Often these others have used almost the same words he used.
Invariably they have sought to convey the same meaning.
For those three days we stayed on unwillingly in Louvain we were not once out of sight of German soldiers, nor by day or night out of sound of their threshing feet and their rumbling wheels.

We never looked; this way or that but we saw their gray masses blocking up the distances.
We never entered shop or house but we found Germans already there.

We never sought to turn off the main-traveled streets into a byway but our path was barred by a guard seeking to know our business.

And always, as we noted, for this duty those in command had chosen soldiers who knew a smattering of French, in order that the sentries might be able to speak with the citizens.

If we passed along a sidewalk the chances were that it would be lined thick with soldiers lying against the walls resting, or sitting on the curbs, with their shoes off, easing their feet.