the people, then, in the event of war, would immediately
be reduced to starvation: and the rest of the thirty-eight million
would speedily be forced thither.--L. COPE CORNFORD'S _The
Defenceless Islands_ (London, 1906).

I saw Constance Grey only for a few minutes during that day. She had
passed the stage of shocked sorrow and sad fear in which I had found her
on Sunday, and was exceedingly busy in organizing a corps of assistant
nurses, women who had had some training, and were able to provide a
practical outfit of nursing requisites. She had the countenance of the
Army Medical authorities, but her nursing corps was to consist
exclusively of volunteers.

The organizing ability this girl displayed was extraordinary. She spared
five minutes for conversation, and warmed my heart with her appreciation
of my severance of _The Mass_ connection. And then, before I knew what
had happened, she had me impressed, willingly enough, in her service,
and I was off upon an errand connected with the volunteer nursing corps.
News had arrived of some wounded refugees in Romford, unable to proceed
on their way into London; and a couple of motor-cars, with nurses and
medical comforts, were despatched at once.

Detailed news of the sacking of Colchester showed this to have been a
most extraordinarily brutal affair for the work of a civilized army. The
British regular troops at Colchester represented the whole of our forces
of the northeastern division, and included three batteries of artillery.
The regiments of this division had been reduced to three, and for
eighteen months or more these had been mere skeletons of regiments, the
bulk of the men being utilized to fill other gaps caused by the
consistently followed policy of reduction which had characterized "The
Destroyers'" regime.

A German spy who had been captured in Romford and brought to London,
said that the Commander-in-Chief of the German forces in England had
publicly announced to his men that the instructions received from their
Imperial master were that the pride of the British people must be struck
down to the dust; that the first blows must be crushing; that the
British people were to be smitten with terror from which recovery should
be impossible.

Be this as it may, the sacking of Colchester was a terrible business. A
number of citizens had joined the shockingly small body of regulars in a
gallant attempt at defence. The attempt was quite hopeless; the Ger