A devoted churchwoman, she grieved over the treatment accorded by the
invading German Army to the priests and nuns of Belgium. She referred
to her own Bavarian birth, and to the confidence both King Albert and
she had always felt in the friendliness of Germany.
"I am a Bavarian," she said. "I have always, from my childhood, heard
this talk that Germany must grow, must get to the sea. I thought it
was just talk--a pleasantry!"
She had seen many of the diaries of German soldiers, had read them in
the very room where we were sitting. She went quite white over the
recollection and closed her eyes.
"It is the women and children!" she said. "It is terrible! There must
be killing. That is war. But not this other thing."
And later on she said, in reference to German criticism of King
Albert's course during the early days of the war:
"Any one who knows the King knows that he cannot do a wrong thing. It
is impossible for him. He cannot go any way but straight."
And Queen Elisabeth was right. Any one who knows King Albert of
Belgium knows that "he cannot go any way but straight."
The conversation shifted to the wounded soldiers and to the Queen's
anxiety for them. I spoke of her hospital as being a remarkable
one--practically under fire, but moving as smoothly as a great
American institution, thousands of miles from danger.
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