A Woman's Experience in the Great War

ving fled, and knowing that Ostend was now reinforced by English Mari

away again so easily, I took with me

mer and a winter, the MS. of a novel-"Our Marriage,

t it was the simplest thing to do. So it was. But it aft

luggage at the Maritime Hotel, a

the day and see if it would be possibl

!" said the t

t w

la gu

mme

a guerre

e received to all one'

y your coffee was cold, or why your boots were not cleaned, or why your window was shut

ended to start, and three hours after it

ot summer day, our long, brown t

ve

days, when the Belgians were fleeing for their lives towar

Flemish children hanging to their skirts. Wherever we stopped, we found the platforms lined ten deep, and by the wildness with which these fugitives fought their way into the crowded carriages, one guessed at the pent-up terror in thos

ines appeared, we performed absolute miracles of compression in that long, brown train. We squeezed ourselves to nothing, we stood in back rows on the seats, while front rows sat on our toes, and the passage between the seats was packed so closely that one could scarcely

egan talking, an

nd mud, his yellow beard weeks old on his young face, with his poor feet in their broken boots, the original blue and red

m many times, I was quite near him. Ah, he has a bravery and magnificence about him! I saw a shell exploding just a bare yard from where he was. O

dozen voices. "King Albert is back a

flashed over the poor fell

made us

And then I came to the asparagus." He drew himself up a bit. "Savez-vous? The asparagus of Malin

en suddenly the train came to a standstill, and we we

ait!" the stati

he shops were all open. Business was being briskly done. Ladies were buying gloves and ribbons, old wide-bearded ge

people, peasants, bourgeoisie and aristocracy, were there praying and te

this," said the little priest. "Only s

e that those words hold the ke

est grande; la re

one hear a Be

mpse of Antwerp, a great city lying stretched out

had been commandeered by the Government. And near them was a field covered with monoplanes and biplanes, a magnificent array of aircraft of every kind, with the sunli

ured out of the trains were appalling. All the world seemed to be rushing into the fortified town. Soldiers were everywhere, and for the first time I saw men armed to the teeth, with bayonets drawn, looking stern and implacable, and I soon found it was a very terrible

re I got a fiacre, and

rove through it that golden day, was s

ing out of these great, white stately houses along the avenues lined with acacias. There were banners fluttering out of the shops along the Chaussée de Malines, banners floating from the beautiful cathedral, banners, banners, everywhere. Hour after hour I drove, and everywhere there were banners, golden, red and black, floating on the breeze. It seemed to me that that black struck

the Hotel Terminus to get a cup

sque uniforms, French and English business men, and a sprinkling of French and English War-Correspondents. A tall, charming grey-haired American lady with the Red Cross on her black chiffon sleeve was having tea with

man came

. "You are from Australia! I met

lians, who were destined later on to face su

tted away, "to stick it out. Whatever happens, I

to see it throu

You'll have to go as soo

I?" I t

d of Sydney, and old friends across the seas, the Blue mountains, and the Bush, and our poets and writers and painters a