The death of Prince Charles Anthony on June 2, 1885, was a bitter blow to the King, who lost in him not only a devoted parent and friend, but a counsellor whose sage advice had sustained and strengthened him in many a dark hour. The passing away of the first German Emperor, followed too soon by that of his successor, Frederick III., was a great sorrow to King Charles, who was deeply attached to the devoted friends of his early youth, whose loyal friendship had never wavered for an instant. It was, therefore, a great solace to the royal pair to welcome Prince Ferdinand, the second son of the King's eldest brother, to Roumania as heir-apparent in 1889. Prince Ferdinand had already entered the Roumanian army as a subaltern in 1886. The history of the other States of the Balkan Peninsula during these years is by no means so happy as that of Roumania. Prince Alexander of Bulgaria was forced by shameful intrigues to quit his adopted country within a year of a successful campaign with Servia, whose ruler also abdicated in favour of his son after endless and painful quarrels. The present German Emperor has ably summed up the great work to which the scion of the Hohenzollern House has devoted his life, in a letter to King Charles, in May 1891. "Five and twenty years have elapsed since your Majesty was first summoned to undertake the government of the Roumanian State, and a decade will have passed on the 22nd of this month since that memorable day on which your Majesty was able, after a regency victorious in war and proved in peace, to receive a royal crown for Roumania and your illustrious house from God's altar by the unanimous desire of the Roumanian nation. Thanks to your Majesty's wise and vigorous rule over a richly endowed and sober nation, Roumania has become an equal and respected member of the Council of the Nations, and under your Majesty's sceptre every Roumanian can rejoice in the proud consciousness of belonging to a State which, as warden of an old-world civilisation, enjoys the sympathetic goodwill of all civilised nations. "Since our Houses are so closely connected, it is my heart's desire to express my warm congratulations to your Majesty on this joyful occasion, and also the hope that, as the bonds of our personal friendship, so also the firm political relations of Roumania to the German Empire, may be preserved in time to come such as they have been for past years under the enlightened government of your Majesty. "Your Majesty will place me under an obligation by laying my sincere congratulations before her Majesty the Queen, who has earned undying honour by your side in cultivating Art and the Ideal as well as in the formation of the Roumanian nation." INDEX Abdul Aziz deposed, 232. Abdul Hamid, 238. Ali Pacha, 42, 116, 158. _Alliance Israelite_, 145, 151. Alphonso, King of Spain, 209.