had
been obliged to leave the Baron with the Germans; that he was suspected
of nobody would say what, and that the Germans were going to search the
house. I went back and had them all ready for the shock of the invasion.
They were standing by for the search party, when in walked the Baron,
smiling broadly. They had sent him home under guard of two armed men,
and were to search the house in the course of a few minutes. While he
was telling about it, two officers arrived, profusely apologetic, and
asked to be shown over the Red Cross hospital, which had been installed
on the ground floor. They were taken all through the place, and found
only a lot of German soldiers carrying off the beds and other
belongings. Then they searched the Baron's private office and that of
his son, and withdrew after more excuses.

There was nothing to show for the whole performance, and nothing had
been accomplished beyond making a lot of people nervous and
apprehensive. That is the sort of thing that everybody is subject to
these days, without any hope of redress. And, of course, this was the
least serious thing that could happen.

* * * * *

_On board S.S. "Princess Juliana," off Dover, Sunday, October 19,
1914._--Here we are again, coming into England in rain and fog. Up to
the last minute, I was in great doubt as to whether we should come at
all, but everything was finally straightened out and here we are.

Friday we spent in hard work, aggravated with many conferences. In the
morning most of the German civil and military Government came to the
Legation and discussed the food question with the members of the
Committee, the Spanish Minister and ourselves. They all united in asking
that I go to London and lay the situation before the Belgian Minister,
the Spanish and American Ambassadors and, under their chaperonage,
before the British Government. When this had been agreed to, some bright
soul suggested that I be accompanied by a commission of fifteen
prominent Belgians, to add impressiveness to what I had to say. The two
Ministers rose up and said _no_, adding that as I was to do the work and
bear the responsibility in going on this mission of forlorn hope, I
should not be hampered by having to carry the weight of fifteen speech
makers. That was knocked in the head, and then to show that we were not
unreasonable, we asked that two members of the Committee go along. The
men chosen were B