When morning came, though, we discovered that the bars were down again, and that certificates signed by the American consul would be sufficient to carry us as far as the outlying suburbs at least.
Securing these precious papers, then, without delay we chartered a rickety red taxicab for the day; and piling in we told the driver to take us eastward as far as he could go before the outposts turned us back.

He took us, therefore, at a buzzing clip through the Bois, along one flank of the magnificent Forest of Soigne, with its miles of green- trunked beech trees, and by way of the royal park of Tervueren.

From the edge of the thickly settled district onward we passed barricade after barricade--some built of newly felled trees; some of street cars drawn across the road in double rows; some of street cobbles chinked with turf; and some of barbed wire--all of them, even to our inexperienced eyes, seeming but flimsy defenses to interpose against a force of any size or determination.

But the Belgians appeared to set great store by these playthings.
Behind each of them was a mixed group of soldiers--Garde Civique, gendarmes and burgher volunteers.

These latter mainly carried shotguns and wore floppy blue caps and long blue blouses, which buttoned down their backs with big horn buttons, like little girls' pinafores.