e people to
leave in safety.

About four o'clock, McCutcheon, Irwin and Cobb breezed in, looking like
a lot of tramps. Several days ago they had sailed blissfully away to
Louvain in a taxi, which they had picked up in front of the hotel. When
they got there, they got out and started to walk about to see what was
going on, when, before they could realise what was happening, they found
themselves in the midst of a Belgian retreat, hard-pressed by a German
advance. They were caught between the two, and escaped with their lives
by flattening themselves up against the side of a house while the firing
continued. When the row was over, they were left high and dry with no
taxi--of course it had been seized by the retreating troops--and with no
papers to justify their presence in Louvain at such a time. They decided
that the best thing to do was to go straight to the German headquarters
and report. They were received well enough, and told to lodge themselves
as best they could and stay indoors until it was decided what was to be
done with them. They were told that they might be kept prisoners here,
or even sent to Berlin, but that no harm would come to them if they
behaved themselves. The order had gone out that if a single shot was
fired at the German troops, from the window of any house, everybody in
the house was to be immediately taken out and shot. Not wishing to risk
any such unpleasant end, they rented all the front rooms of a house and
spread themselves through all the rooms, so that they could be sure that
nobody did any slaughtering from their house. They were there for three
days, and were told to-day that they might take themselves hence. They
came back to Brussels in the same clothes that they had worn for the
past three days, unshaven and dirty. When they drove up to the front
door this afternoon, they were nearly refused admittance as being too
altogether disreputable.

This evening, when I went to see my old friend the General, just before
dinner, he told me that he had had news of a great battle near Metz, in
which the French army had been cut off and practically destroyed, with a
loss of 45,000 prisoners. It sounds about as probable as some of the
other yarns. In view of the fact that my friend had no telegraphic
communication, I was curious to know where he got his information, but
my gentle queries did not bring forth any news on that point.

The Germans now expect to establish themselves for some time here