It was as though a wand had waved and from a fete-day on the Continent we had been wafted to London on a rainy Sunday.

The boulevards fell suddenly empty.
There was not a house that was not closely shuttered.

Along the route by which we now knew the Germans were advancing, it was as though the plague stalked.

That no one should fire from a window, that to the conquerors no one should offer insult, Burgomaster Max sent out as special constables men he trusted.

Their badge of authority was a walking-stick and a piece of paper fluttering from a buttonhole.