The hat in question was a purchase, a wide-brimmed felt such as is common in Flanders. Its Apache slouch, in conjunction with Jan Maertz"s oldest clothes and a week"s stubble of beard, made Dalroy quite villainous-looking. Except in the details of height and physique, it would, indeed, be difficult for any stranger to a.s.sociate this loose-limbed Belgian labourer with the well-groomed cavalry officer who entered the Friedrich Stra.s.se Station in Berlin on the night of 3rd August. That was as it should be, though the alteration was none the less displeasing to its victim. Irene adopted a huge sun-bonnet, and compromised as to boots by wearing _sabots en cuir_, or clogs.
Singularly enough, white-haired Monsieur Garnier nearly brought matters to a climax as between these two.
On the Wednesday evening, when the last forts of Liege were crumbling, Madame Joos was reported convalescent and asleep, so both girls came to the little _salon_ for a supper of stewed veal.
Naturally the war was discussed first; but the priest was learning to agree with his English friend about its main features. In sheer dismay at the black outlook before his country, he suddenly turned the talk into a more intimate channel.
"What plans have you youngsters made?" he asked. "Monsieur Joos and I can only look back through the years. The places we know and love are abodes of ghosts. The milestones are tombstones. We can surely count more friends dead than living. For you it is different. The world will go on, war or no war; but Verviers will not become your residence, I take it."
"Jan and I mean to join our respective armies as soon as Monsieur Joos and the ladies are taken care of, and that means, I suppose, safely lodged in England," said Dalroy.
"If Leontine likes to marry me first, I"m agreeable," put in Maertz promptly.
It was a nave confession, and every one laughed except Joos.
"Leontine marries neither you nor any other hulking loafer while there is one German hoof left in Belgium," vowed the little man warmly.
The priest smiled. He knew where the shoe pinched. Maertz, if no loafer, was not what is vulgarly described as "a good catch."
"I"ve lost my parish," he said jestingly, "and, being an inveterate match-maker, am on the _qui vive_ for a job. But if father says "No" we must wait till mother has a word. Now for the other pair.--What of you?"
Irene blushed scarlet, and dropped her serviette; Dalroy, though flabbergasted, happily hit on a way out.
"I"m surprised at you, monsieur!" he cried. "Look at mademoiselle, and then run your eye over me. Did ever pretty maid wed such a scarecrow?"
"I must refer that point to mademoiselle," retorted the priest. "I don"t think either of you would choose a book by the cover."
"Ah. At last I know the worst," laughed Dalroy. "Who would believe that I once posed as the Discobulus in a _tableau vivant_?"
"What"s that?" demanded Joos.
Dalroy hesitated. Neither his French nor German was equal to the translation.
"A quoit-thrower," suggested Irene.
"Quoits!" sniffed the miller. "I"ll take you on at that game any day you like for twenty francs every ringer."
It was a safe offer. Old Joos was a noted player. He gave details of his prowess. Dalroy, though modestly declining a contest, led him on, and steered the conversation clear of rocks.
Thenceforth, for a whole day, Irene"s manner stiffened perceptibly, and Dalroy was miserable. Inexperienced in the ways of the s.e.x, he little dreamed that Irene felt she had been literally thrown at his head.
But graver issues soon dispersed that small cloud. On Sat.u.r.day, 15th August, the thunder of the guns lessened and died down, being replaced by the far more distant and fitful barking of field batteries. But the rumble on the cobbles of the main road continued. What need to ask what had happened? Around Liege lay the silence of death.
Late that afternoon a woman brought a note to Dalroy. It bore no address. She merely handed it to him, and hurried off, with the furtive air of one afraid of being asked for an explanation. It ran:
"DEAR FRIEND,--Save yourself and the others. Lose not a moment.
I have seen a handbill. A big reward is offered. My advice is: go west separately. The messenger I employ is a Christian, but I doubt the faith of many. May G.o.d guard you! I shall accompany you in my thoughts and prayers.--E. G."
Dalroy found Joos instantly.
"What is our cure"s baptismal name?" he inquired.
"Edouard, monsieur."
"He has sent us marching orders. Read that!"
The miller"s wizened face blanched. He had counted on remaining in Verviers till the war was over. At that date no self-respecting Belgian could bring himself to believe that the fighting would continue into the winter. The first comparative successes of the small Belgian army, combined with the meteoric French advance into Alsace, seemed to a.s.sure speedy victory by the Allies. He swore roundly, but decided to follow the priest"s bidding in every respect save one.
"We can"t split up," he declared. "We are all named in the _laisser pa.s.ser_. You understand what dull pigs these Germans are. They"ll count heads. If one is missing, or there"s one too many, they"ll inquire about it for a week."
Sound common-sense and no small knowledge of Teuton character lurked in the old man"s comment. Monsieur Garnier, of course, had not been told why this queerly a.s.sorted group clung together, nor was he aware of the exact cause of their flight from Vise. Probably the handbill he mentioned was explicit in names and descriptions. At any rate, he must have the strongest reasons for supposing that Verviers no longer provided a safe retreat.
Jan Maertz was summoned. He made a good suggestion. The direct road to Andenne, via Liege and Huy, was impracticable, being crowded with troops and transports. Why not use the country lanes from Pepinster through Louveigne, Hamoir, and Maffe? It was a hilly country, and probably clear of soldiers. He would buy a dog-team, and thus save Madame Joos the fatigue of walking.
Dalroy agreed at once. Even though Irene still insisted on sharing his effort to cross the German lines, two routes opened from Andenne, one to Brussels and the west, the other to Dinant and the south. Moreover, he counted on the Allies occupying the Mons-Charleroi-Namur terrain, and one night"s march from Andenne, with Maertz as guide, should bring the three of them through, as the Joos family, in all likelihood, would elect to remain with their relatives.
In a word, the orderliness of Verviers had already relegated the excesses of Vise to the obscurity of an evil but half-forgotten dream.
The horrors of Louvain, of Malines, of the whole Belgian valley of the Meuse, had yet to come. An officer of the British army simply could not allow his mind to conceive the purposeful criminality of German methods.
Little did he imagine that, on the very day the fugitives set out for Andenne, Vise was completely sacked and burned by command of the German authorities. And why? Not because of any fault committed by the unfortunate inhabitants, who had suffered so much at the outbreak of hostilities. This second avalanche was let loose out of sheer spite. By this time the enemy was commencing to estimate the fearful toll which the Belgian army had taken of the Uhlans who provided the famous "cavalry screen." Over and over again the vaunted light hors.e.m.e.n of Germany were ambuscaded and cut up or captured. They proved to be extraordinarily poor fighters when in small numbers, but naturally those who got away made a fine tale of the dangers they had escaped. These constant defeats stung the pride of the headquarters staff, and "frightfulness" was prescribed as the remedy. The fact cannot be disputed. The invaders" earliest offences might be explained, if not condoned, as the deeds of men brutalised by drink, but the wholesale ravaging of communities by regiments and brigades was the outcome of a deliberate policy of reprisal. The Hun argument was convincing--to the Hun intellect. How dared these puny Belgians fight for their hearths and homes? It was their place to grovel at the feet of the conqueror. If any worn-out notions of honour and manhood and the sanct.i.ty of woman inspired them to take the field, they must be taught wisdom by being ground beneath the heel of the Prussian jack-boot.
If the dead mouths of five thousand murdered Belgians did not bear testimony against these disciplined marauders, the mere journey of the little party of men and women who set out from Verviers that Sat.u.r.day afternoon would itself dispose of any attempt to cloak the high-placed offenders.
They arranged a rendezvous at Pepinster. Dalroy went alone. He insisted that this was advisable. Maertz brought Madame Joos and Irene. Joos, having been besought to curb his tongue, convoyed Leontine. Until Pepinster was reached, they took the main road, with its river of troops. None gave them heed. Not a man addressed an uncivil word to them. The soldiers were cheery and well-behaved.
They halted that night at Louveigne, which was absolutely unscathed.
Next day they pa.s.sed through Hamoir and Maffe, and the peasants were gathering the harvest!
Huy and Andenne, a villager told them, were occupied by the Germans, but all was quiet. They pushed on, turning north-west from Maffe, and descended into the Meuse valley about six o"clock in the evening. It was ominous that the bridge was destroyed and a cl.u.s.ter of houses burning in Seilles, a town on the opposite, or left, bank of the river. But Andenne itself, a peaceful and industrious place, seemed to be undisturbed.
While pa.s.sing a farm known as Dermine they fell in with a priest and a few Belgians who were carrying a mortally wounded Prussian officer on a stretcher.
Then, to his real chagrin, Dalroy heard that the Belgian outposts had been driven south and west only that morning. One day less in Verviers, and he and the others would have been out of their present difficulties.
However, he made the best of it. Surely they could either cross the Meuse or reach Namur next day; while the fact that some local residents were attending to the injured officer would supply the fugitives with an excellent safe-conduct into Andenne, just as a similar incident had been their salvation at Argenteau.
The stretcher was taken into the villa of a well-to-do resident; and, it being still broad daylight, Joos asked to be directed to the house of Monsieur Alphonse Stauwaert. The miller was acquainted with the topography of the town, but the Stauwaert family had moved recently to a new abode.
"Barely two hundred metres, _tout droit_," he was told.
They had gone part of the way when a troop of Uhlans came at the gallop along the Namur road. The soldiers advanced in a pack, and were evidently in a hurry. Madame Joos was seated in the low-built, flat cart, drawn by two strong dogs, which had brought her from Verviers.
Maertz was leading the animals. The other four were disposed on both sides of the cart. At the moment, no other person was nearer than some thirty yards ahead. Three men were standing there in the roadway, and they moved closer to the houses on the left. Maertz, too, pulled his team on to the pavement on the same side.
The Uhlans came on. Suddenly, without the slightest provocation, their leader swerved his horse and cut down one of the men, who dropped with a shriek of mingled fear and agony.
Retribution came swiftly, because the charger slipped on some rounded cobbles, crossed its forelegs, and turned a complete somersault. The rider, a burly non-commissioned officer, pitched clean on his head, and either fractured his skull or broke his neck, perhaps achieving both laudable results, while his blood-stained sabre clattered on the stones at Dalroy"s feet. The nearest Uhlans drove their lances through the other two civilians, who were already running for their lives. In order to avoid the plunging horse and their fallen leader, the two ruffians reined on to the pavement. They swung their weapons, evidently meaning to transfix some of the six people cl.u.s.tered around the cart. The women screamed shrilly. Leontine cowered near the wall; Joos, valiant soul in an aged body, put himself in front of his wife; Maertz, hauling at the dogs, tried to convert the vehicle into a shield for Leontine; while Dalroy, conscious that Irene was close behind, picked up the _unteroffizier"s_ sword.
Much to the surprise of the trooper, who selected this tall peasant as an easy prey, he parried the lance-thrust in such wise that the blade entered the horse"s off foreleg and brought the animal down. At the same instant Maertz ducked, and dodged a wild lunge, which missed because the Uhlan was trying to avoid crashing into the cart. But the vengeful steel found another victim. By mischance it transfixed Madame Joos, while the horse"s shoulder caught Dalroy a glancing blow in the back and sent him sprawling.
Some of the troopers, seeing two of their men p.r.o.ne, were pulling up when a gruff voice cried, "_Achtung!_ We"ll clear out these swine later!"