ld energy and bitter-sweet
irony. "First Liege, then Brussels, then Namur, now Antwerp. The King
has gone, the Government has gone. If all Belgium has to go, let it go.
It is the price we have to pay. The victory of our soul shall be all the
greater if our body is shattered and tortured."

Henceforth, the voice of Belgium reaches us only from time to time. Its
sound is muffled by the enemy's strangle-hold, which grows tighter and
tighter. Before the fall of Antwerp, the German administration of
General von der Goltz had merely a temporary character. We knew that
most of the high officials were stopping in Brussels on their way to
Paris. On the other hand, any skilful move of the Allies, any successful
sortie from Antwerp, might have jeopardized all the conqueror's plans
and necessitated an immediate retreat. The Yser-Ypres struggle barred
the way to Brussels as well as to Calais. The Germans knew now that they
were safe, at least for a good many months, and began systematically to
"organize the country." All communications with the uninterrupted part
of Belgium were interrupted. It became more and more difficult and
dangerous to cross the Dutch frontier without a special permit. The
economic and moral pressure increased steadily, and the conflict between
conquerors and patriots began, a conflict unrelieved by dramatic
interest or excitement from outside, which carried the country back to
the worst days of Austrian and Spanish domination.

II.

THE LOWERED FLAG.

The contrast which I have endeavoured to indicate, in the first chapter,
between the attitude of the German administration before the fall of
Antwerp and its behaviour afterwards is nowhere so well marked as in the
measures taken for the purpose of repressing all Belgian manifestations
of patriotism.

During the two first months of occupation, the Germans made at least a
show of respecting the loyal feelings of the population. In his first
proclamation, dated September 2nd, in which he announced his appointment
as General Governor of Belgium, Baron von der Goltz declared that "he
asked no one to renounce his patriotic feelings." And when, a few days
later, the Governor of Brussels, Baron von Luttwitz, issued a poster
"advising" the citizens to take their flags from their windows, he did
this in conciliatory words, giving the pretext that these manifestations
might provoke reprisals from the German troops passing through the town:
"The Military Gove