“WOUND IN HIS HEART”

Evening Star, Issue 22890, 23 February 1938, Page 18

“WOUND IN HIS HEART”

LEOPOLD OF BELGIUM King Leopold of the Belgians, still grief-stricken by the tragedy of his beloved Queen Astrid, nearly two and a half years ago, arrived in London recently on a surprise incognito visit, accompanied by his mother, Queen Elizabeth. The visit was stated to be a strictly private one. The departure of the King was not announced in Brussels until after he and Queen Elizabeth had embarked at Ostend for Dover. It is only three weeks since King Leopold was in England on a State visit to King George. A high official in close touch with the Belgian Court told Stephen House in Brussels that King Leopold had been greatly disturbed by the recent suggestions that he will marry again. “ According to these rumours,” said this authority, ” the King has been—at various times—betrothed to Princess Juliana of Holland, to Princess Adelaide of Hapsburg, Princess Maria of Savoia, Princess Eudoxia of Bulgaria, and to two Danish Princesses. “ The King has a deep wound in his heart—a wound that is far from being healed.” Since the day Queen Astrid was hurled to her death from the car King Leopold himself was driving in Switzerland, he has been torn by regret. In vain his advisers have tried to console him. ■Yet, if, by some miracle, Queen Astrid were to return to the small mansion of Stuyvenberg, where she spent an idyllic honeymoon with her prince, she would find everything just as she left it. It is now known among his people as the Chateau of the Sleeping Beauty. Early in the morning King Leopold goes unnoticed to Stuyvenberg, where all the souvenirs of Queen Astrid are preserved. He lingers in the room where she kept her childhood dolls, brought from Sweden when she married. He goes through the notes written by her about the education of her children. He kisses a pair of gloves still lying on the table. King Leopold, to a great extent, finds consolation for his loss in the love of his three motherless children (Princess Josephine Charlotte. image_ of her mother; Crown Prince Baudouin, and the small Prince of Liege). All were delighted by the numerous presents he brought back after his recent visit to London. Baudouin was particularly thrilled by a model locomotive given by an English railway company.