he
defenders as the Germans came in at the gate of Malines.

"I was lucky enough to escape by the river to the north in a motorboat.
The bombardment had then ceased, though many buildings were still
blazing, and while the little boat sped down the Scheldt one could
imagine the procession of the Kaiser's troops already goose-stepping
their way through the well-nigh deserted streets.

MANY HARROWING SCENES

"Those forty hours of shattering noise almost without lull seem to me
now a fantastic nightmare, but the sorrowful sights I witnessed in many
parts of the city cannot be forgotten.

"It was Wednesday night that the shells began to fall into the city.
From then onward they must have averaged about ten a minute, and most
of them came from the largest guns which the Germans possess, 'Black
Marias,' as Tommy Atkins has christened them. Before the bombardment had
been long in operation the civil population, or a large proportion of
it, fell into a panic.

"It is impossible to blame these peaceful, quiet-living burghers of
Antwerp for the fears that possessed them when a merciless rain of
German shells began to fall into the streets and on the roofs of their
houses and public buildings. The Burgomaster had in his proclamation
given them excellent advice, to remain calm for instance, and he
certainly set them an admirable example, but it was impossible to
counsel perfection to the Belgians, who knew what had happened to their
fellow-citizens in other towns which the Germans had passed through.

FOUGHT TO GET ON THE BOATS

"Immense crowds of them--men, women and children--gathered along the
quayside and at the railway stations in an effort to make a hasty exit
from the city. Their condition was pitiable in the extreme. Family
parties made up the biggest proportion of this vast crowd of broken men
and women. There were husbands and wives with their groups of scared
children, unable to understand what was happening, yet dimly conscious
in their childish way that something unusual and terrible and perilous
had come into their lives. "There were fully 40,000 of them assembled
on the long quay, and all of them were inspired by the sure and certain
hope that they would be among the lucky ones who would get on board one
of the few steamers and the fifteen or twenty tugboats available. As
there was no one to arrange their systematic embarkation a wild struggle
followed amongst the frantic people, to secure a place. Men, women