She had fled from Antwerp at the time of the bombardment, and was supporting herself by needlework at Assen, where she was the only Belgian person, and I suppose she was tired of “neutrals” and wanted to see us because we were of the Allies.  She urged us to tell her what she could do for us, and we asked her for some postal-cards, so we could tell our friends that we had escaped.  She sent them to us by her friend the interpreter, who also gave us some English books and a box of cigars.

That night a young gendarme took us upstairs to his room, which was nicely decorated with flags and pennants, and he told us the Germans could never conquer Holland, for they would cut the dykes—­as they had done before.  He showed us the picture of his fiancee, and proudly exhibited the ring she had given him.

The next day we were taken by another gendarme to Rotterdam by train, passing through Utrecht and in sight of the Zuider Zee.  Arriving there, we were taken to the alien officer, who questioned us and wrote down what we told him.  Then the gendarme took us to the British Consul, and left us there.  The Consul shook hands with us and congratulated us on our escape, and put us in charge of a Vice-Consul, who was a Hollander.

We stayed at the “Seaman’s Rest,” which was in the same building as the British Consulate.  There we met two Americans, who were very friendly and greatly interested in our escape.  They encouraged us to talk about the prison-camps, and of what we had seen in Germany, but it was not long until we became suspicious and careful in our answers.  One of them had an American passport, which seemed to let him have the freedom of the city; the other one had no passport, and complained that he could not get one, and it was causing him no end of inconvenience, for he found it impossible to get a job at his trade, which was that of “trimmer” on a vessel.  He went every day to the docks, looking for a job, and acquired considerable information about ships and their time of sailing.  At night, he and his friend were together, and the knowledge was no doubt turned over.

Mr. Neilson, Superintendent of the Sailors’ Institute, very kindly invited us to go with him to The Hague, to see the Peace Temple, and it was then that we made bold to ask for some spending money.  The Vice-Consul, the Hollander, was a thrift-fiend so far as other people were concerned, and it was only after Mr. Neilson had presented our claim, and we had used all the arguments we could think of, that we got about two dollars each.

Our clothes—­too—­had not yet been replaced with new ones, and we felt very shabby in our soiled uniforms.  We mentioned this to the Vice-Consul, and told him that we believed the Canadian Government would stand by us to the extent of a new suit of clothes.  He murmured something about the expenses being very heavy at this time.  We ventured to remind him that the money would be repaid—­Canada was still doing business!