. Their majesties as I knew them; personal reminiscences of the kings and queens of Europe . eck administered tothe King himself. Not at all. Leopold II, shel-tering himself behind his duties as a constitutionalsovereign, became, from one day to the next, asfirm a supporter of the Catholic party as he hadbeen, till then, of the liberals. Nay, more, I havelearnt since that he had a hand in the change ofattitude on the part of parliament and the I have hinted above, his personal sympathieslay on the side of the liberal party; but, with theperspicacity that was all his own, he was not s
. Their majesties as I knew them; personal reminiscences of the kings and queens of Europe . eck administered tothe King himself. Not at all. Leopold II, shel-tering himself behind his duties as a constitutionalsovereign, became, from one day to the next, asfirm a supporter of the Catholic party as he hadbeen, till then, of the liberals. Nay, more, I havelearnt since that he had a hand in the change ofattitude on the part of parliament and the I have hinted above, his personal sympathieslay on the side of the liberal party; but, with theperspicacity that was all his own, he was not slowin perceiving the spectre of budding sociaHsm whichwas beginning to loom behind Voltairean liberal-ism. He suspected its dangers; and he did nothesitate to give a sudden turn to the right to theship of state of which he looked upon himself asthe responsible pilot. And this position he main-tained until the end of his days without, for a mo-ment, laying aside any of his personal preferences. 2. My first meeting with Leopold II dates back to1896. The King had gone to the Riviera, accom-. KING LEOPOLD IL THE LATE KING OF THE BELGIANS 271 panied by his charming daughter. Princess Cle-mentine, now Princess Napoleon, who, from thattime onward, filled in relation to her father the partof the Antigone of a tempestuous old age. I shallnever forget my surprise when the King, who hadmade the long railway-journey from Brussels toNice without a stop, said to his chamberlain, BaronSnoy, as they left the station: Send away the carriage, monsieur le go to the hotel on foot. I want to stretchmy legs a bitl We walked down the Avenue Thiers, followedby an inconvenient little crowd of inquisitive peo-ple. Just as we were about to cross a street, alandau drove up and obliged us to step back tothe pavement. As it passed us, the King solemnlytook off his hat: he had recognised Queen Victoriaseated in the carriage and apparently astonished atthis unexpected meeting. When we reached
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