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TO BELGIUM 215
General shook his head as he said :
" It’s a wonder that we
still have him with us. Every day he exposes himself to the
most appalling risks. The other day a shell came sweeping
along a few metres over his head, but he only smiled." " Yes,"
declared another officer, " he seems to delight in danger.
He always picks out the most dangerous spots—one is almost
tempted to think that he wants to be shot. It would be a
nice ending to a brilliant career. But whilst the bullets
avoid him, they are not so kind to those in his vicinity. He
even goes as far as to walk up to the firing line, where he lies
down and jokes with the soldiers. Of course, his presence
is in the highest degree encouraging to them. One day,
accompanied by a soldier, he walked up to one of the enemy’s
trenches, and although it had been quiet for some time there
was no knowing whether it was empty. Fortunately it proved
to be so. When his Excellency returned, we reproached him
for his daring. ’
But there was no one there,’ he answered
innocently. *
No, but it might quite well have been occupied
by enemy soldiers.’ ’
True, but in that case I should probably
not have gone.’ " Just as we were standing there and talking
about him, who should come out into the vestibule but his
Excellency himself, who kindly asked me to walk in. I knew
him from the Deutsch-asiatische Gesellschaft in Berlin, where
under his chairmanship I had lectured about my last journey.
He, too, greeted me as an old friend, and wanted me to begin
with to meet Frau Koch.
The Governor-General of Belgium, Field-marshal General
Baron Colmar von der Goltz, formerly in Turkish service,
and now once more sent by the Emperor to the Sultan’s side,
is a man of seventy-one years of age, but he retains his vigour
and energy undiminished. He was now thoroughly in his
element. He is a powerfully built man, thick-set, and rather
below the medium height ; he looks out from under his
spectacles in a friendly and jovial way and seems to me more
like a professor than a general. As a matter of fact he is a
very learned man, who has published many books on military
history which are ranked very high, especially about the
Franco-German war of 1870-71, in which he took part.
When we were alone, he told me the great news of the fall
of Antwerp on the same day and of the entry of the German
troops at three o’clock in the afternoon. So it was not to be
wondered at that we had heard no sound of cannonading from
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