Now for the transformation scene. The King drove straight to the Embassy, where he received a deputation from the British Chamber of Commerce. In reply to their address, he made a speech in which he took occasion, in those gracious terms of which he was such a master, to express his feelings of friendship for France and his love of Paris, speaking of the joy that it was to him to find himself once more among the Parisians as one of themselves. The words uttered by him circulated like wildfire, and from that moment any gloom that there might have been (and indeed was) had been dispelled, and the sun shone over a friendship which paved the way for historic results. No honest man would attempt to detract from the merits due to Lord Lansdowne and the ministers who cemented and nursed the good understanding between France and England. No honest man can say that their efforts were not greatly helped by the charm and the tact which achieved so marvellous a popularity, and smoothed away so many asperities. Nor were these efforts of King Edward’s mere flashes in the pan, born of ephemeral excitement or the thirst for personal popularity that would have been utterly foreign to his keen, eager mind. They were strenuous attempts to exert in the cause of peace all those powers of fascination with which he had been so generously gifted. He knew full well how potent a factor for good or for evil the attitude of a king could be in public affairs. He felt himself to be in the highest sense the representative of his country, and he was determined to spare no effort, to shirk no detail, in his endeavours to improve its position in the world. That was with him the first and foremost consideration. Two years after the famous first visit to Paris as crowned King came one of the first results of the “Entente.” CHAPTER XLI THE VISIT OF THE FRENCH FLEET IN 1905 The year 1905 will always be memorable in the annals of the Royal Yacht Squadron, that greatest of all clubs, of which King Edward was, and King George now is, the Admiral. In that year the friendly understanding between France and England, so happily conceived and so charged with destiny, was celebrated by two meetings between the fleets of the two countries. The first of these took place at Brest, and it was arranged that the return visit should be at Cowes during the regatta week. The King also settled that the French Admiral and his principal officers should be entertained officially—or perhaps I ought to say semi-officially—at luncheon by the Royal Yacht Squadron on the 8th of August. It was certainly a unique and important occasion as being the first time that the club had been used as the scene of an international political banquet, and the gathering was worthy of it.