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Show plus sommeil, ni pour elle, ni pour moi." At least I think that is what came through those white teeth, or very near it, fifty years ago. And Marie may be turned of seyenty if . . . Well l-if German Culture has spared her. But neither she nor any other Louvainoise will ever sleep the better now for the music of the bells, nor any guest of hers be kept awake an hour. For the old hostelry, I take it, is a heap of ashes, and the sound of the carillon is ended for ever. W Maya" By PROFESSOR W. J. ASHLEY BEFORE this fateful year the cities of Belgium had already done great things for humanity. The man who could pass across the market-place from the statue of Van Artevelde, the artisans' hero of the Middle Ages, to the home of Voorm'f, that noble working-class undertaking of to-day, Without a touch of emotion, must have been of sluggish imagination. No one, again, who knew how Ypres, in the age of the Renaissance, taught the Whole western world to reform its treatment of the poor, could look without profound respect at the commemorative fresco in its Cloth Hall. Originality of social insight is still alive in the land ; for it was from Ghent that the modern State learned in recent years to think out practicable measures of insurance against unemployment. It was with thoughts like these fresh, also, from the reading of Quételet, the organiser and inspirer of social statistics~that Iwent for my holiday in Belgium, a week before the war. I could not but reflect that it is not to the great States alone, with their vast scientific and administrative apparatus, that the student of social conditions must look for example and guidance. And with me I took one of the volumes of l'irenne, an historical scholar of whom any country might well be proud, and read how Belgium had grown into unity under the House of Burgundy, and how, through the harsh experience of centuries, had been developed the soul of a nation. I was idly wondering whether indeed this was so, and whether Belgium would eyer have an opportunity to assert and display its essential independence, when the mobilisation came. Let me confessfil do it with humility-I could not at first take it seriously. I knew there had for some time been a military party in (lei-many which talked of marching into France through Belgium; but I was confident German statesmanship would keep this party in cheek. Germany could never be so unwise, I thought, as to put itself in the wrong with the world by infringing Belgian neutrality. But I was blinded by partiality. The little country was only too well justified in arming itself against the giant. And with tragic rapidity, also, events showed how entirely right l'irenne had been : that out of different races, Romance and 'l‘eutonie. combining the characteristics of opposing peoples, had been created a strong and self-reliant individuality among the nations, dtettitrnuned to be master in its own house, ready to risk everything to be ise . 114 By HENRI LAVEDAN KING ALBERT LE Roi Albert est la plus grande figure du temps present. I] possede l'Immortalité sans avoir eu besoin de mourir et en y étant toujours prét. Devenu commémoratif en un jour de sainte révolte, il a conquis, de son vivant, la suprématie de la statue. Le marbre et le bronze, animés, sont en lui, et l'ombre du laurier ne quitte pas son front. Son nom, quand on 1e prononce, le place aussitét debout sur un socle ou l'exhausse au sommet d'une colonne. Il domine. On le voit de partout, de tous les horizons, parmi les embrase- merits de la guerre, et au-dessus. Pur et beau comme une idée, fort et doux comme une foi, calme et ardent comme une volonte', grave comme une religion, digne comme un devoir, muet comme un chef, sachant se taire, surtout dans le bruit, et puis parler pour dire les seuls mots décisifs qui sont les commandements du Droit et la consigne de l'Honneur, personnage Shakespearien d'histoire et de légende, de réve et de réalité, de flamme et de melancholic, d'e'popée et de poe'sie, prince errant et confiant, cavalier de la sublime Croisade qui va, le long des dunes de l'e'xil, sans meme cherchcr a deviner oh Dieu le conduit par la bride . . . roi-Chevalier, roi-paladin, roi simple-soldat qui n'a plus que son peuple épars et son armee en lambeaux, roi sans royaume enfin. . . . Albert sans-terre, Albert de Belgique et de France est a cette heure cependant le plus fameux, le plus aime, le plus puissant des rois, car c'est sur nos esprits et sur nos coeurs transportes de reconnaissance qu'il régne, d'une facon absolue, et qu'il etend son magique pouvoir. Voila son empire, spirituel ct moral, indestructible et sans limitcs, celui que l'on ne peut pas lui enlever et qui lui restera, meme apres qu'avec notre aide il aura regagné et agrandi -l'autre, son terrestre royaume. Qu'a-t-il a faire d'ailleurs, pour le moment, de trone et de palais P Partout ou il passe, il est chez lui, recu, salue' par l'amour et le respect des nations ciyilise'es, fi'cres de l'accueillir. Tous ceux dont il a embrassé le premier la cause commune, se regardent comme les fid'eles sujets de la Majesté, deux fois sacrée. ll :1 pour sceptre son e'pée sans tache, il est le Héros dont la téte nue et libre dans la bataille depasse soudain la eouronne pour appartenir a l'étoile! Viye ii jamais Albert 1", notre sauveur, monarque admirable et douloureux, tout resplendissant d'ideal ! a; . Xmas». TR.»I.\'SL.4 Tm .\' King .‘l/berl ll llzc ,grmzwt figure of the time. [19 lzus urhieewl z'nmmi'lallly fell/10m (lying, and by lulu: always really la the. Lommemmall/1;! as he does a day of holy resell, he has um: [he wpremacy oft/19 Slam? while still firing. Marble and bronze haw fl'ib‘akl'llf'll to life in him, um! the shadow of the laurel wreath is always an hix brace. The any mention of his name wake: him standing on a PL‘I/(‘Sllll, ur mulled to [he summi/ of a column. He dominates the scene. We we him ct'erywhcre, from all llUI'lZOIIX, 117111?le and above the smoke and flame o zcar. Pure and beautiful at an idea, rlmng and gentle at fail/1, slmdfasl and wmlmt at will, grayed: religion, dz'gmfied as duty, latitum as a [hie/tam, knowing 115 |