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Show What shall be said of this sorrowful nation eating the bread of the exile? What need there be said ? The " tears of these things " grip the heart of two hemispheres. These houseless men and women and children are in a bitterly literal sense our blood-brothers and blood-sisters and little ones. They are the kinsfolk of all right-minded and true-hearted people. All the material help they need will be given gladly and gratefully. But they need more-the uplifting of the heart by admiration, by honour, by the cheering strength of personal affection. A new spring will come to the ravaged land ; new cities and villages will replace the old. Lament not overmuch the great and beautiful art that has vanished-it lives everlasting in the heavens and in the memory of men. And the dead~weep for them, but with a proud joy that they died for all that makes life worth living. 0 King, 0 people, the sound of a great bell is ringing over your land-a mightier bell even than " Roland " ; it is the bell of eternal justice and right, crying that there is " Victory in the land." W; a By MRS. W. K. CLIFFORD To His Majesty King Albert GREATLY daring I venture to address you, while I bow my head, as all the world does, Sir, to you and to your crucified country-crucified, as Christ was, to save others. You are bereft of the temporary deckings of your Kingship, and your people of all they possessed; and yet so much has come to you and them, though it is obscured now by the wreckage of many homes, the vanishing of many lives, by all the calamities that a cruel dishonourable enemy could bring. For a splendid immortality is yours-even here in this mortal world-and none can take it from you. Your enemy came in shining armour that is for ever blackened with crime and stained with blood; but your armour none can hurt nor time disfigure: it is woven of Truth and Honour, of Courage and Endurance, and through the centuries it will shine to those who sit in darkness, to those who doubt or hesitate. You have made the whole world better because of all that you have put into it. And for thought 0f YOU, and your people, many will become great, and brave deeds _will be done; and thousands whose courage would fail will take heart, feeling that Phey must be worthy of a world in which you lived, that as you kept faith so 1n turn will they; and whether their swords be strong or weak they‘w1ll fight and endure, as you have done, without flinching. Do you realise _1t all, Sir, the divine example you have set us ; does it help you a little, does it comfort YOU, to know that our hearts go out to you as we reverently bow our heads, to you and your Queen, to your soldiers and your dead P |