shifting garrison of Brussels with little enthusiasm. Would it not
tend to prolong the War? The German advance into France was
spectacular, but it was paid for by an appalling death-roll. The
hospitals at Brussels were filled to overflowing with wounded and
dying men. The Austrians who were brought from the Italian front to
replenish the depleted battalions, quarrelled openly with the
Prussians, and in some cases had to be surrounded in a barrack
square and shot down.

The first real check to the German Army in its second march on
Paris--that which followed its crossing of the Marne near
Dormans--was prophetically greeted by the Bruxellois as the turning
of the tide. The Emperor had gone thither from the Hotel Imperial in
order to witness and follow the culminating march on Paris. But Foch
now struck with his reserves, and the head of the tortoise was
nipped off. The driving back of the Germans over the Marne coincided
with the Belgian National Fete of July 21. Not since 1914 had this
fete been openly observed. But on this day in 1918, the German
police made no protest when a huge crowd celebrated the fete day in
every church and every street. Vivien herself, smiling and laughing
as she had not done since Bertie's death, attended the service in
Sainte-Gudule and joined in singing _La Brabanconne_ in place of
_Te Deum, laudamus_. In the streets and houses of Brussels every
piano, every gramophone was enrolled to play the _Marseillaise_,
_Vers l'Avenir_, and _La Brabanconne_, the Belgian national anthem
(uninspiring words and dreary tune). From this date onwards--July
21--the German _debacle_ proceeded, with scarcely one day's
intermission, with never a German regain of lost ground.

When the Americans had retaken St. Mihiel on September 14, then did
Belgians boldly predict that their King would be back in Brussels by
Christmas. But their prophecies were outstripped by events. Already,
in the beginning of October, the accredited German Press in Belgium
was adjuring the Belgians not to be impatient, but to let them
evacuate Belgium quietly. At the end of October, Minna von
Stachelberg told Vivien that she and the other units of the German
Red Cross had received instructions to leave and hand over their
charges to the Belgian doctors and nurses. The two women took an
affectionate farewell of each other, vowing they would meet
again--somewhere--when the War was over. British wounded now began
to cease coming into Brussel