t there was no way of getting through I gladly accepted the
decree of fate.

When we got back to Antwerp I soon learned that it would be out of the
question to get back to Brussels the next day, or perhaps even the day
after that. The Belgians were advancing to an enveloping movement and
all the surrounding country was to be covered with Belgian troops in an
endeavour to deal a smashing blow to the Germans and compel them to
bring back more troops from the front in France. Colonel Fairholme asked
me to accompany him to the front next morning, and I accepted with an
alacrity which startled him.

After dinner I made another excursion into the darkness and told
Monsieur de Woeste that there was no prospect of getting back to
Brussels the next day. His colleagues, who were there also, impressed
upon him the futility of going, and he finally resigned himself to
staying, although he kept insisting that he infinitely preferred danger
to boredom, which was his lot so long, as he had nothing to do but sit
around the hotel.

Friday morning while I was waiting for the Colonel to get ready and was
doing my little errands down town, there came a great roaring of a
crowd, and the chauffeur, knowing my curiosity, put on steam and spurted
down to the boulevards just in time to run into a batch of three hundred
German prisoners being brought in. They were a dejected-looking crowd,
most of them Landsturm, haggard and sullen. The crowd, mindful of the
things the Germans have been doing to this little country, were in no
friendly mood, but did nothing violent. There was only a small guard of
Belgian Garde Civique to escort the prisoners, but there were no
brickbats or vegetables. The people limited themselves to hoots and
catcalls and hisses--which were pretty thick. And even this was frowned
upon by the authorities. Within a couple of hours the Military Governor
had posted a proclamation begging the people of Antwerp to maintain a
more dignified attitude and to refrain from any hostile demonstration
against other prisoners. This batch was surrounded, and caught at
Aerschot, where the Germans are said to have committed all sorts of
atrocities for the past three weeks. Among the prisoners was the
commanding officer, who was accused of being responsible for a lot of
the outrages. He was examined by the military court, which sits for the
purpose, and admitted having done most of the things of which he was
accused, pleading in his own defen