My
wife's mother lives in Louvain. She wants us to come and live
there. She says we are too far away from her at Brussels, but I
don't think so." "Leige - see the citadel? Got some cousins at
Leige - only second ones. Most of my first ones live at Maestricht";
and so on all the way to Cologne.
I do not believe we passed a single town or village that did not
possess one or more specimens of this man's relatives. Our journey
seemed, not so much like a tour through Belgium and part of Northern
Germany, as a visit to the neighbourhood where this man's family
resided.
I was careful to take a seat facing the engine at Ostend. I prefer
to travel that way. But when I awoke a little later on, I found
myself going backwards.
I naturally felt indignant. I said:
"Who's put me over here? I was over there, you know. You've no
right to do that!"
They assured me, however, that nobody had shifted me, but that the
train had turned round at Ghent.
I was annoyed at this. It seemed to me a mean trick for a train to
start off in one direction, and thus lure you into taking your seat
(or somebody else's seat, as the case might be) under the impression
that you were going to travel that way, and then, afterwards, turn
round and go the other way. I felt very doubtful, in my own mind,
as to whether the train knew where it was going at all.
At Brussels we got out and had some more coffee and rolls. I forget
what language I talked at Brussels, but nobody understood me. When
I next awoke, after leaving Brussels, I found myself going forwards
again. The engine had apparently changed its mind for the second
time, and was pulling the carriages the other way now. I began to
get thoroughly alarmed. This train was simply doing what it liked.
There was no reliance to be placed upon it whatever. The next thing
it would do would be to go sideways. It seemed to me that I ought
to get up and see into this matter; but, while pondering the
business, I fell asleep again.
I was very sleepy indeed when they routed us out at Herbesthal, to
examine our luggage for Germany. I had a vague idea that we were
travelling in Turkey, and had been stopped by brigands. When they
told me to open my bag, I said, "Never!" and remarked that I was an
Englishman, and that they had better be careful. I also told them
that they could dismiss any idea of ransom from their minds at once,
unless they were prepared to take I.O.U.'s, as it was against the
principles of our family to pay cash for anything - certainly not for
relatives.
