the more so as since August
3rd, her neutrality has been violated, a distressing war has been
waged on her territory, and the guarantors of her neutrality have
responded loyally and without delay to her appeal.]

The town is most warlike in appearance. There is hardly a house in the
town that does not display a large Belgian flag. It looks as though it
were bedecked for a fiesta. Here and there are French and British flags,
but practically no others. Every motor in town flies a flag or flags at
the bow. We fly our own, but none the less, the sentries, who are
stationed at all the corners dividing the chief quarters of the town and
before all the Ministries and other public buildings, stop us and demand
the papers of the chauffeur and each passenger in the car. We have
passports and all sorts of other papers, but that was not enough, and we
finally had to be furnished by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs with a
special _laisser-passer_. This afternoon I slipped out for a breath of
air and was held up and told that even that was no good until I had had
it vised by the military authorities. It is said that these strict
measures are the result of the discovery of a tremendous spy system
here. According to the stories which are told, but of which we have
little confirmation, spies are being picked up all the time in the
strangest disguises.

The gossip and "inside news" that is imparted to us is screamingly
funny--some of it.

Yesterday, according to one of these yarns, four nuns arriving at the
Gare du Midi were followed for some time and finally arrested. When
searched, they proved to be young German officers who had adopted that
dress in order to conceal carrier pigeons which they were about to
deliver in Brussels. Wireless outfits are said to have been discovered
in several houses belonging to Germans. I cannot remember all the yarns
that are going about, but even if a part of them are true, it should
make interesting work for those who are looking for the spies. The
regular arrests of proven spies have been numerous enough to turn every
Belgian into an amateur spy-catcher. Yesterday afternoon Burgomaster Max
was chased for several blocks because somebody raised a cry of
"_Espion_" based on nothing more than his blond beard and chubby face. I
am just as glad not to be fat and blond these days.

Yesterday afternoon a Garde Civique came in with the announcement that
the chancellor and clerks of the German L