room of our friend, Madame de Jouvenel—for having been the first among Allied statesmen to accept our political programme. And, once again, France was the first Allied State to accredit a Minister to our Republic in Prague. He was M. Clément-Simon who, appointed on December 12, started for Prague with me on December 14. The British military attaché, Sir Thomas Cunninghame, who had been appointed to Prague and Vienna, also accompanied us. We went by way of Italy, where, on the frontier at Modane, a General awaited me with an invitation to stay with King Victor Emmanuel at Padua. In fact, the King himself received me at Padua railway station and I was his guest until the morrow. Thus for the third time in my life I met a Monarch—if I except Prince Alexander of Serbia whom I had seen in London. The first was the Emperor Francis Joseph, who made a point of appearing to be the greatest aristocrat in Europe, and posed accordingly as a Monarch everywhere and in everything, whereas the King of Italy was strictly constitutional and unaffected. The second was King Ferdinand of Roumania. At Padua there was a question whether toasts should be exchanged at dinner. Both King Victor Emmanuel and I thought it superfluous, though had I thought otherwise the King would have submitted the text of his toast to his Government. It was my first lesson in constitutionalism.
An inspection of our troops stationed near Padua—the Infantry one day, the Cavalry on the next—ended my work abroad. It was in Italy that my voluntary exile had begun, and in Italy it came to a close. I started for home on December 17, a detachment of our Italian Legionaries, under General Piccione, accompanying me. On the journey my thoughts dwelt on my impending task. The travelling through Austria compelled me to reflect once again upon the disappearing Hapsburg Empire; and as we passed through Brixen on December 18, all my ideas on Havlíček and Czech policy revived. Havlíček had taught me much; and his words “A reasonable and honest policy” rang in my ears the whole way from Brixen homewards.
It was on Friday, December 20, that we reached the Bohemian frontier. Many a tear was shed by the exiles who thus reached home again after years of wandering, and more than one kissed our Bohemian soil. The Head of the administrative district, a Czech whose accent proved him to have been born a German, made a first official report; and then the members of my family and the political delegates could be
