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Show were opened, the Germans, after losing all their guns, had been forced to seek refuge in the trees, where he and Rene had assisted in capturing whole batches of them, sitting in strings in the branches like enormous barn-door fowls. But he and his comrades recounted other incidents too ghastly to be written here. He had seen~Nestor Maria had semiAchille had svcnithe dusky, impassive faces darkened suddenly. Hands were clenched, grey eyes blazed. We had to draw them back to less grievous topics and make Polydore describe to us once more the contemptible fire of the German infantry. We were shown exactly how the Germans fired from the hip, with no effect at all. And then Polydore waved Rene forward and made him stand in front of us, expanding his chest, while he laid his hand on the second button of René's tattered blue coat, and explained to us that when a Belgian soldier fires at the enemy he always hits him exactly there, on the chestfialu‘ays. Our Belgian soldiers did not stay many weeks with us. They thrived exceedingly, and presently their country called them. Dawkins was sent for the same day. And the last I saw of Polydore was leaning out of a third-class railway carriage window with Dawkins, waving his peaked cap to us, with the others in a little bunch behind him. We had made search- ing inquiries before they left, and found that Jan's mother was safe at Alexandra Palace, where she had arrived clutching five coffee-pots as her 4' '"filwu m ‘ entire luggage. So good-bye Polydore and Nestor Maria and Aehille and René and Jan. And may the world go well with you I By SIR VALENTINE CHIROL IT is a privilege to join in any tribute to King Albert and his people. King Albert is the only sovereign whose royal title is not a territorial one. He is styled King, not of Belgium but of the Belgians ; as if it had been preordained that though a ruthless conqueror might rob him for a time of his kingdom, none should ever rob him of his kingship. Never perhaps more proudly than to-day, when his Government has been compelled to seek refuge on the hospitable soil of France and he himself, at the head of his indomitable army, is fighting close to the French frontier for the last inch of Belgian territory, has King Albert vindicated his right to a splendid title: King of the Belgians, heroic head of an heroic people. @414. CM 64 |