BELGIUM MOURNS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22225, 27 September 1935, Page 8

BELGIUM MOURNS

KING'S LAST HOMAGE [TRAGEDY OF QUEEN ASTRID TOUCHING FUNERAL SCENES [from our own correspondent] By Air Mail LONDON. Sept. 7 The last act in the tragedy of Queen Astrid was written at Brussels on September 3. With incredible swiftness another page has been added to Belgium's sorrowful history. 0 Only ten days; ago the Queen was a young wife, happily enjoying a simple holiday with her husband and little children. Last Tuesday she tvas carried through the streets of Brussels in a hearse hung with black and gold embroidered curtains and surmounted by nodding black plumes. Behind the funeral coach, like a man walking in his sleep, came King Leopold. Bareheaded, with the sun shining on his golden hair, he insisted upon following the hoarso on foot on the twomile journey from the Church of Ste. Gudule to the castle at Laeken, where the interment took place. As the procession left the Palace for Ste. Gudule the King walked between his brother, the Count of Flanders, and Queen Astrid's father, Prince Charles of Sweden. His right arm was in a black sling; a dressing on his face covered the cuts ho received in the accident in which the Queen met her death. In his hand ho carried a white handkerchief, which he frequently raised to hii) eyes. He wore the khaki uniform of a general in the Belgian Army. It had been known that the king would walk behind the hearse on tho short journey from the Palace to Ste. Gudule. But his decision to follow it on foot all tho way to Laeken was completely unexpected. Arrangements had been made for him to be driven in one of the huge State coaches in which the rest of the Royal family travelled from Ste. Gudule. Instead he walked completely alone. There was a murmur, first of amazement, then of deep sympathy, from the onlookers as he came into sight. But the King seemed unconscious of the vast crowd which lined the streets and filled every balcony window and housetop along the route. With his eyes fixed rigidly in front of him, he walked mechanically on. Women in the crowd burst into tears as the King passed. The absolute silence which lay over Brussels as tb9 tolling of tho bells died away was momentarily broken by voices exclaiming: " Look at the poor boy. He is all alone."

Many times he was seen to be limping and once lie half-stumbled on the cobbled stones. Otherwise there was not a sound to be heard except the tramping of the cortege and the creaking of the historic Royal hearse, 20ft. high, as it lumbered over the cobbles, drawn by eight l-crsies swathed in black draperies. Tie police estimated that 1,5Cjp,000 people watched the procession. Nurses, scouts and 20,000 Belgian schoolchildren took their places at intervals along the route.