, and some
of them have become business men. The
Crown Princess and her sons have made their
home at the Castle of Oels, and the boys attend
public schools like good Republicans! As I
have previously stated, a Monarchial Party
exists, but the majority of shipwrecked Royalties
have entirely effaced themselves.

The whole art of living consists in looking
ahead, and in trying to realize what might hap-
pen! No one need wilfully bandage his or her
eyes, and it should always be taken for granted
that although one may be attached, one must
never be bound to anything or anybody. A tie
that can be untied or broken is not so difficult
to shed as a chain, and one suffers less from the
severance of a tie than from the breaking of a
chain. If people would only have solutions at
hand for the expected and unexpected, they
would suffer less ; and they must likewise remem-
ber that any kind of punishment, mental or
bodily, affects youth and middle age far more
than when one is old. The old are atrophied.

Another saving grace with the fallen princes
of Germany lies in their love of country life.

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The majority of their private fortunes are un-
touched, so they have not been financially ruined
by the War.

All that they really miss is the public life
and most of them have had quite enough of it!
They now live happily as one large family, and
they certainly are not to be commiserated with.

Prince Max of Baden, one of the most in-
teresting "War Criminals," has been the scape-
goat for many people and many things. The
prince, in whose veins flows Russian and French
blood, is a handsome idealist, a deep thinker,
a man who walks with God, and who represents
the true embodiment of Christianity. When
war broke out, he wished to be given a position
in the Red Cross, and he was responsible for
much good work in connection with the prison-
ers of war. Prince Max is totally different
from the usual pattern of princes. "Thyra" was
too much of an idealist to countenance war : he
opposed it on every point, and crowning au-
dacity he it was who dared tell the Kaiser that
it was his duty to abdicate for the good of his
country!

Prince Max, like most idealists, has suffered
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for his convictions. However he still refuses to
admit that the word "enemy" exists, he lives
solely to obey the dictates of his conscience, and
he remains a figure of peace untouched by the
ravages of war. He leads a very secluded life at
Maienau, on Lake Constance, probably consid-
ering many things, happy in the society of a few
tried friends, and lost in the contemplation of the
ideal.

Rupprecht of Bavaria (another criminal)
will always be associated in English minds with
the excessively unpleasant u Hymn of Hate"
which aroused such widespread condemnation.
To-day, many eyes are fixed on him as an ac-
credited agent of the Invisible Hand which
holds the destinies of Europe in a grip of steel;
and Rupprecht of Bavaria may yet go down to
posterity as the reconstructing force which will
affect many destinies.

The casual observer might deem this Prince
of Hatred to be an entirely uninteresting and un-
emancipated individual, but the clever side of
him develops in the course of conversation. He
has few sympathies, and you instinctively feel
that it would be quite possible for him to be

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cruel, indeed he looks somewhat cruel, and had
not his mother (half sister to Queen Cristina of
Spain) married a Modena, his sinister expres-
sion would be more apparent As it is, the
softer Italian colouring gives him the appear-
ance of a stern Sicilian! or an aristocratic bandit!

I cannot dispute the fact that iPrince Rup-
precht's attitude was one of extreme bitterness
during the War, but with him, as with most
Germans, war represented a paramount duty.

Prince Rupprecht's first wife was a sister of,
the Queen of the Belgians; and there 1 ' is thirty
years' disparity of age between him and his sec-
ond wife, a Princess of Luxembourg. His
children by his first wife are all dead with the
exception of one boy, who resembles his cousin,
the Duke of Brabant, in his flower-like delicacy
of appearance, and who has been brought up in
the country as aj Bavarian peasant a beautiful
peasant certainly, but one who at present knows
nothing of society, and who never penetrates
into the life of towns.

I think that Rupprecht of Bavaria is undoubt-
edly a figure to be reckoned with, and to be
feared. He is spoken of on quite a different

[170]

PRINCE RUPPRECHT OF BAVARIA WITH HIS SECOND WIFE, PRINCESS
OF LUXEMBURG

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

plane from anyone else; he can do practically
what he likes in the Army, and it is the prevalent
opinion that he is tacitly supported by Europe.
One especially realizes this in Munich, where
he reigns supreme, and where the bloodless Ger-
man Republic had its counterpart in the blood-
less revolution in Bavaria. Revolution in Mu-
nich was arranged on the most courteous and
considerate lines. There was no screaming, no
incendiary trouble, no excess the displacement
of the Reigning House was as gentle as an in-
f anf s slumber ! The good people were told that
there was to be a revolution, and the habitual
question used to be: "Is there to be a revolu-
tion to-day?"

In one instance, when barbed wire and guns
were to be seen in the streets, the people were in-
formed in the kindest manner that there would
probably be a revolution in this particular part
of Munich at such and such an hour, and they
were therefore advised to keep to the non-
revolutionary side of the town. 1

Many Bavarians have told me about the amus-

1 1 am not, of course, dealing with the three days* ( Red" Terror
in April, 1919.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

ing aspect of the first Bavarian Revolution.
When the Bavarians at last realized that the
Royal Family were to be dismissed, they had no
choice but to obey orders, and convey this ulti-
matum to their hitherto satisfactory rulers, who
were carefully apprised of this arrangement by
their subjects who did not wish them to be taken,
so to speak, unawares. They therefore awaited
the procession at the palace; all blinds were
lowered and perfect order was maintained, but
human curiosity overcame discretion, and cer-
tain members of the royal family were not above
imitating the role of Peeping Tom.

At last the song of revolt and the tramp of
many feet were heard. . . . The revolution had
arrived! and it presently halted in front of the
Palace, and the Munichers proceeded to obey
orders. There was a goodly display of banners
of freedom, bearing various uncomplimentary
references to kings in general, but did the faces
of the standard bearers reflect the sentiments em-
bodied on thein banners? Most certainly not,,
and so far from expressing any hate, they
beamed on the silent Palace with undiminished
respect At intervals, one of the leaders would

[172]

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sing a revolutionary solo, and the chorus sang
"N eider" loudly and lustily, but everyone kept
smiling. . . . The general unspoken feeling was
one of affection for the House of Wittelsbach ; in
short, it might have implied: "We are carry-
ing these banners just to show you what we mean
to do, but we have no intention whatever of an-
noying you. Please go on living as you did be-
fore."

Even the historic "Gott Strafe England" was
not always said in all its bitter meaning. The
Bavarians were told to repeat it, and, obedient to
discipline, they did as they were told. The
children also learnt it, but without any evil
promptings from their elders, and the slogan
was as popular in Munich as the one time
"Beaver" in London. I remember how I
laughed when one of my small friends said,
"Well . . . good-bye-and-Gott-strafe-England"
running all the words into one with intense en-
joyment! On another occasion I listened to
some babies saying their prayers: "Bless our
father, and our mother," lisped these innocents,
"make us all good" and then at express speed
"Gott strafe England good-night"

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In January of this year I was staying at Egetn-
Rottach, near Ober-Ammergau, surrounded by
an aristocracy who had been deprived of their
rank and nearly all their fortunes, but who com-
manded respect by reason of their adaptability
to the altered conditions of their lives. In these
mountain solitudes I visited great ladies living
in houses which would have been dubbed "hov-
els" by the new rich, and nothing was more
charming than the sight of the white-haired
princesses and duchesses standing in the door-
ways of their modest dwellings where they wel-
comed my visits, untouched by environment

Many of them could only afford one servant,
and their hospitality could not, by reason of cir-
cumstances, be described as lavish. But the at-
titude of these people brought home to me the
truth of the saying that "Bon Sang ne peut
mentir"; and when in the self-same month I
stood by the coffin of the Queen of Naples, I re-
membered these words anew, for surely no queen
exemplified them more than this member of the
Fair Sisters did, whose varied fortunes have pro-
vided food for thought and important material
for contemporary history, Sophia, Queen of

[174]

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Naples, was the last representative of those who
contributed to the re-birth of Italian unity, and
whose dauntless courage obtained for her the
sobriquet of "The Heroine of Gaeta." She it
was who encouraged the soldiers during the his-
toric siege, and when ceilings fell by reason of
gunfire, she shook her lime-whitened hair, and
demanded admiration for being so effectively
poudree. This restless brave woman sleeps
peacefully at Tegernsee, and one only now sur-
vives of those lovely Bavarian sister-princesses
the late Empress Elizabeth of Austria, the
tragic Duchesse d'Alencon, Sophia Queen of
Naples, and Princess Trani.

CHAPTER IX
BELGIUM, SWITZERLAND, AND AUSTRIA

A POPULAR delusion in France, and one which
the passage of ten years had not been able to
destroy, is that the Germans habitually ate chil-
dren during the War. The similar conception
of German atrocities in Belgium has not les-
sened with the flight of time, but whereas in
France everything is done to fan the flame of
eternal hatred, Belgium has lost no time in
beginning her work of reconstruction and re-
adjustment, and now few outward traces remain
to testify to the horrors of enemy invasion.

The French must decidedly prefer discom-
fort to comfort in their ideas of revanche.
Many of their War dilapidations are merely
object lessons for tourists, as shelled houses and
rusty entanglements appear to be the best uses
of advertisements for the patriots whose one cry
is "Reparation."

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

But, just as bees slowly and surely repair their
damaged hive, so slowly and surely has Belgium
repaired her damaged hive of industry, thereby
adding to the comfort of the community, in pro-
viding work for thousands who might otherwise
have come under the category of the unem-
ployed. When I visited Louvain in the spring
of 1922, it was difficult to imagine the forces
that had once centred upon it: the town was
entirely reconstructed, the only change being at
the Abbaye du Pare, which was then destitute of
nuns, and only occupied by monks. And just
as Louvain has been reconstructed, so has all
Belgium been subjected to the same healing
process, and this law of order and readjustment
comes direct from the Throne. Both the King
and Queen of Belgium are model workers, the
embodiments of punctuality, morality, and a
healthy mode of life, and their example spreads
from the Palace to the nation, with the result
that to-day the prosperity of Belgium is un-
touched !

The Great War represents a past catastrophe
in the mind of the average Belgian, and it is
relegated to the past. The market is steady

[177]

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again ; it is the bounden duty of Belgium to look
forward, and to arrange her future.

This outlook has strengthened the character of
an already strong people, who believe that dis-
order is the curse of individual and national
life. The Belgians possess a curious psychology.
As refugees, they considered that nothing was
too good for them, and they cheerfully allowed
others to work and provide for them. Once
restored to their country, they were instantly
metamorphosed and the pampered, selfish
refugee became the plodding, industrious, frugal
and whole-hearted worker of past years.

Belgium is a very happy country; everything
centres round the .working classes, which are
thoroughly protected by Socialism, and the
people see very little actually of their sovereigns,
although they are devoutly loved, and greatly
respected.

The Queen is at the head of all the charities ;
the King is a strong and silent man of few words.
But both husband and wife are great individuals,
and they played their parts during the War,
in a spirit of selfless heroism hitherto unknown
in the history of any nation. They were active

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participants in the horrors and upheavals of
their country; they shirked nothing, where they
considered their duty was in question, and they
shared the common dangers and discomforts
with their subjects in short, the King and
Queen became the subjects of their subjects.

Elizabeth of Belgium is one of the most in-
teresting of European Royalties. A daughter of
the Duke Karl Theodor of Bavaria, the famous
philanthropist, and eye-doctor, she gave herself
to Belgium at the time of her marriage, and,
notwithstanding her nationality, she is known to
possess absolutely no sympathy for Germany, or
for things German. Belgium has never boasted
a greater patriot than this Queen, but her
Wittelsbach blood is perhaps responsible for her
idealistic ideas of justice, in her attitude towards
life.

She comes from the same stock as Elizabeth
the Dreamer, who sacrificed the vanities of life
in pursuit of an ideal, and who was, in her turn,
sacrificed. Elizabeth of Belgium possesses the
same fine quality of spirit, the aloofness, the
disdain of hypocrisy, and the banalities of life
which characterized her aunt ; but whereas the

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dead Elizabeth was at times a morbid and fan-
tastic dreamer of dreams, the living Elizabeth
is a very vital personality enormously interested
in all the possibilities of life. She is the only
"flying" Queen, and she thinks as little of flight
as most people do of a ride in an omnibus.
Any waste of time is repugnant to her: she con-
trives to do two days' work in one, and she has
brought up her children with almost Spartan
"hardness." The Heir-Apparent resembles his
distant Bavarian cousin in his romantic and
flower-like delicacy of appearance, and the
Princess Maria Josepha is completing her edu-
cation at the Sacre Cceur, where she is treated
exactly like any other pupil, as the Queen allows
no difference of rank to be observed. The
Royal Family leads the simplest and happiest
lives. The Queen, like all the Wittelsbachs, is
many-sided in her accomplishments: she is a
clever violinist, a great reader, an admirable
horsewoman, a good shot, and a thorough sports-
woman, whilst her attention to, and her love of,
the domesticities is on a level with that of Queen
Mary of England.

Unlike the Queen of Spain, the Queen of
[180]

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Belgium does not attach any especial signifi-
cance to dress. She wears simple frocks cut
on simple lines, but her millinery inclines to-
wards the artistic: slight, chic, nervous, and
'forceful, Elizabeth of Belgium once seen is
never forgotten. She is a curious mixture of
democracy and Royalty; and her democracy,
allied to her sense of humour, enabled her to
laugh at the bluntness of the American officer
to whom she was describing certain happenings
of the War. "Say, Queen, weVe heard all that
long ago- let's talk!' Truly America has no
use for Royalties.

The two most outstanding figures in Belgium
during the War were those of Burgomeister
Max and Dr. Lepage. I had the pleasure of
meeting the former when I was in Brussels, and
I was greatly struck by this heroic man with the
kind, good face, who looked like a living por-
trait by Vandyck. He speaks of Germany
without the slightest trace 3 of bitterness, his
attitude is that of one who offered himself as a
sacrifice and who has no regrets. He impressed
me greatly, and I cannot sufficiently admire his
generous and beautiful attitude towards life.

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He spoke of the sufferings endured by civilians,
and reminded me how little known and ap-
preciated these unsung heroes have been. No
class suffers more in any War than civilians, and
no class is so easily overlooked for recognition,
since it appears to be the privilege of a uniform
to excite instant and practical sympathy with
the generality of individuals.

Burgomeister Max was kept for two years in
solitary confinement in a dark cell, as a hostage
by the Germans. He was given dry bread to
eat and water to drink; he was subjected to
countless indignities, and he was told the horrors
of the fate meted out to age and youth by the
relentless conquerors. He lived in the very
shadow of death, never knowing what might be
his own fate. But he invariably refused to dis-
cuss the horrors of this unspeakable captivity;
he merely smiles cryptically, and dismisses it as
a nightmare.

No ".war" rewards were ever awarded in
Belgium, the attitude of the nation was one of
single-mindedness. Nobody wished to be re-
warded for services rendered to the country : the
outlook of the nation was entirely sober, and few

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realize the strength of the mentality of this little
kingdom. No traces remain to-day of the Ger-
man occupation, and the sole thought of the
Belgians is how best to develop the prosperity
of Belgium by reason of the War.

Dr. Lepage, who was closely allied to the
Queen in her work for the Red Cross, has done
wonders for the maimed by his development of
artificial limbs, and his "institution" for the
supply of these, is still in existence. Dr. Lepage
was the first doctor in Belgium to raise the
manufacture of artificial limbs to the level of a
high art and, thanks to him, hundreds of the
victims of the War have been enabled to carry
on the ordinary occupations of life. But in
this, as in many other instances, the extent of his
labours will never be known, as Dr. Lepage is
not desirous of any reclame. He gave his best
that suffices him.

As the Belgian Government is conducted on
Socialistic lines, its efforts are concentrated on
the establishment and continuance of law and
order. M. Jasper is a really great minister, and
he and his wife are the simplest and most charm-
ing people. Life in general in Belgium is

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

planned on simple lines, the Court provides an
example in the simplicity of its balls, dinners,
and various functions, and the King and Queen
efface themselves so thoroughly that you scarcely
realize they exist, until you see the flag flying
over the Royal Palace.

Notwithstanding this apparent "effacement,"
the King and Queen are absolutely in touch with
the nation, and with the rest of Europe, but this
freedom and absence of restraint alone con-
stitutes happiness for them, as thereby they are
permitted to lead a life of refinement and
quietude, and, as Belgium respects the sanctity
of individuals, vulgar curiosity is non-existent.

This singular lack of ostentation is also ap-
parent in the charming aristocracy; one instinc-
tively senses the "race" of this especial class, but
no untoward importance is paid to rank, and
class jealousy is unknown. Belgium, strangely
enough conservative and sober-minded, is per-
haps the only country in Europe which is not
unduly affected with the craze for dancing, per-
haps due to the Flemish phlegm, which tempers
life admirably for these industrious people who
study their digestions, and who regard dancing

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

between the "courses" as an insult to the u chef.' 5
In short, the Belgian outlook Is mainly one of
attentive interest, even during the War they re-
garded the "enemy 77 as a "science," and weje
often curious about him and his output, solely
from a scientific point of view!

The little Duchy of Luxembourg In close
proximity to Belgium possesses a purely clerical
and feminine Court; where the unmarried grand
duchesses and their priest-swayed mother find
their chief Interests In official functions. The
advent of the hosts of the War Lord rudely dis-
turbed the pomp and circumstance of this slum-
brous routine-ridden Duchy, and it was here
that the Kaiser experienced his first rebuff In
the defiance of the reigning Duchess to acknow-
ledge his supreme authority.

Since the War one of the young duchesses has
married a prince of Bourbon; Parma, another
sister, has taken the veil; and, In opposition to
traditions, a third has become the second wife of
anti-clerical Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria,
* .

From Luxembourg I shall wander into the
grandeur and beauty of Switzerland, that clear-

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

ing-house for peace, whose bounden duty is to
build a palace of lasting peace on sure founda-
tions.

The simplicity of this happy country results
primarily from her pastoral characteristics, and
from the solidity of her ancient stock, although
I have heard many educated people express sur-
prise when told that Switzerland possessed an
ancient noblesse which, in many instances, traced
an unbroken descent into the dawn of history.
This spirit of national pride leads the Swiss to
preserve all the historical records and monu-
ments of their country; they live in the past, and
a gradual and "intimate" sojourn in Switzerland
almost forces a stranger to do the same. Until
then he will never be able to realize the "inner"
life of a nation where titles are dropped, but
where the glorious mediaeval castles remain as
silent witnesses of the power of the past When-
ever I go to Switzerland, I sigh for the vanished
life of Old Germany, because life in Switzerland
so closely resembles it!

The Swiss are the proud possessors of the
original Red Cross which is to be seen on their

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INFANTA EULALIA

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

national flag, and modern Switzerland can be
most fitly described as an unique moral and
physical convalescent home. Her conditions of
hygiene are perf ect, and after the War her hotels
(regardless of pecuniary loss) turned themselves
into convalescent homes whither sufferers re-
paired from all parts of Europe.

There is no post- War vulgarity in Switzer-
land ; the Swiss retain their old simplicity, their
singleness of purpose, and their sane outlook.
With them any kind of dishonesty is looked up-
on as a crime ; there are no extenuating circum-
stances; and I remember once when I left my
purse in a shop, and almost immediately re-
claimed it, the proprietor insisted that I should
count the money, a so as to be quite sure it is
there." This cleanliness of mind springs from
a healthy education ; and the values of right and
wrong are instilled into the minds of every
Swiss almost from the cradle.

Switzerland to-day is the sanctuary of royal
exiles: they are treated here with the greatest
respect, and they are happier in Switzerland
than anywhere else. No untoward curiosity is

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

displayed as to their movements; there Is no
interference with their lives, and in consequence
the illustrious refugees enjoy more privacy than
many private people.

This little simple country will go down in
history as the Home of Freedom, the Strong-
hold of the League of Nations, and the Palace
of Peace. The Union Mondiane des Femmes
also has its headquarters in Switzerland ; and this
great feminist movement aims at disseminating
peace throughout the world mainly by the in-
fluence of woman.

Switzerland remained neutral in the Eu-
ropean struggle, and her conditions of neutrality
were strictly and honourably observed; but
although she .was badly singe4 by the flames of
war, she pursued the even tenor of her way un-
disturbed. Her religious convictions, notably
in the Catholic Cantons, are very firm, and her
domestic life has lost none of its morale as a
result of the great upheaval.

One thing which strikes me a little un-
pleasantly, is the extravagance in dress during
the winter season which is noticeable in even the

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

smallest Swiss hotels. This regrettable con-
dition is entirely doe to the English and Ameri-
cans. Formerly, one could wear a semi-
evening dress for dinner and be considered quite
smart, now a succession of grandes toilettes is
considered imperative, and the appearance of
guests at the best hotels is on a level with smart
society on the Riviera. Even the comfortable
sports-suits have lost much of their pristine
simplicity, and are to be seen in inartistic and
glaring contrast to the glorious natural back-
ground. Colour is always lovely, but why mix
too much colour on any palette?

I am the last person to decry any forms of
rational enjoyment, but it seems a pity to make
sport a pretext for- social extravagance. The
winter season in Switzerland is now almost pro-
hibitive, except for the idle rich or the un-
crowned kings of American finance, and St.
Moritz especially typifies this new aspect of
modern life in its feverish gaiety, its mania for
display, its neurotic restlessness, and its craving
for sexual emotions. To enjoy oneself sanely
and happily one must go further afield, in the

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

untrodden ways, where old ".woollies" are not
taboo, and where one can live in close touch with
Nature, unspoilt by French perfumes, fancy
dresses, bare-backed toilettes, and perpetual

cocktails.

*. *

It may not be out of place in this resume to
include a few comments on Austria and Hun-
gary, especially as so many of the Swiss aristoc-
racy were originally Austrian, and as many
Austrians have found a place of refuge in
Switzerland.

The only Monarchial Party that remains is
in Hungary (still written and called "La
Royaume d'Hongroie"), where General
Horthy acts as Regent of a kingdom which will
not acknowledge a Republic. For whom is he
Regent? the Throne remains empty! But the
Hungarians are patient, and they adopt an at-
titude of expectancy similar to that of Spain,
when Queen Cristina was the Regent and the
prospective mother of a sovereign.

Hungary has now waited much longer than
nine months for her new sovereign, and she still

[190]

EMPRESS ZITA OF AUSTRIA WITH HER CHILDREN

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endeavours to lead her life on Court lines ; still
she asks, "Where is the infant?" She will not
consider the possibility that, after an unduly
prolonged period of gestation, her hopes will
probably be still-born!

[191]

CHAPTER X

THE THREE GRACES, AND THE PERIL
OF THE STRICKEN BEAR

THE Danish sculptor, Canova, is responsible for
a charming marble group which has achieved
world-wide reputation as "The Three Graces."
Its slightly artificial and sentimental attraction
is peculiar to the period which produced It, and
to-day it would certainly not make its original
appeal. But I frankly admire it, and when-
ever I see the reproduction of the trinity of en-
twined loveliness, I always connect it with Nor-
way, Sweden, and Denmark the Three Graces
of Europe.

These aloof and beautiful countries are the
only nations whose wings have not been singed
by the flame of war, or smirched by the universal
pollution of men's minds. They have pre-
served their independence of thought, and their
refined simplicity, in the midst of an orgy of

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bad taste; and their Courts, like their peoples,
are untouched by the breath of scandal.

Sweden undoubtedly possesses the best sys-
tem of European education; it is based entirely
on simplicity, and there are few countries which
possess the material advantages it offers to
students of both sexes. The State entirely de-
frays the expenses of a boy's education from the
grammar school to the university, and most of
elementary education devolves upon each parish
subordinate to one school board, under state
supervision. The "Folkskola" curriculum com-
prises reading, writing, arithmetic, geometry,
history, natural science, "Christianity," singing,
drawing and gymnastics, and in most Swedish
schools, carpentering, gardening, cooking and
needlework are included as well.

As there are few Roman Catholics in Sweden,
and an equal scarcity of Jews, education does
not present the religious difficulties that it does
in many other countries, where religion is so
often used as a lever for political dogma.

The physical culture of youth is estimated of
great importance with the Swedes, and it runs
concurrently with the intellectual development

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

of children, who are taught lessons from life,
thereby combining amusement and relaxation
with mental instruction. The study of botany
and geology, therefore, often provides a free
day in the woods; swimming is taught on prac-
tical lines in the many small lakes, and bathing
is deemed so necessary that bathrooms are pro-
vided in every school. In winter the children
usually seat themselves in tubs, full of hot water,
arranged in a circle, and they scrub and soap
each other's backs as a kind of object lesson in
physical cleanliness.

At the age of fifteen (after seven years spent
at the "Folkskola") the boys and girls have, so
far, finished their elementary education, and
they are free to begin work at home or on the
farms. They can, however, elect to continue
their studies, and, after being confirmed, they
may possibly decide to enter one of the numerous
colleges. Mixed schools form one of the chief
educational features of Sweden. These are
known as "Samskola," and they exist not only
as elementary but also as secondary schools,
where the two sexes remain together until they
arrive at the examination for "Maturity."

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

No untoward happenings or difficulties arise
from this mingling of the sexes boys and girls
sit side by side on the same benches and so far
from any jealousy or ill-feeling being shown,
this camaraderie creates a condition of salutary
emulation and a disposition for mutual assis-
tance* From the age of fourteen to that of
nineteen or twenty, Swedish boys and girls live
in a Utopia of chivalry, kindness, and a friend-
ship, unsullied by evil thoughts or sex troubles,
thus providing an example which I fear would
be impossible for many other countries to imitate
with any degree of success !

JLife in Sweden is both restful and bracing;
the eyes of the Swedes are as clear and healthy
as their souls. Even Swedish art bears no re-
semblance to any other, and the grey-green
seascapes and pastorales of Bruno Liljefors are
as beautiful and serene as their natural counter-
parts art which, like the Swedish race, has been
kept absolutely pure. Even the national cos-
tume is not regarded as a theatrical fancy of the
past, but embodies the glorification of the nation,
and it is worn at every national festival "Lest
we forget"

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

The late Crown Princess of Sweden often told
me how perfectly happy she was in her adopted
country, and how much she loved it. She did
not (in her inborn modesty) say how greatly
.Sweden loved her, but few Crown Princesses
have ever been so dearly loved and so deeply
mourned by all classes as Princess Margaret
("Daisy," we were wont to call her), and ap-
preciating her purity and her sweetness, one
might have said with perfect truth "Du bist wi
eine Blume."

The inscrutable ways of Providence decreed
that this fair flower should be untimely cut off
in all the loveliness of its blooming. Margaret
of Sweden died a dreadful death; she endured
much bodily agony, and I dare not conjecture
how her gentle spirit suffered at the thought
of leaving her adored husband and children.
"Daisy" did not know the meaning of the word
uncharitableness : she adapted herself admir-
ably to the conditions of her life in a foreign
country, and she and her husband led a peace-
ful and happy existence, wrapt up in each other,
and devoted to their rapidly-increasing family,

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Indeed, two lives were lost when the Crown
Princess died.

"Daisy" loved gardens; a passion for garden-
ing was one of her chief characteristics, and
many beautiful examples of her taste and skill
are to be seen in the grounds of the royal resi-
dences. She gave delightful luncheon parties
to her intimate friends, and in all her sayings
and doings she contrived to retain the whole-
hearted respect of those with whom she was
associated. The Crown Prince was inconsolable
at her death, but family reasons as well as those
of State rendered it imperative for him to marry
again. His choice fell on a charming and sym-
pathetic woman, Lady Louise Mountbatten, a
second cousin of his first wife, who possesses a
strong vein of sentiment allied to admirable
common-sense. She has been brought up on
the best Victorian traditions by her mother,
a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and sister
of the late Czarina, and she has already shown
herself an admirable helpmeet for the Crown
Prince and the best of stepmothers for his
motherless children.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

The King of Sweden is a devotee of tennis : the
Queen, a Princess of Baden, leads a more or
less retired life, and spends weeks away from
Sweden in her pursuit of the simple life. In
Sweden, there is no "letting down" by the Press,
either of its rulers or of its aristocracy; here
everything connected with the upper classes is
looked upon as private, and royal indiscretions
are never known outside Sweden. Even the
sins and frailties of the aristocracy do not be-
come public property as they do in England and
elsewhere, and I am confident that this admir-
able discretion and reticence arise from the
wonderful education which teaches and en-
courages a widespread system of class-respect

The lines of life in Sweden are laid down
more simply than those of other countries, and
this simplicity of manners will never desert
Sweden it is in her blood. A tiny strip of red
carpet at a railway-station is often the sole in-
timation that the King of Sweden is about to go
on a journey, and yet post- War Sweden is es-
sentially a great nation. Even the separation of
Norway and Sweden was arranged in the sim-
plest manner by the respective Consulates, some-

M M. Kortung Gustaf V.

H.M. KING GUSTAF V. OF SWEDEN

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

what in the spirit shown by the King of Den-
mark when he sold Aland, and wrote a letter
to his former subjects thanking them for all
their kindness towards himself and his family.
The people of Aland bade the King farewell in
a like spirit, having had the wisdom to realize
that by not revolting against a decree for their
good they would doubtless obtain threefold
benefits from life.

During the War, the Three Graces united for
the good of commerce, but Norway, republican
at heart, simply retains her monarchy for the
sake of appearance, and in deference to the
universal wish of the nation. The King is a cul-
tured, unaffected man, and his wife, as Princess
Maud of Wales, was one of my earliest English
friends. The King and Queen mix freely with
the people, but one cannot help being amused at
the firm attitude adopted by the Legislature to-
wards any measure submitted to the King which
does not happen to meet with his approval. The
King's refusal is respected for two presentations
of the offending Bill, but should he return it
"unapproved" a third time, no notice is taken,
and the Bill becomes law!

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Norway, as a country. Is as picturesque as it
is healthy; and crime is non-existent as befits a
land whose people are untouched by passion or
avarice: the race remains pure, and there are
few inter-marriages with foreigners. It is true
that the Norwegians suffered during the War by
reason of food shortage and a lack of imports
and exports, but the country at present is entirely
well-balanced and prosperous.

Denmark represents the particular "Grace"
which has provided Europe with the most won-
derful discoveries in medicine; the Finsen
school boasts that it can cure any existing disease,
and the marvels of the X-rays are too well-
known to need any further description. It has
often occurred to me that the colder countries of
Europe are productive of the greatest scientific
research, and that this must be due to their cli-
matic conditions. These oblige the nation to
pass a great deal of its time at home, and this en-
forced seclusion makes for thought, and pro-
vides an outlet for mentality during the long
periods of cold and darkness peculiar to the
North.

The countries dominated by the Three Graces
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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

constitute a world unto themselves, and it is
more of a thorough change to visit them than
it is to adventure to America ! A propos of the
discretion exercized by the lovely trio, I remem-
ber a certain lady once remarking to a Danish
diplomat, "You don't say much. ... Do people
never talk in Denmark?" "Madame," an-
swered the gentleman, "I regret that I am un-
able to amuse you, but in my country we only
talk when we have something to say."

Few foreigners pay Court to the Three Graces.
Certain tourists visit the Land of the Midnight
Sun, but it is rare for any Spaniard to do so ;
and it is perhaps as well, since they would prob-
ably be regarded as mad, the "Graces" having
no understanding of pantomimic movements
and flamboyant expression.

What a peaceful contrast these fortunate
countries present in comparison to the agitation
prevalent all over Europe! Sweden, which has
worked out her internal political problems with-
out violence, thereby condemns the methods
adopted by other nations th,at have not hesitated
to call in bloodshed as their Ally; and although
the Swedish "House of Nobles" has ceased to

[201]

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exist as a political body, it is still regarded as the
rallying centre of a class.

I sometimes find myself wishing in a rather
feminine way that my "Three Graces" would
adopt Canova's conception as their national post-
age stamps ! The War has brought about many
new emblems, so why not this special one? The
Fachistes have adopted the symbol of the an-
cient Lictors ; Germany has displaced her War
Lord, and substituted a team of horses plough-
ing the soil of her Republic ; and France insists
on retaining a helmet, although she protests
loudly against militarism !

But I must leave my "Three Graces" to con-
sider the problem of a stricken bear (always a
formidable animal, and now doubly so, since his
injuries render him ferocious). He defies the
hunter, he defies the world, and he will presently
arise and mete out retributions for his wrongs.
This is the Russian Bear, who is now planning
how to exact a certain and a terrible revenge
upon the rest of Europe.

The general European impression of Russia
appears to be that since she has reverted to bar-
barism, it is hopeless to consider her seriously,

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as she has placed herself beyond the pale of
civilization by reason of her crimes. She is now
only to be regarded as a regicide, a murderess,
and a brutish savage, who has shown her "cham-
ber of horrors" to a shuddering world, and who
pursues her orgy of bloodshed and Bolshevism,
unchecked.

Most people imagine that so long as her evil-
ness is confined to her own territory, the rest of
Europe is safe, but this idea is entirely erroneous.
The Russian peril at present constitutes the
greatest menace to civilization that the world
has ever known : Europe had the opportunity
to minister to a super-diseased mind, and to heal
the plague spots of old Russia, but instead, she
has relegated her to outer darkness, with the
worst possible results.

Every reasoning mind must realize that if the
Russian invasion of Germany had not taken
place during the War, the Germans would in-
evitably have been victorious in France. The
dominant idea of Germany has always been to
prevent any invasion of her territory, and in
order to prevent this, her troops were diverted
from France and rushed into Prussia. Un-

[203]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

speakable horrors were perpetrated in the in-
vaded territory by the. Russians, and Germany
thereby formed some conception of what might
happen if Russia were to obtain a lasting foot-
hold. I shall always maintain that the success
of the Allies on the Marne was consequent on
the Russian invasion and the forced depletion
of the German lines, and in forgetting this in-
disputable fact, the Allies have made their
greatest possible error, since by reason of it they
have thrown Russia deliberately into the arms
of Germany. It is a grave mistake to ignore the
mentality of the present Russian leaders, or to
regard them as common cut-throats. These
men have "arrived" solely by reason of their
mentalities, and the New Russia now in gradual
course of formation is not the slightest degree
what one imagines it to be. The cleverness of
the Bolshevists lay in the fact that they pressed
every likely agent into their service, during their
campaign against Czardom . . . more pro-
paganda was employed in Russia than in any
other country, until at last the nation awoke to a
proper conception of what it had suffered for
centuries at the hands of the oppressors.

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

The superstitious side of Russia was especially
played on by the Bolshevist agents; the Court
was one of Orientalism, splendour, and modern-
ity, but the rulers were represented by an em-
peror who possessed no moral courage, and by
an empress who was too domesticated and too
religious for her position. This unfortunate
woman, whom I knew well, and for whom I
retain a very sincere affection, was destined by
fate to become the scapegoat for the corruption
of dynasty. The weakness of will and mentality
shared alike by the Czar and his Consort were
valuable assets to the Bolshevists, and the
Czarina was powerless to estimate the danger
of showing the imaginative side of her religious
exaltation to an ignorant people. The fatal
words "Je veux reposer mon ame oupres de
vous" constituted the death warrant of the
Romanoffs, and Rasputin was, to all intents and
purpose, their executioner.

Most spiritual words are capable of a sensual
meaning; take, for instance, the Song of
Solomon, which may be read as easily in a por-
nographic sense, as in the spirit of religion, and
few parts of Holy Writ taken literally are meat

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

for babes ! The weak spot of the Russian nation
was superstition, and the Bolshevists acted ac-
cordingly.

The Jews have also entered into this scheme of
ever growing hatred. For centuries the Jews
in Russia and Austria were treated as outcasts,
and the Romanoffs and the Hapsburgs repre-
sented the ne plus ultra of the narrowness and
tyranny of autocratic power towards the chosen
people. The Jews hated both dynasties well
and thoroughly, but as the Kaiser had gradually
begun to open his palace doors to the Jews, and
to respect them as powers in commerce, their
dynastic hatred did not include the House of
Hohenzollern!

In consequence of this forbearance, the Ger-
man Jew and the Russian Jew have begun to
fraternize, and the danger of a "Plat Deutsch"
language will have to be faced. This amalga-
mation will also lead to the future expansion
of Germany, and it will inevitably weld millions
of Jews into one large and formidable family.

Present-day politics rightly amaze one! A
child of two could do better than many a politi-
cian, but I suppose that politics, after all, is

[206]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

more or less of a personal matter. However,
the incredible stupidity and blindness of politi-
cians makes them oblivious to the fact that two
of the largest empires in the world were levelled
at the same time, and that both are now treated
as outcasts by the Allies !

Union is strength and none know and appre-
ciate the value of union so greatly as Russia and
Germany. The Allies are divided by countries,
religions, governments in fact, by everything!
For them no lasting union is possible, they are
Allies in name only, and in the future they will
become the agents of their own destruction.

Any European war resolves itself into a ques-
tion of railways, and one of the most vital ques-
tions centred round the Chemin de Fer de Bag-
dad. All railways will soon lead to Bagdad,
for Germany, stripped of her colonies, must
have some outlet for her indestructible, com-
mercialism, and she will discover this outlet in
AN ALLIANCE WITH RUSSIA !

Both the German and Russian peoples are
gifted with extreme quickness of perception, and
when this gift is allied to facilities for territorial
communication, Germany and Russia will prob-

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

ably follow the lead of America, and) consoli-
date on new railroads. Between the years 1870
and 1875 over a hundred railway companies in
America were insolvent, and no less than 100,-
000,000 of bonds were in default with their in-
terest. The position is now entirely altered, the
railroad has triumphed, and, in the future, this
will be the case in Germany and Russia if they
can raise themselves above the level of the rest
of disunited Europe.

Climatic conditions alone constitute a strong
argument in favour of their union. The Ger-
man can stand the Russian climate; he is imper-
vious to its contrasts in heat and cold. The
French cannot, the English find it impossible;
therefore, both the Sister Republics are excep-
tionally favoured in this respect, and they are
likewise helped immeasurably by their geo-
graphical conditions. There are no impreg-
nable ranges of mountains to hinder communi-
cation, no rivers impossible for navigation, no
hostile tribes all is one gigantic flat surface 1 -
therefore there is no just cause or impediment
which can possibly prevent the marriage of these
two one-time empires.

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Both Russia and Germany are smarting under
a sense of their grievances, and what is more
natural for any two nations with grievances to
nurse them, and to discuss them, with an Idea
of ultimate revenge on the aggressor? Thus,
the danger of another and more terrible "Day"
becomes more and more apparent, and what
will happen if a united Russia and Germany
throw off their bondage and overrun Europe?
The mind recoils from the horrors of such a
possibility, but I regard it as a probability, and
one to be reckoned with in our own time. And
we should realize that when these particular
dogs of war are unloosed, they will be entirely
savage and relentless. A Russo-German world
war will be no question of disputed territories,
or a revanche for lost provinces. It will repre-
sent a war of hatred pure and simple, a war of
retaliation for humiliations, oppression, and in-
sults, rightly or wrongly merited, and a war in
which no pity or chivalry will be shown. Why
is Europe then so blind to the ever-growing
danger, and why does she persist ia her sense-
less and suicidal strangulation of Germany and
Russia? Why will she not remember these

[209]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

often quoted lines, and apply them to herself,
since she must inevitably face the consequences
of her folly: "But though circuitous and slow,

the feet of Nemesis how sure "

Many men and many nations have laughed
at Nemesis until they heard her footsteps and
beheld her face. Then they laughed no
more

[210]

CHAPTER XI

THE SUPER-MAN OF EUROPE EX-KING
FERDINAND OF BULGARIA

PRINCE BISMARCK'S last word in connection with
the Balkan States was as heartless as the Spanish
specialist's ultimatum concerning Las Urdes.
Neither wasted any pity on the vexed question
of a turbulent or a diseased region. "Let fire
consume Las Urdes,' 7 decreed the Spaniard.
"Put a wall round the Balkans and let them
devour each other," cried Bismarck, but Bis-
marck never reckoned with the Coburgs, or the
power of the Coburg Strain in New Bulgaria.

I am convinced that the hour has struck when
it behoves someone to present the world with a
true picture of Ferdinand of Bulgaria, Europe's
super-man, one of the most progressive kings
that has ever held the reins of power.

The average Englishman usually speaks of my
cousin as "Foxy Ferdinand," much in the same
way that he describes the ex-Crown Prince as

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

"Little Willie." He knows no better, but it is
apparent from this senseless vulgarity that he
ought to be enlightened, as to- the ex- King's
character, as, at the present time, Ferdinand of
Bulgaria remains the most dignified figure in
the European debacle. He shuns publicity of
any kind, he sees only the beautiful side of life,
his reverses have not embittered him, he has
retired at the right moment, and after his ab-
dication a great silence fell on this extraordinary
man ; he then withdrew into the secret chamber
of his soul, and he has become the dreamer,
the philosopher, the poet, and the embodiment
of all that is most gracious and refined.

Some of my happiest hours are those when I
lunch or drive with my cousin at Munich, where
he now spends part of the year, and I look for-
ward to these meetings in the same way that a
traveller in the desert welcomes the oasis, which
typifies rest. For, by reason of the great in-
tellect, the personal charm, and the psychic gifts
of Ferdinand of Bulgaria, he takes me with him
on a higher plane in which vulgarity, discom-
fort, and the ugliness of life have no part. And
I often look at him and find myself wondering

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EX-KING FERDINAND OF BULGARIA

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

many things sometimes I cannot believe that
he belongs to this earth, so rarely fine is his spirit,
so detached is his outlook.

Let us and I address myself chiefly to the
ex- King's most hostile critics imagine ourselves
in Munich.

The old city does not seem different from what
it was in p re- War days, but stay there are now
notices on many of the shops which intimate
that the French will not be served in them. The
spirit of the Ruhr has entered Munich and whis-
pered her heart's bitterness to Bavaria!

I walk down a long, airy corridor in the hotel
where my cousin has his suite of rooms, and now
I will show you the mise en scene of a King in
exile.

The large salon is decorated very simply in
white and mauve; there are no v pictures, no
luxurious hangings, no embarrass of bibelots.
A few ancient volumes in mellow vellum and
gilded leather are in evidence ; there are one or
two easy chairs, a comfortable settee, and a large
writing-table which stands in the embrasure of
the sunny window.

"Show me your books," says the proverb,
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"and I will tell you about your friends." I
shall construe this as "show me a writing-table,
and I will tell you the manner of man who uses
it," for this especial bureau represents a glimpse
into the soul of the King, and as some subtle
essence of his personality his thoughts, his
pride, his love of the undying past hover
round it.

The King's writing-table stands in pools of
reflected light on the pale parquet floor, also in
keeping with this pensive salon with its curiously
scented and tinted air. It is apparently quite an
ordinary room, but it is charged with omnipo-
tent magnetism it is a room apart from exis-
tence, knowing neither the changing seasons nor
the stress or suffering of humanity. Like the
King who sits and thinks there, it is undeviat-
ingly silent.

But ever watchful eyes dominate this place of
cool and brooding silence the eyes of pictured
long dead Coburgs, Koharys and Bourbons
follow you, from their miniatures on the writing
table a silent crowd of the great and the be-
loved dead overshadowed by a curiously
jewelled crucifix from Mount Athos.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Masses of f reesias and carnations are arranged
near the people of the miniatures and send forth
tremulous sighs of sweetness in tribute to their
memory, and a shallow bowl of golden butter-
cups, and pink and white daisies, is placed as
an offering to one who in his lifetime probably
never deigned to realize the existence of either
"The Sun King," Louis XIV., direct ances-
tor of Ferdinand of Bulgaria. Yes . . . the
haughty face of Louis of France is surrounded
by simple field flowers, and the oddly sensual
features of Louis XV. are given an aureole of
daisies. Purity and modesty were certainly not
his attributes; can it be possible that my cousin
arranges these buttercups and daisies somewhat
in a spirit of irony?

The sigh of the freesias reminds me how in
his days of sovereignty Ferdinand planted a
garden of freesias, solely for the delight of in-
haling their morning and evening incense.
Imagine these creamy clouds of swaying blos-
soms, and the perfume laden air drifting towards
the palace of the great flower lover. To-day
only a few freesias exiles like himself remain
to bear him company.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

The miniature of Princess Clementine of
Orleans, the King's mother, occupies the place
of honour on his writing-table. He will never
forget her as his mother, or as the mentor and
Egeria who raised him to power. He was the
son of her middle life, the adored child of
promise, one possessing strange characteristics,
a little boy who played with jewels as other
children play with soldiers; but even then the
French Princess realized the power of the brain
under the jewel bedecked head, the daring mind
which would triumph over insurmountable ob-
stacles, and the philosophy which would enable
her son to discard the kingly crown with dignity
and without regrets.

"I could not be a successful monarch, je voyais
frop grand" Ferdinand tells me, with a whimsi-
cal smile. "I knew that my son would make a
better king enfin, I abdicated."

Then he proceeds to relate the inner history
of his abdication. "My son was taught to be a
ruler. He had no childhood. I used to tell
him: c Listen, I may be killed, or I may be
forced at any moment to abdicate. You must
be ready to take my place as if nothing had

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

happened' " Then I heard how one fateful day
the Bulgarian Prime Minister was summoned to
the palace. " 'It is my pleasing duty/ I told
him," continues Ferdinand, " * to present your
new king. Let us be the first of his sub-
jects to pay our respects to him.' " His voice
is low, cultured, and cynical; you feel in-
stinctively that the King's soul is smiling.
"His face, ma chere cousine, was a study in
expressions. He could not believe that I was
in earnest It took time to convince him;
then he went out of the library, his arms
raised in supplication, repeating, 'Ah Ces Co-
bourg, Ces Cobourgs, Oh, mon Dieu, what
strength of mind!'

"That night I gave a State dinner. The new
King of Bulgaria and the Crown Prince sat at
the head of the table. The 'old man' was the
guest of honour. Yes, I saw another King of
Bulgaria" (his accents suddenly assume some
hidden meaning) "but yet the same the same
as I had been a spoke in the great wheel of
Bulgarian monarchy a worker, a citizen, a
king. I have passed, but he, my son, remains
flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone, a male

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Minerva sprung from the head of Jupiter a
monarch in my own image. Therefore I have
remained calm ; I have seen the crowned heads
of Europe falling like ripe apples in a gale!
but I am, untouched by intrigues or conflicts."

The King sits facing me, his gloved hands
resting on the carved ivory handle of his stick.
He is tall and finely built, the Bourbon face
forcibly recalling the waxen death mask and
many of the portraits of Louis XIV. There is
the same long, arrogant nose, the same superb
carnage, and the same slender, thoroughbred
feet. Ferdinand is proud of his ancestry.
When he speaks of the great kings of France,
his strange eyes of a seer narrow, and their ex-
pression of clear sight and penetration becomes
more evident "I never forget that nine hun-
dred years of the blood of power flows in my
veins. I am Bourbon, a ruler, and I crystallize
the past Bourbons in myself"

We talk of Versailles. "Ah, how I loved
Versailles," says my cousin. "When I was
allowed to visit France I often went there with
M. de Nolhac. I knew by intuition the un-
recorded life of the days of the Louis; I could

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

even point out the locality of certain hidden
rooms in the palace. My 'dream self has wan-
dered through the home of my race. I have
seen what few mortal eyes have ever seen. And,
because I admired the classic and artificial grace
of the Trianons, I reconstructed them in Bul-
garia men entendu, always as an interior.
The exterior of a palace must be in keeping
with the country to which it belongs! But the
France of my ancestors calls me a traitor. She
insists that, as a grandson of Louis Philippe, I
ought not to have fought against her. This I
find somewhat amusing, since France herself
gave Louis Philippe his conge, and would have
none of him or his family."

We discuss war. The King sees himself as
the world sees him, but he insists on the impos-
sibility of Bulgaria remaining neutral. "Bul-
garia could not forget the division of Bulgaria in
the last Balkan War; if I had sided with the
Allies the nation would not have endured it. It
was equally impossible to remain neutral after a
certain time."

I know that Ferdinand of Bulgaria told the
Kaiser at the most critical period of the War

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

that it was useless to exact any further sacrifice,
and I also know that his soul revolted at the bare
idea of the sale of his country to the Allies.

He is a many-sided individual. His intellect
is amazing, and his powers of organization can
only be dimly conceived by those who do not
realize his immense work in Bulgaria. This
mental Sybarite, who hates dirt, discomfort,
vulgarity, is paradoxically the most business-
like of men. The commercial element, the flair
for colonization, which is such a marked trait in
some of the Coburgs, is apparent in the ex-King,
who possesses the keen head for business peculiar
to Leopold II. of Belgium. Both monarchs
worked solely for the good of their countries,
but neither, notably King Ferdinand, has met
with adequate recognition.

King Ferdinand of Bulgaria was the first
director of the Bulgarian railways. When he
became King there were practically no railways
in Bulgaria, and his unerring instinct told him
that any country without facilities of rapid com-
munication is doomed. So the private wealth of
the Coburgs was poured out on Bulgaria, the
outposts of civilization were joined up, and his

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

active brain at last conceived the idea of link-
ing up the marvellous Orient Express with
Constantinople, "which railway should have re-
mained untouched by the War," the King tells
me, "since it was protected by special treaty at
the time of its institution."

The Bulgarian railways and the way to Con-
stantinople were the result of much thought on
the part of the King and his constructing en-
gineer. Experts were sent to the United States
to study how best to arrive at the maximum of
speed allied to the maximum of comfort and
the result was an unalloyed triumph.

Yes, this monarch of many interests found
Bulgaria a veritable desert which he made blos-
som as the rose! After the introduction of rail-
ways, national, education followed, schools
* sprung up everywhere, and, as another result of
progression, the industries and manufactures of
the country were rapidly developed.

"However, at the beginning, I was always
more feared than loved," and smiling, his charm-
ing half-malicious smile, the King adds, "You
can't expect any nation to like a foreigner for
their King; a foreigner is always feared and

[221]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

mistrusted, so my bouquet de presentation from
my new subjects was a bomb! But I believe
that the Bulgarians had really begun to under-
stand me in 1914," he adds, as an afterthought.
Personally I can quite estimate the almost super-
stitious fear which Ferdinand of Coburg in-
spired when he first came to Bulgaria, but this
super-civilized Prince eventually conquered a
country whose conquest represents the triumph
of mind over matter an achievement only pos-
sible for a man of his temperament.

I do not care to discuss the King's private
life, but it is not true that his first wife was the
unhappy woman that Louise of Coburg repre-
sents her in "My Own Affairs." Doubtless the
Queen felt the change of religion for her eldest
son very deeply, but only the "clerical" side of
her was affected, and the supreme cleverness of
the King in his dealings with orthodoxy has re-
sulted in the Vatican remaining on friendly
terms with him to-day. He has been blamed
for giving his son to the orthodox religion, but
the same thing has happened in Rumania, and
no stones have been cast at the reigning sover-
eigns. In Rumania the King is a Roman Catho-

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

lie, the Queen a Protestant, and the Heir
Apparent belongs to the Greek Church! Why
are they not condemned as Ferdinand has
been?

Ferdinand of Bulgaria placed an orthodoxy
within the pale of the Catholic Church; he
was always a devout Catholic, but he admitted
no religious scruples when he considered the
welfare of his country was in question.

At the outbreak of the War, the territories
of the Allies were full of discontented Bul-
garians whom Ferdinand had rightly banishedr
from their country. These malcontents found
an opportune moment to vent their hatred and
their rage upon their Ruler, hence most of the
anti-Ferdinand propaganda is tainted and un-
reliable. I dismiss with the greatest contempt,
the unfair advantages taken by various carica-
turists who have identified the King's noble and
dignified personality with that of a fox, and
who have, moreover, applied this resemblance
to his soul. He remains immune from such
petty considerations; condemnations and insult
have not embittered him, and his keen sense of
humour has enabled him to laugh at the con-

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

ception of himself as imagined by those who
cannot claim to possess the slightest knowledge
of him! He declares that his son Boris was
ripe for the throne at the time of his abdica-
tion. "It came just at the right time," the King
tells me.

King Ferdinand never sees his children; he
considers it his duty to give them a free hand
in arranging their lives, and he intends them to
be free from any suggestion of undue influence.
King Boris and his sisters lived together until
the eldest married a prince of Wiirttemberg, and
their home life founded on the King's amaz-
ing system of education continues undisturbed.
The princesses were taught by their father to
manage the palace exactly in the manner of a
house, and all the accounts and inner workings
connected with it pass through their hands.
They are entirely domesticated, but, at the same
time they are de raee to their finger tips, the
cultured, charming daughters of a cultured and
charming father.

The King possesses all the "orderliness" of
the Coburgs, and the "neatness" so noticeable in
the late Prince Consort. When we were once

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

discussing the strength of the House of Coburg,
the King remarked with a smile: "Yes, Albert
of Saxe-Coburg was far more clever than people
think. He managed his wife admirably. He
was handsome. Queen Victoria always had a
weakness for handsome men (you remember her
partiality for the Battenburgs, who were really
beaux gargons], but Albert was tactful as well
as handsome. He seemingly effaced himself,
but he contrived to make the Queen see things
through his eyes exactly as he wished her to see
them!" Of the late King Edward VII. Fer-
dinand says: "A clever man my private
friend, my political opponent."

We touch on many topics ; I hear that when
he first entered Bulgaria, the Legations left the
capital as a protest against his assumption of
of authority. "But," I said, "let them go."
The King tells me, "a country is much better off
with as few Legations as possible, so I ruled for
twelve years without them" He waxes en-
thusiastic at the recollection of Sir William
White. "He was my best friend, truly the re-
incarnation of an old Roman sage. I am proud
to acknowledge myself as his disciple!"

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

A great deal has been written concerning the
occultism and the various strange beliefs attrib-
uted to the King. I shall not attempt to deny
that he is occult in the highest degree : he is in
many respects the super-man described by
Nietzsche; no one could call him entirely hu-
'rnan ; the workings of his colossal brain in his
quiet body are not those of an ordinary mental-
ity, and his intellect dominates and illuminates
everything and everybody with whom he comes
in contact.

The King's interest in the occult is essentially
a personal matter, and it would be unpardon-
able if I were to enter into his beliefs or describe
his pleasures of imagination. His sister-in-law,
Louise of Coburg, embittered by many troubles,
has not scrupled to present Ferdinand of Bul-
garia to the world as a member of some Satanic
brotherhood, or 3 as she writes, "a modern necro-
mancer, a fin de siecle magician. Surely the
King's life is his own to lead as he sees fit, and
who shall then presume to rend the veil of pri-
vacy with which he envelops himself? But 1
shall not be likely to offend if I state that h(

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

believes firmly in the Jettatura, and that he lays
great stress upon the value of his intuition:
"I know instinctively, even in a crowded street,
those people who wish me well, and those who
are dangerous to me."

I sincerely hope that my memories of this
great King-in-exile will help to destroy the
prevalent unpleasant impression concerning
him. He is not faultless only human vege-
tables are immune from faults but the faults
of a great man are never those of a little or a
mean soul.

Whenever my mind seeks rest or contrasts
from the banalities of every-day existence I pic-
ture the salon of tempered lights and cool spaces
where Ferdinand of Bulgaria communes with
the Unseen, or perhaps visualizes his lotus gar-
dens at Sofia, and once more descends the flower-
terraces of Eudoxia to the shore where his wait-
ing boats sway on a sea whose waters resemble
a black sapphire.

Thrice-fortunate monarch, happy mortal, and
supreme philosopher, I salute you, and I leave
you to the joys of meditation, silence, music,

[227]

COURTS AN-D COUNTRIES

perfume and flowers. May the gods attend
your footsteps, and remember always that
"beauty, like wisdom, loves the lonely wor-
shipper."

[228]

CHAPTER XII

RUMANIA GREECE THE UNSEEN FORCE
OF EUROPE

RUMANIA, one of the smaller countries of
Europe, acquitted herself with distinction in the
Great War. She was brave, honourable and
discreet, but she could not divest herself of her
inordinate passion for spectacular display; in
consequence she provided a continuous theatri-
cal pageant for the rest of the world, and she
has also indulged in many post-War gala per-
formances.

Queen Marie is the most striking figure in
the Rumania of to-day 1 had almost said the
most important as only those cognizant of the
inner workings of Rumanian history can rightly
estimate the influence and autocratic power
vested in this extraordinary woman.

Her predecessor, "Carmen Sylva," was an
artist and a dreamer; the present Queen com-
bines the artist, the dreamer and the woman of

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

business with the brains of a man; she is more
clever than many clever politicians, more subtle
than the subtlest diplomat, but she is essentially
womanly, and by reason of her exaggerated
artistic temperament she might easily have been
another Bernhardt, had not destiny decreed her
to be a Queen.

Marie of Rumania is beautiful; in her the Co-
burg strain has been "helped" by Russian blood
which gives her the tinge of Orientalism which
enables her to appeal so strongly to the coun-
try of which her husband is King.

"Missie," as she is called by her family and
intimate friends, spent an entirely uneventful
childhood with her three sisters, the daughters
of the late Duke of Edinburgh. Three of them
married far too early for Victorian traditions.
They settled their futures almost before they had
blossomed into girlhood. The eldest princess,
who married the Grand Duke of Hesse Darm-
stadt, was, as all the world knows, unfortunate
in her first matrimonial venture, but she has now
found happiness in her union with the Grand
Duke Cyril of Russia. Marie married the then
Crown Prince Carol of Rumania, Beatrice be-

[230]

H.M. THE QUEEN OF ROUMANIA

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

came the wife of my son, the Infanta Alfonse,
and her other sister married the Prince of
Hohenlohe Langenburg.

I have endeavoured to show how the extra-
ordinary power of the Coburgs has developed
in Europe within the last hundred years. To-
day the House of Coburg is represented in
nearly all the European Kingdoms, and, thanks
to the Queen of Rumania's matrimonial strat-
egy, its ramifications now extend to the near
East

Ferdinand of Bulgaria made Bulgaria a coun-
try worthy of the name; Marie of Rumania has
treated Rumania in the same fashion and her
husband is so deeply in love with her and be-
lieves- so implicitly in her intellect and in her
"nagging" powers, that he allows her a free
hand in nearly everything which concerns the
commercial development of Rumania. I have
seen American financial magnates defer to the
Queen's judgment, I have heard her talk "oil"
until one wondered at her knowledge, and the
next moment she would be equally absorbed in
the latest Poiret creations and the modes of the
day after to-morrow.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Many people (and probably herself in-
cluded) believe the Queen of Rumania to be a
re-incarnation of Theodora, Empress of Byzan-
tium. She possesses that bizarre and devastat-
ing charm with which the old-time Empress
has been credited; her beauty, like Theodora's,
requires a splendid setting, and her mise en
scene must be one of colour, mystery and pomp.
She is gorgeous in everything she does, she is
a figure of romance whenever she appears, but
she never loses her extremely English common-
sense which she carries with her to that ancient
plane where she lives in dreams as a Goddess-
Empress de temps de Paganlsme.

"Missie" loves jewels much in the same way
as did the heroine in Robert Hichens' jewel
novel, and she, like Ferdinand of Bulgaria, ap-
preciates the frozen beauty of colour and mys-
tery inseparable from gems. She always wears
a magnificent Cross of St. Andrew in diamonds,
and I think I am right in saying that she de-
signed her crown for her belated Coronation,
a ceremony which stamped her as one of the
ablest modern "producers." The Rumanian

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

coronation was a triumph of stage-management;
a special cathedral was built for it, one particu-
lar colour scheme was imposed on the guests,
and the Queen out-rivalled the glory of Theo-
dora in her imperial state.

I remember once going to see "Missie" when
she and I happened to be in Paris at the same
time. Her hotel suite had undergone a mar-
vellous transformation, and she might well have
been in ancient Alexandria instead of in modern
France. It was a confusion of barbaric col-
ours, flowers, perfumes and subdued lights, and
"Missie" received me sitting in State on a
throne-like seat, reminiscent of Theodora;
there were quantities of water lilies in great
marble bowls at her feet, her background con-
sisted of flowers and palms, her cf robe" (for
robes is the only word which best describes
"Missie's" attire) were marvels of embroidery,
and I might add, in explanation, that "Missie"
usually drapes and never "dresses" herself.

She looked exceedingly beautiful, but she be-
longed to a life beyond my ken, and it seemed
almost impossible to believe that, not so many

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

years ago, Marie of Rumania had been brought
up on English lines in the correct atmosphere of
Clarence House.

For such a young woman she has proved her-
self to be an amazing match-maker, since she
has domesticated the Balkans and infused them
with Coburg blood. Her son, who had mar-
ried a Rumanian girl, had his union dissolved
through the Queen's influence, and he is now the
satisfactory husband of a satisfactory Greek
princess; her daughter Marie is married to
King Alexander of Servia, another of her girls is
Queen of Greece, and the youngest is probably
destined for the bride of King Boris of Bul-
garia !

A propos of Queen Marie's flair for the spec-
tacular effect, an amusing incident once oc-
curred at Bucharest when a certain ambassador
had an audience. He was received with all
customary ceremonial, and found the Queen as
usual in h,er favourite Byzantine milieu; but the
puzzled diplomat was suddenly confronted with
what seemed to be a diminutive lake which pre-
vented him from reaching the Royal Presence, as
the gorgeous gold-robed figure of Queen Marie

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H.M. QUEEN MARIE OF SERBIA

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

was apparently entirely surrounded by water.
Never, surely, had any ambassador found him-
self in such an embarrassing situation, but to
his infinite relief he discovered that the lake
"was not," and that its counterfeit was a wonder-
ful arrangement of tiles, whose colour and make
were almost indistinguishable from real water.

Rumania has at last arranged her affairs in a
manner more or less satisfactory to herself, and
one which in no wise interferes with the rest of
Europe. American interests are now largely to
the fore, and her manufactures are in safe hands ;
the only question which actively concerns her
touches the division of land, and if she is able
to steer a course free from internal dissensions
she will achieve a solid and lasting prosperity
by reason of her valuable assets, and the enor-
mous possibilities of her various oil-fields.

From, Rumania I shall pass to Greece, a name
synonymous with that of Venizelos whom I
place on an equality with JSii^J^
and other prominent figures associated with the
occult force which now directs Europe. There-
fore, no matter how often banished, Venizelos
will always return to Greece; for him Vest

[235]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

reculer pour mieux sauter," since he is protected
by those who do not recognize the existence of
any will save their own.

The late King Constantine was marked for
extinction. Some sovereigns are predestined
for destruction ; he was one of the doomed. As
a man, and one of my old and valued friends, he
was almost stubbornly honest, he was the soul
of loyalty, and the accepted type of a solid, well-
meaning Colonel of any regiment, but he was no
politician. However, the King proved a very
useful scapegoat, and when it was necessary to
discover one, Constantine supplied the want.

Even Queen Sophie had her uses, one of
which was to make her appear to the world as
Mephistopheles in the damnation of Constan-
tine. Opportunity certainly favours slanderers,
and as the Queen was own sister to the Kaiser,
it was considered impossible and unjust to credit
her with possessing a single good quality.

Poor misjudged Queen Sophie is one of the
best of women; her patience in adversity was
wonderful, and her stoical philosophy enabled
her to regard her life entirely as a state of omnla
sj in which nothing was lasting. I know

[236]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

that she did not approve of many of the Kaiser's
actions, but I also know that family affection
and pride forbade her from criticizing them.
She was essentially too loyal hearted for her
position, and she had the supreme bad luck to
be credited with making everything happen un-
towardly. The Greeks have forgotten that
many of the improvements in Greece were in-
stituted by the Queen, who planted trees in a
land where no trees save olives and cypresses
grew, and if she approved of the American in-
vasion in the Royal Family, it was partly in the
hope tiiatJVIr^^

benefit and develop Gb:eiK^as..nateral-^condi-
tions would have made it so easy to compete
favourably with the Riviera! But King Con-
stantine and Queen Sophie were totally unfitted
to cope with the difficult nation over which they
exercised sovereignty; the Greeks are not lav-
ishly dowered with moral blessings, they have
cunning, unscrupulous and cowardly qualities
which do not make for the happiness of a nation.
Their principal amusement is that of secret
poisoning, at which they are experts, and they
are clever enough to remove the unwanted with-

[237]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

out leaving any finger-print clues, and the un-
natural death of the unfortunate King Alexan-
der is looked upon as evidence that regicide in
Greece is not regarded as a crime. There are
likewise many terrible truths about which it is
impossible for me to write, but it is whispered
that the late Princess Christopher of Greece was
one of the many victims of national prejudice.

The last time I was destined to see "Tino"
alive I found the "exiles" living at Lucerne in
the greatest privacy, which was uniformly re-
spected by the courteous people in whose coun-
try they had sought sanctuary. I was painfully
struck by the King's altered appearance: his
face was drawn and ashen, his clothes literally
hung on him, only the brilliant blue eyes his
Danish heritage were unchanged.

"Yes, I have been very ill," he explained in
answer to my anxious questioning, "a sort of
pneumonia." Queen Sophie interposed, "You
would hardly credit it, but, Tino, has actually
lost some of his ribs."

The King smiled mirthlessly. "It's quite true
see for yourself." He slipped off his coat,
and I placed my hand on the locality designed

[238]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

by Nature for the housing of the human rib. I
drew back shuddering; there was a dreadful
hollow on one side. "Tino" explained. "Some
of my ribs had to be cut away," he said simply.
But his simple words spoke volumes.

"Tino," the much-maligned, has at last found
that rest which life denied him. His body lies
in the dusty vault of a small Neapolitan, church
in the Quanta Vecchi, since Greece, ignoring
the respect due to the dead, does not apparently
wish to give him a more fitting sepulchre in
Athens. Well might Constantine have sung the
song of Atta, well might he have voiced the
prayer to the sea-mother:

"At the even I came
To a land of terrors,
Where I strove with thousands,
Wild-eyed, and lost.

But sudden before me
I saw the flash
Of the sweet, wide waters
That wash my homeland.

Soon will the sweet light come,
And the salt winds and the tides
Will bear me home."

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

A propos of King Constantine and his much-
maligned Consort, it is an interesting fact that
three queens of Greece are at the present time
wanderers on the face of Europe: Queen Olga
of Greece lives at an hotel in Rome, Queen
Sophia has rented a house in Florence, and
Queen Marie, the daughter of the Queen of
Rumania, has taken shelter with her mother at
Bucharest Surely it is a unique record for any
country to boast of driving forth three queens
who came to it as the land of their adoption, and
who endeavoured to live up to the meaning of
the immortal words, "Thy people shall be my
people" and "thy country shall be my country."

I have alluded to Venizelos and Sir Basil
Zaharoff as the accredited agents of the unseen
force which dominates modern Europe. I will
go still further and state unhesitatingly that this
force otherwise Freemasonry is the most
powerful in the world, and, with the exceptions
of the Kings of Belgium and Spain, no royal
ruler who is not a Mason has been permitted to
retain his throne. Freemasonry is naturally in

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H.M. QUEEN ELIZABETH OF GREECE

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

direct opposition to the teachings of the Church
of Rome, but it is more powerful than any
Church, and its "serious" members absolutely
differ in appearances from the majority of men;
they possess a certain "inner" look, indescrib-
able, but there!

Freemasonry in England is more or less of a
brotherhood ; in Europe it is a forceful activity,
and it has become much more active since the
War. Its agents are everywhere; it can make
or unmake nations, immense funds are at its dis-
posal, and it controls countless agents; its single-
heartedness aims at the abolition of corruption,
the purity of its teachings makes it the sworn foe
to degeneracy, in short, it is as the fire which
purifies and destroys. i

If the Church of Rome would act in unison
with the Freemasons, such a union would be
productive of ideal results, but, alas, the liberty
of conscience advocated by the ethics of Free-
masonry is not permitted by the mediaeval in-
stitution of Catholicism!

They say Freemasonry in Europe has its
feminine counterpart in the Union Mondiane

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

des femmes, whose aims correspond to those of
the masonic movement; indeed it is now called
the " Feminist Freemasonry."

What a pity that women are not allowed to
become real Masons! Why should men alone
be admitted into the "mysteries"? I suppose
the reason is obvious. No secret vows would
ever be kept by women; such a task is beyond
the range of their capabilities, and it would re-
quire a tongue-tied Eve to penetrate this Eve-
less Eden. However, women are adaptable
creatures, and they might soon learn the deaf
and dumb language, and the jealously guarded
mysteries would rapidly become les secrets de
Polichinelle.

In most European countries women are tak-
ing an active part in the interests of nations,
and "Feminist" Masons might easily include a
league of morals in their programme, which
would act as a powerful counterblast against the
Agreed" of many prominent men. Woman's
mission to-day is to clear the moral atmosphere
of the hate which enshrouds Europe, and the
Union Mondial e could amalgamate most ad-
vantageously with the various woman's move-

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

ments in the United States, and form one great
cosmopolitan league of humanitarianism.

Women have always possessed the monopoly
of moral courage ; it rarely fails them, and their
tenacity of purpose carries them to their ob-
jective, no matter how rough the road. Woman
invariably takes the lead where man fears to
tread. I can pay no higher tribute to fem-
ininity.

CHAPTER XIII
ITALY

MODERN Italy, a country primarily designed by
Nature for beauty, love and laughter, possesses
paradoxically, the most austere Court in Eu-
rope. Her King embodies in himself the spirit
of the strictest military discipline, and her
Queen has brought the strength and sternness of
her mountain race into this smiling and lan-
guorous land. Honesty, courage, singleness of
purpose, and clean morals are forces which
count, and as the example shown by the Royal
Family embodies them, the majority of the na-
tion endeavours to practise them.

Queen Elena, a daughter of the late patri-
archal King of Montenegro, is a charming wo-
man, extremely simple in her mode of life,
darkly handsome, regal of carriage, with the
most beautiful eyes of any European sovereign.
She met and married the King when he was
Prince of Naples their courtship was entirely

[ 2 44]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

an affaire du cceur, and their marriage has
proved a very happy one. Most people are
familiar with the photographs of the King a
sturdy, short, active figure but not many people
realize his forceful character. He is a man of
few words, who rarely talks unless he happens to
be interested in the subject under discussion.
He cares little for social life, and his essentially
Italian hobby of collecting rare coins and medals
has also been indulged in by past famous mem-
bers of the Houses of Borgia and Medici. The
King's collection of coins and medals is one of
the finest in the world, and he has just brought
out the sixth volume of his "Corpus Num-
morum Italicorum," an admirably printed and
illustrated series, which gives a complete cata-
logue of Italian coins from the Middle Ages to
the present day, whether struck in Italy, or by
Italians elsewhere.

The first volume is dedicated to the coinage
of the House of Savoy, which, though possess-
ing an historical interest, is inferior in art to
the others. The second volume deals with the
coinage of Piedmont and Sardinia ; then follow
Liguria, Corsica, Lombardy, and the Canton of

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Ticino. The sixth volume treats of the merits
of the Venetian provinces and Dalmatia, and
the seventh and eighth volum.es will deal ex-
clusively with the coins issued by the Venetian
Republic.

The King and Queen of Italy prefer to reside
outside Rome, where they lead a life which is
more or less English in its daily round, a fact
which goes to demonstrate that the Italian
Court, like many others, is dominated by Eng-
lish domesticity.

The royal children are all charmingly un-
affected: Princess Yolande has been allowed
to follow the dictates of her heart in her recent
marriage; and the attitude of the sisters and
their brothers towards their parents presents
a beautiful example of broad-minded family
life. The Crown Prince and the princesses are
thorough Italians, and the weaker Italian strain
has been strengthened by their mother's perfect
constitution God's best gift to any mother of
kings !

Queen Elena possesses none of the passion for
dress or jewels which was so apparent in her
predecessor, Queen Margherita, the beautiful

H.M, KING VICTOR EMMANUEL OF ITALY

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

pearl of Savoy. In her taste for useful and ele-
gant simplicity, the Queen resembles Queen
Mary of England, just as Queen Margherita
has her counterpart in the essentially decorative
and lovely Queen-Mother of England. Both
older Queens, it seems to me, belong to an age
which did not traffic with the realism of life,
although, as reigning Queens, they were
womanly, tactful, and clever. But both always
attached great importance to decorative effect:
they knew to a nicety the values of costly tissues,
priceless lace, the softness of velvet, the sheen of
silk, and the wonders of jewels they were
queens of romance and of hearts, and as such
their sovereignty is indestructible.

The Courts of the Queen Dowager and
the reigning Queen of Italy afford an inter-
esting study in contrasts. Queen Margherita
is rarely seen unaccompanied by her ladies-and
gentlemen-in-waiting, whereas Queen Elena
(except on official occasions) dispenses with any
forms of State, and is usually accompanied by
her husband or her children. It is a living page
of pageantry to watch Queen Margherita bow-
ing to the crowd, or advancing slowly to receive

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

visitors, who are escorted by two gentlemen-in-
waiting to the royal presence, and this gracious
lady has remained "Nostia cara Regina" to
those subjects who remember her as the young
and beautiful woman who shared the Throne of
Italy with her popular husband, King Umberto,

Queen Elena's greatest charm is her sim-
plicity: born in it, she has been clever enough
to retain it, and to be, and to appear, genuine
is a great asset to those who have "risen" to any
unexpected rank in life. This dark-eyed,
healthy daughter of the mountains, brought with
her the ideal family life hitherto unknown to
monarchs whose ancestors for generations had
lived like the Roi Soleil amidst a crowd of flat-
tering and time-serving Courtiers. The "un-
canny" atmosphere peculiar to palaces does not
exist in the Villa Savoia, where Queen Elena
reigns as a model wife, a loving mother, and a
democratic queen the best ideal of the happy
marriage which this War seems to have wiped
completely away.

A few weeks ago, Queen Elena and her
daughter Maria travelled to Bordighera in the
same train as myself. No one disturbed their

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

privacy, no officials awaited them en route; and
at Bordighera they stayed in Queen Mar-
gherita's villa more incognita than any of our
family could have hoped to remain in a foreign
country. There is no "outside" sign of an "in-
visible" Royalty in Italy: the King and Queen
dispense with a guard, and yet no Throne is
more secure than that occupied by King Vit-
torio Emmanuele of Italy.

I think I can claim to be the first Royalty
to inagurate the habit of going about without
a lady-in-waiting, and a good many heads in
Spain and elsewhere shook with disapproval
and horror at my departure from custom.
Now, not only princesses like myself, but queens
dispense with an entourage! But I have always
been in advance of my time, and I am still pre-
paring for the day when servants are non-
existent, for I have always declared that we shall
only attain real freedom when we can live with-
out the paid spies whose "diaries" are especially
written to benefit one's enemies, or to rejoice the
hearts of one's friends, since, in many cases, the
names are synonymous!

Queen Elena, like Queen Mary, does not en-
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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

courage eccentricities in fashion, and I have
been told that the ladies-in-waiting only require
two Court dresses during the whole time of
their attendance on the Queen.

It must not be supposed, however, that the two
Italian Queens are at variance otherwise than in
their appreciation of chiffons. Queen Elena
and her mother-in-law agree perfectly, and the
tact and wisdom of Queen Margherita were in-
valuable aids to the younger woman when she
first arrived (somewhat as a country ingenue] at
Rome.

The Court is extremely moral, and the King
and Queen are immensely popular with the
masses; indeed, the longer the King lives, the
more beloved he becomes. His behaviour dur-
ing the War was wonderful. He was always
with his troops: he shared their dangers and
their privations; he made himself one with
them. The Red Cross also owes an inestimable
debt of gratitude to the Queen of Italy, and her
devoted helpers, and the great work of the
Italian Red Cross in the War presents a re-
markable study in seriousness and, (if I may so
term it) respectability. The Queen and the

[250]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Duchesse d'Aosta recognized how imperative it
was to preserve modesty in every branch of its
endeavours, and, as a result of their foresight,
one never heard the nauseous gossip about nurses
and V.A.D.s which were prevalent in other
countries. The Italian Red Cross sought no
advertisement, and no scandals smirched the
crimson emblem which typified the heart's blood
of the women of Italy! The Queen and the
Duchesse were not (as were so many others)
wilfully blind to the dangers of rudely awak-
ened sex-curiosity and sexuality in young girls
and young women; they rightly estimated the
probable dangers arising from this after the
War, and, with infinite wisdom, they insisted
that only women of a certain age should be en-
trusted with the intimate duties connected with
the wounded.

Yes, this daughter of the mountains, this
Spartan child of the Balkans, has made her pres-
ence felt in the land of her adoption, and she will
continue to be a power for good to the last day of
her life. Comparisons between kingdoms, mon-
archs and people are usually odious and tactless,
but I see the ironic and inexplicable ways of fate.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Elena of Montenegro and Marie of Rumania
were both transplanted from lands where dis-
play is ever subservient to solidity and comfort
Queen Marie at once assimilated the decorative
spirit of her new country, and has never
lost it Elena, called on to become queen
of a country where luxury and decorative dress
are traditions, has remained untouched by the
fascination of either; she has never really
emerged from the shadow of her mountains
the Italian sunlight, and the glories that once
were Caesar's, have never stirred her soul!

The Court of Italy represents the best model
of the present more or less democratic Courts of
Europe. The majority of monarchs have
hitherto existed as decorative figure-heads who
imagine that to dress up, to appear in public
daily, to attend divine service, to patronize the
theatres, and to wander around hospitals con-
stitutes the only way to keep monarchy alive.

King Vittorio Emmanuele and Queen Elena
have proved by their own actions that the secret
of success as monarchs lies in the secret of not
making themselves (as so many do) too cheap.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

You do not find any Court circular in the Italian
newspapers to chronicle what their Majesties
were doing on the preceding day, in fact the
three figures which form the triangle of great-
ness in Italy Mussolini, the Pope, and the
King lead a life of privacy, seclusion, and per-
fect liberty of action.

This freedom of life exists in the Court of
Belgium, but the race is more or less "Northern"
and untemperamental, and one would never have
believed that Italy would imitate and surpass
Belgium as a democratic Court.

But democracy does not mean familiarity,
and people often err in mistaking democracy
with equality, much in the same way that the
word "liberty" has been distorted into that of
"anarchy."

It has always been thought that democracy
represents a death blow to monarchy. Italy has
disproved this theory, as democracy has strength-
ened monarchy, and now the Crown and all
classes walk hand in hand and work for the
prosperity of the nation, whose King and Queen
live the simple life of a wealthy, middle-class

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

citizen, rarely appearing at the Quirinal, unless
a reception, or an affair of State ceremonial, de-
mands their presence.

To-day, modern Italy can boast of a second
renaissance, but not the renaissance of the pas-
sions, the art of the skilled craftsman, the sweet
songs of poets, or the artist's expression of col-
our. This twentieth century renaissance is the
triumph of youth and the necessities of life.
The strong arm of youth has been extended to
the failing spirit of Italy worn with the fatigues
of war, and harassed by the broken machinery of
Europe. Italy has accepted the strength of
youth, and by reason of this timely aid she has
retained her rightful place among European
nations.

The occupation of the northern factories of
Italy by Italian Bolshevists in 1920 may be said
to have first given the alarm to the devoted pa-
triots who refused to allow their country to be
outraged by a revolution akin to that of Russia.
The society of the "Fascio" (a name derived
from that formerly given to the "bundle" carried
by the Lictors) sprang into existence, and its
membership was open to all classes of society.

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Hence peasants, workmen, soldiers, bourgeois
and aristocrats, united for the common weal, and
the youth of Italy in her ancient universities was
especially captivated by this revolution in the
cause of order.

Benito Mussolini, the originator and leader of
the Fascists, knew that the future of Italy lay in
the hands of youth, and he decided to employ
this force like water is used to generate elec-
tricity. Briefly, he harnessed youth in the serv-
ice of its country, with almost inconceivable re-
sults. The Fascists' code is essentially based on
the old Mosaic law of an eye for an eye. They
are just, merciless, and pre-eminently methodi-
cal in their methods.

Moussolini, now hardly more than thirty-
eigh,t years of age, is the all-powerful leader of
the movements, and ist November, 1922, wit-
nessed one of the greatest events of modern his-
tory, when he literally threw open the gates of
Rome and appeared, covered with mud and
blood, to be welcomed and approved of by his
King, who had refused to sign the etat de
Siege against the Fascists, demanded by the
Government

[255]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

The first benefit of Benito Mussolini's direc-
tion in Italy begins to be felt when one crosses
the Italian Frontier and hears "II treno arriva
all orario." This impression of punctuality in
a country where some few years ago punctuality
was unknown, is most comforting to those who
adventure into Italy on business or pleasure bent,
as it presages other necessary reforms and a
thorough cleansing of the Augean stables.

No country possesses such a triple force as
that which now dominates Italy, or can display
three such leading figures as the Pope, the King,
and Benito Mussolini three figures which
represent three different castes, and, if I may
use the expression, the three "knots" of the
"Fascio," which hold together the unity of Italy.

Italy is at all times profoundly monarchical,
profoundly national, and (even to those who
boast of irreverence) profoundly Roman Cath-
olic. You would not find a true Italian disloyal
to the House of Savoy, and likewise profoundly
interested in Benito Mussolini's health and do-
ings, or a single Italian who would not wish the
Pope to remain an Italian citizen and live on
Italian soil.

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BENITO MUSSOLINI, THE ITALIAN DICTATOR

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Foreigners rarely penetrate the mysteries of
the national mentality of Italy, but I think I
can claim to understand this clever race by rea-
son of my Italian blood transmitted to me by
my grandmothers on both sides, who came from
Italy to marry my ancestors for more than three
generations. Thus I realize how foolish it is
to treat the Italian mentality lightly, to allude
to them as macaroni-eaters, or to laugh at the
flowing feathers worn by the gallant Bersaglieri,
the finest Alpine soldiers, and, as I am familiar
with the Trentino country, I realize the debt of.
thankfulness which we owe to these wearers of
fine feathers!

The Fascists constitute a trinity which com-
prises protection, a military-civilian entente,
and a definite political party, and a sort of new
conception of the feudal system over-lorded by
the movement Such a state of things would be
frankly impossible in England, and the English
people cannot rightly estimate its importance.
In England the masses are powerless against
the Government, and Fascism would be help-
less : but the English are not imbued with the
deep personal feelings peculiar to Italians and

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

their "movements," and the English climate, al-
ways deadening to the emotions, would not be
favourable to wearing a black shirt without a
coat in November.

In Italy all things appertaining to Fascism are
deeply rooted; it embraces every national in-
terest in its desire to stamp out Communism.
But the problems of Fascism are easy compared
to the difficulty of bridging the gulf between the
Latin and the Anglo-Saxon races.

The plight of Italy after the War was terri-
ble. For her the world-conflict had signified a
mountain war, which is always fraught with im-
mense difficulties. In the eyes of Italy the War
was practically a war with Austria, and I am
confident that if Austria had not been involved,
the Italians would never have entered into the
struggle. The story of the lost provinces was
repeated, as the actual hatred between Italy and
Austria was, like the issue of Alsace-Lorraine,
entirely a frontier question.

We Spaniards are more fortunate over our
frontiers. The frontiers of Spain and France
are Basque on the one side, and on the other
Catalonian, both belonging to the same race, but

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

the Italians and Austrians are as the poles apart!
Talking of war and its effects on Italy en-
ables me to assert with positive conviction that
peace only exists in Italy. I have seen with my
own eyes the gratitude of the Italian "enemies,"
and the spirit of Christian charity and brother-
hood with which the Italians have helped
"alien" children and their unhappy families.

In Italy of to-day, those who narrate the past
horrors of war do not use the embittered word
"hate" which is so prevalent in other countries.
I wonder whether this tolerance is due to the
gentle influence of the Holy See which brings
into Italian hearts the refining spirit of gener-
osity and forgiveness, since the Pope's prayers
are always devoted to the peace of the world,
truly a peace which passeth all human under-
standing. Certainly the Church of St. Peter
and the imposing castle of St. Angelo are monu-
ments destined to remind humanity of the power,
sweetness, and strength of the Christianity which
has endured for ages in the one-time city of the
Caesars!

One of Mussolini's most dramatic and tactful
public moves was his attendance at Mass at the

[259]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

Church of St. Mary of the Angels, when Mon-
signor Giovanelli blessed the Italian nation.
The King and Queen of Italy were present, and
it is an open secret that the rapprochement be-
tween the Quirinal and the Vatican is due en-
tirely to Mussolini and to the triumph of the
new renaissance. Hitherto the Pope has had to
choose between any distinguished foreign per-
sonage visiting him or the King. Now all is
changed, and both visits are permissible !

The Fascist program is one conducive to
national morality or rather to the moral health
of the community. It refutes all useless institu-
tions and it seeks to abolish obsolete and compli-
cated State administrations. It suppresses all
scandalous abuses, and it wars against interna-
tional corruption in the same way that it nega-
tives class presumption and the selfishness of
the lower orders.

The laws of the society are based on a system
of inexorable discipline exacted from the high-
est to the lowest: they insist that the muscles of
the nation must never relax from a constant and
well-ordered effort. No smallest particle of

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

strength must be wasted or misused every atom
must play its part for the good of Italy.

The executive power will henceforward gov-
ern in the strength of its independence; Parlia-
ment will only be given a limited control, and it
will virtually become a prisoner of the Govern-
ment. Such is the program laid down for
the happiness of modern Italy, and it will be
interesting to watch future developments. I
am convinced that the secret of its ultimate suc-
cess lies in never allowing any element of dis-
cord to present itself, and so long as the Fascists
remain united they will be strong; but Mussolini
has an effective way with troublesome people,
and he is not likely to allow any hostile ele-
ments to assert themselves (or even to exist)
longer than a day!

As I have already hinted, English people are
a little inclined to regard Fascism as "theat-
rical," and they must relieve themselves of this
wrongful impression as quickly as possible.
Fascism is absolutely national; it responds to a
national want, and until the English mind at-
tempts to cope with differences of temperament,

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

it will never be able to rightly realize any na-
tional and colourful movement. There is not a
very great conception of personality in England :
In Spain I have seen two absolute strangers
make an entirely personal quarrel over the mer-
its of two bull-fighters. In Italy a personal
matter is often responsible afterwards for the
existence of a party; does this not speak volumes
for the Latin temperament?

In striking contrast to the sound and healthy
propaganda of Fascism, we are faced with the
anti-European propaganda which is now being
distributed by the negroes of America to their
African brothers. This movement is headed by
Marcus Garvey, President of the Universal
Negro Improvement Association, who is like-
wise the author of the inflammatory propaganda
which translated into French, English, and
Italian, has been sown broadcast in the Eu-
ropean Colonies. In it Mr. Garvey adjures the
400 millions of blacks who desire an Independ-
ent Africa to rise, and throw off the yoke of
their oppressors.

"We will not commit the folly," says the
manifesto, "of entering into a religious war.

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

We will not fight for religion, but for the liberty
of the African race."

Marcus Garvey counted on fresh hostilities in
the Near East to assist him in his "rising"
against the white race, but the check in the polit-
ical career of Mr. Lloyd George has somewhat
thrown him out in his reckoning. However,
even if war had been declared between Great
Britain and Turkey, I do not think he would
have obtained any practical support

I have introduced this seemingly irrelevant
matter with the idea of proving the irony of
Mme. Roland's immortal address to liberty.
Never has any word been so misapplied. We
have liberty of thought, which is too often a
travesty, liberty of action, which is always re-
stricted; the freedom of the Press makes pris-
oners of those who are too proud or who dare
not retaliate when attacked. Free love is the
most discussed and the most censured of all the
emotions; there is no meaning to the word.
Liberty like gratitude is non-existent.

The nearest approach to true liberty is un-
doubtedly Fascism, and Mussolini has liberated
Italy from the last of her old-time fetters of

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

ignorance and convention; he has infused the
breath of life into her soul, and he has replaced
her dreamers with men of action. He will
never prevent her from remaining romantic in
thought, or from forgetting the golden glories
of her first renaissance, when love held universal
Court, and great princes and pontiffs encouraged
all that was most beautiful in life and art. The
very dust of Italy is the pulsating dust of pas-
sion, and her flowers spring from the earth
which holds the ashes of great men and lovely
women of bygone ages. Who shall separate
them?

Mussolini has no use for the things of the
past, but he is wise enough not to seek to banish
them entirely: his work is to purify and
strengthen the present, and to sow seeds which
will bring in a glorious harvest in the future.
Two generations men between twenty and
forty were killed during the War, but the
young generation does not remember or feel any-
thing acutely concerning the world-conflict,
which never touched it actively. War to the
present generation means little or nothing.
Happy are those who have no past!

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COURTS AND COUNTRIES

The most direct result of the War is that
youth now considers itself infinitely superior to
those who have gone before, and these fledgling
eagles who rise in continual flight towards the
sun of progression are the best conception of
the old Roman eagles which at one time led the
hosts of Caesar to victory.

Benito Mussolini was ill when I was in Italy
(1925), so I have neither seen nor spoken to
him. But a great public figure does not need
to appear in the flesh in order to create an im-
pression. You can follow his politics, and you
can look at his photograph, admire the interest-
ing phrenology of the head, and marvel at the
alert, sentinel-like eyes. You realize that this
is the self-made man, the man who, having been
a leader of the Socialist Party, knew the im-.
portance of using the iron-hand under a velvet-
glove when circumstances made him leader of
the opposite faction, and the dictator of the
country, into whose soil he had once, paradox-
ically, sown the seeds of Socialism a socialism
which, in the north of Italy, took the form of
Communism.

The Fascimo is becoming more and more a

[265]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

strong political party, and, as Mussolini's influ-
ence is ever increasing, this regime provisore is
now settling down as the only form of govern-
ment. Mussolini has few enemies, and those
who exist do not trouble him.

Centuries have passed since any man of Mus-
solini's obscure origin has wielded such absolute
power in Italy, and the three points of the great
triangle are in perfect unison, just as the three

The King / \ Mussolini

strong knots of the Fascio have been adjusted in
absolute security by the same harmonious hands..

[266]

CHAPTER XIV

POST-WAR MORALITY THE MENACE OF

DEGENERACY MY IMPRESSION OF

PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS

THE Great War has been responsible for many
unexpected developments in European Courts.
For these the world-struggle has been some-
what in the nature of a moral and social earth-
quake which has made old traditions totter and
fall, never to rise again, and it has removed the
scales of narrow-mindedness and ignorance from
the eyes of monarchs and men.

War and death are the greatest class levellers.
Any common danger usually brings under-
standing, and any common loss makes hearts beat
in unison. Thus the peasant weeping for her
son, and refusing to be comforted, is enabled to
realize the feelings of a duchess bereft of her
first-born. Curiously enough, immense sym-
pathy and immense hardness have alike resulted
from the years of agony; women are more sym-

[267]

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

pathetic, but the majority of men have become
far more callous, selfish, and cruel since the fate-
ful August of 1914.

The reason for the sympathetic outlook of
women is not difficult to explain. The maternal
and protective instinct which exists in the breast
of every woman was allowed free expression
during the War, when women, who so often
delight in giving pain, are most perversely the
first to resent suffering in others, as they dislike
to know that anything living, from a caterpillar
to a child, has been "hurt." This condition
awakens their protective sense and, designed by
Nature as a shrine of the emotions, woman in
the war played the role of the universal mother
with complete success.

The noblest side of history is that which is
unknown, and the Roll of Fame will never
record the countless instances of self-denial, en-
durance, and courage displayed by nameless
heroines, many of whom suffered death, and en-
dured humiliations unspeakable for the sake of
right The violated virgins, wives, and mothers
of Europe constitute in themselves a noble army
of martyrs, worthy to sit at the right-hand of

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God, and there to taste the joys and repose of a
perfect communion of saints.

But the War was likewise productive of an
army of degenerates, male and female perverts,
who indulged in nameless evils under the cloak
of patriotism, and who to-day constitute a
greater social danger than any European war
of the future.

Abnormal vice has existed since the earliest
ages: it flourished in Greece and Rome; it has
alternately languished and revived according to
the spirit of the time. But never has the cult
of degeneracy assumed such terrific proportions
as it did during the War, and never has its
hydra-head been so unashamedly raised as at the
present time.

I make this statement with absolute convic-
tion of its truth: cocaine, morphia, and lesser
drugs are fatal enemies to the health and sanity
of any race, just as much as the vices of Lesbos
and Sodom are the worst foes of morality; and
when these forces become, as they often do,
allies, the results are unspeakable, and indeed
unthinkable.

The Great War flung open the gates of licence

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to the civilized world: it dispelled, almost
brutally, the mystery of sex; it aroused latent
sensualities; it rent the veil of modesty asunder;
it opened the eyes of youth far too speedily to
forbidden joys and the knowledge of good and
evil. Many girls who had hitherto led "small,
smothered lives" gave themselves unrestrainedly
to almost unfamiliar lovers under the stress of
emotions aroused by a desperate defiance of the
ever-brooding shadow of death. The man,
nearly always young, full of life, keen with de-
sire, accepted the sacrifice of virginity as his
due: he was no longer the seducer, the ignoble
betrayer, but he represented the primitive male,
who reverted to prehistoric days and seized his
woman and enjoyed his strength, and her weak-
ness, before he went forth to fight.

Life and pulsating nature called to these indi-
viduals and they obeyed their dictates. I do
not condemn them, and in many cases these fierce
and bitter delights have been productive of in-
tensely vital legitimate and illegitimate off-
spring. Neither do I condemn the more senti-
mental and poetical war passions, dreamers
awakened suddenly to a sense of impending loss,

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who clung to each other, white-lipped and wild-
eyed, and with tears and sorrowful embraces
consummated their love under the influence of
stars and flower-perfume in the sanctuary of
night Creatures of romance, who watched for
the cruel dawn, ghostly as the evening moths,
and as unreal and pagan as old-time woodland
nymphs and fauns.

Every day of the struggle was a phantasy of
the real and the unreal : those whose convention
is usually never shaken, married hurriedly, and
legitimized passion which, in many cases, only
endured for a night or two at some crowded
hotel, and which as often as not was quickly
wiped out by the obliterating hand of death.
These young women were constantly re-given in
marriage, in some cases their "lines" were re-
peated three or four times surely a complete
triumph of virtue! But presently, into this
danse macabre of love, came certain sinister in-
truders men old in decadence and perversion,
now thrust into the stern realities of war, and
boys, at first clean-eyed, god-like in their youth,
presently laughed the laughter of Antinous, and
their eyes became the keepers of shameful

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

secrets. These were the forerunners of the pres-
ent degenerates, just as strange; bi-sexual women
and girls donned uniforms and behaved as men,
and rejoiced that fate had given them the op-
portunity for tasting the perversions which are
whispered in continental boarding-schools, but
which are inborn in many of those who practise
them.

To-day, sex-perversion is rampant. In Ber-
lin, visitors are aware of a contingent of painted,
posturing youths dressed as girls, who lie in
wait, seeking those whom they may devour ; and
in London and Paris it is not unusual to en-
counter a couple of women, the one entirely
masculine in her dress and deportment, the
other intensely feminine. Such sights are a
scandal, and such things constitute a moral
canker in any nation. A commission of morals
has now become absolutely necessary, and meas-
ures of purification should be rigorously en-
forced to ensure the extinction of degenerates:
degeneracy must be recognized as an illness, and
treated accordingly.

The majority of medical men save the lives of
their patients solely from self-interest, and from

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

respect to the teachings of religion which insist
that man shall do no murder.

Degenerates are the plague spots of family
and moral life ; they change the very atmosphere
of their homes, and they always bring direct or
indirect harm on those who are unfortunate
enough to be related to them by ties of con-
sanguinity. They should be set apart, just as
physical lepers are isolated in special islands.
Vice must never exist as a religion, when all de-
generates are its apostles. They are invariably
crafty and malicious, and they usually act in a
spirit of spite against humanity. Fearing de-
cency, they try to destroy it; they know neither
affection nor pity; they are always comedians,
acting from morning till night; and they trade
shamelessly on the fact that few people dare
proclaim their vices from the house-tops.
These creatures are the secret assassins of moral-
ity. And whilst recognizing the right to save
any body or soul, I contend that it is useless to
try to save a soul or body doomed to perdition,
and only a false humanity attempts such a sal-
vation.

A degenerate is never a "sport." He invari-

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ably seeks to throw the blame of his "fall" on
others, and he becomes a bitter and relentless
enemy.

If certain types of degeneracy are recognized
as incurable, it must surely follow that this spe-
cial generation should become extinct. Many
degenerates marry in order to save their faces,
appease society, and to enjoy the pleasures of
secret and abnormal mates ; and these marriages
alone constitute a fresh terror to morality. I
have known cases of perverted girls, young, fas-
cinating, and beautiful, who have become en-
gaged to clean-living men, whose chivalry and
infatuation blinds them to the real nature of
their fiancees, and who never dream that they
are being used as a means to stifle gossip which
was becoming too uncomfortable and too per-
sonal. And these base uses of marriage are
not peculiar to women: men likewise resort to
them, and for the same reasons.

I am not ignorant of the fact that many de-
generates have a measure of worldly success;
they are often amusing, witty, almost uncannily
clever; they love colour, beauty and music; they
are occasionally kind-hearted but, notwith-

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standing these qualities, I would unhesitatingly
blot out my nearest and dearest, were I once to
discover that he or she had outraged the laws
of honour and decency. For me, such a person
would cease to live.

It is an undisputed fact that a powerful
brotherhood of degenerates exists in Europe,
and that its principal members occupy positions
which render them immune from attack. Their
motto is that of Danton; no one dares denounce
them, and their mission is to place their disciples
in lands already imbued with primitive passions
and abnormal vices, where only the healthy-
minded would be exempt from contamination.
This is now especially evident in certain of the
French Colonies, where vice in its worst forms
reigns unchallenged ; and Morocco, Tunis, and
Algeria are now the recognized homes of the
proteges of powerful French degenerates les
"arrivistes/' as they are called, but, more prop-
erly, "opportunists in vice."

Blackmail is the offspring of degeneracy, and
a vast army of blackmailers has arisen since the
War: its ranks comprise men who act as detec-
tives in sin, who possess private dossiers of all

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"likely" subjects, and who employ a number of
women to aid them in their sinister pursuit of
extracting money from those who are too mor-
ally weak to resist their demands. It is in-
credible, but nevertheless true, that many black-
mailers are protected by their Governments,
and these persons are the most to be feared,
since they sap the life of a country, like a vam-
pire drains its victim of its heart blood. I feel
compelled to say that I think that the increased
cost of living, which tends to lower the birth-
rate, renders this corporation of vice more than
ever powerful, and in consequence life in large
towns is as vicious as that of old-time Babylon!
From whence arises this appalling degener-
acy which constitutes the greatest of post- War
dangers? At one time, not so far distant, it was
equally impossible to trace it, or to discuss it,
but to-day we are fortunately not unduly
troubled with false modesty. I opine that, just
as eagles await the birth of the young lambs, so
a certain class of vicious individuals await the
coming of youth and innocence destined as their
prey; therefore impulsive friendships with un-
tried people should always be discouraged.

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School-life is also responsible for much that is
regrettable, and the parable of the "little leaven"
is often applicable to the contamination of girl-
hood. Women are born with the bump of curi-
osity largely developed: to-day girls and chil-
dren are allowed a freer range of literature ; they
live broader lives, they talk more, listen more,
but woe betide them if their limitless curiosity
is enlightened by the lips of perversion! A
mother can usually eradicate faults in her chil-
dren, but she is powerless to eradicate a vice,
especially a vice as old as time, and one which
is worse in its effects than death itself. I ap-
peal, therefore, to every mother to see that the
new race remains untainted, and to insist on a
moral committee for schools which would repre-
sent an equal system of moral sanitation.

Friendship that much abused word is also
responsible for sexual degeneracy. Men and
women friendships are totally dissimilar, and
when once friendship becomes unnatural, it is
fraught with grave dangers. Any excessive and
emotional attachment between members of the
same sex must therefore be regarded with sus-
picion, and a true and clean friendship ought

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always to stand the test of parting. Parting be-
tween two women should therefore be in the
nature of a scratch, and nothing more between
a man and a woman it is bound to represent a
wound.

Life for a woman presents a more or less in-
teresting series of conundrums and speculations.
For myself, I think that the answer to most
vexed questions consists in knowing the right
moment to stop! Women ought to regulate
their lives on principles of health, as bodily
health is invariably productive of a healthy out-
look. Golf has now happily usurped tennis for
middle-aged women, and it is less rapid and
more decorative to walk over the links in a well-
cut tailleur than to rush about a la Lenglen,
when one is no longer twenty-six. Much of the
poetical side of existence has vanished, but the
art of growing old effectually is surely to retain,
and not to use one's strength unwisely? It is best
to treat life in the dual role of a friend and a
good investment: to acknowledge no dark cor-
ners or even a skeleton in the cupboard, and to
inoculate one's self against the most dangerous
weaknesses of women.

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Total emancipation for women is dangerous.
If a chain is not felt, the wearer does not know
it exists ; but it is wiser to learn the uses of free-
dom before practising it. Is it necessary to
disturb people who are satisfied with their con-
ditions of life on the excuse of bettering them,
or "freeing" them? One must remember that,
unless you can raise an ignorant mind to your
own level of thought, you only disturb, and
never benefit it.

The cost of living has swept away many
features of social life. The salon no longer
exists the best traditions are over : the capitals
of Europe are one continuous advertisement
competition, but the advertisers wilfully ignore
the fact that too much competition is bound to
destroy itself. Everything is commercial, even
the Passion Play has been filmed nothing is
respected; life is one long revue, and! nobody
seems proud of being European.

I am sure that women could do much to
remedy the ever-growing spirit of post-War dis-
content and unrest Personally I find the art
of living is to suit myself to my environment
If I am at Court, I am in it, but never of it

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When I belong to Nature, I pay allegiance to
her, just in the same manner that I respect the
milieu of the Escorial, or the Royal Palace at
Madrid. This adaptability of mine arises from
the fact that most Royalties lead artificial lives,
and thereby acquire the faculty of changing
their surroundings and mode of life with com-
parative ease. We never feel the loneliness of
those who acquire social position by reason of
money or intrigue. We are born in it.

Not being a queen, and, let me confess it,
never having had the slightest wish to become
one, I cannot lay claim to the feelings of a queen,
but I lived for many years with an exiled one
my mother, the late Queen Isabella of Spain,
and I learnt from her that the loss of a throne
often opens a new path of life hitherto un-
dreamt of, which shows vistas of freedom and
independence which compensate for the pomp
and circumstance of other days. And how
many royal positions are non-existent in this
changing world! The War Lord fells trees
and chops wood at Doorn; Zita, the ambitious
young Empress of Austria, finds solace in her
children far from the country which rejected

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the Hapsburgs. The King and Queen of Portu-
gal find Richmond far more healthy than Lis-
bon; the King of Saxony has become a "landed
proprietor" near Breslau; King Ferdinand of
Bulgaria is happy in his beloved mother's home
at Cobourg; the King and Queen of Wurttem-
burg have settled down in their castle on Lake
Constance. Their palaces are closed, and they
are merely "names" to the new generation; but
they are free from the discontent and unrest
which I condemn so strongly.

Every woman has the right to live, and she
must not be regarded primarily by man as an
instrument of sex, and afterwards as his slave.
The world claims women, equally as much as
does the fireside.

We are conservative by instinct, and this gift
often preserves our mental balance, as sometimes
when a cause is good, its agents are bad. Clever
women usually live years ahead of the present in
their mental outlook, an attitude with which I
am familiar, and one which has made me many
enemies. However, every woman who is an
individual is bound to have enemies, as anything
strikingly original in one's outlook represents a

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

criticism on the well-ordered lives of one's re-
lations and friends.

From 1914 to 1925, countries, governments,
and races have completely changed. The
pendulum which in 1914 swung, perhaps, too
much one way has now swung too much in the
opposite direction, and the right balance is not
yet established. Class upheaval has not proved
beneficial, and those who have attained the most
are the disillusioned, who will discover in the
progress of time that what they imagined to be
light was, in reality, only a mirror, used by
others to attract them as a night-lure attracts
birds who beat and bruise their wings against
the unyielding glass.

Although the guns are silent, peace has not
come to Europe. Hatred dominates the world
and the victorious nations are as dissatisfied as
those who lost the struggle for supremacy. The
enlargement of Poland by adding to her terri-
tory two Russian provinces will probably be one
of the causes of a future war ! Every day Rus-
sian soldiers cross the frontier, and bring back
any number of discontented Poles with them.

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The Soviet Government is clever enough not
to declare war on Poland, but it lives in hope
that Poland will throw down the gauntlet If
Russia were to be^the aggressor, Rumania would
be obliged to defend Poland; but if the position
were reversed, I do not believe that Rumania
.would consider herself as an "Ally."

How powerful the Slav race will become in
the future; and if ever the Jugo-Slavs unite with
Russia, Europe would find herself under
Slavonic domination.

The question of race and religion constitutes
the great cause of division in Europe to-day, a
question which occupies the minds of politicians
and that "secret force" which destroys thrones
and countries at will. Each country is passing
through its dark hour, and I look back with
envy at those untouched Scandinavian nations
whose white aloofness is in such contrast to the
rest of Europe.

What is the future in store for suffering hu-
manity? The "unseen hand" governs destinies,
and to-day it is working with greatest force and
secrecy. The powers that direct its energies are

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masters in organization, and none know better
how to prepare the rise and fall of their friends
and enemies.

The most interesting feature of any Euro-
pean event of importance is that which remains
undiscovered, but which is well known to be
connected with the "Brotherhood." It is easy
to name a person considered responsible for
the faults of the past, but of what avails this?
The only remedy is to kill the beast that walks
in darkness, and not to wait until he has effected
his purpose. But no one appears to be suffi-
ciently brave to point out the danger, or to de-
nounce its leaders.

Yes, every day brings about some fresh crisis,
some fresh "note," some fresh discussion, but
no settlement. A United Europe would remedy
so much of the evils of modern life, but the
probability of a United Europe is as remote as
heaven! A universally-accepted European lan-
guage would also help matters considerably, as
the universal knowledge of Spanish in South and
Central America has proved of immense ad-
vantage to the population. The League of
Nations should, therefore, impose one language

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as a compulsory-adjunct in all European schools,
a proceeding which would render the condi-
tions of travel far less irksome. In Switzer-
land every Swiss child is taught to speak fluent
English, French, German, and Italian. Have
we not, then, much to learn from the Swiss?

A propos of ignorance in language, I remem-
ber a very curious incident which occurred at
Arcachon, when the first American troops ar-
rived there. A question of blackmail arose
which the so-styled interpreter translated liter-
ally as "lettres noires," "Black letters 7 '
widely different to the real meaning of the
word.

It is most important to have a universal lan-
guage, and in this deficiency we are lamentably
behind the ethics of civilization. Some of the
greatest political questions are discussed at
present-day conferences by people who are
totally unable to express the requisite nuances,
which often represent the most important items,
and, in consequence of this incompatibility of
expression, many lamentable misunderstandings
often arise.

I find, in reviewing post-War conditions, that

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life seems somewhat in the nature of a bacchanal,
but there is bound to be a reaction in favour of
simplicity. We are taxed heavily in order to
provide luxuries, and not necessities, for the
working class, and although all of us ought to
be ready to help, we cannot, I fear, divest our-
selves of some natural bitterness, when our al-
ready small incomes are taxed still further to
keep the lower order in "clover." Happiness
and comfort are twin-sisters, and money helps
to ensure their presence in the home: a lack of
comfort disunites any family. Perpetual money
discussions are fatal to happiness. I shall al-
ways contend that material happiness lies in the
possession of money rightly used as independ-
ence of action is one of the greatest benefits
which arises from it

The Socialists, who imagine that all classes
ought to live on the same level, with an equal
division of wealth, have no understanding of hu-
manity. To abolish social competition would
deprive life of its savour, and render it dis-
tinctly unpalatable. We need a long educa-
tion to fit us for Utopia and I doubt whether
we should enjoy living there.

COURTS AND COUNTRIES

I have endeavoured to discuss Courts and
countries after the War in a more or less
womanly way. I have not entered into politics,
which are chameleon-like. Neither have I in-
dulged in scandals which might cause needless
pain to those involved: I have never ranged
myself on the side of those tragic Royalties who
have provided the world with various sensa-
tional revelations. Although I do not condemn
those people I once knew for defending them-
selves, it is impossible to estimate the bitterness
of their hearts, and in many instances they have
been attacked and judged most unfairly. But I
confess I do not understand this kind of re-
vanche. I am invariably actuated by proper
pride, and any idea of lowering myself physi-
cally, or mentally. Is intensely repugnant to me.

So, let me claim the indulgence of the reading
public which has already given a kindly re-
ception to other royal essayists in literature, and
with such approval I shall be content.

THE END

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