"
The Colonel flushed a little at the peremptory way in which she
spoke, but without replying went out and shouted a lot of orders in
German. His orderly summoned soldiers from the barn and together
they drove the cows into the cow-sheds. All the Flemish servants
having disappeared in a panic, the Germans had to milk the cows that
evening; and Vivie, assisted by the orderly, cooked the evening
meal in the kitchen. He was, like his Colonel, a Saxon, a
pleasant-featured, domesticated man, who explained civilly in the
Thuringian dialect--though to Vivie there could be no discrimination
between varieties of High German--that the Sachsen folk were "Eines
guetes leute" and that all would go smoothly in time.
Nevertheless the next morning when she could take stock she found
nearly all the poultry except the pigeons had disappeared; and most
of the apples, ripe and unripe, had vanished from the orchard trees.
The female servants of the farm, however, came back; and finding no
violence was offered took up their work again. Two days afterwards,
von Giesselin sent Vivie into Brussels in his motor, with his
orderly to escort her, so that she might deposit her valuables at a
bank. She found Brussels, suburbs and city alike, swarming with
grey-uniformed soldiers, most of whom looked tired and despondent.
Those who were on the march, thinking Vivie must be the wife of some
German officer of high rank, struck up a dismal chant from dry
throats with a refrain of "Gloria, Viktoria, Hoch! Deutschland,
Hoch!" At the bank the Belgian officials received her with
deference.
Pages:
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380