Even before the present war, the King’s mechanical tastes led him to take a deep interest in the problems of engineering construction, of shipbuilding and of aviation. While traveling in this country in 1898, he is said to have studied American railways under the tutelage of Mr. James J. Hill, and ten years later, to have gone to Great Britain incognito in order that he might become familiar with conditions in the shipyards there. Finally, he is known as a skilful and daring chauffeur.
In view of this fact, the well known journalist, Major Seaman, shortly returned from Belgium, told me the story was true that King Albert (accompanied only by his chauffeur) when motoring one day from one part of the lines to another, noticed that they were taking the road toward the German trenches. He directed the man to change his course, but soon found they were still going in the wrong direction. After a second order had proved unavailing, the King shot the chauffeur and himself drove the car to his destination, thus defeating an attempt to betray him into the hands of the Teutons. The money given to the traitor by the Germans was found on his body.
The Brussels Exposition was held the year after Albert became King. With his usual conscientiousness, the King not only attended innumerable congresses that were held in Brussels that year, but personally entertained the delegates at the royal palace; and, with all this, he is said to have found time to visit, with the Queen, every exhibit in every section of the Exposition.
Even before the present war, he was known as “The People’s King,” and during this war he has shown himself a man and leader, this hero King, whose name will be honoured through the centuries. Queen Elizabeth, too, has their hearts’ devotion. “Queen Elizabeth is over there with King Albert in the midst of the fighting troops. From town to town, from camp to camp, from trench to trench she goes. She inspires the living, she consoles the dying; she smiles upon them, she binds up their wounds. There she is, so gentle, so pitying, in that Flemish land, that sad Country wrapped in heavy mist, a gray winding sheet softly falling over so many rigid shrouds. Queen errant, but more a Queen than ever has been the consort of the most puissant King, she symbolizes her Country, that Country which is so gashed and wounded, but which will not die. Far from proud cities and sumptuous palaces, she goes to the soldiers fallen beneath the leaden rain, and as she passes near them the eyes of the dying are lifted up to her for a last look, a last tear.”[3]
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
The Crown Prince, although only thirteen years old, is in the Belgian army. The Queen entered a meek protest against her husband’s taking their son to the front, but he answered, “I have him with me to teach him how serious a thing it is to be a King.”
In an interview with Mr. Hall—a journalist whom I met at the Belgian Legation in Washington,—one of the most striking things King Albert said was this:
“This war was unavoidable. It had been postponed several times within the last few years, and if it had not been for England’s efforts it would have come at the time of the last Balkan crisis. Germany had been piling on armament for years, had been building up a war machine so perfect and so powerful that at a given time it was bound to start itself. When you have built a monster ship, you cannot continue piling on weight all the time, or the day will come when the vessel will slip off the ways of her own accord. This thing has happened in more than one shipyard.
“When the crisis came I had hopes that the protection of international treaties would be sufficient to protect Belgium, but in any case there was no question as to what the Belgian people would do. The violation of our territory united every faction, and although we were taken by surprise we did our best and offered what resistance we could.”