In return for this devotion the young Queen regards the welfare of the
troops as her especial charge. She visits them when they are wounded,
and many tales are told of her keen memory for their troubles. One, a
wounded Frenchman, had lost his pipe when he was injured. As he
recovered he mourned his pipe. Other pipes were offered, but they were
not the same. There had been something about the curve of the stem of
the old one, or the shape of the bowl--whatever it was, he missed it.
And it had been his sole possession.
At last the Queen of the Belgians had him describe the old pipe
exactly. I believe he made a drawing--and she secured a duplicate of
it for him. He told me the story himself.
The Queen had wished to go to the trenches to see the wretchedness of
conditions at the front, and to discover what she could do to
ameliorate them. One excursion she had been permitted at the time I
saw her, to the great anxiety of those who knew of the trip. She was
quite fearless, and went into one of the trenches at the railroad
embankment of Pervyse. I saw that trench afterward. It was proudly
decorated with a sign that said: _Repose de la Reine_. And above the
board was the plaster head of a saint, from one of the churches. Both
sign and head, needless to say, were carefully protected from German
bullets.
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