BRAVE ENGLISH “MISSIS”

From the top of the clock-house of Furnes you could see the whole country spread before you like a map in the evening light. Nieuport was clouded with bursting shells, and the straight line of the Belgian front could clearly be seen along the Yser floods as far as Caeskerke, and further on beyond Dixmuele and Loo, where the enemy line stands so close to our own that in calm weather the faintest whisper can be heard on either side, and is invariably followed by a hail of hand grenades. Straight before us we could see Ramscapelle, which we had not been able to visit owing to a heavy bombardment, and Pervyse, where we had called on two English ladies who established a first aid station in 1914, and have remained faithfully at their post. Some changes have occurred there. The “miss,” as they are called, had to leave their old home owing to the visitation of a German shell, and to take up new quarters on the ground floor of a red-tiled cottage. The first floor has disappeared, but the roof has been skilfully repaired and lowered so that the house looks like a boy who has tried on his father’s hat. If I did not fear to be indiscreet, I should also mention that one of these ladies – who, needless to say, remains a “miss” – has married a Belgian officer. There is not a corner of this Belgian front at Furnes, La Panne, Adinkerke, or Pervyse where Belgian heroism has not been comforted by English kindness and where the smile of an Englishwoman has not alleviated the sufferings of some Belgian soldier.