ve of the Prisidint!" The nuns gave us a table in the park
and two big benches, and we got out our bread and cheese and chocolate
and a few other things that Colonel DuCane had found somewhere, and had
a most comfortable meal with a towering pitcher of beer brought out from
the convent, to give us valour for the afternoon's work.

After lunch we went back through Malines again, through the railroad
yards, bumping over the tracks, and away toward Muysen and Rymenam to
see the other batteries. I was struck in going through the railway
yards, which I had always seen teeming with activity and movement, to
see that all the rails are covered deep with rust--probably for the
first time. Think of it!

After leaving Muysen, our road lay for a mile or so along a canal with
open fields on either side. Uhlan patrols had been reported in this part
of the country, which was in a weak spot in the Belgian lines, and the
Colonel told the staff officer to keep a sharp lookout and be ready with
his revolver and prepared for a burst of speed. That military genius
replied with an air of assurance: "Oh, that's all right. They cannot
cross the canal." The Colonel confined himself to saying mildly: "No,
but bullets can!" Little Napoleon said nothing more, but I noticed that
he unstrapped his revolver without loss of time.

We were bowling along the road, looking for the battery, when there was
the most enormous noise which tore the earth asunder and the universe
trembled. I looked around to the left, and there not more than a hundred
feet away were those three husky French guns which had just gone off
right over our heads! We had found them all right, but I should prefer
to find them in some other way next time.

We spent a little time looking at them, and Ferguson had them get out
some of the explosive and show it to me. It comes in long strips that
look for all the world like chewing gum--the strips about the same
proportions, only longer. I fail to see, however, how they can be made
to blow up.

After a bit we got back into the cars, and started out to cruise around
to the Belgian left wing and watch, a little of the infantry fighting at
close quarters. We very soon began running into stragglers who informed
us that the ----th Division was being driven back, and that a retreat
was in progress. Soon we came upon supply trains and ammunition wagons
making for the rear, to be out of the way of the troops when they began
to move. We were n