The farmer's story was that in the night
the lieutenant had appeared in his room with a revolver and had
threatened to shoot him unless he produced a suit of civilian
clothes. Thus coerced he had given him his eldest son's Sunday
clothes left behind when the said son went off to join the Belgian
army. The lieutenant, grateful for the assistance, had given him as
a present his watch and chain.
On the other hand the German non-commissioned officers insisted
their lieutenant had been made away with in the night. The farmer's
allegation that he had deserted (as in fact he had) only enhanced
his crime. The finding of the court after a very summary trial was
"guilty," and despite the frantic appeals of the wife, reinforced
later on by Mrs. Warren, the farmer had been taken out and shot.
The evening meal consequently was one of strained relations. Colonel
von Giesselin came to supper punctually and was very spruce in
appearance. But he was gravely polite and uncommunicative. And after
dessert the two ladies asked permission to retire. They lay long
awake afterwards, debating in whispers what terror might be in store
for them. Mrs. Warren cried a good deal and lamented futilely her
indolent languor of a few days previously. _Why_ had she not, while
there was yet time, cleared out of Brussels, gone to Holland, and
thence regained England with Vivie, and from England the south of
France? Vivie, more stoical, pointed out it was no use crying over
lost opportunities.
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