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214 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
directed on our military car and its German flag. We meet
proud women wdth heads held high and faces set, old ladies
in mourning and frowning elderly men with fists clenched in
their pockets.
The shadows of night were falling when we reached the
capital of the German Governor-General of Belgium. But
the streets were well lighted, as were the windows of shops and
restaurants. There were plenty of people about, but we saw
no vehicles which were not occupied by German officers and
men.
We drive up to the corner of rue de la Loi, where we are
stopped by a double sentry. I show my paper, they step
aside, and we drive up to the Palace of Ministers. " Where
does the Governor-General live ?
" I ask my chauffeur, and
he answers that we shall be there in a minute. He stops out-
side the Ministere des Sciences et des Arts. In the gateway
stands a strong guard. I am taken across a courtyard and
into a long corridor with German name-plates on the doors.
On one I see the name of Lieutenant Massebus, and it is him
I want to see, for he is one of the adjutants. He told me that
the Governor-General had spent the day outside the be-
leaguered city of Antwerp, but that he was certain to return
by nine, if I would renew my visit then.
I accordingly proceeded to the Palace Hotel, the 400 rooms
of which were nearly all occupied by German officers. At the
appointed time I was back in the vestibule leading to the
reception rooms of the Governor-General. Several officers
were waiting there. Amongst them I made the acquaintance
of a man whose name I had already heard, namely. Captain
Dreger, engineer at Krupps’ and joint designer of the 42-cm.
mortars. This subject was, of course, taboo, but instead,
Captain Dreger told me that he had arrived in Bombay in
October, 1908, a week after I had left that city, and that he
had literally pursued me via Colombo, Penang, Singapore,
Hongkong, and Shanghai—with hardly a week’s interval.
" Who is in there just now ?
" I asked.
" It is Frau Martha Koch, of Aleppo," an adjutant
tells me ;
" she and her husband and children have lived
there for thirty years. The Governor-General is an old friend
of the family from the time he lived in Turkey. Now she has
come to offer her services for the Red Cross."
An officer who had spent the day with the Governor-
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