THE GERMAN TAVERN-KEEPER AND THE BRABANÇONNE
Great agitation reigned on the beach at Middelkerke on August 3, 1914.
The newspapers had just published the text of the Kaiser’s ultimatum
to the Belgian Government. The indignation was at its highest pitch.
The population could not conceive that the German Emperor, who had
been entertained in Brussels a few months previously, who had been the
guest of the King of the Belgians and the Belgian nation, could stoop
so low as to insult both King and people. From the villa where we lived
we could watch the crowds congregate on the beach. From time to time
groups would leave the main body and, forming into a procession, would
march to the front of a tavern, whose owner and keeper was a German.
On the front of this tavern were three large signs advertising the
merits of a certain brew of German beer. The crowd had to give vent
to its indignation in some way, and the German signs were a tempting
target for the irate population. It took but a minute to pull down
the lower sign. The use of a ladder was required to pull down the one
above. While this rather comical performance was going on, the surging
crowd yelled and hollered, and called upon the voluntary wreckers to
pull down the topmost sign which adorned the front of the third story.
The ladder was too short. When this was realized, a delegation was sent
to the tavern-keeper to demand that he himself go up and pull down the
obtrusive sign.
At first the man demurred, but seeing the increasing excitement he
decided to obey the summons. A few seconds afterwards his rubicund face
appeared at a window near the roof of the building and, not without
difficulty, he succeeded in pulling down the sign, while the whole
beach rang with the echoes of the crowd singing and a brass band
playing Belgium’s national anthem, “La Brabançonne.”
The following morning the proud and noble reply which the King of
Belgium made to Germany’s ultimatum was published. A herald read the
royal proclamation at all corners of the streets leading to the beach,
amid the acclamations of the younger folks. Meanwhile sinister rumors
were circulating. Some were to the effect that Vise was burning; others
that Argenteau had been destroyed; that civilians had been executed;
that devastation and terror reigned in the region situated east of the
Meuse river; that the Germans, without even waiting a reply to their
provoking summons to Belgium, had invaded Belgian territory–which fact
the reader now knows to be true–according to the statement made to me
a few days previously on that Ostend train by the couple returning to
Ghent from a trip through Germany.
I particularly recall the anguish of a brave old lady, Mrs. Anciault,
who owned and was staying at a villa at Middelkerke, but who resided
in the suburbs of Liege. She had for several days been without news of
her husband and children who had remained at home at Liege.
We then resolved to leave Middelkerke and return to Antwerp and
Capellen.
[Illustration: THE DIGUE AT MIDDELKERKE
The cross denotes the Cogels Villa, now destroyed, where Dr. and Madame
Beland stayed]