GIRL WHO SAVED KING ALBERT

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 104, 1 May 1920, Page 19

GIRL WHO SAVED KING ALBERT

HTJN PLOT FOILED. ; i i A remarkable story of how a peasant girl saved King Albert's life and prevented . some of the chief buildings ia Brussels, . which -were mined by the Germans, from j being blown up after the armistice is told 5 by Alderman A. T. Barber, ex-Mayor of , Windsor, who has Teturned from Belgium. _ Mile. Angelica Vercammen, of St. Giles, , Termonde, was in a train on the way to 1 Antwerp, says Mr. Barber, and overheard I conversation between a German officer and a nurse. The officer asked If Angelica _ understood German, so she said "No, - do 1 not." 1 Not satisfied, the German ordered her • out of the carriage, hut she went to the " next compartment. The handle of the heat- '• ing apparatus was broken, and she peeped 1 through a tiny hole aud saw tne officer take a plan of Brussels from his valise and s explain what buildings were mined. ■• Angelica told her story to the guard, and s the officer and the nurse were arrested at 8 Antwerp. When Angelica pointed out to •" the officials the secret pocket in the valise c in which the German had concealed the r plan, he drew a revolver to shoot her, but a Belgium disarmed him. '• Documents proved the German's inten- ° tion of blowing up the palace on February r 19, 1919, when King Albert met ihe French -" and Allied representatives. The officer and the nurse were shot at 'Liege. n King Albert sent for Angelica and 0 decorated her with the Croix de Guerre, the '" Order of Leopold 11., and the Croix de la 0 "Reine Elisabeth, aud offered her a position in a Government office. He also "coma mended her for having done more good i work for them than any single person at » the front." In the peace fete in August at Termonde 1 Angelica rode on a horse led by two Belgian soldiers.