von Fuechter and his troops into London has
been so often described that nothing remains for me to say about that.
Also, I am unable to speak as an eye witness, since Constance Grey and
myself were among those who returned to London, in the rear of the
German troops, with the ambulances. The enemy's line of communications
stretched now from the Wash to London, and between Brentwood and London
there were more Germans than English. I believe the actual number of
troops which entered London behind General von Fuechter was under
forty-eight thousand; but to the northward, northeast, and northwest the
huge force which really invested the capital was spread in careful
formation, and amply provided with heavy artillery, then trained upon
central London from all such points as the Hampstead heights.

Although a formal note of surrender had been conveyed to General von
Fuechter at Romford, _after_ the annihilation of our entrenched troops,
occasional shots were fired upon the enemy as they entered London.
Indeed, in the Whitechapel Road, one of the General's aides-de-camp,
riding within a few yards of his chief, was killed by a shot from the
upper windows of a provision shop. But the German reprisals were sharp.
It is said that fifty-seven lives paid the penalty for the shooting of
that aide-de-camp. Several streets of houses in northeast London were
burned.

By this time the Lord Mayor of London had been notified that serious
results would accrue if any further opposition were offered to the
German acceptance of London's surrender; and proclamations to that
effect were posted everywhere. But the great bulk of London's
inhabitants were completely cowed by hunger and terror. Practically, it
may be said that, throughout, the only resistance offered to the Army of
the invaders was that which ended so tragically in the trenches beyond
Epping and Romford, with the equally tragical defence of Colchester, and
some of the northern towns captured by the eighth German Army Corps.

In London the people's demand from the first had been for unconditional
surrender. It was this demand which had culminated in the Westminster
Riot. The populace was so entirely undisciplined, so completely lacking
in the sort of training which makes for self-restraint, that even if the
Government had been possessed of an efficient striking force for
defensive purposes, the public would not have permitted its proper
utilization. The roar of German artillery du