The remark Count Alexander Hübner entered in his diary on November 18, 1884, was surely true: “It is a fact that no one any longer believes in kings, and I do not know if they believe in themselves.” And Elisabeth’s friend, the poet Carmen Sylva (Queen Elisabeth of Romania), expressed the same belief even more bluntly: “The republican form of government is the only rational one; I can never understand the foolish people, the fact that they continue to tolerate us”
