CHAPTER IV
MARRIAGE AND HOME LIFE
Early in the summer of 1869 Prince Charles received a very cordial invitation to visit the Czar at Livadia in the Crimea. This mark of regard was the more welcome as a project was on foot in St. Petersburg for the abolition of consular jurisdiction in Roumania, a measure which Prince Charles was most eager to see adopted. In writing to his father he gratefully referred to this topic: "Russia has very wisely taken the initiative in this most important question, which will be unwelcome to France; but tant mieux, for the French Cabinet is still very conservative, as it wishes to keep in with Turkey. But why should it agree with Turkey only about Roumania and not about Egypt? Why does it side with England in Roumania, and oppose England à couteau tiré in Egypt? This policy, in one word, is based upon interest—material interest. It is, therefore, only politic to endeavour to attract French capital for our great undertakings: I have already discussed this idea with several people. England is, on the whole, neutral to Roumania, and we have nothing to expect from that quarter. Its Eastern policy is by no means favourable to the Christian nations."
The Ministry were empowered by a decree, signed on August 9, to act as regents during the first absence of Prince Charles from Roumania, and the Prince set out for the Crimea on August 14. After a smooth sea passage Odessa was reached on the 16th, and the Prince continued his journey to Sebastopol the following day on board the imperial yacht Kasbek. The aspect of this once prosperous port was melancholy in the extreme, and it almost seemed as if time had stood still since the date of the terrible siege. All the large buildings near the harbour, such as barracks and warehouses, remained in the state in which the British and French shells had left them. In riding round the south front of the fortress the Prince easily recognised the approaches and parallels of the Allies: the Malakhoff Tower had been so effectually bombarded that it was difficult to believe how strong a work it had once been; the Redan, on the other hand, which had cost England so many lives, was in comparatively good condition.
Continuing his journey by carriage the next morning, Prince Charles reached Livadia at five in the afternoon after a long and fatiguing drive. The Czar received him with the greatest cordiality, and remarked at once that the courteous attitude of the Prince was enough to attract the animosity of the whole of Europe. The conversation then turned upon the affairs of Roumania, about which the Czar showed himself well informed on every point. Prince Charles was then presented to the Czarina, a cousin of his mother, to the Grand Duchess Marie, and later on to the Czarevitch and his wife, as well as to the Grand Duke Alexis. Unfortunately the tropical heat affected both the Czar and his guest to no slight degree, and the pleasure of the meeting was thus materially discounted. As early as August 22 Prince Charles was forced to bid his hospitable hosts good-bye, that he might attend the Roumanian manœuvres before his visit to his parents in Germany.
The fears, which had been openly expressed, for the safety of Roumania during the Prince's absence proved to have been utterly unfounded, for, though the papers, the Romanul and the Trajan, emulated each other in their attacks upon the dynasty, their revolutionary efforts met with no response at all, and it was therefore with a light heart that Prince Charles set out on September 7 to rejoin his dearly loved parents in South Germany. Before he quitted the territory of Roumania an amnesty was granted for all political and Press offences, in order to show the Prince's confidence that no intrigue was able to shake his hold upon the hearts of his people.
The journey to the West, which was to exert so potent an influence on the Prince's life, was broken first at Vienna, where the Emperor of Austria had announced his intention of receiving the Roumanian Prince. For the first time since the war of 1866 the Emperor wore the ribbon of the Black Eagle, as a compliment to the house of Hohenzollern. Prince Charles seized the opportunity of assuring his Majesty that it would always be the policy of Roumania to stand on the best terms with Austria. Count Beust, who ventured to remark that the cost of the Roumanian Army was out of all proportion to its Budget, received the apt retort that the arsenals were unfortunately empty, a reference to the Count's statement that "Roumania was simply a large arsenal." The reception accorded to the Prince was so hearty that the Viennese Press expressed the opinion that Prince Charles would later on have to answer to the Porte for his assumption of sovereign bearing.