Guns & Bells

Hoofs clattered in the distance. A small cavalcade trotted down a dusty road. A startled douanier, standing in the door of his office stared up into the square faces of grey-coated horsemen riding past.

In remembrance of these grim events, bells tolled mournfully last week in every Belgian village. It was the 23rd anniversary of Aug. 4. 1914, the day when the first patrol of German Uhlans crossed the Belgian border at Gemmenich. Old Field Marshal Graf von Schlieffen's 19-year-old plan to crush France at a single blow by a wide sweep through Belgium was at last being put to the test. The Treaty of 1839 guaranteeing Belgium's territorial integrity had become a scrap of paper. A four years' holocaust had begun.

While Belgian peasants harkened one morning to the sombre ringing of bells, Londoners were being wakened by the sound of guns. From Hyde Park and the Tower of London 41 thundering discharges shook the metropolis and Londoners hardly turned a hair. They barely recalled the 23rd anniversary of Britain's going to war but they were well aware of the 37th anniversary of another event, the birth of a girl child-- her ninth--to the amiable and motherly Countess of Strathmore & Kinghorne. It was the birthday of England's new Queen Elizabeth.

Night before, the royal family boarded their private railway coaches, bound for the traditional six-weeks holiday at beautiful Scottish Balmoral Castle. At Aberdeen, kilted King George, his Scottish Queen, and their two little princesses, decked in royal Stuart tartan, received a rousing welcome from thousands of sturdy Aberdonians, drove fifty miles along the Dee River to Balmoral Castle.

On the Balmoral luncheon table lay birthday gifts for the Queen--a diamond and emerald bracelet, linked together in a design of Tudor roses and Scottish thistles, from the King, other presents from the little princesses, Queen Mary, and members of the royal family.

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