I was to traverse and that it would be a very dangerous trip.
Now, the Minister is making superhuman efforts to find some other way to
get the letters and papers through to Antwerp.

A note has just come in from Princess P. de Z----, to say that she
followed my advice, and that everything has been settled with the German
authorities to her complete satisfaction. She is now easy in her mind.

* * * * *

_September 25th._--I spent all day yesterday sitting on the edge of my
chair waiting for a decision about my leaving for Antwerp, and by dark I
was a fit candidate for an asylum. At five o'clock the Minister went
around to see von der Lancken to get the _laisser-passer_. It was then
suggested that a letter could be sent around by way of Berlin and The
Hague. It would take a week or ten days to get an answer that way. Then
we argued the matter out again from the beginning, and after a quarter
of an hour of joint debate I went over to see von der Lancken and press
for the _laisser-passer_. He was in a _conseil de guerre_, but I had him
pulled out and put it up to him. He said it was then too late to get
anything last night, but that he would attend to it to-day. I am now
sitting on the same old edge of my chair waiting for action, so that I
can get away. I think that the trip by Namur, Liege and Maestricht,
which is the route prescribed, is a lot safer than the other two trips I
have made to Antwerp, which really were risky performances. Most of this
trip will be in peaceful Holland and I do not contemplate any sort of
trouble along the way.

By way of being ready I got passes from the Dutch Legation and the
Burgomaster yesterday afternoon, and now all I have to do is take the
German _Passierschein_ in my hand and start.

Yesterday evening I dined at the M.'s. Just the two of them and their
daughter, who is married to a French officer. As is the case everywhere
else, they talk nothing but war, and are most rabid. They have a
daughter in Germany, but she does not seem to enter into their
calculations, and all their thoughts are for France and Belgium. Their
son, who is in the Belgian cavalry, has just got his corporal's stripes
for gallantry in action. The old gentleman is bursting with pride.
During the evening another old chap came in with a letter from his son,
who is in young M.'s regiment; he had some very nice things to say about
the young man's behaviour, and the