of cavalry,
infantry and artillery pounded along the road toward Louvain. A little
way out we passed a company of scouts on bicycles. They are doing good
work, and have kept wonderfully fresh. In this part of the country
everybody looked tense and anxious and hurried. Nearer the front they
were more calm.

Most of the groups we passed mistook our flag for a British standard and
cheered with a good will. Once in a while somebody who recognised the
flag would give it a cheer on its own account, and we got a smile
everywhere.

All the farm houses along the road were either already abandoned or
prepared for instant flight. In some places the reaping had already
begun, only to be abandoned. In others the crop stood ripe, waiting for
the reapers that may never come. The sight of these poor peasants
fleeing like hunted beasts and their empty houses or their rotting crops
were the worst part of the day. It is a shame that those responsible for
all this misery cannot be made to pay the penalty--and they never can,
no matter what is done to them.

Louvain is the headquarters of the King and his Etat-Major. The King is
Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces operating in Belgium, and is
apparently proving to be very much of a soldier. The town is completely
occupied and troops line the streets, stopping all motors and inspecting
papers, then telling you which way you can go. We were the only civilians
on the road all day, except the Red Cross people. The big square was
completely barred off from general traffic and was surrounded with
grenadiers. We got through the town and stopped at the only cafe we could
find open, where we had a bottle of mineral water and talked over what
we should do next.

In Louvain there is an American theological seminary. We had had some
correspondence with Monseigneur de Becker, its Rector, as to what he
should do to protect the institution. At our suggestion he had
established a Red Cross Hospital and had hoisted a big American flag,
but still he was not altogether easy in his mind. I called on him and
did my level best to reassure him, on the ground that the Germans were
certainly not making war on seminaries or priests, and that if the
Germans reached Louvain, all he had to do was to stay peacefully at home
and wait for quiet to be restored. Most of his students were gone and
some of the faculty had followed them, so his chief concern was for the
library and other treasures. My arguments did n