the whole score by heart on his piano.

All through the War Alexander, the Prince Regent--for King Peter felt
himself, on account of his age and his rheumatism, unequal to anything
save the personal encouragement of his soldiers in the
trenches[84]--throughout the War Alexander was with his army. In his
eloquent proclamations one sees the student; on the battlefield he
conquered his shyness. And now he is a truly democratic King, at whose
table very often is some non-commissioned officer or private whose
acquaintance he has made in the War. He asked the man to come and see
him one day in Belgrade, so that the royal adjutants are always busy
with this stream of warriors. The men are well aware that their own
peasant costume, with the sandals, is admissible at Court--even at a
ball you see some fine old peasant, who is perhaps a deputy (and who
does not, like a certain Polish Minister of recent years, remove his
white collar before entering the Chamber). You can see him in his
thick brown homespun with black braiding, breeches very baggy at the
seat and closely fitting round the legs; as he comes in he knocks the
snow from off his sandals, and strides, perfectly at ease, across the
Turkish carpets. With such a man the King loves greatly to go hunting;
last winter in the Rudnik region the inhabitants were being plagued by
wolves, so the King went down there with some officers and peasants.
Though he is so short-sighted that he constantly wears glasses--if you
met him casually you would suppose that this keen-faced young officer
was probably a writer of military books--though he is short-sighted he
is one of the best shots in Europe. On the Slovenian mountains he has
brought down many chamois and, before he succeeded, at a summer resort
in Serbia he was always first at target practice. Nor is he less
skilled at cards, particularly bridge. He gathers round him the best
players in the town. Such are his relaxations after the long round of
audiences and hours of other work. During the day he will have very
likely undertaken to pay the expenses from his own pocket of another
Serbian student, at home or abroad. So many of them are his
pensioners. And it may be said without flattery that in the pursuit of
knowledge he affords them an example. His subjects number about 14
millions, but when in conversation I happened to allude to a remote
border village, his subsequent remarks made me wonder whether he had
just been reading an a