THE YPRES TIMES
228
for his presence was also necessary in Brussels in charge of American relief work, and
he dashed to and fro through the lines in his car, petted by both sides, full of human
sympathy and understanding for either, yet preserving a correct detachment and
incidentally bringing together a collection of spiked helmets that promised to rival the
Major's own. Finally, to round off the party, a couple of newspaper men from New
York, indebted for their presence to the good offices of their Minister and kept well
pruned with atrocities. I guess we can turn every one of those yarns into dollars before
we're through," being the slightly unfeeling if munificent comment that reached my
ears.
At this stage events crowded one on the heels of the other. Atrocities were in the
air. Spectacular trips were arranged, the entire corps diplomatique, not to speak of
the two newspaper men, enjoyed a personally conducted excursion to Malines and
Termonde where, at the sight of so much wanton damage, resentment became general.
Private houses had been knocked about in a perfectly inexcusable way. A shell had
even fallen on the Archiepiscopal Palace, and ah were shocked by the state of the apart
ment in which it had exploded. Happily, as the Cardinal explained, nobody was in
the room at the time." Meanwhile things went from bad to worse around the forts.
The eventual debacle must have come sooner had not somebody had the happy thought
of cutting the dykes and inundating the country with the result that enemy troops
were everywhere marooned and drowned, and entire batteries of siege howitzers put
out of action. Upon which fresh excursions were organised to view the floods. With
Belgian friends I spent a day charging about in an auto blindeè through mud and water
for mere curiosity's sake, in the effort to obtain a close up view of the great guns lying
half submerged. These reconnaissance officers in their auto blindeès, carried on a game
of chance with death between petit déjeuner and diner that could hadly have been
more sporting, and on one occasion at least a dinner for three had been ordered that was
never eaten, all three being casualties. Baron de Braqueville dropped in occasionally,
I suspect he early realised the forlorn nature of the position. What use was it for Lord
Kitchener in London to talk about three years of war and men in millions with the
enemy siege guns battering in the forts one after another. One day a newcomer appeared
in the lounge. He asked for Sir Francis Villiers and was told by the Suisse that he would
find him in the chancery, it will be all right now," he called out, and dashed up the
staircase like an enthusiastic schoolboy. It was Winston Churchill. That evening he
dined with the Legation and it had to be hinted to the American newspaper men that
their presence was undesirable. They refused to budge however. What was Mister
Winston Churchill doing in South Africa 15 years ago being their somewhat irrevelant
retort.
Notwithstanding the arrival of the Naval Division the bombardment steadily
increased. Then one morning I left Antwerp for Bordeaux by car in company with
Phillippe de Caramen Chimay. We two had become the solitary link uniting the
Government of King Albert with the French Cabinet in hiding by the sea, every railway
being cut and the Allied airmen not yet commanding confidence as postmen. Along
with the bag of despatches we carried a bottle of petrol and a revolver to make sure
that no papers should find their way into enemy hands. The sun had just risen as our
hundred horse power Mercedes rattled over the rickety bridge of barges that swung
with the tide. On the far side lay an armoured car and in its wake we made for St.
Nicholas by pavé roads encumbered with sentry posts and barricades and droves of
cattle and sheep crowding in for the revictualing of the garrison. Hours must have
been wasted while rustic soldiers inspected our numerous permis de circuler. I remember
my travelling companion evolved a simple formula more effective than any paper,
Cochon Je suis le Prince de Chimay," although its application in face of a rifle pointed
unsteadily over the windscreen called for a considerable degree of nerve.
From the first detours had been necessary to avoid falling into enemy hands. We
arrived eventually in Ostend by way of Ghent, Ecloo and Bruges, clinging to the sea.
