*

_Brussels, November 14, 1914._--On the morning of the 10th, I came down
to the Legation and found things in an uproar. A telegram had been
received saying that two trainloads of food, the first shipment for the
Province of Liege, would cross the frontier in the course of the
afternoon, under convoy of Captain Sunderland, our Military Attache at
The Hague. The Minister and I are the only people authorized to receive
shipments; and, as no power of attorney had been sent to the Consul at
Liege, things were in a nice mess; and, at the request of the German
authorities and the Committee, it was decided that I should go down,
receive the stuff and make arrangements for its protection and for the
reception of future shipments. The German authorities were so excited
about my being there to head off any trouble that they hustled me off on
an hour's notice without any lunch. I contrived to get Jack's name put
on the _laisser-passer_, so that he could go along and see a little
something of the country. Joseph, the Legation butler, was wild to go
along as far as his native village to see his aged ma, whom he had not
seen since the beginning of the war, and he rode on the front seat with
Max who was much delighted to get under way again.

Jack was thrilled with the trip, and nearly fell out of the car going
through Louvain and the other ruined villages along the way. As we were
in such a rush, I could not stop to show him very much; but in most of
these places no guide is needed. Louvain has been cleared up to a
remarkable extent, and the streets between the ruined houses are neat
and clean. On my other trips I had had to go around by way of Namur, but
this time we went direct; and I got my first glimpse of Tirlemont and
St. Trond, etc.

When we reached Liege we went straight to the Consulate without pausing
to set ourselves up at a hotel, but found that nothing was known of
Captain Sunderland or his food trains. Thence to the German headquarters
where we inquired at all the offices in turn and found that the
gentleman had not been heard from. By the time we got through our
inquiries it was dark; and, as we had no _laisser-passer_ to be out
after dark, we had to scuttle back to the hotel and stay.

In the morning the Consul and I started off again to see what had become
of our man. We went through all the offices again, and as we were about
to give up, I found Renner, who used to be Military Attache of the
German Legatio