d as we were yesterday. The General
promised the Minister that there would be no difficulty in sending his
telegrams, either clear or in cipher, but when we came to sending them
off, it was quite another story.

The first thing this morning I made an attempt to hand them in, but
found all the telegraph offices closed. At ten o'clock I went down to
the Hotel de Ville to see the General, who has taken over the duties of
Military Governor, and see what was the matter. He was away somewhere
and so was the Burgomaster, so I contented myself with seeing one of the
Echevins, whom I had met a number of times. He could not do anything
about it on his own responsibility, but made a careful memorandum and
said that he would take it up with the General, through the Mayor, when
they both got back. I also asked for _laisser-passers_ for everybody in
the shop, and he promised to attend to that.

By lunch time we had received no answer from General von Jarotzky, so I
got in the motor with my pocket full of telegrams and went down to the
Hotel de Ville once more. It is a depressing sight. The Grande Place,
which is usually filled with flower venders and a mass of people coming
and going, is almost empty. At the lower end there are parked a number
of small guns; in the centre, some camp kitchens, with smoke rising from
the chimneys. The courtyard of the Hotel de Ville itself, where so many
sovereigns have been received in state, was filled with saddle-horses
and snorting motors. The discarded uniforms of the Garde Civique were
piled high along one side, as if for a rummage sale. Beer bottles were
everywhere. In the beautiful Gothic room, hung with the battle flags of
several centuries, there are a hundred beds--a dormitory for the
officers who are not quartered at the neighbouring hotels.

The marvelous order and system which so compelled our admiration
yesterday were not in evidence. There were a lot of sentries at the door
and they took care to jab a bayonet into you and tell you that you could
not enter; but any sort of reply seemed to satisfy them, and you were
allowed to go right up to the landing, where the General had established
himself in state at a couple of huge tables. Here confusion reigned
supreme. There were staff officers in abundance, but none of them seemed
to have the slightest authority, and the old man had them all so
completely cowed that they did not dare express an opinion or ask for a
decision. The General hims