that were constantly marched through the town. An inscription written
over a doorway in Charleroi amused us rather: "Vive Guillaume II, roi de
l'univers." Not yet, not yet, William.

Later on the Belgians issued a wonderful little newspaper at irregular
intervals of three or four days, typewritten and passed from hand to
hand. The most amazing news was published in it, which we always firmly
believed, till it was contradicted in the next issue. I collected two or
three copies of this paper as a curiosity, but unfortunately lost them
later on, with all my papers and luggage. One or two items I remember
quite well. One gave a vivid account of how the Queen of Holland had
killed her husband because he had allowed the Germans to pass through
Maestricht; another even more circumstantial story was that England had
declared war on Holland, Holland had submitted at once, and England
imposed many stringent conditions, of which I only remember two. One
was, that all her trade with Germany should cease at once; secondly,
that none of her lighthouses should show light at night.

One of the German surgeons who used to operate at our hospital was
particularly ingenious in inventing tortures for me; I used to have to
help him in his operations, and he would recount to me with gusto how
the English had retreated from Mons, how the Germans were getting nearer
and nearer to Paris, how many English killed, wounded and prisoners
there were, and so on. One morning he began about the Fleet and said
that a great battle was going on in the North Sea, and going very badly
for the English. I had two brothers fighting in the North Sea of whom I
had no news since the war began, and I could bear it no longer, but fled
from the operating-room.

Charleroi and its neighbourhood was just one large German camp, its