1907] Le Colonel Marchand 173 



Gorst, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Roosevelt, as also to Eddy Hamilton and 

 Rivers Wilson. 



" 10th June. — Called on the Lucases at Thakeham and found Father 

 Tyrrell there, my ex-Jesuit friend, with Miss Petre and Mrs. Urquhart. 



u nth June. — Cockerell, who has been in Paris arranging for a 

 French edition of my ' Secret History,' writes an amusing account of 

 a visit he paid Mme. Juliette Adam at her country house, the Abbaye 

 de Gif. He says, $th June: 



" ' Madame Juliette proposed an encounter yesterday afternoon and 

 Geoffroy kindly agreed to go as my protector. She lives in a lovely 

 valley, an hour by train from Paris. The house also capable of being 

 made very beautiful, but I grieve to say that her taste in pictures and 

 furniture is execrable. However, she received us with great kindness 

 and promised to do all possible to make the French edition known, 

 but she says you must not expect the sale of it to extend beyond a small 

 circle. Mustapha Kamel wrote a book which nobody would read and 

 which has made Perrin (the publisher) a little shy of books on Egypt. 

 When we had discussed the matter for a quarter of an hour with 

 Juliette and her friend and contemporary La Comtesse X, enter a 

 gauche Le Colonel Marchand, his arms full of yellow broom. He 

 is the most stagey Frenchman imaginable, very jerky and jack-in-the- 

 boxey and with a furious military air. He covered me with compli- 

 ments in a moment, mistaking me for the illustrious author of the 

 " Secret History " and when these had had time to run off me we 

 engaged in an exciting discussion about the politics of the world. 

 Madame Adam and the brave Colonel unite in unbounded admiration 

 and fear of England and English diplomacy. Le Roi Edward VII is 

 the subtlest beast of the field that ever was created. He has out- 

 witted everyone and has dindonne France into an alliance which will 

 probably cost her another war with Germany. Never was England so 

 strong and unassailable as now, etc., etc., etc., hammer and tongs for 

 an hour and a half. I interjected remarks in my execrable demi- 

 French, most of which were understood without a smile. Geoffroy was 

 very silent as he knows even less of politics than I. We left after 

 tea in a rollicking humour.' 



" 15M June. — Prince Mohammed AH, the Khedive's brother, came 

 down to see the horses, bringing with him Saadullah Pasha Yusri, and 

 Yusuf Bey Sadyk, son of the old Mufettish, whom Ismail murdered. 

 I found all of them loud against Cromer, especially in connection with 

 the Denshawai case. The Prince is far more intelligent than at first 

 sight appears, and his political views seem quite sound. 



" 16th June. — Called on Mrs. Belloc with whom I had an interesting 

 talk about Father Tyrrell and Catholic reform. Later wrote the heads 



