ld she think I would
desert her ever? Haven't I taken care of her for fifteen years? But it
was fear. She has been like one out of her mind since they have been so
near Kiev. What will they do in Kiev? They say the Germans are only two
days' march away!"

All day the church-bells have been ringing for special prayers. I went
into one of the churches in the late afternoon. It was dark and filled
with people who had come to pray for help to stop the Germans. There
were soldiers and peasants and townspeople, all with their thoughts
fixed on God. I cannot tell you how solemn it was. All the people united
in thought against the common menace. Women in black, soldiers and
officers with bands of black crepe round their sleeves, square,
stolid-looking peasants, with tears running down their cheeks. They
knelt on the stone flagging, their eyes turned toward the altar with
its gold crucifix and jeweled ikons. The candle-flames only seemed to
make the dimness more obscure. And the deep voice of the priest chanting
in the darkness: all Russia seemed to be on its knees offering its faith
as a bulwark against the Germans. When I turned to leave, I came face to
face with an old woman. The tears were still wet on her cheeks, but she
was smiling.

"Kiev is a holy city," she said. "God will protect the tombs of his holy
Saints." And she brushed by, paying no more attention to me.

There are placards in all the banks, offering to give people the value
of their jewels and silverware.

Extra pontoon bridges are thrown across the Dnieper, ready for the
retreat of the Russian troops. Though there are lines of trenches and
barbed-wire entanglements before the city, no effort will be made to
defend it, as it would probably mean its destruction. I wonder what the
Germans will do when they get here? They are human beings, but I can't
help but think of Belgium, and then I am sick with fear. At other times,
it seems the one way to bring our affair with the Secret Service to a
finish. How strange it will be to have no longer a Russian army between
the Germans and Kiev. No more a wall of flesh to protect us. Poor
soldiers, without a round of ammunition, fighting with naked hands. They
will cross the Dnieper to one side of the city, crowding, fighting,
falling together. And the German cannon driving them on, and crashing
into the city, sometimes, wiping out whole streets of townspeople. And
then, the gray lines of the Germans running into Kiev. Th