nerations to come, had been stricken, blow upon blow, by Satan, with
the loss of his children, of his goods, of his health, his enemies
approached him with provocations to discouragement; his wife urged upon
him a blasphemy and a curse. "Dost thou still continue in thy
simplicity? Curse God, and die." But the man of God was unshaken in his
confidence. "And he said to her: Thou hast spoken like one of the
foolish women: if we have received good things at the hand of God, why
should we not receive evil? _Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit; sicut
Domino placuit ita factum est. Sit nomen Domini benedictum._" And
experience proved that saintly one to be right. It pleased the Lord to
recompense, even here below, His faithful servant. "The Lord gave Job
twice as much as he had before. And for his sake God pardoned his
friends."

Better than any other man, perhaps, do I know what our unhappy country
has undergone. Nor will any Belgian, I trust, doubt of what I suffer in
my soul, as a citizen and as a Bishop, in sympathy with all this sorrow.
These last four months have seemed to me age long. By thousands have our
brave ones been mowed down. Wives, mothers are weeping for those they
shall not see again; hearths are desolate; dire poverty spreads, anguish
increases.

At Malines, at Antwerp the people of two great cities have been given
over, the one for six hours, the other for thirty-four hours, to a
continuous bombardment, to the throes of death.

I have traversed the greater part of the districts most terribly
devastated in my diocese,[4] and the ruins I beheld, and the ashes, were
more dreadful than I, prepared by the saddest of forebodings, could have
imagined.

[Footnote 4: Duffel, Lierre, Berlaer Saint Rombaut, Konings-Hoyckt,
Mortsel, Waelhem, Muysen, Wavre Sainte Caterine, Wavre Notre Dame,
Sempst, Weerde, Eppeghen, Hofstade, Elewyt, Rymenam, Boort-Meerbeek,
Wespelaer, Haecht, Werchter-Wackerzeel, Rotselaer, Tremeloo; Louvain and
its suburban environs, Blauwput, Kessel-Loo, Boven-Loo, Linden, Herent,
Thildonck, Bueken, Relst, Aerschot, Wesemael, Hersselt, Diest, Schaffen,
Molenstede, Rillaer, Gelrode.]

Other parts of my diocese, which I have not had time to visit,[5] have
in like manner been laid waste. Churches, schools, asylums, hospitals,
convents in great numbers are in ruins. Entire villages have all but
disappeared. At Werchter-Wackerzeel, for instance, out of 380 homes 130
remain. At Tremeloo two-thirds of the