of our men who may seek to talk with you. That last is important; for I
may tell you that our secret-service people have already reported your
presence, and they naturally are anxious to make a showing.

"At the end of one day--perhaps two--we shall be able, I think, to give
you safe conduct back to Brussels. And then I hope you will be able to
speak a good word to the American public for our army."

After this fashion of speaking I heard now from the lips of Major Renner
what I subsequently heard fifty times from other army men, and likewise
from high German civilians, of the common German attitude toward
Belgium. Often these others have used almost the same words he used.
Invariably they have sought to convey the same meaning.

For those three days we stayed on unwillingly in Louvain we were not
once out of sight of German soldiers, nor by day or night out of sound
of their threshing feet and their rumbling wheels. We never looked;
this way or that but we saw their gray masses blocking up the distances.
We never entered shop or house but we found Germans already there. We
never sought to turn off the main-traveled streets into a byway but our
path was barred by a guard seeking to know our business. And always, as
we noted, for this duty those in command had chosen soldiers who knew a
smattering of French, in order that the sentries might be able to speak
with the citizens. If we passed along a sidewalk the chances were that
it would be lined thick with soldiers lying against the walls resting,
or sitting on the curbs, with their shoes off, easing their feet. If we
looked into the sky our prospects for seeing a monoplane flying about
were most excellent. If we entered a square it was bound to be jammed
with horses and packed baggage trains and supply wagons. The atmosphere
was laden with the ropy scents of the boiling stews and with the heavier