Royal Rebuke

At a banquet given in his honor at Cordoba, King Alfonso XIII, referred to the defamation campaign which Senor Vicente Blasco Ibanez has been waging against him:

"I have always done my duty and that is a great satisfaction for my conscience. I count on my people and I assure you that the King will die at his post and that mud will not soil him."

He declared that the gallant officers of the army in Morocco had also been slandered by the now notorious novelist:

"Such calumnies cannot remain unpunished. He who so speaks outside of Spain and who has on no occasion risked his life for her is an enemy to his flag. May God be pleased to enlighten this bad patriot and pardon him the wrong he has done Spain."