1910] Sudden Illness of the King 301 



about him. Churchill was a gentleman, quite a different sort. Kitch- 

 ener is to go to India as Viceroy, the King being strong for him, though 

 ' of course, the King can't do everything.' Both Kitchener and the 

 King are to arrive from abroad to-night. Later, in the train, as I was 

 going back to Newbuildings, two lawyers got into the carriage, who 

 talked of having just seen the King drive away from the station. He 

 looked very white and flabby, they said. 



" 2gth April. — This morning I opened my window at 3.45, and five 

 minutes later a cuckoo began to sing. I counted the number of notes 

 he repeated, beginning when he had done half-a-dozen or so. He must 

 have been sitting in the big oak tree a hundred yards away from the 

 house, and went on and on for some twenty-five minutes while I 

 counted, watch in hand, having got back into bed. He began with a 

 series of 208, when another cuckoo interrupted at a distance, but after 

 some fifteen seconds he went on again with a series of 368 and another 

 of seventy-one, and another of 354 and then fifty-five. In all 1056 

 notes without a break of more than a quarter of a minute, nor did he 

 change the place he sang from. I noted with the second hand of the 

 watch that he did thirty-eight to forty notes to the minute, though at 

 the beginning he was quicker and more regular. This must be a record 

 performance. I put down the numbers on a card with a pencil while 

 it was going on. It ended at 4.15 a.m. 



" 2nd May. — I have written to the ' Manchester Guardian ' in an- 

 swer to Gorst's Egyptian Report, just published, advocating evacuation 

 as the sole alternative to a rule of force. The latter is certainly in- 

 tended. Dillon writes to say so, and there is a telegram in the ' Daily 

 Telegraph ' announcing on the highest authority that ' the Khedive has 

 decided on deportations after the Indian fashion.' This is a return to 

 the regime of Ismail. 



" 6th May. — To London, where I found the world in commotion 

 with the news of the sudden illness of the King, not likely to live 

 through the day, as his heart was attacked. I went to see Lady C, 

 whom I found at home. ' The King,' she said, ' is not likely to get 

 over it.' He is being treated with oxygen and has five official doctors 

 with him, including old Douglas Powell, and also a little doctor of her 

 own discovery, I forget his name. ' The King has for five years had 

 a swelling in his throat which has been sprayed twice a day, and 

 Laking always said it might develop any time into cancer. When 

 the King came home from Biarritz the other day he insisted upon go- 

 ing the very same night to the opera, and has since been to two theatres, 

 and to see the Royal Academy Pictures. He cannot do without excite- 

 ment. His death,' she said, ' will be a great loss to the world and a 

 great loss to me. He has been a good friend to me, and everything 

 will be changed now. There will be a regular sweep of the people that 



