to-day. For several days
there has been a growing nervousness at headquarters. For four days
there has been no official proclamation of German victories. Persistent
rumours come in of large numbers of British troops between here and the
coast, advancing in the general direction of Brussels. X----'s arrest,
while on a trip to Alost, looks as though the Germans had some reason
for keeping people from getting out that way with knowledge of military
conditions here. Another thing. We were to have returned the call of von
der Goltz to-day at noon. Between here and the Spanish Legation yesterday,
_something_ happened. He never got to the Spanish Legation. This morning
we got a message from the Etat-Major that von der Goltz had "telegraphed"
to ask that we should postpone our call. Where he is, nobody would say.
The officer who brought the message merely stated that he had been
called away in great haste, and that it was not known when he would
return. Troops are marching through the town in every direction, and in
large numbers. Supply trains and artillery are creaking through the
place night and day, and we are awakened nearly every morning either by
the crunching of the heavy siege pieces or the singing of large bodies
of troops as they march through the streets. Every day we realise more
and more the enormous scale on which the operations are being conducted.
It seems tremendous here, and we are seeing only a small part of one
section of the field of operations.

Privately, the Germans continue to assure us that they are winning all
along the line. They say that they have taken the whole of the first
line of defences in France with the single exception of Maubeuge, where
there has been long and heavy fighting and where the result still
trembles in the balance. In addition to this they claim to have taken a
part of the second line of defences. They say that the French Government
has removed to Bordeaux, which seems quite possible, and even sensible.
They tell us all these things every time that we go over to the General
Staff, but they do not publish anything about it.

A British Red Cross doctor was in to-day and told us some items of
interest. He said that he had been assigned to care for the wounded
prisoners who were being brought back from France on their way to
Germany, and that he had seen all the British prisoners who had been
brought back by way of Brussels--about three thousand in all. He said
that they were in g