ffairs, got Monsieur Walcker, the Baptist
pasteur, to convey a letter to the American Consulate General.
Walcker was used to such missions as these, of which the German
Government was more or less cognizant. The Germans, among their many
contradictory features, had a great respect for religion, a great
tolerance as to its forms. They not only appreciated the difference
between Jews and Christians, Catholics and Lutherans, but between
the Church of England and the various Free Churches of Britain and
America. The many people whom they sentenced to death must all have
their appropriate religious consolation before facing the firing
party. Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists were all provided for;
there was a Church of England chaplain for the avowed Anglicans; but
what was to be done for the Free Churches and Nonconformist sects of
the Anglo-Saxons? They were not represented by any captive pastor;
so in default this much respected Monsieur Walcker, the Belgian
Baptist, was called in to minister to the Nonconformist mind in its
last agony. He therefore held a quasi-official position and was
often entrusted with missions which would have been dealt with
punitorily on the part of any one else. Consequently he was able to
deliver Vivie's communication to the American Consul-General with
some probability of its being sent on. It contained no further
appeal to American intervention than this: that the Consul-General
would try to convey to England the news of her mother's death to
such-and-such solicitors, and to Lewis Maitland Praed A.R.A. in Hans
Place.

She went to the Brussels bank a fortnight after her mother's death
whilst still availing herself of the hospitality of Madame
Trouessart: to withdraw the jewellery and plate which she had
deposited there on her mother's account. But there she found herself
confronted with the red tape of the Latin which is more formidable,
even, than that of the land of Dora at the present day. These
deposited articles were held on the order of Mrs. Warren; they could
not be given up till her will was proved and letters of
administration had been granted. So _that_ small resource in funds
was withheld, at any rate till some time after peace had been
declared. However she had a thousand pounds (in notes) between her
and penury, and the friendship of Minna von Stachelberg. She would
resume her evening lessons in English--Madame Trouessart had found
her several pupils--and she would lodge--as t