Upon the shoulders of the bearers the box swayed and jolted.
Following it came, first, three uniformed officers, two German nurses
and two surgeons from another hospital, as I subsequently learned; and
following them half a company of soldiers bearing their rifles and
wearing side arms. As the small cortege reached a point opposite us an
officer snapped an order and everybody halted, and the gun-butts of the
company came down with a smashing abruptness upon the cobbles. At that
moment two or three roughly clad civilians issued from a doorway near
by. Being Belgians they had small cause to love the Germans, but they
stopped in their tracks and pulled off their caps. To pay the tribute
of a bared head to the dead, even to the unknown dead, is in these
Catholic countries of Europe as much a part of a man's rule of conduct
as his religion is.
The priest who led the line turned my way inquiringly. He did not have
to wait long for what was to come, nor did I. Another gate farther
along in the nunnery wall opened and out came six more soldiers, bearing
another of these narrow-shouldered coffins, and accompanied by a couple
of nurses, an officer and an assistant surgeon.
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