“But I need it too!” argued the lady. “What am I to do without my pots and kettles? It’s an outrage to treat Greeks as you do your enemies!” “Greeks!” roared the soldier; “what have the Greeks done for us? If they are not fighting us to-day, they will be to-morrow!” “But we are really your allies!” ventured the lady, changing her tactics; “although Greek by birth, my husband is a Turk by adoption.” “Good!” was the reply. “If you are our allies you should yield _everything_ without a murmur, and should have done so long ago. Since you have not done this, which it was your duty to do, we shall take everything you possess in copper or brass—even your ornaments!” And they did! There were few Belgian houses more thoroughly robbed of the desired metal than was the house of these _pretended_ German allies! The ever-dreaded visits from soldiers were like swords of Damocles hanging over our heads. No one dared leave his house for any length of time, for fear of returning to find it ransacked and looted, and himself perhaps under arrest because a forgotten _Times_ or other forbidden literature had been discovered. An innocent conscience did little to allay this fear, as many persons were imprisoned on the slightest excuse. Even when liberated later, they had every detail pried into of their private life, correspondence, and financial circumstances, besides being held in close confinement and intense suspense for two or three weeks, often much longer. One entire family we know, a family of high standing in Brussels, was arrested upon suspicion, not excepting the delicate mother. She was confined in a cell for seven weeks, pending investigation—which failed to find any proof of guilt on her part or that of the others. Neither they nor anyone knew why they were seized, save that the son was suspected of having received or passed on the _Libre Belgique_. After a trial that led to no definite verdict of guilt the family was liberated, but obliged to pay a fine of twenty thousand marks! Not only were suspected persons arrested, but their close friends and everyone who innocently happened to call at their homes after, or at the time of their arrest. In the offices of a business friend of ours, an employé failed to appear one morning, and a young girl typewriter was sent to his house to learn the reason of his absence. As she did not reappear, another employé was sent in quest of her, who also did not return. In the afternoon the typewriter’s mother came to inquire why her daughter had not gone home for dinner at midday; and, on being told whither the latter had gone, she hastened to the absent clerk’s house, fearing some calamity had befallen the girl. When she too failed to return, our friend’s mystification became apprehension. He appealed to the police, who informed him all had been arrested as possible accomplices of the suspected clerk, who was afterwards proven quite innocent, and liberated.