ed and the
carillon turned off for the first time in heaven only knows how many
years. It was a city of the dead. Guns were posted in the streets ready
for instant use in case the airship should put in another appearance. As
a result of this and the searchlights that played upon the sky all
night, our friend the enemy did not appear. Some people know when they
have had enough.

Yesterday morning I looked out of my window at the Cathedral clock, and
saw that it was twenty-five minutes to ten. I tumbled through my tub,
and rushed downstairs to get through my morning's work, only to find
that it was half-past six. I had forgotten that the Cathedral clock had
been stopped.

It was just as well that I was up early, however, for there was plenty
to be done. I found a lot of telegrams waiting for me at the Consulate,
and had to get off another string of them. Then an orderly held me up on
the street to tell me that the King's Secretary was hunting for me all
over the place, and that I was wanted at the Palace. When I got there,
he had started off on another hunt for me. He finally got me at the
hotel, and kept me for half an hour.

By the time that I got through with him, there was word that the
Minister of Foreign Affairs wanted to see me, so I made a bee-line over
there. Then there was another call to the Consulate to answer some more
telegrams. After attending to various matters at the Palace, the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Consulate General, and seeing a few
more people at the hotel, the morning was gone and it was time for lunch
and a quick get-away.

All hands came out and bade us farewell. You would have thought we were
on our way to Heaven, except for the fact that they urged us to come
back.

As we could hear the cannonading, we decided that we would avoid the
Malines road and would try to skirt around the zone of trouble and work
our way into Brussels from the west. We got ferried across the Scheldt
on a terrible tub of a steamer that looked as though she would go down
under the weight of the military automobiles that she had to get across
in order to take ammunition to the front. We all got away in a bunch
from the other side, but we drew ahead of them as we had not such a
heavy load; and within three-quarters of an hour we were outside the
Belgian lines. Van der Elst had secured for us a most imposing
_laisser-passer_, which took us through with practically no trouble
except that it was so impressive