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Show By MARCEL PREVOST . . _ A'L'INSTANT tragique 01‘1 un souverain d'Europe déchalnait la barbaric, un autre souverain s'est levé, qui a déchaine' l'héro‘isme. Et soudain l'he'roi'sme a gagné les peuples, de proche en Vproche-ces vieux peuples occidentaux qu'on disait trop civilise's pour aflronter la mort en souriant. Gloire 21 Albert, Roi des Belges, qui nous a révélé la valeur de nos ames I By LUIGI CAPUANA HITHERTO it seemed a horrible nightmare from which I could not escape. So I turned to the vigorous novels of my friend Camille Lemonnier, to the delicate melodies of my friend Valere Gille, to the strange but powerful dramas of Maurice Maeterlinck, in all of which I had loved and admired different aspects of a happy laborious Belgium, flourishing in Industry, Commerce, Art, and Letters. I asked myself: Is it possible P Is it possible P And with feverish hands I turned over the noble pages which La Belgique artz'stz'que et litte'raire of April 1909 devoted to the relief of Messinese and TRA NSLA TION Al the tragic momml tel/(m one Soarrolgn of Europe um unleashing Ille dark power: of barbarz'rm, min/liar Sovereign arose who freed 11m powrrr of 110mm". And all at ante the spirit of the hero permeated the nations-these old Western nations that were thong/11 100 utilised To smile at the manure: of Dmtlz. Glory to King Albert, King of the Belgians, zclzn lsar ream/(d to us the value of our souls. Calabrian sufferers from the earthquake, an outburst of ardent writings We are at last in for an epoch of heroism, the King again taking the supreme place among his nation. The storm has swept away Parliament and speakers, Government and elections, parties and party programmes. Only one thing any horrible hallucination, but with a terrible reality, transcending any monstrous aberration of the human imagination. Does Belgium no longer exist P The arbitrary madness of a Sovereign who believes himself to be in direct communication with God has suddenly let loose a hurricane of fire and iron on her capital, on the richest and most peaceful of her cities, on the most fertile districts of her characteristic provinces, condemning t0 miserable By JOHAN BOJER and a magnificent series of drawings, beginning with an etching by Her Royal Highness Marie, Countess of Flanders. My Sicily still remembers this outburst of fraternal charity, and would certainly like to repay it now in the worthiest manner. Is it possible ? Is it possible P I still ask myself. In the presence of such a treasure of Vitality, love, and compassion, I felt my heart wrung when I recognised, as alas ! I was obliged to do, that I was confronted, not with remains, a monumental thing-the nation and the nation's father. King Albert, rich when his country was wealthy-happy when Belgium flourishchpoor when his kingdom was sunk in ruins-a refugee in his land when his own countrymen were driven away from hearth and home. Brave among the braves, wounded among the wounded, but for ever standing erect as a symbol of the vitality of his people, who had only dreamed to live and work on the plains of Flanders. He was too proud to become a martyr, too strong to ask for pity; he boldly faced destruction, uncon- querable because justice and the future are on his side. There where he shows himself refugees find a home, the fatherless a brother, the homeless a fatherland, the desperate a leader whom they can trust and who is full of faith. He is the man who has given the faded glories of royal crowns a new splendour ; he is the only one in this gigantic fight who bears on his forehead the stamp of divine innocence. At his side stands his wife, a woman who from being Queen over a realm rises to become the Holy Mother of a nation. d/W flay/.4, exile thousands of old men, women, and children, who have fled before the barbarian Violence of hordes unworthy of the name of soldiers. Belgium no longer exist P Oh i it cannot be ! No one could have supposed that this tranquil nation could have had the strength and courage to contest the cowardly German invasion, step by step, to resist continuously, in the face of overwhelming numbers and the gradual decimation of the proud army gathered round her heroic King and her not less heroic Queen. And none would yet dare to believe that the hour will not soon come when there will be a great reconquest, in which the hated invaders will be driven from the sacred soil of Belgium and he who has not hesitated to expose his own life as freely as the humblest of his soldiers will return to the Royal Palace at Brussels, crowned with a halo of glory. . France, England, and Russia are and will always be proud to contribute. to this lofty work of restitution, and I hope to see in the v1ctor10us processwn By FREDERI K VAN EEDEN llomage and sympathy for the Belgians and their King. 170 with them, my Italy, who cannot and ought not to tolerate the dlsappearance of Belgium from among the nations of Europe. And now let us remember again l . _ . The publication of that wonderful number of La Belgzque artzstzque at 171 |