kness of the man saddened everybody present. The Lord Mayor presented
the freedom of the ancient borough in a temporary holder, explaining
that a more permanent receptacle would follow the Ambassador to America.
When this arrived, it proved to be a beautiful silver model of the
_Mayflower_. Certainly there could have been no more appropriate
farewell gift to Page from the English town whose name so closely links
the old country with the United States.

The last scene took place at Waterloo Station. Sir Arthur Walsh came
representing the King, while Mr. Balfour, Lord Robert Cecil, and other
ministers represented the cabinet. The Government had provided a special
railway carriage, and this was stationed at a convenient place as Page's
motor drew up. So weak was the Ambassador that it was with difficulty
that his companions, the ever devoted Mr. Laughlin, on one side, and
Page's secretary, Mr. Shoecraft, on the other, succeeded in supporting
him to his chair. Mr. Balfour, Lord Robert Cecil and the others then
entered the carriage, and, with all that sympathetic dignity in which
Englishmen of this type excel, said a few gracious and affectionate
words of good-bye. They all stood, with uncovered heads, as the train
slowly pulled out of the station, and caught their final glimpse of Page
as he smiled at them and faintly waved his hand.

* * * * *

Perhaps the man most affected by this leave-taking was Mr. Balfour. He
knew, as did the others, that that frail and emaciated figure had been
one of the greatest friends that Britain had had at the most dreadful
crisis in her history. He has many times told of this parting scene at
Waterloo Station and always with emotion.

"I loved that man," he once said to an American friend, recalling this
event. "I almost wept when he left England."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 75: Of Aberdeen, N.C., the Ambassador's sister.]

[Footnote 76: "Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy," by Ralph W.
Page, 1918.]

[Footnote 77: The reference is to a letter written in 1823 by Thomas
Jefferson to President Monroe at the time when the Holy Alliance was
threatening the independence of South America. "With Great Britain,"
Jefferson wrote, "we should most sedulously cherish a cordial friendship
and nothing would tend more to knit our affections than to be fighting
once more, side by side, in the same cause."]

[Footnote 78: See Vol. II, page 307.]

CHAPTER XXVII