These are the people whom America, England, Spain, and many generous
people in other allied and neutral countries have tried to save from
material starvation. If I could only show to my readers how they are
saving themselves from despair, from spiritual starvation, I should be
well repaid for my trouble, for, among all the wonders of this war,
which has displayed mankind as at once so much worse and so much better
than we thought, there is perhaps nothing more surprising than the way
in which the Belgian people have kept their spirits up.

One can, to a certain extent, understand the bright courage and the grim
humour of the fighting soldier; he has the excitement of battle to
sustain him through danger and suffering. But that an unarmed
population, which, having witnessed the martyrdom of many peaceful
towns, is threatened with utter destruction, which, ruined by war
contributions and requisitions, is on the brink of starvation, which,
persecuted by spies and subjected constantly to the most severe
individual and collective punishments on the slightest pretext, is
obliged to refrain from any manifestation of patriotic sentiments--that
such a population, completely cut off from its Government and from most
of its political leaders, and, moreover, poisoned every day by news
concocted by the enemy, should remain unshakable in its courage and
loyalty and should still be able to laugh at the efforts made by its
masters to bring it into submission, is truly one of the most amazing
spectacles which we have witnessed since the war broke out. General von
Bissing has declared that the Belgians are an enigma to him. No wonder.
They are an enigma to themselves. I am not going to explain the miracle.
I will only attempt to show how inexplicable, how miraculous, it is.

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