“Mme. Grouitch’s house was undisturbed; and ours.  We used to know the Austrian attache before the war.  He was rather a nice fellow.  Played tennis with us a good deal, and so on.  He came into Belgrade with his army, and he came around to our house.  The servants recognized him, because, you see, they knew him.  The servants had stayed behind.  He seemed to think he would like to make my sister’s house his quarters, but after he had thought about it a while he went away.

“She says that she would like to go back to Belgrade, but the railroad has been destroyed—­a big viaduct of stone at Ralya, about 17 kilometers from Belgrade; and they have to go from Ralya to Belgrade by carriage.  There are so many wagons of the commissariat on the road—­so many carriages have been seized by the Government—­it is impossible for private citizens to get through.

“A gibbet was put up in the square after the Austrians came into the city and a man was hanged the first morning, in spite of the fact that the Austrians had promised safety to the non-combatants.  Dr. Edward Ryan, the head of the American Red Cross in Belgrade, protested, and the gibbet was taken down.  But my sister says that eighteen more people were hanged in the fortress down by the Save—­she hears—­where they wouldn’t be seen.

“Mr. Bisserce, a Belgian, is director of the electric lighting plant in Belgrade.  He is a nice man, and, being a Belgian, he does not like the Austrians.  He wouldn’t light the town until they made him, and he wouldn’t give them a map of the system at all.  He was bound in ropes and taken away as a hostage, and they haven’t heard from him since.

“The most touching thing was the entrance of King Peter—­” whereupon Miss Losanich told the story related above.

“Rubbish, straw, and dead horses were strewn through all the streets when the King and the army came in.  The shooting was still going on.  There was a jam of commissariat wagons at the bridge—­you know there is a bridge across the Save.  The Austrians couldn’t get across fast enough, there was so much confusion—­too many wanting to get over at one time.  The Serbian artillery was shooting at them all the time.  Presently the middle of the bridge went down.  The men and the horses and the carriages and the wagons all went down together.  They were pinned down by the masses of stone, but there were so many of them that they filled up the river and stuck up above the water.  It was so bad that our people couldn’t clear it up—­so there is an awful odor all over the town.

“She says that the Austrians brought 17,000 wounded, thinking that they were going to stay for months—­and perhaps for ever.  They turned over quantities of them to Dr. Ryan at the American Red Cross Hospital.

“General Franck, the Austrian commander, made a remark—­and he must have made it to Dr. Ryan, although my sister doesn’t say so.  General Franck said:  ’If the Russians had fought the way the Serbians have, there wouldn’t be an Austrian soldier left!’