A QUEEN'S ALARMS

Evening Star, Issue 19197, 13 March 1926, Page 12

A QUEEN'S ALARMS

MARGKERITA OF ITALY A life of service, with its own sharp trials, is recalled in the obituary records of Queen Marghonla, the Queen Mother of Italy. Oil the dealt! of King Victor finmaniud 11. in January, 1878, her husband Prince Humbert ascended the throne, adopting the style of “Humbert t. of Italy'' instead of Humbert I V. Queen Marghorita proved an ideal consort, and alio .shared to the full in the King s popularity. and his munificence, both on public occasions and in Ids private charities, appealed to her generous nature. On occasions of national calamity, snvh as the floods of Verona and Vcnolin, the earthquake at Ischia, and the cholera outbreaksat Basra and Naples, she seconded to the utmost of her power the King's personal devotion to the work of relief. Her own life could seldom have been free from painful anxiety, and she underwent some terrible experiences. On November 16, 1878. while the King ami Queen were driving through the crowded streets of Naples, a min of weak intellect named Passanante, a cook, made an attempt- on the life of King Humbert by trying to stab him with a knife. It was Queen Marphcrita who really saved her husband by tier presence of mind, for she threw in the face of the assassin a bouquet of flowers which had been given to her just before. Both their Majesties showed complete self-possossirn, and as they continued the drive Queen Marghorita smilingly acknowledged the cheers of the crowd. On arriving u b the Palace, where a banquet was ready, the King was reported to have spoken thus, to his guests: “Seat vnnrelvos, ladies and gentlemen, and do not let us keep the cooks waiting. You have, seen of what (hey are capable.” But the shock of this affair affected her Majesty’s health for a lone lime. After the second attempt on the Kin;; by Pietro Acciarito the Queen wrote i: her diary: “To-day a miscreant, to whom we have, never done any harm, attempted to kill my husband, Humbert, the best and most loyal man in Hue world. He must ijg either a madman or a very unhappy being. My good Humbert was more moved bv the fate of Hie man than by the danger he escaped. If human justice will not pardon him. Humbert and f have alroadv done so, because wc know he must have acted without knowing what he was doing.” If, as may be supnosed. she did not share the fatalism which characterised the King's easy-going temperament, she must have undergone many another moment of terrible anxiety before the final blow foil amt Humbert the Good was murdered I>v tho Anarchist Bresci at Monza, on July £9, 1900. On that occasion she was not with him. but was wailing in the great villa, and when the King was brought there lie had already breathed his last. The Queen throw herself on h-r knees at his side, and, mingled with her sobs, she was hoard to say “ The'- have killed you who loved your people. You were so good, yon never did any harm to anyone, and yet thev lo’vp killed v -u. This is the greatest crime, of. the century.”