‘I have not sent for you to pay me compliments,’ he said rebukingly. ‘Let me first ask if it is true that you are no friend to the Russian Government?’
I looked at the King in some surprise.
‘It is better for me to tell you, sire, that I do not allow my private feelings to enter into my work. The Russian Government has employed me before now, and may do so again; in which case I should serve it as loyally as I hope to do your Majesty.’
The King did not seem ill-pleased by this frankness.
‘I respect you for that answer,’ he said graciously. ‘I ought not to have asked you for your personal confidence.’
‘I am a Pole by my father’s side, sire,’ I threw in.
King Oscar thanked me for this hint by a nod.
‘Let us come to business. You have taken note, I expect, of this determination to Russianise Finland?’
I bowed, restraining my curiosity at this unexpected opening.
‘You know that Finland is an ancient province of the Swedish Crown, and that when it was united to Russia, after the fall of Napoleon, my ancestor, the then Crown Prince Bernadotte, was authorised to take Norway as a compensation?’