In Italy forms the preface to M. Jules Destrée's book, En Italie avant la guerre, 1914-15. Of the remaining essays, some have appeared in various English and American periodicals; others are now printed in translation for the first time.

I have also had M. Maeterlinck's leave to include in this volume his first published work, The Massacre of the Innocents. This powerful sketch in the Flemish manner saw the light originally in the Pléïade, in 1886, and may at the present time, to use the author's own words in a note to myself, be regarded as "a sort of vague symbolic prophecy." An English version by Mrs. Edith Wingate Rinder was printed in the Dome in 1899; another has since been issued by an English and by an American firm of publishers; but the only authorized translation to appear in book form is that now added as an epilogue to The Wrack of the Storm.

Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.

Chelsea, 1916.

CONTENTS

PAGE
AUTHOR'S PREFACE[5]
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE[7]
I AFTER THE VICTORY[11]
II KING ALBERT [21]
III THE HOSTAGE CITIES [31]
IV TO SAVE FOUR CITIES[37]
V PRO PATRIA: I [45]
VI HEROISM [59]
VII PRO PATRIA: II [75]
VIII PRO PATRIA: III [89]
IX BELGIUM'S FLAG DAY[109]
X ON THE DEATH OF A LITTLE SOLDIER[117]
XI THE HOUR OF DESTINY [131]
XII IN ITALY [147]
XIII ON REREADING THUCYDIDES [161]
XIV THE DEAD DO NOT DIE [179]
XV IN MEMORIAM [191]
XVI SUPERNATURAL COMMUNICATIONS IN WAR-TIME [197]
XVII EDITH CAVELL [217]
XVIIITHE LIFE OF THE DEAD[229]
XIX THE WAR AND THE PROPHETS[241]
XX THE WILL OF EARTH [257]
XXI FOR POLAND [271]
XXII THE MIGHT OF THE DEAD [279]
XXIIIWHEN THE WAR IS OVER[291]
XXIV THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS [303]