ntier. And the echo of
their song still haunts the sleep of every honest man.

* * * * *

For whatever Germany may do or say, the time is no longer when such
crimes can be left unpunished. Notwithstanding the war and the
triumphant power of the mailed fist, there still exists such a thing as
public conscience and public opinion. Nothing can happen, in any part of
the world, without awakening an echo in the hearts of men who apparently
are not at all concerned in the matter. The Germans are too clever not
to understand this, and the endless trouble which they take in order to
monopolise the news in neutral countries and to encounter every
accusation with some more or less insidious excuse is the best proof of
this. When one of them declared that Raemaekers' cartoons had done more
harm to Germany than an army corps, he knew perfectly well what he was
talking about. Only they rely so blindly on their own intellectual power
and they have such a poor opinion of the brains of other people that
they believe in first doing whatever suits their plans and then justify
their action afterwards. They divide the work between themselves: The
soldier acts, the lawyer and the professor undertakes to explain what he
has done. However black the first may become, there is plenty of
whitewash ready to restore his innocence.

If the unexpected resistance of Belgium has infuriated the Germans to
such an extent, it is not only because it wrecked their surprise attack
on France, it is also because, even after the retreat of the army, they
have been confronted by a series of men courageous enough and clever
enough to stand their ground and to come between them and the uneducated
mass of the population.

Since, for the sake of propaganda, they wanted to make a show of
respecting international law, they were taken at their word; so that
they were obliged either to give way or to put themselves openly in the
wrong. When they tried to break their promise to the municipality of
Brussels and to annihilate the liberties of the old Belgian communes,
Mr. Max stood in their way, calm and smiling, with no other weapon than
the law which they pretended to respect. Mr. Max was sent to a German
fortress, but Germany had torn up another scrap of paper--and the
civilised world knew it. When they wanted to establish extraordinary
tribunals for matters which belonged only to local tribunals, Mr.
Theodor and all the bar