The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JULY 25th., 1916. A KING IN EXILE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1591, 25 July 1916, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JULY 25th., 1916. A KING IN EXILE.

KING NICHOLAS of Montenegro, the Queen and the Princesses Xenia and Vera are at Merignac, near Bordeaux, in Prance. M. Paid Tin Rochet, who recently interviewed the King, thus describes the interview; “Just at the lime the King was posing lor two painters, both ■wearing decorations and very solemn. But, recalling a conversation we had formerly had at Cettinge, lie cut the sitting short to receive me. ‘Yon were with ns,’ he said to me, ‘and yon saw in what distress we were. At Loveen, for live days, my soldiers remained exposed to Ihe lire of over TOO guns, without even a crust of bread to eat. Then the Austrian licet came out and ranged itself where it could slit'll us with impunity. What could we do, abandoned thus to our own resources I .’ $Ye( we covered the retreat of Ihe two Servian armies, and to feed them we gave up all that remained to ns —the last potatoes, Ihe lastcat tie. For lirewood we had to burn our houses to the roof, and the very crosses from the cemeteries. You remember those line acasias of mine at Podgorit/a; ah, well, not one of them, remains. . . But the worst trial of ail for mo is that I must confess that I have on occasion been misunderstood, even by my friends. The truth is, I had a weak Government, which did not second my efforts well. But these are matters that 1 do not wish to raise now. For the lime being there is only one thing to do, make ourselves strong. Later, we shall talk!’ In every word one felt a deep sadness, and at the same time a dee]) and tenacious love for bis lost; country and its people. The trial has aged him. I found him more light-eyed than formerly and more highly-coloured, but his features were drawn, and hail no longer the same inperious assurance. In his rich Montenegrin dress, all blue ami gold-braided, he made a strange ami grievous contrast in this framework of delicate and ancient elegance.