shop-managers who was most heavily fined on the occasion of our last
"Independence Day" declared that he had not lost his money: "It is
rather expensive, but it is worth it."

* * * * *

If patriotism has become a religion in Belgium, this religion has found
a priest whose authority is recognised by the last unbeliever. If every
church has become the "_Temple de la Patrie_," if the Brabançonne
resounds under the Gothic arches of every nave, Cardinal Mercier has
become the good shepherd who has taken charge of the flock during the
King's absence. The great Brotherhood, for which so many Christian souls
are yearning, in which there are no more classes, parties, and sects,
seems well nigh achieved beyond the electrified barbed wire of the
Belgian frontier. Are not all Belgians threatened with the same danger,
are they not close-knit by the same hope, the same love, the same
hatred?

When the bells rang from the towers of Brussels Cathedral on July 21st
last, when, in his red robes, Cardinal Mercier blessed the people
assembled to celebrate the day of Belgium's Independence, it seemed that
the soul of the martyred nation hovered in the Church. After the
national anthem, people lifted their eyes towards the great crucifix in
the choir, and could no longer distinguish, through their tears, the
image of the Crucified from that of their bleeding country.




III.