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STILL IN ANTWERP 261
to the north through a rather sparsely cultivated tract, where
young pines were growing on both sides of the road. Scattered
paper, rags, empty bottles and other vestiges marked the
spots where the fugitives had camped. They had fared very
ill in the chilly autumn nights. Some had got separated
from their dear ones and were searching for them. They had
sped on by night as well as by day on this via dolorosa, and it
was not surprising that they lost each other in the darkness.
The Dutch mounted police patrols could not help them, they
could only maintain order. Many a woman gave birth to a
child prematurely by the roadside. Indescribable scenes were
enacted in this fleeing caravan, distracted with fear and
anxiety. But even they, perhaps, could not forbear a smile
when for instance they saw a big stout matron laboriously
dragging an easy chair on which she sat down to rest at every
fiftieth step ! And grateful, indeed, they must have felt, when
the Dutch regaled them with bread, soup, and other food 1
But now they were returning in endless procession, which
however, was far more sparse than it had been a few days ago.
They came on foot, on bicycles or guiding dog-drawn carts and
pushing wheel-barrows. Many were riding in solid vehicles
with or without springs. I had scarcely expected to see that
so many Belgian horses had got over whole-skinned to Holland.
Now they were returning to their old stables.
As one tarries by the roadside awhile to watch this proces-
sion of poor half-starved and frozen people deprived of liveli-
hood, home and country, one cannot but ask :
" Whose is the
fault ?
"
I have on various occasions witnessed scenes of Belgian
misery and distress, which nearly broke my heart. I felt glad
that there are charitable souls in the world who are collecting
means to alleviate this distress.
Jesus said to his disciples :
" Take heed that no man deceive
you. ... Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars : see
that ye be not troubled ; for all these things must come to pass,
but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom : and there shall be famine
and earthquakes in divers places. But all these are only the
beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be
afflicted, and shall kill you : and ye shall be hated of all
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