Monsieur Segotin's Story
find a use for it. Only, it would seem, was she prepared, as someone said in history, 'to leave us our eyes to weep with.'
"But at last, suppose the Germans took alarm at the condition of the people whom they had placed under their 'protection.' Were they to allow them all to starve to death, the opinion of the neutral world, which at that time they still sought a little to conciliate, might be aroused against them. And, no doubt, they had, as I have suggested, a prevision of the future utility of Belgian hands. All things considered, they perceived the advisability of providing us with something to eat from time to time. Their procedure was characteristically economical.
"One day we were privileged to read a proclamation which informed us that it was to our interest to address a petition for food to the Swiss Government. We were bidden to remember the help which Switzerland so generously gave to the town of Strasburg in the war of 1870. We were told that a large part of the provisions of the occupied districts had been carried off by the French and English troops; that now requisitions must continue to be made for the benefit of the German Army. We were assured that the German military authorities recognised no obligation to feed us, and all the less because Great Britain was endeavouring to blockade Germany. Should we succeed in getting food from Switzerland, we were guaranteed that it would be distributed among us exclusively. Those of us who should decline to approach Switzerland would get
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