moments one feels like a mouse caught in a trap. One
would have to be more than human not to feel terror.

We all felt this at Lille, the great majority were so panic-stricken
that they made for the gates, quite oblivious of the fact that the gates
were closed and that fighting was going on there.

It is usually in these moments of supreme fear that the lurking hatred
in the soul takes full possession of it, distorting the imagination,
bringing back the most atavistic moral ideas, giving birth to falsehoods
of every description, and widening the gulf of misunderstanding which
seems to part the nations.

I have always known that hatred is the offspring of war. I am well aware
that ever since the beginning of the present crisis the newspapers and
the warmongers have been daily adding fuel to the fire of hatred for
fear that if the fire died out the war would do the same. But over
there, at Lille, I felt that hatred had fallen on the hearts of many
people like a fatal malediction with which they are to be cursed all
their life long and which they will transmit to their descendants.

These people whom fear has driven, like cattle, from their burning
houses, who have suddenly been left without a roof over their heads or
food to eat, are not likely easily to give up their hatred when this
passion of war is a thing of the past. Deep in their hearts will be
written the word "revenge" even though France does not lose a second
Alsace-Lorraine.

This same overpowering feeling of hatred I found amongst most of the
staff of the hospital where I was working, and I was able to note at
first hand the effect it had in the dealings of the nursing staff with
the German wounded.

After October 13, 1914, the Germans took control of all the hospitals at
Lille, and soon they were crowded with German wounded, while, little by
little, as soon as they were able to travel, the French and British were
evacuated and taken to Germany as prisoners of war.

At Hospital 105 the French staff were asked if they would agree to
remain under the German authorities, and most of the doctors and nurses
elected to remain at their post. The hospital was controlled by the
"Societe des femmes de France," who financed it and managed the entire
establishment. Many of these women were society ladies and, with the
exception of two or three, most incompetent. Before the German
occupation their activities had mostly been of a showy character. They
were all daint