So there is a reason for calling her the cockpit of the nations; but, as I said just now, I shall think of her as Europe's rag doll--a thing to be clouted and kicked about; to be crushed under the hoofs and the heels; to be bled and despoiled and ravished.
Thinking of her so, I do not mean by this comparison to reflect in any wise on the courage of her people.

It will be a long time before the rest of the world forgets the resistance her soldiers made against overbrimming odds, or the fortitude with which the families of those soldiers faced a condition too lamentable for description.
Unsolicited, so competent an authority as Julius Caesar once gave the Belgians a testimonial for their courage.

If I recall the commentaries aright, he said they were the most valorous of all the tribes of Gaul.
Those who come afterward to set down the tale and tally of the Great War will record that through the centuries the Belgians retained their ancient valor.
First and last, I had rather exceptional opportunities for viewing the travail of Belgium.

I was in Brussels before it surrendered and after it surrendered.

I was in Louvain when the Germans entered it and I was there again after the Germans had wrecked it.