to go anywhere at night; and they think from this that we are afraid,
and are growing more daring.

"By day they smile at us and bow, and are as polite as dancing masters;
but at night the same men who smile at us will cheerfully cut the throat
of any German who is foolish enough to venture abroad alone.

"Besides, this town and all the towns between here and Brussels are
being secretly flooded with papers printed in French telling the people
that we have been beaten everywhere to the south, and that the Allies
are but a few miles away; and that if they will rise in numbers and
destroy the garrisons re-enforcements will arrive the next morning to
hold the district against us.

"If they do rise it will be Louvain all over again. We shall burn Liege
and kill all who are suspected of being in league against our troops.
Assuredly many innocent ones will suffer then with the guilty; but what
else can we do? We are living above a seething volcano."

Certainly, though, never did volcano seethe more quietly.

The garrison commander would not hear of our visiting any of the wrecked
Belgian fortresses on the wooded heights behind the city. As a reason
for his refusal he said that explosives in the buried magazines were
beginning to go off, making it highly dangerous for spectators to
venture near them. However, he had no objection to our going to a
certain specified point within the zone of supposed safety. With a
noncommissioned officer to guide us we climbed up a miry footpath to the
crest of a low hill; and from a distance of perhaps a hundred yards we
looked across at what was left of Fort Loncin, one of the principal