ing from the King and Queen of the Hellenes and a departure
from this pleasant old-world Island.

On the following day Brindisi was reached, and Turin on the 3rd.
Accompanied by Sir Augustus Paget, the Minister at Rome, the Royal party
crossed the mountains by the Mont Cenis Railway and reached Paris two
days afterwards. Here, until May the 11th, they remained in a succession
of visits, dinners, reviews and entertainments provided by the Emperor
and Empress, and on the following day arrived at Marlborough House after
a six months' absence from England. It had been a round of arduous duty
mixed with every form of honour and compliment, and including much of
genuine pleasure and useful experience, together with the acquisition of
practical and valuable knowledge. To the Heir Apparent it was one more
step in the training and education necessary for any Prince who is
destined to reign over the destinies of an infinitely varied and
scattered people.

CHAPTER VII.

Serious Illness of the Prince

Following his return from foreign travel and the fulfilment of a brief
round of public functions and duties came the now historic and really
eventful illness of the Prince of Wales. It was a critical period in his
career. Boyhood, youth and the first flush of manhood were gone; his
marriage had taken place and his family been born into a position of
present and future importance; his own training in public duties and
experience in foreign travel and observation had been completed up to a
very high point of efficiency. The one element which seemed to be a
little lacking was that of a full appreciation of his own responsibility
to the nation and the Empire. The brilliant light which blazed around
the Throne could find no fault in the actual performance of any duty;
but the critical eye and caustic pen had been prone for some years to
allege an overfondness for pleasure and amusement and the pursuits of
social life.

Whether true or false in its not very serious origin this impression had
been studiously cultivated in certain quarters at home which had an
interest in the theoretical flash-lights of republicanism; and
extensively propagated abroad by cabled falsehoods and magnified
incidents until actual harm had been done to the reputation and
character of the young Prince amongst those who did not know him and
could never actually expect to know him except through the journalistic
food upon which they were fed.

On the o