_June 27th._
I went to Baroness von Bissing's to tea. Oh, welcome was the hour and
her comfortable chair! She is small, with finely chiselled features;
her movements are quick, like those of a highly bred animal, and she is
rather excitable.
We sat down to tea and cherry tarts and I asked her when she was next
going to Belgium. She can, of course, go whenever she likes, but is
never there officially, as no German officer may take his wife to
Belgium. The General, being so strict a gentleman, will not break the
rule even for himself, and so Baroness von Bissing and her children
must live alone in Germany, and he with his 150 aides-de-camp in his
palace in Brussels.
"It is very hard to be without my husband and my eldest son," she said.
"Where is your boy?" I asked.
"He was taken prisoner by the French, wounded in six places. When he
got well, they took him to prison and put him in solitary confinement
in a little tiny cell with no work to do and no one with whom he can
speak. He may not even look out of the cell window, for they painted it
white. Twice a day he is taken for a walk by his guards--and this all
because the French thought we did not treat Delcassé's son properly.
Now, because they took my boy, and another, we have put six of their
men in solitary confinement. We will see where these reprisals will
bring us; I am sorry they must be, but we have more captured men than
they."
"Why did they put Delcassé's son in prison in the first place?" I asked.
"Because he was an impertinent boy and called his officers 'dirty dogs
of Prussians,'" she answered....
"Serbia and Montenegro are full of people that need to be punished,
but Italy--Italy!"--said Frau von Bissing, with her pretty nose in the
air--"is a nasty little dog that has done something dirty and must be
kicked out!"...
"England is a disgusting hypocrite," said my hostess emphatically.
"France is not so bad; we do not hate her, but England is in this war
solely for money. It is a pleasant little joke of theirs, about our
invading Belgium first, but I _know_ that the English and French were
there before us."
Now, if the wife of the Governor of Belgium believes this so earnestly,
one may imagine how firmly the rest of Germany believes it....