manded of it. He held the people in the hollow of his hand,
and the Brussels authorities very much feared a rising when he was taken
off. But the Echevins, or College of Sheriffs, rose to the occasion,
divided his work between them, and formed a local police composed of
some of the most notable citizens of the town. They were on duty all day
and night and divided the work into four-hour shifts, and did splendid
work in warning the people against disorderly acts and preventing
disturbances. It is not difficult to guess what would have happened if
these patriotic citizens had not acted in this way--there would most
certainly have been a rising among the people, and the German reprisals
would have been terrible. As it was a German soldier who was swaggering
alone down the Rue Basse was torn in pieces by the angry crowd, but for
some reason this outbreak was hushed up by the German authorities.

V

A MEMORABLE JOURNEY

The authorities seemed to be far too busy to trouble themselves about
our affairs, and we could get no news as to what was going to happen to
us. There was a good deal of typhoid fever in Brussels, and I thought I
would employ this waiting time in getting inoculated against it, as I
had not had time to do so before leaving England.

This operation was performed every Saturday by a doctor at the Hopital
St. Pierre, so on Saturday, October 3, I repaired there to take my turn
with the others. The prick was nothing, and it never occurred to me that
I should take badly, having had, I believe, typhoid when a child. But I
soon began to feel waves of hot and cold, then a violent headache came
on, and I was forced to go to bed with a very painful arm and a high
temperature. I tossed about all night, and the next morning I was worse
rather than better. At midday I received a message that every English
Sister and doctor in Brussels was to leave for England the next day, via
Holland, in a special train that had been chartered by some Americans
and accompanied by the American Consul. How I rejoiced at my fever, for
now I had a legitimate excuse for staying behind, for except at the
point of the sword I did not mean to leave Belgium while I still had
nurses there who might be in danger. The heads of all the various
parties were requested to let their nurses know that they must be at the
station the next day at 2 P. M. Several of my nurses were
lodging in the house I was in, and I sent a message to them and to al