light; and after he fired admittance would be made easy for those who
came searching for him to kill him.

At first these placards were signed by the burgomaster, with the
military commandant's indorsement, and sometimes by both those
functionaries; but on the second day there appeared one signed by the
commandant only; and this one, for special emphasis, was bounded by wide
borders printed in bright red. It stated, with cruel brevity, that the
burgomaster, the senator for the district and the leading magistrate had
been taken into custody as hostages for the good conduct of their
constituents; and that if a civilian made any attack against the Germans
he would forfeit his own life and endanger the lives of the three
prisoners. Thus, inch by inch, the conquerors, sensing a growing spirit
of revolt among the conquered--a spirit as yet nowise visible on the
surface--took typically German steps to hold the rebellious people of
Louvain in hobbles. It was when we reached the Y-shaped square in the
middle of things, with the splendid old Gothic town hall rising on one
side of it and the famous Church of Saint Pierre at the bottom of the
gore, that we first beheld at close hand the army of the War Lord.
Alongside the Belgian Lion we had thought it best to keep our distance
from the troops as they passed obliquely across our line of vision.
Here we might press as closely as we pleased to the column. The
magnificent precision with which the whole machinery moved was
astounding--I started to say appalling. Three streets converging into
the place were glutted with men, extending from curb to curb; and for an
outlet there was but one somewhat wider street, which twisted its course
under the gray walls of the church. Yet somehow the various lines
melted together and went thumping off out of sight like streams running
down a funnel and out at the spout.