LEOPOLD, THE EVIL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 71, 26 March 1910, Page 13

LEOPOLD, THE EVIL.

Thus Dr. E. J. Dillon, in the Conitemporary Review for February, on .the :>la*o King of Bergium. THE ROYAL FATHER AND HIS CHILDREN. The European rnler of the Congo was a despot whose will brooked no check, and ' whose methods included deeds which elementary morality stigmatises Las evil and written law punishes as heinous crimes. But King Leopold set law and morality at defiance, and came at last to even bravo public opinion and social conventions ia Belgium and Europe. And at the root of 'this fierce scorn of society's laws and bye-laws his friends, and even some of his criticß, fancy they can discern a quality that is grand a«d herok. Leopold's capacity for hating did undoubtedly border on tbo superhuman. Ho never iorgave, not even after the offence, often imaginary, had been expiated a hundredfold. Th« ancient Furies wero less ruthless to their victims than Leopold showed himself to his own daughters. One of them would fain weep at tho feet of her dead mother and lay a flower upon her bier. He drove her from the death chamber — iray, he banished her trom his dominions. Yet her sole offence was tbat, having lost her husband, Crown Princo Rudolph of Austria, she had dared to marry again. And the father who tfraust her thus cruelly from the presence of her dead mothor took his lady-k>vo boldly to the theatre, flaunting his unconventionality in the eyes of the most clerical people of Europe. For Leopold 11. there was nothing sacred, nor was there any sanctuary from liis unrelenting hate. Tho apparel of the Queen, her jewels, her lace, her very underwear, he exposed to the public gaze with a view to selling them by auction in order to pay off some debts contracted by his eldest daughter. Yet he thought nothing of making a present of thirty million francs to the barmaid whom he had taken for his permanent friend. The youngest daughter of the King, Princess Clementine, was reputed to be his favourite, and yet the moment she allowed her thoughts to run upon marriage — Prince Bonaparte was tho bridegroom elect he dashed tho cup of happiness from her lips. For he reserved to himself tho sole right of diffusing of his daughter's hand and heart. The ex-barmaid walked at will in and out of the royal apartments in Laeken, near Brussels, while ihe King's daughters in vain besought their father to admit them. Ono of his last and most elaborate acts was to disinherit his children, if not entirely at least to an extent which, even to clever lawyers, seemed at one time impossible.* But "where there's a will there's a way." KING LEOPOLD'S SECOND YOUTH. Among the palatial residences which King Leopold purchased towards the close of his life was the snug castle of Lormoy, near Paris. This manor was another of his jgifts to the girl who performed the miracle of giving him his second youth in his old age, and aho his second family. And in this idyllic retreat the luxurious old monarch was wont to spend most of his time during the last period of his life. He would keep away from Brussels and Belgium for weeks and months at a time. His long absences — during which he left no address — challenged speculation as to his whereabouts, and his Ministers, eager to have State documents signed and other pressing business transacted, were impatient, incensed, disrespectful. Telegrams were sent to the Riviera, to Villefranche, to Antibes, but they elicited no response. Messages wero despatched to his Belgian palaces, but he was not there. Nona of his subjects had an inkling of the whereabout* of the King. At last he would reveal his presence, start by motor for Brussels — for a day, and then hastily return to the paradise he had created for himself and his second family. He thus taught his Ministers to be patient, and his people to be resigned. But one day his hiding-place waa discovered by an unbidden guest, who touched him with his hard, icy fingers and drove him out of Eden . . . The Idyll was at an end. THE LAST ACT. EUTHANASIA? In the scene after this the King lay on a couch in a tiny room of a gardenpavilion at Laeken, uncertain whether the last act was indeed come, or there would yet be an epilogue. The apartment was absurdly small, the accommodation utterly inadequate. The attendants could hardly move about to discharge their duties. And* this wa« the last dwelling of the wealthiest monarch of modern time*! There was none other ; for ho had gutted the gorgeous palace of Laeken, as well as the other royal residences, in order to dispose of the furniture, the gobelins, the masterpieces of painting and all the other objects of value, and by thus converting them into money to deprive his daughters of this part of their inheritance after his death. And now the wails of the palace being bare, and the apartments uninhabitable, the King was dying in a narrow little room of a pavilion hardly bigger than a monk's cell. Hatred , not stinginess, was the mainspring of his action, but a hatred hardly human in degree or in kind which continued to possess him until and during the "crossing of the bar." To the telegraphic solicitations of his daughters that they might be allowed to come and discharge the duties of filial piety at his bedside, he returned a stern, repellent negative. H« would neither forgive nor forget. Death might break, it would not beira him. Leopold had spent his life -far beyond the diocese of conscience, in a world freed from all religious and many moral restrictions. But to keep from getting altogether lost during bis wanderings there, ho had a thin thread fastened to his body, one end of which was tied to the Catholic Church. And go when the day of judgment was at hand, Leopold returned hurriedly to the Church, and obtained its belated blessing on his union with the ex-barmaid, now Baroness Vaughan. That precaution allowed him to keep her by his side to the last. Whether he also expected further reaching results from the sacrament of matrimony and his peace with the Church is doubtful. It is hard to believe that a man of Leopold's part* could have believed, as Talleyrand is reported to have fancied, that having circumvented men and women during his life, he would outwit tiod and tho devil at his death.