o Ghent.

The wounded came on in Ursula Dearmer's military car.

Twenty-three wounded in all were taken from Lokeren or near it to-day.
Hundreds had to be left behind in the German lines.

* * * * *

We have heard that Antwerp is burning; that the Government is removed to
Ostend; that all the English have left.

There are a great many British wounded, with nurses and Army doctors, in
Ghent. Three or four British have been brought into the "Flandria."

One of them is a young British officer, Mr. ----. He is said to be
mortally wounded.

Dr. Haynes and Dr. Bird have not gone. They and Dr. ---- have joined the
surgical staff of the Hospital, and are working in the operating
theatre all day. They have got enough to do now in all conscience.

All night there has been a sound of the firing of machine guns [?]. At
first it was like the barking, of all the dogs in Belgium. I thought it
_was_ the dogs of Belgium, till I discovered a deadly rhythm and
precision in the barking.[21]

[_Friday, 9th._]

The Hospital is so full that beds have been put in the entrance hall,
along the walls by the big ward and the secretarial bureau. In the
recess by the ward there are three British soldiers.

There are some men standing about there whose heads and faces are
covered with a thick white mask of cotton-wool like a diver's helmet.
There are three small holes in each white mask, for mouth and eyes. The
effect is appalling.

These are the men whose faces have been burned by shell-fire at Antwerp.

The Commandant asked me to come with him through the wards and find all
the British wounded who are well enough to be sent home. I am to take
their names and dress them and get them ready to go by the morning
train.

There are none in the upper wards. Mr. ---- cannot be moved. He is very
ill. They do not think he will live.

There are three downstairs in the hall. One is well enough to look after
himself (I have forgotten his name). One, Russell, is wounded in the
knee. The third, Cameron, a big Highlander, is wounded in the head. He
wears a high headdress of bandages wound round and round many times like
an Indian turban, and secured by more bandages round his jaw and chin.
It is glued tight to one side of his head with clotted blood. Between
the bandages his sharp, Highland face looks piteous.

I am to dress these two and have them ready by eleven. Dr. ---- of the
British Field Hospital, who is