"There comes a servant with refreshments."
The King"s coffee-bearer came to us, bringing three cups of coffee, a box of rahat-loukoum, and a pot of preserves. Mrs. Simons and her daughter rejected the beverage with disgust, because it was made like Turkish coffee, and was like thickened milk. I emptied my cup like a veritable gourmand of the Orient. The pot of sweets was a rose sorbet, and received only a small share of our attention, as we were forced to eat it with one spoon. Delicate eaters are unfortunate when in this country of primitive simplicity. But the rahat-loukoum, cut in pieces, pleased the palates of the ladies, without shocking too much, their ordinary tastes. They took in their beautiful fingers that perfumed jellied paste, and emptied the box, while the King dictated the following letter:
"Messrs. Barley and Company, "31 Cavendish Square, "London.
"I see by your honored letter of the 5th of April and the current account which accompanies it, that I have, at the present time, 22,750 livres sterling, to my credit. Please place these funds, half in English three per cents, half in shares of the company, before the coupons are cut. Sell my shares of the Royal Britannic Bank; it is an inst.i.tution in which I have no longer any confidence. Take for me, in exchange, all in Bank of London. If you can get 15,000 livres for my house in the Strand (it was valued at that in 1852), you may buy for me, in the Vieille-Montagne, an equal amount. Send to the firm, Rhalli Brothers, 100 guineas; it is my subscription for the h.e.l.lenic School at Liverpool. I have seriously pondered the proposition which you have done me the honor to submit to me, and, after many reflections, I have decided to persist in my line of conduct and transact business strictly on a cash basis. Purchases in future are of a speculative character, which ought to prevent any good father of a family from dealing in them. I am a.s.sured that you would not expose my capital to danger, and would use it with a prudence which has always characterized your house; but even where the benefit of which you write, seems sure, I experience, I must confess it, a certain repugnance to leaving to my heirs a fortune augmented by gambling. Accept, etc.,
"Hadgi-Stavros, "Proprietor."
"Is it about us?" Mary-Ann whispered.
"Not yet, Mademoiselle, His Majesty is investing in stocks."
"In stocks! Here? I thought that was only done at home."
"Is Monsieur, your father, a.s.sociated with a banking establishment?"
"Yes; with the firm of Barley & Co."
"Are there two bankers of the same name in London?"
"Not that I am aware of."
"Have you ever heard that the firm transacted business with the Orient?"
"Certainly, all over the world."
"And do you live in Cavendish Square?"
"No, the offices are there. Our house is in Piccadilly."
"Thank you, Mademoiselle. Allow me to listen to the next. This old man"s correspondence is very interesting."
The King dictated, without stopping, a long report of the shares of his band. This curious doc.u.ment was addressed to M. Georges Micrommati, Officer of Ordinance, at the Palaces, that he might read it in the General a.s.sembly to those interested.
"Account rendered of the operations of the National Company by the King of the Mountains.
Receipts and Expenditures, 1855-56.
Camp of the King, April 30, "56.
Sirs:
The agent whom you have honored with your confidence, to-day, for the fourteenth time, submits for your approval the report of the year"s transactions. Since the day when the const.i.tutional act of our society was signed in the office of Master Tsappas, Royal Notary of Athens, never has our enterprise encountered more obstacles, never has the progress of our labors been embarra.s.sed by more serious difficulties. It is in the presence of a strange occupation, under the eyes of two armies, if not hostile, at least ill-disposed, that the regular practice of an eminently national inst.i.tution must be carried on. Piraeus is occupied by the military; the Turkish frontier is watched with a zealousness without precedent in history, and this restricts our activity to a very narrow circle, and confines our zeal to impa.s.sable limits.
Within these narrow boundaries, our resources are still more reduced by the general penury, the scarcity of money, and the small crops. The olive trees have not yielded as they promised; the cereal harvests have been small, and the vines are not yet rid of the odium. In these circ.u.mstances it has been difficult to profit by the tolerance of the authorities and the kindness of a friendly government. Our enterprise is so identified with the interests of the country, that it can flourish only in the general prosperity, and so repulse the counterstrokes of all public calamities; for from those who have nothing, one can take nothing, or little of anything.
The strangers traveling in this country, whose curiosity is so useful to the kingdom and to us, have become rare. English tourists, who, formerly, composed an important branch of our revenue, are totally lacking. Two young Americans, stopped upon the road to Pentelicus, lost us their ransom. The French and English papers had inspired them with a spirit of defiance, and they escaped from our hands, at a time when their capture would have been most useful.
And now, gentlemen, this is our record, a report of our society which has resisted the fatal crisis better than agriculture, industries and commerce. Your funds, confided to my keeping, have been made profitable, not as much so as I could wish, but better than any one could hope for. I will say no more; I leave the figures to speak for themselves. Arithmetic is more eloquent than Demosthenes.
The society capital, limited at first to the modest sum of 50,000 francs, has increased to 120,000 by three successive issuings of bonds of 500 francs.
Our gross receipts, from May 1, 1855, to April 30, 1856, are 261,482 francs.
Expenses as follows:
t.i.thes paid to churches and monasteries 26,148
Interest on capital of the legal tax of 10 per cent per 100 12,000 ------- 38,148
Report.
Pay and board for 80 men at 650 francs per capita 52,000
Material, arms, etc. 7,056
Repairing the road to Thebes, which had become impa.s.sable and where there were no travelers to hold up 2,540
Expense of watching the highways 5,835
Rent for office 3
Subsidizing some journalists 11,900
Rewards to various employes of the judicial and administrative orders 18,000 ------- Total 135,482
If this sum is deducted from the gross receipts, there are left, net 126,000
According to the statutes, the above is apportioned as follows:
Reserve funds in the Bank of Athens 6,000 Share belonging to Agent 40,000 Share-holders" part 80,000 333 francs, 33 c. per share.
Add to the 333 francs, 33 c., 50 francs interest and 25 francs in reserve funds, and you will have a total of 408 francs, 33 c. per share. Your money is then drawing nearly 82 per cent.
Such are the results, gentlemen, of the last campaign. Judge what the future will be, when our country and our operations shall be free from the foreign power which presses so heavily."
The King dictated this without consulting any notes, without hesitating about a figure and without stopping to choose words. I would never have believed that an old man of his age could have possessed so remarkable a memory. He appended his seal to the three letters; it was his way of signing. He read easily, but he had never found time to learn to write.
Charlemagne and Alfred the Great were, it is said, in the same predicament.
While the Under-Secretaries of State were transcribing the letters for the day in order to place them in the archives, he gave audience to subaltern officers who had returned with their detachments, from the day"s duty. Each man seated himself in front of him, saluted him by laying his right hand on his heart and making his report in a few words.
I swear to you that Saint-Louis, under his oak, inspired no greater reverence among the people of Vincennes.
The first who presented himself was a small man, with a bad face; a fine sample for the Court of a.s.sizes. It was an islander from Corfu, persecuted as an incendiary: he had been well brought up, and his talents had advanced him. But his chief and his soldiers held him in no great esteem. He was suspected of keeping for his own profit a part of the spoils. Now the King was unreasonable on the subject of probity.
When he found a man in fault, he ignominiously thrust him out and ironically said to him: "Go and make a magistrate of thyself!"
Hadgi-Stavros asked the man from Corfu: "What hast thou done?"
"I have just come, with my fifteen men, from the ravine of Cirondelles, upon the road to Thebes. I met a detachment of soldiers; twenty-five men."