kles were swollen and painful.

These misfortunes were, perhaps, a blessing in disguise. An enforced
rest was better than no rest at all, and the constant vigil by night
and day was telling even on the apple-cheeked Leontine.

Joos wanted to wander about the town and pick up news, but Dalroy
dissuaded him. The woman who kept the little _auberge_ was thoroughly
trustworthy, and hardly another soul in Verviers knew of their presence
in the town. News they could do without, whereas recognition might be
fatal.

Irene put in an appearance late in the day. She had borrowed a pair of
slippers, and the landlady had promised to buy her a pair of strong
boots. Sabots she would never wear again, she vowed. They might be
comfortable and watertight when one was accustomed to them, but life was
too strenuous in Belgium just then to permit of experiments in footgear.

When night fell Joos could not be kept in. It was understood that the
_Kommandantur_ had ordered all inhabitants to remain indoors after nine
o'clock, so the old man had hardly an hour at his disposal for what he
called a _petit tour_. But he was not long absent. He had encountered a
friend, a cure whose church near Aubel had been blown to atoms by German
artillery during a frontier fight on the Monday afternoon.

This gentleman, a venerable ecclesiastic, discovered Dalroy's
nationality after five minutes' chat. He had in his possession a copy of
a proclamation issued by Von Emmich. It began: "I regret very much to
find that German troops are compelled to cross the frontier of Belgium.
They are constrained to do so by sheer necessity, the neutrality of
Belgium having already been violated by French officers, who, in
disguise, have passed through Belgian territory in an automobile in
order to penetrate Germany."

The cure, whose name was Garnier, laughed sarcastically at the
childishness of the pretext put forward by the commander-in-chief of the
Army of the Meuse. "Was war waged for such a flimsy reason ever before
in the history of the world?" he said. "What fire-eaters these
'disguised' French officers must have been! Imagine the hardihood of the
braves who would 'penetrate' mighty Germany in one automobile! This
silly lie bears the date of 4th August, yet my beloved church was then
in ruins, and a large part of the village in flames!"

"Verviers seems to have escaped punishment. How do you account for it?"
inquired Dalroy.

"It seems to be a deliberate policy