German spy had come up and asked him in
French if he had a paper, and the boy was probably new at the game and
fell into the trap.

About this time the Germans were particularly busy in Brussels. A great
many new troops were brought in, amongst them several Austrian regiments
and a great many naval officers and men. It was quite plain that some
big undertaking was planned. Then one day we saw the famous heavy guns
going out of the city along the Antwerp road. I had heard them last at
Maubeuge, now I was to hear them again. Night and day reinforcements of
soldiers poured into Brussels at the Gare du Nord, and poured out at the
Antwerp Gate. No one whatever was permitted to pass to leave the city,
the trams were all stopped at the barriers, and aeroplanes were
constantly hovering above the city like huge birds of prey.

On Sunday, September 27, we woke to hear cannon booming and the house
shaking with each concussion. The Germans had begun bombarding the forts
which lay between Brussels and Antwerp. Looking from the heights of
Brussels with a good glass, one could see shells bursting near Waelheim
and Wavre St. Catherine. The Belgians were absolutely convinced that
Antwerp was impregnable, and as we had heard that large masses of
English troops had been landed there, we hoped very much that this would
be the turning-point of the war, and that the Germans might be driven
back out of the country.

On Wednesday, September 30, the sounds of cannon grew more distant, and
we heard that Wavre St. Catherine had been taken. The Belgians were
still confident, but it seems certain that the Germans were convinced
that nothing could withstand their big guns, for they made every
preparation to settle down in Brussels for the winter. They announced
that from October 1 Brussels would be considered as part of German
territory, and that they intended to re-establish the local postal
service from that date. They reckoned without their host there, for the
Brussels postmen refused to a man to take service under them, so the
arrangement collapsed. They did re-establish postal communication
between Brussels and Germany, and issued a special set of four stamps.
They were the ordinary German stamps of 3, 5, 10 and 20 pfennig, and
were surcharged in black "Belgien 3, 5, 10 and 20 centimes."

About this time, too, they took M. Max, the Burgomaster, off to Liege as
prisoner, on the pretext that Brussels had not yet paid the enormous
indemnity de