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 Saturday, the 21st, His Majesty was
believed to be on the road to rapid recovery and to be able to go
through the Coronation ceremonies.

"Sunday was uneventful. On Monday the King travelled from Windsor to
London. Next day the necessity for an operation b