The clock over the reporters' gallery showed seven minutes after the
hour appointed, when the walls of the chamber shook with the vibration
of a cannon-shot. It was a gun fired at the Castle of St. Angelo to
announce the King's arrival. At the same moment there came the muffled
strains of the royal hymn played by the band in the piazza. The little
gales of gossip died down in an instant, and in dead silence the
assembly rose to its feet.
A minute afterwards the King entered amid a fanfare of trumpets, the
shouts of many voices, and the clapping of hands. He was a young man, in
the uniform of a general, with a face that was drawn into deep lines
under the eyes by ill-health and anxiety. Two soldiers, carrying their
brass helmets with waving plumes, walked by his side, and a line of his
Ministers followed. His Queen, a tall and beautiful girl, came behind,
surrounded by many ladies.
The King took his seat under the baldacchino, with his Ministers on his
left. The Queen sat on his right hand, with her ladies beside her. They
bowed to the plaudits of the assembly, and the drawn face of the young
King wore a painful smile.
The Baron Bonelli, in court dress and decorations, stood at the King's
elbow, calm, dignified, self-possessed--the one strong face and figure
in the group under the canopy. After the cheering and the shouting had
subsided he requested the assembly, at the command of His Majesty, to
resume their seats. Then he handed a paper to the King.
It was the King's speech to his Parliament, and he read it nervously in
a voice that had not learned to control itself. But the speech was
sufficiently emphatic, and its words were grandiose and even florid.
It consisted of four clauses. In the first clause the King thanked God
that his country was on terms of amity with all foreign countries, and
invoked God's help in the preservation of peace. The second clause was
about the increase of the army.
"The army," said the King, "is very dear to me, as it has always been
dear to my family. My illustrious grandfather, who granted freedom to
the kingdom, was a soldier; my honoured father was a soldier, and it is
my pride that I am myself a soldier also. The army was the foundation of
our liberty and it is now the security of our rights. On the strength
and stability of the army rest the power of our nation abroad and the
authority of our institutions at home. It is my firm resolve to maintain
the army in the future as my illustrious ancestors have maintained it in
the past, and therefore my Government will propose a bill which is
intended to increase still further its numbers and its efficiency."