t of the clean sheets!) and fed and
their dressings done, and so on, and they were so excited that it took a
long time before they could settle down for the night. But it was a very
short reprieve, for the next day they had to go off again and there was
no coming back this time.

I often think of those poor lads in Germany and wonder what has become
of them, and if those far-off mothers all think their sons are dead. If
so, what a joyful surprise some of them will have some day--after the
war.

IV

THE RETURN TO BRUSSELS

This seemed a favourable moment for me to go to Brussels for a day or
two to visit my flock. The Committee gave me leave to go, but begged me
to be back in two days, which I promised to do. A _laissez-passer_ had
been obtained from the German commandant for a Red Cross automobile to
go into Brussels to fetch some supplies of dressings and bandages of
which all the hospitals in the neighbourhood were woefully short. And I
was also graciously accorded a ticket of leave by the same august
authority to go for two days, which might be extended to three according
to the length of stay of the automobile.

The night before I left, an aeroplane which had been flying very high
above the town dropped some papers. The doctor with whom I was lodging
secured one and brought it back triumphantly. It contained a message
from the Burgomaster of Antwerp to his fellow-citizens, and ended thus:
"Courage, fellow-citizens, in a fortnight our country will be delivered
from the enemy."

We were all absurdly cheered by this message, and felt that it was only
a matter of a short time now before the Germans were driven out of
Belgium. We had had no news for so long that we thought probably the
Antwerp Burgomaster had information of which we knew nothing, and I was
looking forward to hearing some good news when I got to Brussels.

I found Brussels very much changed since I had left it some weeks
before. Then it was in a fever of excitement, now it was in the chill of
dark despair. German rule was firmly established, and was growing daily
more harsh and humiliating for its citizens. Everything was done to
Germanize the city, military automobiles were always dashing through,
their hooters playing the notes of the Emperor's salute, Belgian
automobiles that had been requisitioned whirred up and down the streets
filled with German officers' wives and children, German time was kept,
German money was current coin, and e