Queen’s Broken Heart

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 22 April 1935, Page 11

Queen’s Broken Heart

Saddest Castle in Europe From Our Own Correspondent. (By Air Alail). LONDON, March 30. The saddest castle in Europe stands on the outskirts of Brussels.

It is Laeken Castle, to which, just thirteenth months ago, the body of the beloved Albert, King of the Belgians, was carried from the foot of the jagged crag near Namur, where he fell while climbing alone. To-day it is the castle of the Queen with a broken heai*t.

Here the Dowager Queen Elizabeth lives—inconsolable. Soldiers still stand at the castle entrance, but no visitors come or go. The Dowager Queen shuns society. Except for her son and Queen Astrid, the Royal children and a few privileged people, nobody is admitted. The Queen has completely lost contact with the outer world. Three or four times a week she descends alone into the royal crypt. There she weeps and prays. Inside the castle everything has been left as it was on that fateful day when King Albert left to go climbing, his favourite pastime. The staff move about in silence. Queen Elizabeth’s daily routine is always, the same. At an early hour she leaves her apartment on the first floor a pale-faced w*oman of fiftyeight—and begins her daily pilgrimage through the castle, where her husband used to live, work and wait for her. The King’s desk is exactly as he left it. It is covered with piles of dossiers, newspapers and books. It seems as if the documents are still awaiting his royal signature. _ In a corridor hangs the King s alpine equipment, part of which he woie when he made his last fatal climb. Every morning the Queen halts before these relics. Her eyes seem held fast at the sight of them. The Queen’s onlv interest now is her work for charity. Her generosity has never been greater than since her husband’s death.