Unlocking, and opening, the door, the King slipped into the palace garden.
The door swung to behind him.
All need for anxiety, for haste, and for precaution was now at an end.
It was only just eight o'clock.
Sauntering leisurely through the garden, the King reached the palace without meeting any one, on the way. Sometimes, on these occasions, he ran into gardeners, early at work, a policeman, patrolling the walks, or some member of the household staff; but such encounters never caused him any anxiety. Why should not the King take a stroll in the garden, before breakfast? Had he not been known to dive into the garden lake for an early morning swim, and had not the fact been duly recorded in all the newspapers?
He entered the palace by the door through which he had escaped the night before, and so, mounting the private staircase, which led up to his own suite of rooms, regained his dressing room, unchallenged.
The creation of a certain amount of necessary disorder in his bedroom, and a partial undressing, were the work of only a few minutes.
Then he rang his bell, for which, he was well aware, a number of the palace servants would be, already anxiously listening.
It was Smith, as the King had been at some pains to arrange, who answered this, the first summons of the official, Royal day.
"Breakfast in the garden, in half an hour, Smith," the King ordered. "See about that, at once. Then you can come back, and get my bath ready, and lay out the clothes."