truck and
actually poured (I can think of no other word to describe what happened)
into the street in a shower of bricks. A broken brick struck me on the
shoulder, but its force was spent and I received no injury.

I had scarcely picked myself up and was hastening to a place of safety,
if there were one, when a man about 40 years of age, almost half naked,
rushed out of a house, screaming loudly. He had gone mad.

At this time I was fortunate enough to meet Frank Fox of The Morning
Post. Mr. Fox is an ex-officer of artillery, and he told me he had found
a hotel which, as long as the Germans fired in the direction they were
then firing, was not within the reach of their guns. This was the Hotel
Wagner, which stands behind the Opera House on the Boulevard de
Commerce. It was the only hotel in the city except the Queens Hotel, in
which some representatives of American newspapers had been staying, that
was open. There I found Miss Louise Mack, an Australian authoress, and
she, Fox, and myself were among the few British subjects left in the
port.

As night came the city presented a fantastic appearance as I watched it
from the Hotel Wagner. The glare from the fires that had burst out in
all directions could be seen for miles around. The bombardment was
proceeding furiously, and German shells were bursting in every
direction. I reckoned they were coming in that time at the rate of at
least thirty a minute.

I went to the Queens Hotel to ascertain what had become of the American
journalists. I found they had left the city after having spent the night
in a private house which had been struck three times by shells, and
finally caught fire. Arthur Ruhl of the staff of Collier's Weekly had
left for me this note:

Donald C. Thompson, photographer of The New York World, fitted up
for himself a cellar at 74 Rue de Peage, just by the Boulevard de
Keyser, where shrapnel fell with terrible force during the latter
part of Wednesday. With him were three other Americans. The entire
population, including, of course, the Government of Antwerp, have
made their escape across the pontoon bridge which still connects
the River Scheldt with the road toward Ghent. Two shells demolished
Thompson's retreat and at sundown it burst into flames. The
American Consul General and Vice Consul General had gone by this
time. The following Americans, all of them newspaper men, were
known to have spen