ror and gasping with deep breaths as they ran.
One almost brushed against me as he passed, and then stopped for a
moment, and I thought he was going to shoot us. But in a minute they
went on towards the barbed-wire barricades and we made our way up the
village street. Bullets were whistling past now, and every one was
closing their shops and putting up their shutters. Several people were
taking refuge behind a manure heap, and we went to join them, but the
proprietor came out and said we must not stay there as it was dangerous
for him. He advised us to go to the hotel, so we went along the street
until we reached it, but it was not a very pleasant walk, as bullets
were flying freely and the mitrailleuse never stopped going pom-pom-pom.

We found the hotel closed when we got to it, and the people absolutely
refused to let us come in, so we stood in the road for a few minutes,
not knowing which way to go. Then a Red Cross doctor saw us, and came
and told us to get under cover at once. We explained that we desired
nothing better, but that the hotel was shut, so he very kindly took us
to a convent near by. It was a convent of French nuns who had been
expelled from France and come to settle in this little village, and when
they heard who we were they were perfectly charming to us, bringing
beautiful pears from their garden and offering to keep us for the night.
We could not do that, however, it might have brought trouble on them;
but we rested half an hour and then made up our minds to return to
Brussels. We could not go forward as the Malines road was blocked with
soldiers, and we were afraid we could not get back the way we had come,
past the barbed-wire barricades, but the nuns told us of a little lane
at the back of their convent which led to the high road to Brussels,
about fifteen miles distant. We went down this lane for about an hour,
and then came to a road where four roads met, just as the nuns had said.
I did not know which road to take, so asked a woman working outside the
farm. She spoke Flemish, of which I only know a few words, and either I
misunderstood her, or she thought we were German Sisters, for she
pointed to another lane at the left which we had not noticed, and we
thought it was another short cut to Brussels.

We had only gone a few yards down this lane when we met a German sentry
who said "Halt!" We were so accustomed to them that we did not take much
notice, and I just showed my Red Cross brassard a