one night's march from Andenne, with Maertz as guide, should bring the
three of them through, as the Joos family, in all likelihood, would
elect to remain with their relatives.

In a word, the orderliness of Verviers had already relegated the
excesses of Vise to the obscurity of an evil but half-forgotten dream.
The horrors of Louvain, of Malines, of the whole Belgian valley of the
Meuse, had yet to come. An officer of the British army simply could not
allow his mind to conceive the purposeful criminality of German methods.
Little did he imagine that, on the very day the fugitives set out for
Andenne, Vise was completely sacked and burned by command of the German
authorities. And why? Not because of any fault committed by the
unfortunate inhabitants, who had suffered so much at the outbreak of
hostilities. This second avalanche was let loose out of sheer spite. By
this time the enemy was commencing to estimate the fearful toll which
the Belgian army had taken of the Uhlans who provided the famous
"cavalry screen." Over and over again the vaunted light horsemen of
Germany were ambuscaded and cut up or captured. They proved to be
extraordinarily poor fighters when in small numbers, but naturally those
who got away made a fine tale of the dangers they had escaped. These
constant defeats stung the pride of the headquarters staff, and
"frightfulness" was prescribed as the remedy. The fact cannot be
disputed. The invaders' earliest offences might be explained, if not
condoned, as the deeds of men brutalised by drink, but the wholesale
ravaging of communities by regiments and brigades was the outcome of a
deliberate policy of reprisal. The Hun argument was convincing--to the
Hun intellect. How dared these puny Belgians fight for their hearths and
homes? It was their place to grovel at the feet of the conqueror. If any
worn-out notions of honour and manhood and the sanctity of woman
inspired them to take the field, they must be taught wisdom by being
ground beneath the heel of the Prussian jack-boot.

If the dead mouths of five thousand murdered Belgians did not bear
testimony against these disciplined marauders, the mere journey of the
little party of men and women who set out from Verviers that Saturday
afternoon would itself dispose of any attempt to cloak the high-placed
offenders.

They arranged a rendezvous at Pepinster. Dalroy went alone. He insisted
that this was advisable. Maertz brought Madame Joos and Irene. Joos,