Still Erect!

( Originally Published 1915 )

" ALREADY defeated Belgium has fallen on her knees ! " So cried a great and semi-official Berlin newspaper the day after the Imperial troops had entered Brussels; 1 and all Germany rejoiced at the idea.

On her knees! No, not yet!

The German Army had passed, formidable and gigantic; it had devastated and soaked with blood a great part of the country; everywhere it had left its uncouth garrisons; the capital itself was occupied; Belgium was assuredly sorely wounded, but with a dignity equal to her valour she still kept her footing, proud and erect, her sword in her hand.

For that matter, would any Power declare war upon a " defeated " nation even if that Power were Austria? For Austria, in turn, declared war upon us.

On the 28th of August Count Clary und Aldringen, H.I.M. the Austrian Emperor's Minister at the Belgian Court, despatched to M. Davignon, through the agency of the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, the telegram which I here reproduce :

By order of my Government I have the honour to notify Your Excellency as follows: Seeing that Belgium, after refusing to accept the proposals addressed to her on several occasions by Germany, is lending her military co-operation to France and Great Britain, both of which have declared war upon Austria-Hungary, and in consideration of the fact that, as has just been ascertained, the Austrian and Hungarian subjects in Belgium have, under the eyes of the Royal authorities, been forced to submit to treatment contrary to the most primitive requirements of humanity, and inadmissible even in respect of the subjects of an enemy State, Austria-Hungary finds herself compelled to break off diplomatic relations and to consider herself from this moment in a state of war against Belgium. I am leaving the country with the staff of the legation, and am confiding the protection of my countrymen to the United States Minister to Belgium. On the part of the Imperial and Royal Government passports have been handed to Count Errembault de Dudzeele.

To the allegations contained in this Note the Minister of Foreign Affairs immediately replied as follows, through the agency of the Belgian Minister to The Hague and the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs:

Belgium has always maintained friendly relations with all her neighbours, without distinction. She has scrupulously fulfilled the obligations imposed upon her by neutrality. If she considered that it was impossible to accept the proposals of Germany, it was because these had as their object the violation of the engagements into which she has entered in the face of Europe, engagements which were the conditions of the creation of the Belgian Kingdom. She did not consider that a nation, however weak it may be, should disregard its obligations and sacrifice its honour by bowing to force. The Government waited not only for the delay involved by the ultimatum, but for the violation of its territory by the German troops before appealing to France and to England, the guarantors of ber neutrality, with Germany and Austria-Hungary, to co-operate, in the name and by virtue of the Treaties, in the defence of Belgian territory.

In repelling the invaders by armed force Belgium was not even committing an act of hostility, according to the terms of Article X of The Hague Convention concerning the rights and duties of neutral Powers.

Germany has herself, recognised that her aggresion constitutes a violation of international law, and being unable to justify it she has invoked her strategic interest.

Belgium meets the assertion that Austrian and Hungarian subjects have been subjected in Belgium to treatment contrary to the most primitive requirements of humanity with an explicit denial.

The Royal Government gave the strictest orders at the outbreak of hostilities as to the protection of the persons and property of Aust:ro-Hungarian subjects.

M. Davignon might have added but perhaps he was not then aware of it that Austria-Hungary had virtually commenced hostilities already, since Austrian batteries of automobile howitzers had taken part in the bombardment of Namur, and very greatly contributed to the fall of that position.

Does this assertion seem a little hazardous? Here are some proofs:

In a bulletin of victory posted up in Brussels on the 3rd of September, the Germans themselves declared that " when the barrier-forts situated on the rocky heights of Givet were captured, just as at Namur, the heavy automobile batteries sent by Austria distinguished themselves by their mobility, the accuracy of their fire, and their effectiveness."

Another proof: The Austrian Colonel Langer, who commanded the batteries in question, himself related, in Vienna, on the 17th of February, 1915, that these batteries, coming from different directions, were concentrated at Cologne on the 15th of August, and that it was there that he received the order to proceed, on the night of the same day. " We were first of all sent to Verviers, where we detrained," he said; from Verviers we set out on the 21st of August for Namur, where we went into action. Two days later, at 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon, the outer fort of Namur, the ` Cognelée,' fell; an hour later the next fort followed suit. The 12-inch howitzer was employed against the Cognelée fort; the 16.5-inch against the other."

Thus these famous batteries arrived in Belgium on the 16th or 17th of August; that is eleven or twelve days before the Austrian declaration of war, and in the meantime Count Clary und Aldringen continued to live in our midst as though nothing had happened; he even carried his impudence to the length of endeavouring to correspond with his Government in cipher !

ANTWERP

Withdrawn into the shelter of the forts of Antwerp, after meeting the invasion by an admirable effort of resistance, the Belgian Army might have remained on the defensive. Neither our brave King, nor our upright Government, nor our heroic soldiers desired this, and the whole nation approved of their decision. Belgium considered that she was henceforth the comrade-in-arms of Great Britain and France, and that she must to the end co-operate with them toward the liberation of her national territory.

Our Army, therefore, did not remain inactive. It harassed the enemy without respite, and even made important sorties.

On the 25th and 26th of August while the bulk of the German armies were at grips on the Sambre and in the vicinity of Mons with the French and British forces the Belgian troops emerged from the entrenched camp and successfully attacked the German forces, which consisted of the IIIrd and IVth Reserve Corps, which were on the watch before Malines, and were forced to fall back on Louvain.

An officer who took part in this sortie published (in the Courrier de l'1lrmée Belgian for the 28th of November, 1914) an interesting account of his experiences:

" In August," he says, " marches and counter-marches, which finally brought us, on the 25th, to the Château Grisar, between Malines and Sempst, where we had our first 'affair.' Two commandants were killed there, and five men. I was in the front rank. In taking possession of a house which was to serve as a point of support I was fired at by a machine-gun, and received two bullets through my cloak. A young corporal behind me was hit in the throat. Before me I saw an officer, with legs a straddle, examining us through his binoculars. I threw my rifle to my shoulder and brought him down. The soldier accompanying me, one Toussaint, killed the officer's companion.

" But we were overwhelmed, and had to fall back to the trench skirting the Chateau Grisar. Once there, Toussaint informed me that he was going to fetch the wounded corporal. He went, sure enough, and brought him back on his shoulders, despite a hail of bullets. Plucky lad! . . . A few moments later I turned round; I saw him lying on the ground, dead, a bullet through his brain.

" Then, too, Major de Gerlache was wounded, behaving like a Stoic. . . .

" At Hopstade I saw, in a small house, an old white-haired woman murdered, her throat gashed open. In a corner a boy of sixteen was on his knees, his hands still clapsed as though to implore mercy; he had received more than twenty bayonet thrusts in the body. In another place I saw a woman enceinte who had been disembowelled behind the counter of her grocery shop.

" So it was to the end, as far as Berlaere and Schoonaerde, where I was wounded. . . Marches, counter-marches, trenches held and abandoned, machine-gun fire, atrocities and sights unheard of, like that of the field near the 'Jack Op ' brewery at Werchter the Germans had passed that way which was littered with thousands and thousands of empty bottles. . . . "

Our enemies displayed an increasing contempt for the law of nations and the laws of war. Attacks upon ambulance convoys; the bombardment of hospitals and ambulances, over which the Red Cross flag was floating and plainly visible; civilians forced to dig trenches or to march in front of the troops in order to screen them from fire; terrible acts of vengeance committed upon unoffending peasants for the slightest reverse suffered in battle or skirmish; pillage and incendiarism; all these crimes, and many others also, were becoming more and more frequent.

At the end of August the Germans inaugurated a fresh system of terrorisation.

On the night of the 24th of August a Zeppelin appeared above Antwerp, dropping, upon the slumbering city, nine bombs, which were obviously intended for the Palace, where the Queen and her children were in residence, and for the buildings which housed the various Governmental Departments. These bombs fell near these various buildings, or in the street, or on private houses, which were either entirely destroyed or badly damaged. Ten persons were killed; many more were grievously wounded.

The " raid " had succeeded! As is shown by the German postcard which is reproduced on a subsequent page, Germany applauded it, and in her enthusiasm associated the Emperor himself with the glorification of this criminal crew (20). Note that the picture reveals the true character of the Zeppelin's work--which was the bombardment, from the upper sky, of the city itself, and not of the forts of Antwerp.

Measures, of course, were taken and they proved extremely efficacious to render fresh attempts of the kind more difficult; all lights were extinguished by 8 or 9 o'clock at night, and at certain elevated points powerful searchlights and guns were in-stalled.

As a matter of precaution the young Princes were taken to a place of safety. The Queen herself accompanied them to England; but as soon as she had accomplished this maternal duty our courageous and beneficent Sovereign returned to Antwerp, to lavish her care upon the wounded, who day by day increased in numbers.

There were then several bombardments of the open town of Malines no previous warning was given, and no real strategic purpose was served; and these bombardments were accompanied by the further destruction of archaeological prodigies and inestimable artistic treasures. (In the beautiful church of Notre-Dame-au-delà-de-la-Dyle, which dates from 1255, and which was badly damaged, an admirable example of Rubens, the Pêche miraculeuse, was riddled with splinters of shrapnel.)

And amid this material destruction, what human tragedies! In the prison at Malines, on which the shells fell thick and fast, the little son of a warder, a child four years of age, became in-sane with terror. The prison had to be evacuated, and you can imagine what the march to Antwerp of prisoners and warders must have been beneath this rain of shells. But how imagine the transfer which had to be effected under the same dramatic circumstances of the inmates of a lunatic asylum?

In order to inform neutral countries and America in particular, where the statements of German agencies were designed to mislead the public what was our actual rôle in the great European conflict, the Belgian Government decided to send an official mission to the United States. This mission was composed of M. Carton de Wiart, Minister of Justice who was president of the mission, with the title of Envoy Extraordinary of His Majesty the King of the Belgians to the President of the United Statesand of three Ministers of State, representing the three great Belgian political parties: MM. de Sadeleer, Hymans, and Emile Vandervelde. Count Lichtervelde was secretary (19). The mission left Antwerp on the 30th of August, and on the 1st of September was received in special audience by the King of England, to whom it bore the expression of the gratitude of the Belgian nation for the fidelity and alacrity with which England had fulfilled her obligations as a guarantor of Belgian neutrality.

The day before the mission landed in New York, with a view to discounting the impression it should have produced, the Emperor of Germany sent to President Wilson his notorious telegram, in which he denounced the pretended acts of violence committed by the Belgians, and notably by women, upon the German wounded. He added that such violence had necessitated acts of repression which pained him extremely: " My heart bleeds for Louvain ! " he said in this telegram, of which the most indulgent critic will admit that, at all events, it constitutes a masterpiece of effrontery.

The Belgian mission was received at the White House on the 16th of September. Replying to the speech of M. Carton de Wiart, the President of the United States expressed, in significant terms, his keen admiration for the Belgian people and his respect for their King. It was only after he had received the Belgian mission and conferred with it that President Wilson replied to the Emperor's message, and his reply was couched in terms which betray neither admiration nor respect.'

The Belgian mission was then received by the principal Universities of the United States: New York, Harvard, and Chicago. Then, having received in Canada a truly triumphant welcome from the authorities and the population of the. Dominion, it had opportunities of conferring with a number of American notabilities and with Mr. Roosevelt in particular enlightening them as to the situation in Belgium, her loyalty, her courage, her misfortunes, and thereby contributing to create throughout the United States that potent and wonderful current of sympathy and solidarity which presently found expression in the organisation of relief for the population of the occupied provinces.

Further raids of German dirigibles upon Antwerp and the surrounding country were followed by the senseless destruction of Termonde.

Situated on the confluence of the Dendre and the Scheldt, Termonde, with the communes of Lebbeke and Saint-Gilles, numbered a total population of some 26,000 inhabitants.

On the 2nd of September, 1914, a German patrol penetrated as far as Lebbeke. Under the pretext of avenging the death of six soldiers killed by the Belgian troops on the territory of this commune, it set fire to three farmhouses.

On the 4th of September the Germans arrived in force. Lebbeke, Saint-Gilles, and the little village of Appels were bombarded, pillaged, and burned. Horrible massacres were committed; 25 civilians were killed by axe or bayonet.

On the same day, about 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning, our enemies bombarded Termonde; then they entered the town. They came to the civil hospital, where they seized as hostages —Dr. Van Winckel, who was tending the sick, Father Van Poucke, the chaplain, and M. Schellekens, secretary to the Hospitals Commission. They also arrested a few townsfolk in the street and led them away.

Twice over, at point-blank range, German soldiers fired at Dr. Hemeryck and his bearer, both of whom wore the Red Cross brassard. The bearer died five days later; one of his wounds was the work of an explosive bullet.

While they were accomplishing these heroic feats of arms, and while the pillage of confectioners' and bakers' shops, groceries, and, above all, of taverns and wine-cellars was at its height, General von Boehn, standing proudly on the steps of the Hôtel de Ville, was posing before the lens of a photographer. His descendants will know that he " was at Termonde " !

In the afternoon to keep their hand in the " pioneers," those sinister specialists in incendiarism (21), set fire to the " Ateliers de Construction de Termonde," and a few houses as well. About 5 o'clock a German major released all the prisoners at common law who were then in the prison they numbered about 135. At the same time the inhabitants were urged to depart, as the town was to be destroyed. And, indeed, on the 5th of September the Germans began a pitiless and systematic destruction of the town by fire.

Yes, systematic; for the pioneers had at their disposal " central reservoirs at which each man, carrying a pneumatic apparatus affixed to his body, obtained a quantity of incendiary fluid with which to sprinkle the outer woodwork of the houses; another man, provided with a special glove smeared with phosphorus, passed along the sprinkled houses, rubbing his glove on the woodwork, so that a whole street could be fired in a quarter of an hour. To accelerate the burning of the houses men threw inflammable matter into them."

Pitiless, too. To the burgomaster, who begged him to spare what remained of the already mutilated town, the major in charge of this " military operation " replied, with a surly jeer:

"Nein! Razieren!"

Old and valuable communal documents were implacably given to the flames. Such was the case, in particular, with a charter of the thirteenth century, which granted the population certain privileges. The communal authorities were forced to witness the sacrifice without a word. One of them, who ventured to protest, was at once arrested, and had to pay a heavy ransom to escape execution; he was deported to Germany; there to learn to submit himself to the demands and caprices of Pan-Germanism.

The hospital met with no more consideration than the rest of the town. There was hardly time to get the patients out; one of them, an unfortunate epileptic, remained in the furnace.

And now for three days there were truly infernal scenes. For two days the pioneers worked unremittingly, setting fire, by preference, to wealthy houses, whose previous pillage had been most fruitful.

Here is the epilogue of this episode of the martyrdom of Belgium: the curé of Lebbeke, his vicar, and 45o of the in-habitants of Termonde were taken away to Germany. On the journey three of them, exhausted by hunger, began to rave in delirium; they were at once massacred with the bayonet.

As for General von Boehn, who was on his way to France, he left it to his valiant pioneers to razieren Termonde, making only a short stay there himself. On the 6th of September, with the bulk of his troops, he appeared in the neighbourhood of Gand, some 12 miles to the south-east. He despatched a large detachment in the direction of Gand, but they encountered some Belgian infantry at Mille, and were forced to fall back after suffering serious losses.

On the following day he threatened to bombard Gand; but the matter was arranged, thanks to the intervention of the burgo-master and the payment of large requisitions.

A second sortie from the entrenched camp of Antwerp (9th-13th of September) took place on a wider front than the first. Our troops once more made for Malines and the country to the south, but they also bore eastward as far as Aerschot. They inflicted serious losses on the enemy, and advanced so far that they were able to destroy the railway from Brussels to Liége at several points.

A volunteer, incorporated in a regiment which formed part of the 3rd Division which at Liége won the nickname of the " Iron Division "—gives the following details of this sortie :--

" The 3rd Division was placed about the centre of the attacking front, near Haecht, and had to face a formidable position, strengthened by means of concrete and iron plating, at the place called Over-de-Vaart. The battle lasted four days and nights.

" First day: Aerschot was retaken. Many Germans remained in our hands.

" Second day: The village of Haecht was taken by assault by the 3rd Division. The valiant General Bertrand marched at the head of his men, his eternal cigar between his lips! It was then that a great friend of mine was killed, Lieutenant R. L--. Poor fellow! He had not been married a year! Carried toward the rear of the battlefield, in the direction of Keerburghen, he died crying: 'Vive le Roi! Vive la Belgique!' I had an opportunity to pay my last respects at his grave. The King himself went the following day, baring his head before the little mound, which was adorned by a few flowers.

" The battle raged for two days longer. The guns were fired with terrifying rapidity. The rifle .fire was practically continuous. . .

" However, on the afternoon of the fourth day the 3rd Division was given the order to retreat, as it was on the point of being turned. The regiment, which was placed in the trenches of the Nèthe bridgehead, had to co-operate with the cyclists in order to protect this movement. Night came, pitch dark, and with it rain cold, unending rain. . . . We remained a long time in the trenches, crouching in the mud, without capes or protection of any kind. . . . Before us the crepitation of the rifles never ceased. At last we were replaced by the 12th Regiment of the Line. These good fellows had been led to the rear, towards Keerberghen, where they expected to be able to rest, when the order was given them to retrace their steps through the mud and the rain. We marched along past this column of heroes, who were about to be sent back into the trenches after three days and nights of battle, and I did not hear a word of corn-plaint; not a murmur. . . ."

A neutral eye-witness, Mr. Alexander Powell, war correspondent of the New York World, writes of the second sortie from the entrenched camp of Antwerp :

" For the strategic reasons the size and significance of the great four days' battle which was fought in mid-September between the Belgian field army and all the German forces in the north of Belgium were withheld, at the time, in the official communiqués, and in the rush of subsequent events its importance was lost tò view. Yet the great flank movement of the Allies against the invaders of France owed its success to this energetic offensive on the part of the Belgians, who, as has since been proved, were acting in close cooperation with the French General Staff. This sudden offensive, which took the Germans completely by surprise, forced them to concentrate all their available forces in Belgium. . . .

" It is, therefore, no exaggeration to say that the success of the Allies on the Marne was largely determined by the sacrifices made in this emergency by the Belgian Army. . . ."

This operation not only forced the enemy to recall the 6th Division of the IIIrd Reserve Corps to the Belgian front, but also, as was learned later, to delay the southward march of the IXth Reserve Corps by two days, and this precisely at the moment when the German armies, effecting their retreat from the Marne, had a pressing need of reinforcements. Moreover, even in Brussels it caused the enemy serious alarm.

However, the Belgian troops did not confine themselves to these sorties in force. Acting in small parties, they did not cease for a moment to harass the enemy in every possible manner.

The " Minerva workshops in Antwerp started building armoured motor-cars, which soon rendered great service. " Al-though the French and the Germans," says Mr. Powell, " had for some years been making trial of various types of armoured motor-car, the Belgians, who had never until then seriously considered the question, were the first to produce and to send into action a really practical vehicle of this kind. . . . Driven by the most spirited chauffeurs in Belgium, manoeuvred by young men who had ` the devil in their bodies ' ; and armed with automatic guns, these 'rolling forts rushed easily through the enemy's lines, decimated an outpost, wiped out a cavalry patrol, dynamited a bridge or a tunnel, and returned to the Belgian lines before the enemy had time to realise their ruthless attack."

The cyclists and motor-cyclists also distinguished themselves in expeditions of this kind, and certain of their exploits, incredibly audacious in conception, were also incredibly skilful in execution.

But civilians, alas! often paid with their lives or the loss of their possessions for the exploits of their fellow-countrymen.

On the 25th of September, ten motor-cyclists pulled up a few rails on the railway from Bilsen to Tongres. Two hours later a train full of German troops was derailed. To avenge themselves the Germans shot eight civilians and burned a portion of the neighbouring village.

On the same day a similar expedition, composed of zoo Belgian cyclists, destroyed the railway from Brussels to Paris not far from Montigny-lez-Lens. In reprisal the Germans burned the house of the burgomaster (having first need I remark? broken open the safe and taken all they could carry away) ; they also set fire to the presbytery and to a few farmhouses in the neighbourhood.

Then gendarmerie and the civic guard sometimes took part and with brilliant success in battle or skirmish; but they were also employed in searching for the spies who continued to pervade the country. Numbers of suspected persons were arrested, despite the ingenuity of their disguises. Some were arrested who were disguised as Belgian soldiers, as priests, as post-men, or even as nuns !

About the middle of September fresh overtures which on this occasion were indirect and semi-official were made to M. Broqueville, who was in Antwerp.

Someone who came expressly from Brussels, through the enemy's lines, had an interview with the President of the Council, in the course of which he insisted on the military power of Germany and the poverty of our chances of further resistance. The obliging messenger at the same time insinuated that Marshal von der Goltz would probably not refuse to enter into " conversations " if the Belgian Government showed itself willing, and he even went so far as to sketch the foundations of a possible settlement. But the President, that parfait gentilhomme, and our King, sans peur et sans reproche, who preside over the destinies of Belgium, received these suggestions with the disdain which they deserved, and all those who were aware of the incident entirely approved of this attitude.

On the 16th of September, about half-past five in the after-noon, the Germans, who had appeared in great strength before Termonde, once more bombarded what was left of this unhappy town. At 7.30 p.m. they entered the town. They immediately began to empty the cellars of a few houses of the better class which had been left intact during the events of the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th of September.

Bonfires were lit, and all night long the officers presided over one of those ignoble bacchanalian orgies such as the gentry from beyond the Rhine understand how to organise.

On the 17th, in the afternoon, Termonde was again bombarded for three-quarters of an hour; one shell fell upon the Hôtel de Ville, which caught fire (23).

The murderous raids of the Taubes and Zeppelins increased in frequency. They were directed not only against Antwerp and its suburbs, but also against Flanders.

During the night of the 24th of September a Zeppelin flew over Ostend, releasing four bombs, which fortunately effected only material damage.

Two days later, again under cover of darkness, a Zeppelin dropped its bombs on the little Flemish town of Deynze. Three of these bombs fell on a convent which was sheltering some two hundred sick. They did not result in any serious accident, but the alarm which they caused may be imagined.

On the 29th there was another raid of the same kind, quite as futile from the military point of view; this time bombs were dropped on Dottignies and Thielt, towns as open and as undefended as Deynze and Ostend.

And what ruses the Germans employed—" frauds not in use among gentlemen and cavaliers," as Brantôme would have said! In the course of a battle near Termonde a German officer headed his troops by a group of fifteen civilians, among whom were three ladies and two young girls. Lieutenant Soudart, who was entrusted, on the 26th of September, with the defence of a bridge at Klein-Antwerpen, noticed that a German major of infantry, who was acting as observer not very far away, had surrounded himself by three children. Of course, the German ruse succeeded; the Belgian officer refrained from giving the order to fire. On the 27th of September, at Alost, a company of German infantry attacked the bridge at Zwartenhoek, driving before them thirty civilians, behind whom they were concealing a machine-gun. Two civilians were killed,

In Antwerp, where for weeks the heart of Belgium had been throbbing, preparations were being made for a desperate resistance.

To facilitate the defence the dykes of the Scheldt, the Rupel, and the Nèthe had been opened at several points, and in this way a large area of low-lying land had been inundated. Within a radius of many miles the Belgians had blown up luxurious country houses, ancient châteaux, charming villas, farms and windmills, and which was an even more painful sacrifice the thousands of superb trees, which were the only ornament of this level region, were felled.

Trenches had been dug and works of all kinds had been constructed. The armament of the forts had been completed and improved, as far as was possible, by means of cannon sent from France by way of Ostend.

Two armoured trains, veritable moving fortresses, had been built in the Cockerill works at Hoboken-lez-Anvers; they were armed with British naval guns of 4.7 inches calibre.

On the other hand, as the Scheldt had remained open to merchant vessels, and as all sorts of provisions had been arriving in abundance, the city was secured against the rigours of a long siege.

But how many things we had to think of; what anxieties were ours, from which our powerful enemies were exempt, and what distressing problems we had to solve!

Measures had to be taken to preserve from the risks of a possible bombardment the most valuable of the paintings which adorned the churches, the museums, and certain private houses. The " Descent from the Cross," the " Assumption of the Virgin," and other masterpieces of Rubens, the " Entombment of Christ " by Matsys, the " Temptation of St. Martin " by De Vos, and a number of no less inestimable treasures were transferred to places of safety (22).

The metallic funds of the National Bank and the blocks used in printing paper-money was sent to England.

All German prisoners were also evacuated and sent to England and the Belgian wounded were gradually transferred to Ostend and other places on the coast.

A further complication homeless refugees were arriving in ever-increasing numbers from the surrounding country. It was not possible to allow them to remain more than three or four days in Antwerp, and it was therefore necessary to facilitate their exodus toward the coast or to Holland or England.

On the 26th and 27th of September the Germans made fresh demonstrations in the direction of Termonde, obviously with the intention of crossing the Scheldt at this point.

On the 26th they encountered at Andeghem (some two or three miles to the south-west of Termonde) a small body of Belgian infantry, which, although it had no artillery to support it, resisted them heroically until the arrival of reinforcements, which put the Germans to flight in the direction of Alost.

The battle of Lebbeke was fought on the following day under similar conditions: the Belgians were at first weak in numbers, but resisted valiantly despite heavy losses; then reinforcements arrived, and the Germans finally scattered toward Maxenzele and Merchtem.

But on the same day it was Sunday, the 27th additional German forces reached Malines. The cathedral was bombarded while full of worshippers (25) there was a general flight of the population toward Antwerp (24), which by no means facilitated the task, already so heavy, of the civil and military authorities.

On the 28th heavy siege howitzers, coming from Maubeuge, German and Austrian, went into action, and thenceforth the tempo of events was accelerated. These terrible guns, which nothing could resist, were installed as we afterwards discovered upon concrete foundations prepared for that purpose long before the invasion of our too confiding country. Their fire was in the first place directed against the Waelhem and Wavre-Sainte-Catherine forts.

On the 29th the Wavre-Sainte-Catherine fort was already reduced to silence; by 6 o'clock in the evening the survivors of its valiant garrison were forced to evacuate the works.

The German fire was then concentrated upon the Waelhem, Koningshoyckt, and Lierre forts.

On the 30th the great reservoirs at Waelhem, which supplied Antwerp and the suburbs, were damaged by shells, and the water supply was seriously jeopardised. The Waelhem fort held out as long as possible, and when all that was left of its brave garrison at last abandoned it, it was only a heap of ruins.

It became evident that the entrenched camp of Antwerp contrary to the ideas generally entertained--would not prove invulnerable. The supreme command foresaw the moment approaching when the army would be forced to abandon the fortress in order to avoid a surrender en masse. It was decided to transfer the base of operations westward to Ostend, and immediately the work of removal began : the transport of wounded, of sanitary material, of army corps depôts, of the recruits of the new levy, as well as the corps of volunteers, who were as yet untrained, the army service corps,' and more besides than I can tell.

Antwerp lies wholly on the right bank of the Scheldt, and there is no bridge to connect it with the left bank, whence a railway runs to Gand and Ostend. For freight of an awkward nature, which would not allow of trans-shipment, it was there-fore necessary to make use of the line which crosses the river by the Tamise railway bridge some 12 miles up-stream and which crosses the Rupel at Willebroeck that is, within range of the enemy's guns. But the railway precautions were so well conceived that trains were able to run every night of course with all lights extinguished as late as the 7th of October.

The forts of Koningshoyckt and Lierre were silenced in turn on the 2nd of October. The Belgian infantry fell back beyond the Nèthe, blowing up the bridges across that river (z6).

On this day General de Guise, Commander-in-Chief of the fortress of Antwerp, published the following proclamation ad-dressed to the people of Antwerp :

I consider that it is my duty to inform the population inhabiting the territory of the fortress that the siege of the latter has for some days past entered upon an acute phase.

As is proved by military history, in the course of a siege the fortified city itself may be exposed to the effects of the besieging artillery. Thus, in the present campaign, the fortified cities of Liége and Namur have been subjected to the early stages of bombardment. Aware of the patriotic sentiments of the valiant population of Antwerp, I am certain that it will maintain the calm and composure of which it has given so many proofs since the commencement of hostilities, and that it will thus assist me to accomplish the great task which has fallen to my lot.

That same day the 2nd of October a Taube flew over Antwerp, dropping numerous copies of a strange bi-lingual proclamation, of which the more significant passages are here translated :-

BELGIAN SOLDIERS!

Your blood and your whole salvation you are not giving them to your beloved country at all; on the contrary, you are serving only the interest of Russia, a country which only desires to increase its already enormous power, and above all the interest of England, whose perfidious avarice has given birth to this cruel and unprecedented war. From the outset your newspapers, paid from French and English sources, have never ceased to deceive you, to tell you nothing but lies about the causes of the war and about the battles which have ensued, and this is still happening every day.

Each day of resistance makes you suffer irreparable losses, while after the capitulation of Antwerp you will be free from all anxiety.

Belgian soldiers, you have fought enough for the interests of the Russian princes, and for those of the capitalists of perfidious Albion. Your situation is one to despair of.

If you desire to rejoin your wives and children, if you desire to return to your work, in a word, if you want peace, put an end to this useless struggle, which will only end in your ruin. Then you will quickly have all the benefits of a fortunate and perfect peace.

VON BESELER,

(Commander-in-Chief of the besieging Army.)

Need I say that there was not one " Belgian soldier," nor one inhabitant of the besieged city, who did not read this impudent message with disdain?

The outer forts once demolished, the German artillery was able to approach the Nèthe. On the 2nd of October German shells fell on the village of Waerloos and set it on fire. On the 4th Contich was shelled and burned.

Under cover of their guns, which were so superior to ours in number, and, above all, in range, the Germans tried first to cross the Nèthe by Waelhem; but the Belgian infantry, entrenched upon the opposite bank, offered a brilliant resistance, and they were forced to transfer their efforts to Duffel and Lierre.

At Lierre our enemies came into conflict with the English. England had sent us some reinforcements: a brigade of marine infantry and two naval brigades, or some 7,000 men in all. Seven thousand men: it was not much; yet this scanty help meant to our exhausted troops, which were completely worn out, a material assistance, and, above all, an inestimable moral support.

Ah! if the left bank of the Scheldt had been ours all the way to the sea, how much more favourable the situation would have been ! Our noble river would have been open to the warships of the Allies, which could have ascended it as far as Antwerp and beyond, and if a few gunboats of light draught, but powerfully armed, had been able to enter the Rupel and the Nèthe, these two rivers would have been really impassable, and our " national fortress " would have been absolutely impregnable. . . .

On the 4th of October the Communal Council unanimously voted a resolution which expressed to the Government and the military authorities " the unshakable desire of the population to see the defence of the fortified position of Antwerp continued to the end, without regard to anything but the national defensive and without considering the dangers incurred by private persons or property."

The civil population of Belgium was truly admirable ! Careless of danger, it thought only of the national defensive! And you must remember that, in order to facilitate the defence of Antwerp, it had been necessary within a radius of no less than twelve miles to raze to the ground hundreds of buildings, and that the officers who superintended these operations had the satisfaction of reporting that they did not hear a complaint not a single complaint!

Now what the Belgians themselves had not thought it necessary to demolish was being fired by the German shells, and they accepted the sacrifice with the same composed resignation " with-out regard to anything but the national defensive." It mattered little that the countryside which had formerly been so pleasant and cheerful was being transformed into a desert so long as it still remained Belgian soil!

However, the situation grew worse from hour to hour. Shrapnel fell without intermission on the Belgian and English trenches; the hail of fire was infernal.

On the 6th of October, about 4 o'clock in the morning, the Germans succeeded in crossing the Nèthe. The defenders of Antwerp had to fall back to the forts of the inner defences. And the circle of steel and fire grew ever closer and closer. Soon there would be nothing for it but to seek to evade its embrace and save all that could be saved.

General de Guise warned the population of Antwerp that the bombardment of the city was imminent, and urged all who could do so to leave without delay.

Early on the 7th the members of the Government, the legations, and the officials of the Central Administration left by water for Ostend.

That morning the local newspapers openly admitted the gravity of the situation. But they suffered no loss of dignity. " Whatever fresh sacrifice the salvation of the country requires of us, we accept it." This, in substance, was what they said: " Belgium will emerge the greater for her trials." But the Belgian newspapers of Antwerp had been issued for the last time.

During the day measures of precaution were taken in view of the bombardment; those who did not leave the city installed themselves in their cellars. At the Zoological Gardens, those beautiful gardens whose rich collections were the pride of Antwerp, the animals were slaughtered and the reptiles poisoned. This meant a sacrifice of many hundreds of thousands of francs; but that was a trifle with matters as they were !

One of my compatriots, M.R de B, attached to the wireless telegraph service, has kindly favoured me with the following personal narrative of the bombardment of Antwerp:

My superior officer had left two days earlier, sent into Flanders on a special mission. I remained alone at the ` main post,' with our mechanic and a few men. We were in constant communication with the barracks of the engineers and the central telegraph and telephone office.

Late in the afternoon of the 7th I was given the order to make preparations for blowing up the whole post; we bored holes in the great masts, which would hold a good charge of powder. . .

" I was hardly in bed, about midnight, when I heard a formidable explosion-the discharge of a heavy gun followed by a shrill whistling, and then another explosion. Then the banging and whistling became continuous . . . shrapnel first, then shells and what shells ! . . .

" A telephone message to the Engineers yes, we could blow the place to smitehereens ; some soldiers were sent with the necessary explosives.

" We dismounted the petrol motor and the dynamo and the essential parts of the apparatus. In the transmitting and receiving rooms we did the same, removing the precious instruments without which our apparatus would be useless to a place of safety. All the wires of the antennae were carefully cut and the secondary masts were sawed through. . . . For four hours we were working under an infernal rain of fire and steel. . . . I was wounded, but not enough to prevent me from working.

" Before leaving my beloved post I telephoned to the Engineers and then to the central office. The latter gave me the order to come at once with my men. It was at least thirty-five minutes' march, in the line of fire. . So that we should not all be wounded simultaneously, supposing we had bad luck, we moved off in Indian file. I was at the head. Besides our personal baggage wretched little bags which didn't hold much of importance we carried our precious receiving apparatus, which we wanted to save. . . . My feet caused me horrible suffering. I did not yet know that I was wounded in the leg. But how tell you all that we went through during that trying march?

" Near the point known as ' Warande ' in particular the spectacle was impressive. The shells, which were falling thick and fast, were demolishing whole houses, starting conflagrations before us and behind. . . Everywhere there were great black holes, twisted tram-lines, broken gas-mains, bits of glass, zinc, and broken tiles, and the remains of furniture. Explosion after explosion the din was frightful ! And in the midst of all this, in the darkness, a general sauve-qui-peut; poor folk making for the quays, carrying or dragging after them terrified children, taking with them what they could in the way of clothing or other belongings. . . . We saw a military forage-waggon blown into the air; the two horses were killed outright; one of the men was hideously mutilated, the other untouched.

"A little further we were able to breathe again; the shells were falling behind us only.

" At the Central Office we were sent into the cellars; they cheered us up, and gave us the opportunity to get a little rest .

" About 7 o'clock on the morning of the 8th we took our treasures and set out for Ostend.

" What an unforgettable spectacle in the streets of Antwerp ! The crowd making for the quays; the thousands of women and children and elderly men who wanted to escape from this hell, to take ship and sail for Holland!

" My feet hurt me more and more, and my wounded leg began to trouble me too. I dragged myself along as best I could. . . .

" As we were on service we were allowed to pass over the great bridge of boats thrown over the Scheldt opposite Stien, by which the army retreated. . . .

" Having reached Beveren-Waes, I could manage no longer; I kept with me one of the telegraph employes who were accompanying me, and instructed my other companions to push for-ward, arranging to rejoin them at Ostend. And I painfully continued my journey.

" The German guns did not cease to thunder. . . . The enemy had crossed the Scheldt at Schoonaerde in order to envelop the Belgian troops and cut off their retreat toward the coast, and advanced toward Lokeren, which he was already bombarding. .

" My companion and I turned our steps toward the northwest.

" At Moerbeke-Waes we saw a train full of wounded soldiers and refugees of all ages and conditions. They were everywhere —on the roofs of the carriages, on the engine, on the tender. . . Despite my wounds, I preferred to continue on foot. . .

" I learned later that this train was attacked; a British battalion, which had already distinguished itself at Lierre, was in this engagement, and behaved heroically.

" On the 9th, about 5 o'clock in the evening, we finally reached Gand, where we were able to rest in the house of some friends. I was covered with mud and blood, and exhausted after this march of 34 miles.

" I shall never forget what I saw by the way; here, an old peasant woman dragging a cow after her; there, some townsfolk transporting a piano and a bundle of clothing on a little hand-cart; then a young man who had put his old mother on a bicycle and was walking beside her, supporting her and pushing her forward as best he could. I saw respectable burghers eating turnips which they had pulled up in the fields. All along the road were anxious crowds. And troops infantry, artillery, cavalry, motor-cars by the hundred, carrying wounded soldiers from the forts, and thousand of vehicles of every description. All these making for Gand : our soldiers helping the poor fugitives as far as they were able (27) these brave fellows who were so exhausted and who had to make such long marches." "

The bombardment of Antwerp by this I mean that of the city itself commenced on the night of the 7th of October, towards midnight. It lasted all the next day and all the following night.

" On the 9th of October, about 6 in the morning, there was a moment's respite," reports a native of Antwerp in a private letter. " Was this the end of it? No; the bombardment was resumed, and attained such an intensity that it was almost impossible to distinguish the direction of the shells, which were now arriving from all sides at once. The enemy had been advancing, which explained the respite."

About 8 o'clock MM. Frank, deputy and President of the Intercommunal Commission (for Antwerp and the surrounding communes), De Vos, the burgomaster, and Ryckmans, a senator, left the city in a motor-car to visit the German authorities and request them to put an end to this henceforth useless bombardment. The Consul-General for Spain accompanied them. After exciting adventures, over which I will not linger here, they had, at Contich, an interview with General von Beseler. The Commander of the besieging army hesitated for a long time to treat with these " civilians," stating that a fortress had never been surrendered under such conditions, etc., etc. How-ever, he finally yielded, and a treaty was signed, known as the Treaty of Contich, which settled the conditions under which the German troops were to enter Antwerp.

On the afternoon of Friday, the 9th of October, the Germans entered the great commercial city, for whose conquest they had schemed and prepared for a number of years.

" They showed by their attitude," said an ocular witness, " that they were by no means comfortable in their minds. The deep silence which hung over the city made them uneasy. They carried their rifles handy, ready to fire as they went forward."

Their booty must have caused them some disillusion. Before its cautious retreat the Belgian Army had destroyed all it could not carry away; a number of forts were blown up; the bridge of boats was destroyed; the German merchant vessels seized at the commencement of hostilities were sunk or rendered unnavigable; and the great petroleum reservoirs were fired. In a word, they had destroyed all they could, and had in every way done their best to reduce the significance of the German victory to a minimum.

The retreat from Antwerp was covered and masked until the last moment, not only by the fire of the second ring of forts and by that of a few field batteries, but also by the Belgian and British detachments which courageously occupied the trenches between Contich and the Scheldt through the whole of the 8th.

Nevertheless, the Germans, who had succeeded in crossing the Scheldt at Wetteren, Schoonaerde, and Termonde where they had repaired the bridge destroyed by the Belgians were exerting a strong pressure in the direction of Lokeren. The British and Belgian troops, in order to avoid being cut off, were obliged to divert their march across Flanders sensibly toward the north.

Unhappily, despite the admirable order which presided during this henceforth famous retreat, several thousands of men avoided surrender only by entering Holland. A portion of our fortress troops was also forced to retire into Dutch territory in order not to surrender to the Germans.1

The number of buildings damaged or destroyed during the bombardment of the town and its suburbs amounted to fourteen hundred.

As for the total of the material losses experienced by the nation in Antwerp and the district, it may be estimated at £40,000,000. But what matter these losses, and those, at least five times as great, which the country had suffered during the past two months !—what matter all our grief and mourning even, if honour was saved!

Moreover, the King the soul of our resistance and the bulk of his valiant legions had succeeded in gaining Ostend, where the Government was already installed.

OSTEND

From the commencement of hostilities Ostend underwent a complete metamorphosis. The " Queen of Watering-PIaces," as a rule en fête the whole of the summer, became suddenly solemn and austere.

At the height of the season the Kursaal and the great hotels closed their doors. Later, transformed into hospitals, some of these luxurious buildings, created for pleasure, gave shelter to every kind of suffering.

The bathing-machines were removed from the beach and drawn up on a great level space, where like so many little caravans (28), they were occupied for some weeks by poor refugees from the invaded territory, nomads against their will.

In the town there were still plenty of people, but it was a world expurgated of every frivolous element, and in part made up of refugees, in ever-increasing numbers, who were awaiting the moment of their departure for England; wounded men, half cured, impatient to go back to the front; young men of the 1914 class, who came to equip themselves as well as they could before joining the little garrison of Flanders where they were to receive their first training; while others, more particularly ambulance men and nurses, were newly landed from England.

The sailings of the mail steamers had been reduced from three per diem to one. A cross-Channel boat left for Folkestone every morning about 8 o'clock, and returned the same night. It no longer carried to England gay and noisy excursionists, but fugitives, of all classes of society, many of whom were without shelter, totally ruined, and were leaving, silent and gloomy, with the bitterness of death in their hearts. (On certain days these emigrants were so numerous that the service had to be doubled, two boats sailing in place of one.) At night those who disembarked at Ostend were no longer tourists, but doctors, nurses, ambulance-bearers, officers sometimes all people connected in one way or another with the great drama.

At the harbour station, even between the hours of departure and arrival, there was incessant movement: hundreds of refugees who came to register their names for the next crossing, foreign journalists in search of information, officers, aviators, and what not.

The fishermen rarely put to sea now save to satisfy the requirements of the local market. Most of the fishing-boats remained in the docks, whence, on the other hand, all yachts of every description had departed.

About the loth of August some officers and men of the British Navy installed a hydroplane station on the beach near the lighthouse. This, however, was abandoned some ten or twelve days later. Then, on the 26th of August and the following days, as a result of the incursion of bodies of Uhlans into Flanders, and a skirmish in the neighbourhood of Ostend which cost the lives of some Belgian gendarmes, British cruisers appeared in the roadstead. (Among them were the Hogue and Aboukir, torpedoed and sunk a few weeks later.) British marines were landed 3,500 to 4,000 of them and a superb body of men they were; and they immediately began to organise defensive works all round about the town. However, it was thought, on reflection, that if the Germans were to arrive in force it would be impossible to oppose them by a sufficient defensive, so that it was judged better, in view of such a contingency, to abandon any sort of defence. To the great disappointment of the Ostenders the British troops reembarked at the end of a few days and the cruisers departed. A fine dirigible, which in the intervals between the reconnaissances which it carried out at sea was anchored on one of the racecourses, returned to England at the same time.

At the end of August several thousands of Belgian soldiers disembarked at Ostend, coming from Havre. They had been unable, after the fall of Namur, to rejoin the bulk of the Belgian Army, and had been forced to make a roundabout journey through France. They left at once for Antwerp.

In September French and English transports arrived from time to time. Cargoes of arms and ammunition were landed, aeronautic material, and ambulances. Sometimes torpedo-boats or destroyers on special errands entered the harbour.

At the beginning of October came the Naval Brigades which helped in the defence of Antwerp. What a reception they had while they were with us ! But that was not long; only until the steam was up in the boilers of the engines which drew their trains. What an ardent welcome it was, and with what a fine enthusiasm they practised the rite they had lately adopted ! One of their number, addressing his comrades, would inquire : " Are we downhearted? " and all would reply in unison, with the greatest energy, " No ! " Ten times, twenty times over, indefatigably the same question was repeated, always followed by the same reply.

Remounts for our cavalry, which had seen very hot service, reached us from England also. And then there were the pieces of heavy artilley very difficult to disembark with the insufficient means at our disposal.

No one had lost confidence ! And this optimism hardly diminished when, on the 7th of October, towards midday, a steamer was seen to arrive from Antwerp, bringing the members of the Government, the diplomatic corps, and a number of State officials. No one doubted but that the " national fortress " was holding out, and this migration was regarded merely as a simple measure of prudence, and extreme prudence at that.

Meanwhile an entire British Staff had arrived, in order to organise the " Ostend base "; men of the Army Service Corps came, with their field-kitchens and bread-ovens; and all the wonderful organisation which supplies an army in the field together with a branch of the Naval Transport Service was installed in the port. And then, suddenly, there was a great arrival of troops. On the 8th of October alone sixteen trans-ports entered the port. Some were steamers of 5,000 or 6,000 tons, bringing troops, horses (fine blood-horses for the cavalry, and enormous shire horses for draught purposes), munitions, provisions of all kinds (forage, flour, preserved foods, petrol), guns, motor-lorries and armoured motor-cars all the imposing apparatus of war.

This time there was no longer any doubt : the famous junction between our field army and the armies of the Allies so long longed for, was at last to be effected. Were not the " runners " 1 from Brussels telling all who would give ear that they had seen " red breeches " on the way? Yes, it was certain: the junction between our army and the French and British forces was at last a possibility; and it would be on the banks of the Dendre and the Scheldt as far as Antwerp or, at worst, a little further to the west, all along the Scheldt. . . .

A few trains were still running, maintaining communications between the coast and the as yet unoccupied portion of the country.

And now everything was converging upon Ostend : thousands of fugitives, the clothing depots and the supply services of the Belgian Army; wounded men, who were taken to the local hospitals, or forwarded to other points along the coast, or were even evacuated to France or England.

Then came trains laden with troops, the first coming from Antwerp from Antwerp, of whose fall Ostend had heard with stupefaction rather than anxiety. Troops arrived also by all the roads; thousands and thousands of exhausted infantrymen, covered with mud, almost in rags; cavalry, artillery, and an enormous number of waggons.

In the streets and on the quays the swarms of people were incredible; and at night especially, the town being left in complete darkness owing to the accursed Taubes and Zeppelins, the congested little town presented an unprecedented and indescribable aspect.

The situation at Ostend was in reality extremely precarious, and was soon to become untenable.

Despite the arrival and concentration of French and British troops in Flanders, no effectual " junction " could be accomplished in time to be of service. It was thus essential to take certain requisite measures if the catastrophe was to be prevented which was so skilfully avoided at Antwerp, and these measures would have to be devised and executed without delay.

On the loth of October a Cabinet Council was held, at which General Pau and the British Commander were present.' It was decided to retreat upon the Yser, where the forces would be linked up, and the Government would retire to Havre.

On the night of the loth of October I saw for the last time, for a few moments only, that were all too short, my beloved brother, who, not yet wholly recovered from a wound in the knee, was leaving for Cherbourg, where, while waiting until he could return to the front, he was to direct the training of new recruits with the help of two or three comrades. We even visited not that we could see much of it--one of the famous armoured trains, which had arrived from Antwerp and was then on a siding on the quay, close to the English steamer on board of which my brother embarked with his pupils, to sail at day-break.

Yes, I lived every moment of those last days at Ostend, and I shall always remember them. I was acting as interpreter between the British military and naval services and the Belgian administration, and I was, in particular, in constant communication with the Commissariat and the Naval Transport Service.

We were continually meeting with every sort of difficulty, most of them resulting from the insufficient equipment of the port and the haste with which we had to do everything. But then, on the other hand, what universal good will we encountered in all those for whose assistance we had to apply clerks and officials of the Marine, the Railways, the Telegraphs and Telephones,2 officers of all sorts of civil and military departments--contractors, pilots, mechanics, dock labourers ! What a fine spirit of solidarity inspired all these people, and, above all, how swiftly and completely they adapted themselves to the most unforeseen circumstances !

When, on the 12th of October, the order 'was brought from London by the Naval Transport Service to evacuate the town completely by the following day, there were forty steamers in the outer harbour and the docks six or seven times as many as usual. Some of these, which had served for the transport of troops or horses, were able to leave in ballast immediately. None the less, what block in that little port! Moreover, those vessels which left were soon replaced by others which came from England to evacuate the wounded. And on the quays, too, there was an accumulation of the most varied materials, which had to be embarked with all possible speed, while all this chaos had to be reduced to order and all this disorganisation organised.

Besides the boat which had just sailed with recruits, the British Admiralty had placed at the disposal of the Belgian military authorities four great steamers, on which we had to embark and despatch to the north of France the inventory and stores of the supply corps and the clothing department; pneumatic tyres representing a large sum of money; motor-cars, and all the equipment for repairing them; documents of all sorts, etc., etc., as well as 200 gendarmes who had to report themselves at Havre. Another steamer, the Orange Prince, was to carry the horses and carriages of the Court to England.

Troops were still passing through Ostend, to continue their exhausting retreat towards Nieuport: Belgian and British troops coming from Antwerp, and British artillery which had landed at Zeebrugge.

There was a great movement of wounded too; thousands had to be sent into France by the light railway, or to England.

And there was one interminable convoy of vehicles of every kind: private motor-cars, loaded with luggage and smothered with dust; lorries, drays, waggons, furniture removers' vans, carriages, motor-'buses (yes, the motor-'buses of London " mobilised " !), field-guns, machine-guns drawn by dogs (many of these poor brave dogs were lame). To complicate every-thing, there was an incessant movement of motor-cars on military service passing at a meteoric speed, and in the afternoon a Taube, flying over the town and harbour, dropped its bombs, which, happily, wounded no one, and did not even create the slightest panic.

The Indépendance Belge, that valiant Brussels newspaper, which was first removed to Gand, and had now for some weeks been published in Ostend, appeared for the last time on Monday, the 12th of October. Its editors were aware of the gravity of the situation, but they said nothing; only a short, sober " Editor's Note " made the simple announcement: " Communications being frequently interrupted for military reasons, we are no longer obtaining paper, and it also happens that we cannot send out our issues. To-day we were able to obtain, at the last moment, paper for the present number, but the late hour at which it arrived has allowed us to set up only one page. Under these conditions we notify our subscribers and readers that the publication of our journal will be interrupted for the time being."

About 8 o'clock that evening we received, through the Trans-port Service, a fresh order from London: the English steamers were to put to sea not on the following day, but that very night!

So we had to do in five or six hours what we thought it impossible to complete in twenty or twenty-four !

Counter-orders were immediately given everywhere. We had to split ourselves in two, to be everywhere at the same time . .

There were not enough men to work the cranes, not enough pilots for all these departing steamers; but we managed it, all the same. It was a matter of self-respect with everyone to save all that was in his charge; but it had to be insisted that only what was strictly necessary should be put on board, and in many cases one had to speak a trifle harshly to all these busy people, so full of good will, but so inexperienced; these good people, of whom many had never seen a ship, and who were now entrusted with the stowing away of the most precious cargoes !

What a night ! And what painful sights I witnessed during those last hours as I hurried along the quays!

Here were valiant but weary troopers, arriving on foot from Brussels; some questioned me, asking me where they would find a little water to drink. There were a score of unfortunate wounded soldiers, some of whom were walking painfully with the help of crutches; it was impossible to remove all the wounded in motor-cars or stretchers; so that those who could hobble had to look after themselves. These had mistaken their way; the vessel on which they have to embark, alas ! is yonder, a long way from them.

And the embarkation, effected in all possible haste and in the darkness, of the beautiful Royal horses! An end of all things, one might have been tempted to say, if one had once lost heart!

About 5.30 in the morning of the 13th of October I had to go to the harbour station. Day had hardly begun to dawn, yet there, crowded on to the quay, were 15,000 persons. Certainly there would be as on the preceding days since the exodus from Antwerp two, or perhaps even three, steamers leaving for Folkstone in the course of the morning; but, none the less, it was impossible to think of embarking a fourth part of all these poor people (29).

There were people I knew there, friends even, but no way of helping them. I advised them to leave, without hesitation, by the light railways running to France and Holland; although this was no longer easy, as much of the rolling-stock had been requisitioned by the army.

At 7 o'clock the packet-boat Pieter de Coninck got under way, proceeding to Havre with the members of the Belgian Government (excepting M. de Broqueville, Minister of War, who remained near the King and the Army) , the members of the Diplomatic Corps, the President of the Chamber, some of the Ministers of State, and a few officials.

" How many emotions thrilled us," says one of these distinguished exiles, the Minister of State, M. Hymans, " on this tragic day of exile, when in the morning we saw the beloved shores of our native land grow remote and disappear in the golden mist; and when, in the evening, we came to Havre, passing before the shadowy quays, which were covered with a vast crowd that we guessed at without seeing, and whence rose, in the darkness, shouts of welcome: ' Vivent les Belges! Vive la Belgique!'"

During the whole of that day, the 13th of October, Ostend continued to empty itself. There was a general exodus : by steamer, by fishing-boats, by the light railways, by every possible means of transport.

In the morning a Taube hovered for a few moments above the town, like a sinister bird of prey. One hardly noticed it.

All day long, and all the following night, boats were leaving, and there was an interminable procession of fugitives, too, on the roads leading to Holland and to France. (It was by way of Holland that I, my task once completed, rejoined my people in England).

And when the Germans, having taken possession of Gand and Bruges, arrived at Ostend about 10 o'clock on the morning of the 14th of October, there were no longer ten thousand persons in this town of 40,000 inhabitants, which had at one moment sheltered some 200,000 souls. As for the harbour, it was absolutely empty.

Before leaving Ostend the Government addressed to the Belgian people the following proclamation, signed by all the Ministers:-

FELLOW-CITIZENS,

For nearly two and a half months, at the cost of heroic efforts, the Belgian soldiers have foot by foot defended the soil of our native land.

The enemy felt certain of annihilating our army at Antwerp. But a retreat, whose dignity and order were irreproachable, frustrated this hope, and assured us of the preservation of military forces which will continue without a pause to struggle for the noblest and most righteous of causes.

Henceforth these forces are operating toward our southern frontier, where they are supported by the Allies. With their valiant assistance, the victory of Justice is certain.

Nevertheless, to the sacrifices already accepted by the Belgian nation, with a courage only equalled by their extent, the circumstances of the moment have to-day added a fresh trial!

Lest it should serve the designs of the invader, it is important that the Government should provisionally establish its seat in some locality where it will be able, in touch with the Belgian Army on the one hand, and with France and England on the other, to continue to exercise the powers of national sovereignty and to ensure their continuity.

This is why the Government is today leaving Ostend, with a grateful memory of the welcome which the town has accorded it. It will establish itself provisionally at Havre, where the generous friendship of the Government of the French Republic secures for it the plenitude of its sovereign right, and the complete exercise of its authority and its obligations.

This passing trial, to which our patriotism must for to-day submit, will, we are convinced, be quickly avenged. On the other hand, the public services of Belgium will continue in operation as far as circumstances will permit. The King and the Government rely upon your patriotism and your wisdom. On your side, rely upon our ardent devotion, upon the valour of our army, and the assistance of the Allies in hastening the hour of common deliverance.

Our dear country, odiously treated and betrayed by one of the Powers which had sworn to guarantee its neutrality, is evoking a growing sense of admiration throughout the world.

Thanks to the union, courage, and clear-sightedness of all its children, it will continue to deserve the admiration which encourages it to-day. To-morrow it will emerge from its trials greater in stature and more beautiful, having suffered for justice and the honour of civilisation itself !

Long live free and independent Belgium !

Ostend,, 13th October, 1914.

" A proclamation," said M. Gabriel Hanotaux, a few days later, " consisting wholly of statements and records. No complaint, no harking back to the tragic events of yesterday; hardly an allusion to the bitterness of adding a fresh trial to so many others; and then, suddenly, a considered determination, hope, and unshakable confidence in the victory of Justice."

Our confidence in victory the victory of Justice was indeed unshakable.

Strong in the justice of her cause, Belgium, violated but not dishonoured, was still erect.

Crushed, pressed back by overwhelming forces, the defence had been continually forced to retire; only a tiny corner of the conntry was still free; barely the fortieth part. But the national honour was intact. The honour of Belgium had not yielded an inch ; neither in mutilated Liége, Namur, or Antwerp, nor in oppressed Brussels, nor in martyred Aerschot, Dinant, Termonde, or Louvain.

Mutilated, oppressed, martyred, Belgium was not enslaved; nor will she ever be.

Germany had not " dismayed " her, nor will she ever do so, because, for Belgium, the stake of the struggle is honour, and her honour is and will remain still erect

No, in truth the little kingdom was not " on its knees " before the mighty Empire.