d friendly when I had
business with them. How they do it I don't know. A Frenchman's
politeness must be more deeply ingrained than even I had supposed.

On the way back from the Legation this evening, I saw von Below, the
German Minister, driving home from the Foreign Office to his Legation.
He passed close to me, and I saw that the perspiration was standing out
on his forehead. He held his hat in his hand and puffed at a cigarette
like a mechanical toy, blowing out jerky clouds of smoke. He looked
neither to left nor right, and failed to give me his usual ceremonious
bow. He is evidently not at ease about the situation, although he
continues to figure in the newspapers as stating that all is well, that
Germany has no intention of setting foot on Belgian soil, and that all
Belgium has to do is to keep calm. In an interview given to _Le Soir_
he sums up his reassuring remarks by saying: "Your neighbour's house may
burn but yours will be safe."

* * * * *

_August 3, 1914._--No mail in to-day. All communications seem to be
stopped for the time being at least. Mobilisation here and in France
requires all the efforts of all hands, and little workaday things like
mail and newspapers go by the board.

According to the news which was given me when I got out of bed this
morning, the German Minister last night presented to the Belgian
Government an ultimatum demanding the right to send German troops across
Belgium to attack France. He was evidently returning from this pleasant
duty when I saw him last night, for the ultimatum seems to have been
presented at seven o'clock. The King presided over a Cabinet Council
which sat all night; and when the twelve hours given by the ultimatum
had expired, at seven this morning, a flat refusal was sent to the German
Legation. Arrangements were got under way, as the Council sat, to defend
the frontiers of the country against aggression. During the night the
garrison left and the Garde Civique came on duty to police the town.

The influx of callers was greater to-day than at any time so far, and we
were fairly swamped. Miss Larner came in and worked like a Trojan, taking
passport applications and reassuring the women who wanted to be told that
the Germans would not kill them even when they got to Brussels. She is a
godsend to us.

Monsieur de Leval, the Belgian lawyer who for ten years has been the
legal counselor of the Legation, came i