s fortunate they had not had a sight of us farther
down the road, as we would certainly have been filled with lead.

He said that the Germans had tried three times that morning to get
through the lines in cars flying the white flag, in one instance at
least, with a machine-gun in the car. As a result of this, the outposts
had orders not to take any chance for the rest of the time intervening
before the attack which was expected to begin at any minute.

Far be it from me to suggest that our friends had me put up the white
flag, so as to offer proof of the Belgian savagery in firing on the
white flag.

After this little experience, we took in our white flag and made the
rest of our trip without trouble. We found outposts about every hundred
yards, and were stopped at the point of the rifle each time; but as we
got farther away from the outer lines the behaviour of the posts was
noticeably less nervous, and when we got into Malines the mere sight of
our papers was sufficient to let us freely through.

Since my last trip, the Belgians have been working steadily at their
preparations for defence, and have accomplished wonders. Their large
tracts of land, some of them forming natural routes, for entry between
the forts, have been inundated with water from the canals so as to be
quite impassable. Tremendous barbed wire entanglements form a broad
barrier all around the outer and inner fortifications; they are so thick
and so strongly braced that artillery fire would be practically useless
against them, and cutting with wire nippers would be so slow that it
could not be accomplished without a horrible loss of men.

There are any number of huge searchlights placed on the fortifications
to sweep the skies for Zeppelins. Since my last visit, one Zeppelin had
succeeded in getting over the town, but was surprised and dropped its
whole cargo of 15 bombs in a distance of a few hundred yards, taking no
lives and doing little material damage. Since then, several big craft
have appeared at night, but have always been frightened away by the
searchlights and the fire of the small vertical guns which have been
ready for them.

All the villages which cluster around the fortifications have been razed
to the ground, and the avenues of big trees have been cut down; it is a
pretty dreadful sight.

I left M. de Woeste at the Grand Hotel, where the Cabinet is staying,
and then made for the Saint Antoine. Had lunch with Sir Francis Villiers