You are here
قراءة كتاب Their Majesties as I Knew Them Personal Reminiscences of the Kings and Queens of Europe
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
Their Majesties as I Knew Them Personal Reminiscences of the Kings and Queens of Europe
The Project Gutenberg eBook, Their Majesties as I Knew Them, by Xavier Paoli, Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Their Majesties as I Knew Them
Personal Reminiscences of the Kings and Queens of Europe
Author: Xavier Paoli
Release Date: May 27, 2014 [eBook #45786]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEIR MAJESTIES AS I KNEW THEM***
E-text prepared by Giovanni Fini
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive
(https://archive.org)
Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/theirmajestiesas00paoluoft |
THEIR MAJESTIES AS I KNEW THEM
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF THE KINGS AND QUEENS OF EUROPE
BY
XAVIER PAOLI
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY
A. TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS
ILLUSTRATED
New York
STURGIS & WALTON
COMPANY
1911
All rights reserved
Copyright 1911
By STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY
Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1911
CONTENTS
CHAPTER | PAGE | ||
INTRODUCTION | v | ||
I | THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA | 3 | |
II | KING ALFONSO XIII | 41 | |
III | THE SHAH OF PERSIA | 81 | |
IV | THE TSAR NICHOLAS II AND THE TSARITSA ALEXANDRA FEODOROVNA | 127 | |
V | THE KING AND QUEEN OF ITALY | 165 | |
VI | GEORGE I, KING OF THE HELLENES | 199 | |
VII | QUEEN WILHELMINA OF THE NETHERLANDS | 229 | |
VIII | THE LATE KING OF THE BELGIANS | 259 | |
IX | THE ENGLISH ROYAL FAMILY | 301 | |
X | THE KING OF CAMBODIA AND HIS DANCING-GIRLS | 329 |
INTRODUCTION
M. XAVIER PAOLI
THE "CHAMBERLAIN" OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC AND THE FRIEND OF SOVEREIGNS
It was in 1903, and the King of England was making his first official journey in France since succeeding Queen Victoria on the throne of Great Britain. In the court of the British Embassy in Paris, where the sovereign had taken up his residence, a group of journalists, pencil and notebook in hand, was crowding importunate, full of questions, around a vivacious little gentleman, very precisely dressed in black, wearing the red rosette of the Legion of Honour in the buttonhole of his silk-faced frock coat. An impressive silk hat, slightly tipped, sheltered a head of abundant wavy white hair, strikingly in contrast with the man's still youthful appearance; at the utmost he seemed to be hardly fifty years old.
His aristocratic bearing might have been that of a diplomat of the Empire or a Tuscan aristocrat. The sensitive features of his finely oval face—the straight, delicately formed nose, the piercing eyes, now bright with shrewd humour, now soft with gentle sympathy—all spoke the judicial mind, the penetrating observation, which could scrutinise the most secret thoughts, recognise the slightest shades of feeling.
Calmly, manfully, smilingly, with courtesy, the little gentleman sustained the assault of the reporters and warded off their indiscreet curiosity.
"What did the King say to M. Loubet?"
"Gentlemen, the King has told me none of his secrets."
"Did he not come for the purpose of completing a treaty of military alliance with us, and is he not to have this evening an important interview with the Minister of Foreign Affairs?"
"His Majesty had a