thus menaced, and at the first attempt to destroy either the railway line or telephone or telegraph, the hostages will be immediately shot.  Further, all the troops charged with the duty of guarding the railway have been ordered to shoot any person with a suspicious manner who approaches the line or telegraph or telephone wires.

     VON DER GOLST.

And Von der Golst was recalled from Brussels later on because he was too lenient!

There is no reparation the Germans can ever make for iniquities of this kind—­and they cannot deny these things as they have others, for they stand condemned out of their own mouths.  Their own proclamations are quite enough evidence to judge them on.

One cannot help wondering what the German standard of right and wrong really is, because their private acts as well as their public ones have been so unworthy of a great nation.  Some Belgian acquaintances of mine who had a large chateau in the country told me that such stealing among officers as took place was unheard of in any war before between civilized countries.  The men had little opportunity of doing so, but the officers sent whole wagon-loads of things back to Germany with their name on.  My friends said naturally they expected them to take food and wine and even a change of clothing, but in their own home the German officers quartered there had taken the very carpets off the floor and the chandeliers from the ceiling, and old carved cupboards that had been in the family for generations, and sent them back to Germany.  They all begged me to make these facts public when I got back to England.  Writing letters was useless as they never got through.  Other Belgian friends told me of the theft of silver, jewellery, and even women’s undergarments.

It was not etiquette in Brussels to watch the Germans, and particularly the officers.  One could not speak about them in public, spies were everywhere, and one would be arrested at once at the first indiscreet word—­but no one could be forced to look at them—­and the habit was to ignore them altogether, to avert one’s head, or shut one’s eyes, or in extreme cases to turn one’s back on them, and this hurt their feelings more than anything else could do.  They could not believe apparently that Belgian women did not enjoy the sight of a beautiful officer in full dress—­as much as German women would do.

All English papers were very strictly forbidden, but a few got in nevertheless by runners from Ostend.  At the beginning of the German occupation the Times could be obtained for a franc.  Later it rose to 3 francs then 5, then 9, then 15 francs.  Then with a sudden leap it reached 23 francs on one day.  That was the high-water mark, for it came down after that.  The Times was too expensive for the likes of me.  I used to content myself with the Flandres Liberale, a half-penny paper published then in Ghent and sold in Brussels for a franc or more according to the difficulty in getting it in.  These papers used to be wrapped up very tight and small and smuggled into Brussels in a basket of fruit or a cart full of dirty washing.  They could not of course be bought in the shops, and the Germans kept a very keen look-out for them.  We used to get them nevertheless almost every day in spite of them.