Brussels
itself in the night and we were unaware when they passed under our very
windows. You can choose any story you like and get an audience with it
these days.

To-day's mouth-to-mouth news is that the French have fought a big battle
near St. Hubert and repulsed the Germans with heavy losses. This has
about as much confirmation as the reports as to the whereabouts of the
British army.

To-day trains have been coming in all day with wounded from Liege, and
the lot--Belgian and German--are being cared for by the Red Cross. The
Palace has been turned into a hospital, and the Queen has taken over
the supervision of it. Nearly every big hotel in town has turned its
dining-room into a ward, and guests are required to have their meals in
their rooms. Some of the big department stores have come up finely in
outfitting hospitals and workrooms, clearing out their stocks, and
letting profits go hang for the time being. The International Harvester
Company cleared its offices here and installed twenty-five
beds--informing the Red Cross that it would take care of the running
expenses as long as the war lasts. The hospital facilities have grown
far faster than the wounded have come in, and there is an element of
humour in the rush of eager women who go to the station and almost fight
for the wounded as they are brought off the trains.

I impressed the services of several people to help out to-day, but the
most valuable are two crack stenographers who have been turned over to
us by business firms here. By dint of labouring with them all morning
and afternoon and seeing as few people as possible, I have managed to
clean up my desk, so that I can go to bed with a clear conscience
to-night when I have got through my call to London.

* * * * *

_Brussels, August 8, 1914._--To-day our new organisation is working like
clockwork. In Cruger's formerly calm chancery there are five typewriters
pounding away, and at the committee rooms there are swarms of people
working to take care of odds and ends. Monsieur de Leval has a table at
one side of my room, and the committee relieves us of the people who
want information and those who want to talk.

* * * * *

_Sunday, August 9th._--I got this far when the roof fell in last night.
During the afternoon yesterday I got out to attend to a few odds and
ends of errands--and, as always happens