awful silence continues, and Parisians manifest growing impatience for
the inevitable great battle. I went to the Ministry of War with M. and
Mme. Picard, but no news of military importance was communicated.




_Wednesday, August 19._


Eighteenth day of mobilization. Fine summer weather, with light
northerly wind. Temperature at five P.M. 17 degrees centigrade.

Absolute silence concerning military movements in Belgium. No official
communication was made to-day at the Ministry of War. Parisians feel
that momentous events are about to take place but look forward with calm
confidence.

I called upon my old friend, M. Rene Baschet, manager of the
_Illustration_, which is the only illustrated weekly paper in
France to continue its issue. I hastened to tell M. Baschet that I had
received a private telegram from Rome announcing that the Pope was so
ill that his physicians, and above all Monseigneur Zampini, did not
think that His Holiness could live through the night. M. Baschet paid
genuine tribute to Lord Kitchener's instructions "to every soldier of
the British expeditionary forces," and said that the British War
Minister showed himself at once "heroic and hygienic," and cited the
passage: "You may find temptations, both in wine and women. You must
entirely resist both temptations, and while treating all women with
perfect courtesy, you should avoid any intimacy."