Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 45786-h.htm or 45786-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45786/45786-h/45786-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45786/45786-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/theirmajestiesas00paoluoft [Illustration: QUEEN AMELIE OF PORTUGAL] 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 [Illustration: M. XAVIER PAOLI] 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.