The Forum . e plans of Potsdam went Elizabeth they went decidedly wrong. Try to imagineyourself in her position on that August day five years agowhen the armies of the land of her birth hammered at thegates of her adopted country, demanding admittance. See herin the palace at Brussels, making with her husband the mo-mentous decision. For the Germans had said in effect, Letus march our armies through Belgium and we will pay forany damage that may be done the country as a result. TheGerman blood of Elizabeth might have inclined her to theKaisers cause, might have tempted her to influe
The Forum . e plans of Potsdam went Elizabeth they went decidedly wrong. Try to imagineyourself in her position on that August day five years agowhen the armies of the land of her birth hammered at thegates of her adopted country, demanding admittance. See herin the palace at Brussels, making with her husband the mo-mentous decision. For the Germans had said in effect, Letus march our armies through Belgium and we will pay forany damage that may be done the country as a result. TheGerman blood of Elizabeth might have inclined her to theKaisers cause, might have tempted her to influence her hus-band to that end. Well did she know the German army andwhat combating it would mean. Well did she know that, be-fore Belgium took the field against Germany, Belgium wasdefeated. Well did she know the destruction that would cometo her new country, the terrible vengeance the Kaiser wouldwreak upon it, were she, a German duchess, to oppose with her clear courageous eyes, Elizabeth looked the. The Unshaken Throne of Belgium 281 282 THE FORUM future in the face and though what she saw must have madeher shudder, she chose the path of honor. And the Germanwrath fell. Months later, living with her husband in that little rem-nant of Belgium land but ten miles long at the sea and ex-tending inland about thirty miles where it came to a point,an area in which there was hardly an undestroyed town, anarea partly covered by the floods of the sea, Elizabeththought of her childhood in her native Bavaria, and of thoseshe had loved there, and her eyes grew very misty. In agrave, low voice, she pronounced what seemed to be a sen-tence upon Germany, land of her birth. Between them and me, she said, there has fallen acurtain of iron which will never again be lifted. Elizabeth during the war became great in the eyes of herpeople. They adored her more and more as the war wenton. When in November of 1918 she rode with Albert intoBrussels, they strewed flowers in her path. Her braver
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