At the Palais de Justice the adjutant was not to be seen; so our guide volunteered to write a note of introduction for us.  Standing in a doorway of the building, where a light burned, he opened a small flat leather pack that swung from his belt, along with the excellent map of Belgium inclosed in a leather frame which every German officer carried.  We marveled that the pack contained pencils, pens, inkpot, seals, officially stamped envelopes and note paper, and blank forms of various devices.  Verily these Germans had remembered all things and forgotten nothing.  I said that to myself mentally at the moment; nor have I had reason since to withdraw or qualify the remark.

The next morning I saw the adjutant, whose name was Renner and whose title was that of major; but first I, as spokesman, underwent a search for hidden weapons at the hands of a secret service man.  Major Renner was most courteous; also he was amused to hear the details of our taxicabbing expedition into his lines.  But of the desire which lay nearest our hearts—–­to get back to Brussels in time haply to witness its occupation by the Germans—­he would not hear.

“For your own sakes,” thus he explained it, “I dare not let you gentlemen go.  Terrible things have happened.  Last night a colonel of infantry was murdered while he was asleep; and I have just heard that fifteen of our soldiers had their throats cut, also as they slept.  From houses our troops have been fired on, and between here and Brussels there has been much of this guerrilla warfare on us.  To those who do such things and to those who protect them we show no mercy.  We shoot them on the spot and burn their houses to the ground.

“I can well understand that the Belgians resent our coming into their country.  We ourselves regret it; but it was a military necessity.  We could do nothing else.  If the Belgians put on uniforms and enroll as soldiers and fight us openly, we shall capture them if we can; we shall kill them if we must; but in all cases we shall treat them as honorable enemies, fighting under the rules of civilized warfare.

“But this shooting from ambush by civilians; this murdering of our people in the night—­that we cannot endure.  We have made a rule that if shots are fired by a civilian from a house then we shall burn that house; and we shall kill that man and all the other men in that house whom we suspect of harboring him or aiding him.

“We make no attempt to disguise our methods of reprisal.  We are willing for the world to know it; and it is not because I wish to cover up or hide any of our actions from your eyes, and from the eyes of the American people, that I am refusing you passes for your return to Brussels to-day.  But, you see, our men have been terribly excited by these crimes of the Belgian populace, and in their excitement they might make serious mistakes.