The Lonely House by Marie Belloc Lowndes

As they walked along the broad road which leads steeply down from Monte Carlo to the quaintly named Condamine, M. Popeau began talking almost as much to himself as to his young companion.

"The man we're going to see," he said, "is an autocrat, Miss Fairfield-one of the last real autocrats left in Europe. He has absolute power in this little country-I mean in Monaco. From his ruling there is no appeal. I remember he once caused an Englishman to be what would now be called deported. A fearful fuss was made about it! The man-his name was Johnson-was a nasty, cantankerous fellow, and it seemed that he had some relation in your Foreign Office. The affair dragged on for months-frightful threats were uttered. The British Ambassador in Paris was brought in-in fact it is not too much to say that had Monaco been a real country, with a fleet and an army, war might have resulted. But friend Bouton stuck to his guns, as the British so cleverly and truly say, and poor Johnson never came back!"