Part 20 (2/2)
and Mrs. Seddon, Sir Gordon and Miss Sprigg, Sir Albert and Miss Hime, Sir W. Ridgeway and Sir F. Grenfell, Sir W. Sendall, and Sir W.
MacGregor, the Sultan of Perak and King Lewanika--each preceded or followed by detachments of New Zealand, Cape, Natal, Ceylon, Trinidad, Cyprus and other Colonial cavalry, in accordance with the country represented. Then was to come the Indian portion of the procession including varied detachments of Native cavalry, and with carriages containing the Maharajahs of Jaipur, Kolapore and Bikanur. Following these was to be a long line of British artillery and Aids-de-Camp to the King, representing the Volunteers, Yeomanry, Militia and Regular forces and the Marines. The Head-Quarters staff came next, then Field Marshals in the Army, Foreign naval and military attaches, deputations of Foreign officers, then Indian Aides-de-Camp to the King--the Maharajahs of Gwalior, Gooch and Idur--and several members of the Royal family on horseback. Then came thirteen carriages containing Royal visitors, special Amba.s.sadors and members of the Royal family, followed by special escorts of Colonial and Indian troops and Royal Horse Guards. The King and Queen were to come next, in a splendid state coach drawn by eight horses, with the Duke of Connaught riding on one side of them and the Prince of Wales on the other.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE RIGHT HON. SIR HENRI E. TASCHEREAU, P.C.
Chief Justice of Canada, 1902-1906]
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE HON. WILLIAM STEVENS FIELDING, D.C.L., M.P.
Finance Minister of Canada during King Edward's Reign]
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE HON. RODOLPHE LEMIEUX. K.C., M.P.
Postmaster-General and Minister of Labour in Canada during King Edward's Reign]
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF MINTO, P.C., G.C.M.G.
The King's Representative in India, 1905-10]
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF ABERDEEN, K.T., G.C.M.G.
The King's Representative in Ireland, 1905-10]
THE KING'S PRELIMINARY WORK AND ILLNESS
Some of the incidents connected with the Coronation as preliminaries were carried out by the King with apparent energy and in the midst of what were known to be very heavy labours. On May 30th His Majesty presented colours to the Irish Guards, received the Maharajah Sir Pertab Singh, held an invest.i.ture of the Garter in great state, visited Westminster Abbey to see the Coronation preparations, and gave a large dinner party. During the next three days he presented medals to the St.
John Ambulance Brigade and held a Levee and invest.i.ture of the Bath. On June 4th he gave audiences to various Ministers, proceeded with the Queen to the Derby, gave a dinner to the Jockey Club and then joined the Queen at the d.u.c.h.ess of Devons.h.i.+re's dance. On June 6th the King received the Indian Princes at Buckingham Palace and afterwards, with Queen Alexandra, held a stately Court function. Two days later the King and Royal family attended a service of thanksgiving for peace at St.
Paul's Cathedral. Other incidents followed and on June 14th His Majesty, accompanied by Queen Alexandra, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Connaught, Princess Victoria and Princess Margaret, of Connaught, visited Aldershot to inspect the forty thousand troops which had been slowly gathering there for weeks. A stormy and wet day changed to brightness as the Royal party arrived and the town was found to be prettily decorated and filled with enthusiastic people. A great Tattoo was held in the evening with ma.s.sed bands and myriad torch-lights, but with not very pleasant weather.
On the following day it was announced in the _Times_ that the King could not attend church owing to a slight attack of lumbago caused by a chill contracted the night before. Queen Alexandra attended the service, however, and in the afternoon visited several charitable inst.i.tutions.
Monday the 16th saw His Majesty still too much indisposed to take his part in reviewing the troops and this function was fulfilled by the Queen, accompanied by the Prince and Princess of Wales. In the afternoon the King and Queen returned to Windsor and in the evening His Majesty was able to be present at a dinner party in the Castle. On the following day the _Times_ expressed editorial pleasure at the King's apparent recovery but urged caution and suggested that, despite the disappointment of the people, it might be better if Ascot were not visited by him on that day and the next but a substantial rest taken instead. The same idea seemed to occur to the Royal physicians because not only was the visit to Ascot cancelled but also a long-expected visit to Eton which had been arranged for June 21st.
Other functions were postponed or cancelled and it was announced that His Majesty was resting quietly and preparing himself for the essential and heavy functions of the Coronation week. Such was the apparent position of affairs in connection with this great event as ma.s.sed myriads of people roamed the streets of London and the other and varied millions of the British Empire threw themselves into the final stages of preparation. Such was the position on June 21st when the Toronto _Globe_, in a very fitting editorial, embodied the popular feeling of Canada. It declared that on the following Thursday the historic Abbey of Westminster and the streets of London would see ”the greatest ceremonial which our times have known”; that no King ”ever ascended a throne with the more universal consent of the governed than does Edward VII.”; and that the British people had never been fickle in their feelings toward him who was once Prince of Wales and was now King. ”Their affection for him has never faltered and they will feel gratified on Thursday that the concluding ceremony of Coronation has fixed him firmly on the most glorious of earthly thrones”.
CHAPTER XXII.
The Illness of the King
If the almost fatal sickness of the Prince of Wales in 1871 was historic, from the sympathy it evoked and the influence it wielded, that of the King in June 1902 was infinitely more memorable. At the latter period the attention of the whole civilized world was focussed upon the figure of the Sovereign who was about to be crowned amid scenes of unprecedented splendour; the press of the Empire and the United States was filled with the record of his movements; the representatives of the Courts of Europe had arrived or were arriving; the Prime Ministers of a dozen countries and the Governors of many other countries of his far-flung realm were in London; dense crowds were swarming through the streets of the gaily-decorated metropolis; the approaching day was being looked forward to by many millions of people in many lands as an evidence, in its successful splendour, of the power and prosperity of the Empire. Three days before the 26th of June the King and Queen Alexandra had arrived in London from Windsor and the Coronation festivities proper had commenced. His Majesty had looked well and had smiled and bowed freely to the welcoming mult.i.tudes along the line of route. Rumors of his having caught cold had prevailed, it is true, and in certain sensational quarters there had been statements as to serious illness and even allegations of paralysis.
But the evidence of that drive through the cheering streets of London was deemed conclusive and during that afternoon and the next morning the crowds increased and the excitement grew until sober-minded observers who had seen the celebrations of the Queen's Jubilee and the Diamond Jubilee and knew something of the millions then gathered together were dismayed at the prospect of the ma.s.sed mult.i.tudes of Coronation day. It was at 12.45 P.M. on June 24th, when the streets were packed with moving, happy, holiday crowds and the decorations were nearing completion and their full effect and force becoming apparent to the on-lookers, that an official bulletin was posted at the Mansion House which seemed to reach every one in London at the same instant--so rapidly was the news spread. News that almost on the steps of the throne, within a day of the mightiest festival ever designed by human government and helped by a willing people, the King had been stricken down! It appeared incredible. The people of England and of the Empire were almost as dumb-founded as the ma.s.ses on the streets of the Metropolis. But there was no way of getting beyond the simple words of the bulletin signed by Lord Lister, Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Francis Laking, Sir Thomas Barlow and Sir Frederick Treves: ”The King is suffering from perityphlitis. His condition on Sat.u.r.day was so satisfactory that it was hoped that with care His Majesty would be able to go through the ceremony. On Monday evening a recrudescence became manifest rendering a surgical operation necessary to-day.”
The trouble approximated to the disease known in the United States and Canada as appendicitis and was of a character which made certainty as to recovery quite impossible and left the widest scope for fears and discussion and speculation. It was a.n.a.lysed by Dr. Cyrus Edson, a well-known New York physician, as follows: ”Perityphlitis is inflammation, including the formation of an abscess of the tissues around the vermiform appendix and hence it is very hard to distinguish from appendicitis. Usually an operation is necessary to ascertain whether the appendix or the surrounding tissue is diseased.” The King's physicians gave the public all the information they wisely could. The operation was performed by Sir Frederick Treves, the most eminent living surgeon in this connection, shortly after the first bulletin was issued and at six o'clock it was announced that ”His Majesty continues to make satisfactory progress and has been much relieved by the operation.” Five hours later the physicians stated that the King's condition was ”as good as could be expected after so serious an operation.” It would be some days, however, they added, before it would be possible to say he was out of danger. The doctors remained at Buckingham Palace all that night and but little news crept out from the silence surrounding the great pile of buildings to that stirring outer world which had grown so suddenly and strangely quiet.
Following the startling announcement of the King's illness came the necessary statement that the Coronation ceremony was indefinitely postponed and the further intimation that the King himself had asked that celebrations in the Provinces outside London might be continued. In London, he had specified his wish, before the operation took place, that the dinner which was to be given to half-a-million of poor people should not be postponed and His Majesty had expressed keen sorrow, not at what he had already suffered himself or was likely to suffer, but at the disappointment which his people would everywhere feel. Gradually it came out that for over a week he had been ill; that the pain had been very great at times; that the physicians had acceded to his determination to go on with the ceremonies and the Coronation until longer delay in operation would have made the result fatal; that the King's one anxiety had been not to disappoint the millions who would be in London and the millions who would look on from abroad during the long-looked for event.
The story of the illness as it developed was made known by the _Lancet_ on June 27th. It seems that on Friday June 13th His Majesty had gone through a particularly arduous day and next morning was attended by Sir Francis Laking who found him suffering from considerable abdominal discomfort. In the afternoon he felt better and went to Aldershot where the unfortunately wet and cold weather at the Tattoo caused a distinct revival of the trouble in the early morning accompanied by severe pain.
Sir F. Laking was sent for and in turn telegraphed Sir Thomas Barlow. On the 15th, the Royal patient had a chilly fit but on Monday returned to Windsor and bore the journey well. Two days later he was seen by Sir Frederick Treves who found symptoms of perityphlitis. These, however, gradually disappeared and on Sat.u.r.day, the 21st, His Majesty was believed to be on the road to rapid recovery and to be able to go through the Coronation ceremonies.
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