having proved to be fictitious, incredulity became general.

During the last two months the most intelligent of the prisoners have
all admitted that no one could any longer say on which side victory
would rest. If we think of the absolute confidence with which the German
people had been sustained, this avowal is of great importance.

Letters seized on a dead officer speak of the imminence of a military
and economic hemming-in of Germany. They discuss the possibility of
Germany finding herself after the war with "empty hands and pockets
turned inside out." There is no longer any question of imposing the
conqueror's law upon adversaries at his mercy, but of fighting with the
energy of despair to secure an honorable peace. An officer of the
General Staff who was made prisoner on Jan. 18 said: "Perhaps this
struggle of despair has already begun."

_There follows a chapter bearing the title, "The System of Lies," in
which the review describes the methods by which it is alleged the German
Government "made a sustained effort to create in the army an artificial
state of mind based entirely upon lies and a scientific system of
fables."_




SONNET ON THE BELGIAN EXPATRIATION.

By THOMAS HARDY.

[From King Albert's Book.]