Although the day had once more been as warm as midsummer the King was almost crouching in an armchair near a tiled stove. Erika made her curtsy and Gregory bowed as the curtains closed behind them. The King smiled feebly and motioned them to come forward. He looked incredibly tired and very ill. Gregory had always thought of him as a young man—almost a boy—but in spite of his slim figure and fair, curling hair he now looked well on into middle age.
Erika placed her finger on her lips and they all remained silent for a moment; then she stepped back and looked through the curtains. That's all right,' she said, without any ceremony, 'de Werbomont has gone. I thought he might be listening. Have I your permission, sir, to tell the sentry on the door that we are not to be disturbed?'
'Yes, Yonnie; yes, tell him that if you wish.'
Gregory suppressed a start at hearing the King call Erika Yonnie; he had forgotten for the moment that Leopold knew her only as the Norwegian, Yonnie Rostedal.
While Erika was absent Gregory remained silent, waiting to be addressed; but the King seemed hardly to be aware of his presence and sat staring at the floor. When Erika came back she said at once: 'May I present to Your Majesty Mr. Gregory Sallust? If you will talk to him as you have talked to me, I feel certain that you will find him a wise counsellor.'
Leopold roused himself and spoke with some dignity: 'I am sorry not to have been able to receive you, Mr. Sallust, at a happier time. I understand that Madame Rostedal has told you how I feel, but perhaps it would be better if I put my position to you myself. Please sit down, both of you, and help yourselves to cigarettes. There are drinks on the side-table, too, if you want them.'
Gregory and Erika both took cigarettes but they declined the drinks, and as they seated themselves Leopold went on: 'Four-fifths of my country, including its capital and all its principal cities, with the exception of Bruges and Ostend, are now in the hands of the enemy. For seventeen days and nights the people have been bombed, shelled and machine-gunned unmercifully. Apart from Brussels, which we saved from any serious damage by declaring it an open town, two-thirds of my cities are in ruins and a million of my people lie dead or wounded. Only a little over thirty miles to the north of us my Armies are still holding out, but the casualties they have suffered are utterly appalling and fresh German divisions are constantly being hurled against them. No one can say that Belgium has failed in her obligation to her Allies when she called them to her assistance. She has been martyred from end to end, and the resistance of her people has been an epic of heroism. They have endured beyond anything that was believed possible.
How can I ask them to endure yet further? I feel now that this murder of a whole nation cannot be allowed to go on one moment longer.'
'Sire,' said Gregory, 'the world knows what Belgium has done and honours her for it, but what will be the use of this great sacrifice your people have already made if for want of enduring to the end they are to be cast into slavery? You say that four-fifths of your country is already in the hands of the enemy but last time, when nineteen-twentieths was in the hands of the enemy, your great father still fought on.'
Leopold made an impatient gesture. 'My father—my father —everybody throws my father at my head.
We all know that he was a lionhearted saint, but I'm sick to death of being told so.'
Seeing that he had got on to the wrong tack Gregory tried another. 'Tell me, sir; which side do you think really has the best chance of emerging victorious from the present war?'
'How can one possibly say?' the King shrugged. 'At the time of Munich I would have put every cent I had on Hitler, but Chamberlain got you a year to prepare. Even last September I considered the odds to be two to one in favour of Germany. Hitler has welded the German nation into such a magnificent weapon and his Air Force was at least three times the size of those of Britain and France combined. It seemed that when he struck his blow must prove irresistible; but for some reason best known to himself he did not strike, and you gained a further eight months. Every day gained by Britain lessened the chance of a Blitzkrieg succeeding, and Hitler can't stand a long war, so by April I felt that the odds had become quite a bit in favour of the Allies. But look what the Germans have done in the last three weeks; it's fantastic, almost unbelievable, yet not really so very different from what de Man always told me they would do. The eight-months' respite Hitler gave you doesn't seem to have made the least difference. At the rate you've been going it will be years before you can put as many planes in the air as Goering, and if Hitler goes on as he has been going it looks as if he'll put the whole lot of us out of the war in another month.'
Gregory shook his head. 'I'm afraid, sir, that you're taking only the short view. When you look at the map of Europe Britain is only a very small place compared with the territory that Hitler now dominates; but if you look at the map of the world, you see a very different picture. Even the whole Continent of Europe then becomes a small place; whereas the might of Britain stretches out over six continents and the seven seas. As long as the British Navy rules the waves Hitler will never conquer Britain. It may, as you say, take us years to build up a great Air Force and a great Army, but in the meantime the blockade will be doing our work for us, and while Britain is growing in strength things will be getting worse and worse in Germany, so that when at last we are able to take the offensive Hitler's defeat will be absolutely inevitable.'
'I know, I know.' With his hands clasped round his knees Leopold rocked from side to side. 'But what is to happen in the meantime? Men, women and children are being killed by the thousand, and I can't allow it to go on.'
'You admit, though, sir, that sooner or later the Allies are bound to triumph?'
'Perhaps. Yes, I suppose so. In all but an open declaration they've got America behind them now, so if they can stick it they'll probably Wear Hitler down in the end.'
'Then, it comes to a question as to when that end is to be. Britain will certainly not make peace until the Nazis are finished, so the only way of stopping the slaughter is for all of us to concentrate our efforts on defeating them at the earliest possible moment.'
'Of course—of course. But Belgium has already done everything of which she is capable.'
'No,' said Gregory. 'There, sir, I can't agree. It still lies in your hands as to whether the war is to be brought to a victorious conclusion in one or two years or not for three or four; and think of the hundreds of thousands of deaths that will lie at your door if it is allowed to drag on for that extra year or two.'
'I don't understand you. How can what I decide make such an enormous difference? I doubt if my Armies can hold out for another two or three days.'
'But it is just those two or three days which may mean the difference of two or three years later on. You see, sir, if you order your troops to cease fire now, the British and the three northern French Armies will be outflanked from the north as well as from the south, and they may sustain a major defeat in consequence. If Britain lost, say, fifty per cent of the B.E.F. in one great military disaster the damage to our future war effort would be almost incalculable. It is upon those regular troops that we rely to stiffen arid lead our militiamen, when their training at home has been sufficiently advanced for them to be sent overseas. If thousands of our most experienced officers and N.C.O.s are killed fighting a desperate rearguard action it is going to take us three times as long to make our new Armies effective in the field.