by.

I was glad to have the spell which had been woven on me broken
by strains of music from a wayside cafe, or rather the remains of a
cafe, for the windows had been demolished and wreckage was
strewn about the door, but the piano within had survived the
ravages. Though it was sadly out of tune, the officer, seated on a
beer keg, was evoking a noise from its battered keys, and to its
accompaniment some soldiers were bawling lustily:

"Deutschland, Deutschland uber Alles!"

The only other music that echoed up along those river cliffs came
from a full-throated Saxon regiment.

Evidently the Belgians from Vise to Liege had not roused the ire of
the invaders as furiously as had the natives on the other side of
Vise. They had as a whole established more or less friendly
relations with the alien hosts.

On the other side of Vise nothing had availed to stay the wrath of
the Germans. Flags of truce made of sheets and pillow-cases and
white petticoats were hung out on poles and broom handles; but
many of these houses before which they hung had been burned to
the ground as had the others.

One Belgian had sought for his own benefit to conciliate the
Germans, and as the Kaiser's troops at the turn of the road came
upon his house, there was the Kaiser's emblem with the double-
headed eagle raised to greet them. The man had nailed it high up
in an apple tree, that they might not mistake his attitude of truckling
disloyalty to his own country, hoping so to save his home. But let it
be said to the credit of the Germans, that they had shown their
contempt for this treachery by razing this house to the ground, and
the poor fellow has lost his earthly treasures along with his soul.

I now came upon some houses that were undamaged and
showed signs of life therein. Below Argenteau there was a vine-
covered cottage before which stood a peasant woman guarding
her little domain. Her weapon was not a rifle but several buckets of
water and a pleasant smile. I ventured to ask how she used the
water. She had no time to explain, for at that very moment a
column of soldiers came slowly plodding down the dusty road. She
motioned me away as though she would free herself from whatever
stigma my presence might incur. A worried look clouded her face,
as though she were saying to herself: "I know that we have been
spared so far by all the brigands which have gone by, but perhaps
here at last is the band that has been appointed to wipe us out."