"Please, gentlemen, please! I know that you are not here for me, but for my next-door neighbour!"
At Irun, the first Spanish station, where I was to take leave of our guest, a fresh surprise awaited us. There was not a trace of police-protection, not a soldier, not a gendarme. An immense crowd had freely invaded both platforms. And what a crowd! Thousands of men, women and children shouted, sang, waved their hands, hustled one another and fired guns into the air for joy, while the King, calm and smiling elbowed his way from the presidential to the royal train, patting the children's heads as he passed, paying a compliment to their mothers, distributing friendly nods to the men who were noisily cheering him. And I thought of our democratic country, in which we imprison the rulers of States in an impenetrable circle of police-supervision, whereas here, in a monarchical country, labouring under a so-called reign of terror, the sovereign walks about in the midst of strangers, unprotected by any precautionary measures. It was a striking contrast.
But my mission was at an end. Still laughing, the King, as he gave me his hand, said:
"Well, M. Paoli, you can no longer say that you haven't got me in your collection!"
"I beg your pardon, Sir," I replied. "It's not complete yet."
"How do you mean?"
"Why, Sir, I haven't your portrait."
"Oh, that will be all right!" And, turning to the grand master of his court, "Santo Mauro, make a note: photo for M. Paoli."
A few days after, I received a photograph, signed and dated by the royal hand.