ers
for the hay, which he pilfered from the feed racks outside after
somebody had stolen the two bundles of straw one of us had previously
purchased. Except for his charity of heart we should have lain on the
cold flagging.

The next morning was Thursday morning, and by Thursday night, at the
very latest, we counted on being back in Brussels; but we were not
destined to see Brussels again for nearly six weeks. We breakfasted
frugally on good bread and execrable coffee at a half-wrecked little
cafe where soldiers had slept; and at eleven o'clock, when we had
bestowed Bulotte, the ancient nag, and the dogcart on an accommodating
youth--giving them to him as a gracious gift, since neither he nor
anyone else would buy the outfit at any price--we repaired to the villa
to report ourselves and start on our return to the place whence we had
come so laboriously.

The commander and his staff were just leaving, and they were in a big
hurry. We knew the reason for their hurry, for since daylight the sound
of heavy firing to the south and southwest, across the border in the
neighborhood of Maubeuge, had been plainly audible. Officers in long
gray overcoats with facings of blue, green, black, yellow and four
shades of red--depending on the branches of the service to which they
belonged--were piling into automobiles and scooting away.

As we sat on a wooden bench before the prince's villa, waiting for
further instructions from our friend of the night before--meaning by
that the colonel who could not take a joke, but could make one of his
own--a tall, slender young man of about twenty-four, with a little silky
mustache and a long, vulpine nose, came striding across the square with
long steps. As nearly as we could tell, he wore a colonel's shoulder
straps; and, aside from the fact that he seemed exceedingly youthful to
be a colonel, we were astonished at the deference that was paid him by
those of higher rank, who stood about waiting for their cars. Generals,
and the like, even grizzled old generals with breasts full of
decorations, bowed and clicked before him; and when he, smiling broadly,
insisted on shaking hands with all of them, some of the group seemed
overcome with gratification.

Presently a sort of family resemblance in his face to some one whose
picture we had seen often somewhere began to impress itself on us, and
we wondered who he was; but, being rather out of the setting ourselves,
none of us cared to ask. Tw