A ROYAL SCANDAL

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 33, 2 August 1911, Page 3

A ROYAL SCANDAL

THE LATE KING LEOPOLD. Xavier Paoli, the well-known Conti--nental detective, has in the contemporary Review of last month an intimate study and description of the late King Leopold of Belgium. The following is what M. Paoli has to say of one familiar legend connected with his late Majesty:— "The adventure with which Leopold 11. was credited for 10 years in connection with Mile. Cleo dc Merode must be relegated to the pure domain of fiction. I dare say that it assisted the advancement of the young and attractive dancer quite as much as it annoyed the King, who was pursued even in Brussels itself by the irreverent nickname of 'Cleopold'! YVhat gave rise to this absolutely gratuitous conviction oil the part of public opinion? Nothing more nor less than a gossiping remark let fall in the slips at the Opera by someone who pretended that he hadnnet the King and the balletdancer looking for a sequestered spot in the Forest of Saint Germain. The scandal was hardy and tough; it ran for ten years without stopping to take breath. At the end of that period, which was long enough to turn any lie into a truth, Leopold 11., one night at the Opera., asked a leading official to present Mile, de Merode to him, saying that he had never met the lady, although he had 'often heard of her.' The leading official promptly adopted the view that the King was uncommonly 'deep.' And yet it was perfectly true; he had never set eyes on her in his life. The fact was proved by the candor of the words which he addressed to the charming dancer when she was brought lip to be presented: 'Allow me to express all my regrets if the good fortune which people attribute to me has offended you at all. Alas, we 110 longer live in the days when a king's favor was not looked upon as compromising! . . . Besides, I am j only a little king.'"