12 
LAND & WATER 
August 30, 1917 
Baron Van der Elst, the Sorrotarv -Genera 1 of thf Foreign 
Office, and M. Carton de Wiart, the Minister of justice, for- 
f;etting all about the requirements of the protocol that 1 
should make the first call upon them, came around to see 
if 1 had anv news of their families. I.iickilv 1 had and was 
able to tell them that all was well. 1 did hot know that I had 
so much first-hand knowledge of the people in Brussels, but 
was able to give good news to any number of people. 
It became a regular jov-feastand was more fun for me than 
for anybody else. By eight o'clock we got out to dmner 
but hardly got two consecutive bits without inteiTuptions. 
In the midst of soup; General Yungbluth, Chief of Staff to the 
King, came around in 'full regimentals and wanted to get 
all sorts of news for the Queen. Before we got much further 
others began to arrive and drew up chairs to the table, filling 
up all that part of the room. As we were finishing dinner 
several Ministers of State came in to say tliat the^ Prime 
Minister wanted me to come to meet him and the Cabinet 
Council which was being held just to assure them that all was 
well with their families and to tell them, in the bargain, anything 
tiiat 1 felt 1 properly could. However, I had my real work 
ahead of me— getting oft' my telegrams to \\ ashington. I 
tore myself away from the cirowd and, joining Shennan, who 
was waiting for me in the hall, I made for the Consulate 
Oneral. The C. G. was already there anxious to hear the news. 
1 had to get before the Department all the news I could 
and as comprehensive a statement as possible of everything 
that had happened since communications had been cut. 
1 pounded away until after eleven and got oft' a fat bundle of 
cables, which Sherman took to the ofilice for me. I tlien made 
tracks for the General Staff, where the Cabinet Council was 
waiting for me. 
I Eager for News 
1 have never been through a more moving time than the 
hour and a half I spent with them. It was hard to keep from 
bursting out and telling them everything that I knew would 
interest them. T had bound myself with no promises before I 
left about telling of the situation, but none the less I felt 
bound not to do it. I was able to tell them a great deal 
that was of comfort to them and that could give no ground 
for objection if the Germans were to know of it — and on these 
subjects 1 gave them all they wanted. After telling them all 
1 could about their famihes and friends, 1 let them ask ques- 
tions and did my best to answer those that I could. The first 
thing they wanted to know was how the Germans had be- 
haved in the town. The answer I gave them was satis- 
factor\-. 
Then they wanted to know whether the Royal Palace had 
been respected or whether the German flag was flying over it ; 
also whether the Belgian flag still flew on the Hotel de Ville. 
Their pride in their old town was touching, and when they 
"lieard that no harm had as yet been done it you would have 
thought that thev were hearing good news of friends thej' had 
lost. Then they started in and told me all the news they had 
from outside sources — bits of information which had reached 
them indirectly via Holland and the reports of their military 
authorities. We have never had such complete information 
given us. I made notes of a lot of it and ended with enough 
to justify the trip even if I had not restored communication 
with the Department. 
We stayed on and talked until nearly half-past twelve, 
when I got up and insisted on leaving ; perhaps it is just as 
well. They did not want to break up the party, but when I 
insisted they also made up their mind to call it a day's woi-k 
and quit. 
We brought Van der Elst back to the hotel, and with 
his influence ran our car into the gendarmerie next door. 
Then to bed. 
Blount and I had a huge room on the third floor front. We 
had just got irito bed and were settling down to a good night's 
rest when there was an explosion the like of which I have 
never heard before, and we were rocked as though in cradles. 
We were greatly interested but took it calmly, knowing that 
the forts were nearly four miles out of town and that they 
could bans away as long as they liked without doing more than 
spoil our night's sleep. There were eight of these explosions 
at short intervals, and then as they stopped there was a sharp 
purr like the distant rattle of a machine-gun. As that died 
down the chimes of the Cathedral — the sweetest carillon I have 
ever heard — sounded one o'clock. We thought that the Ger- 
mans must have fried an advance under cover of a bom- 
bardment, and retired as soon as they saw that the forts were 
vigilant and not to be taken by surprise. We did not even get 
out of bed. About five minutes later we heard footsteps on 
the roof and the voice of a woman in a window across the street 
asking someone on the sidewalk below whether it was safe to 
go back to bed. I got out and took a look into the street. 
There were a lot 01 people there talking and gesticulating but 
nothing of enough interest to keep two tired men from sleep, 
so we climbed back into bed and stayed until morning. 
Blount called nv- at what seemed an unreasonably early 
ho»ir and said we should be up and about our day's work. 
When we were both dressed we fo\md that "he had made a bad 
guess, when he looked at his watch and discovered that it 
was only a quarter to seven. Being up, however, we decided 
to go down and get a bite. 
A Zeppelin Raid 
Wlien we got down we found everybody else stirring and 
it toot: us se\-eral minutes to get it through our heads that we 
had been through more excitement than we wotted of. Those 
distant explosions that we had taken so calmly were bombs 
dropped from a Zeppelin which had sailed over the city and 
dropped death and destruction in its path. The first bomb 
fell less than two hundred yards of where we slept — no wonder 
that we were rocked in our beds'. After a little breakfast we 
sallied forth. 
The first bomb was in a little street around the corner 
from the hotel and had fallen into a narrow four-storey house 
which had been blown to bits. When the bomb burst it not 
only tore a fine hole in the inmiediate vicinity, but hurled its 
pieces several hundred yards. All the windows for at least, 
two hundred or three hundred feet were smashed into little bits. 
The fronts of all the surrounding houses were pierced with 
hundreds of holes, large and small. The street itself was filled 
with debris and was impassable. From this place we went to 
the other points \\ here bombs had fallen. As we afterwards 
learned, ten people were killed outright, a number have since 
died of their injuries, and a lot mote are injured and some of 
these may die. 
A number of houses were completely wrecked, and a great 
many will have to be torn down. Arniy officers were amazed 
at the terrific force of the explosions. 'The last bomb dropped 
as the Zeppelin passed over our heads, and fell in the centre 
of a large square- La Place du Poids Publique. It tore a 
hole in the cobble stone pavement some twenty feet square 
and four or five feet deep. Every window in the square 
was smashed to bits. The fronts of the houses were riddled 
with holes, and everybody had been obliged to move out, 
as many of the houses were expected to fall at any time. 
The Dutch Minister's house was near one of the smaller bombs 
and was damaged slightly. Every window was smashed. 
All the crockery and china gone ; mirrors in tiny fragments; 
and the Minister somewhat startled. Not far away was 
Faura, the first secretary of the Spanish Legation. His 
wife had been worried sick for fear of bombardment, and he 
had succeeded only the day before in prevailing upon her to 
go to England with their large family of children. Another 
bomb fell not far from the houses of the C. G. and the V. C. G. 
and they were not at all pleased. The windows in our hotel 
were also smashed. 
We learned that the Zeppelin had sailed over the town not 
more than 500 feet above us ; the motor was stopped some little 
distance away and she slid along in perfect silence and with 
her lights out. It would be a comfort to say just what one 
thinks about the whole business. The pun of the machine- 
guns that we heard after the explosion of the last bomb was 
the starting of the motor which carried our visitor out of 
range of the guns which were trundled out- to attack her. 
Preparations were being made to receive such a visit but they 
had not been completed ; had she come a day or two later 
she would have met a warm reception. The line of match 
was straight across the town on a line from the General Staff, 
the Palace where the Oueen was staying vviththe royal children, 
the military hospital of the Elisabeth filled with wounded, the 
Bourse and some other buildings. It looks very much as 
though the idea had been to drop one of the bombs on the 
Palace. The Palace itself was missed bj' a narrow margin, 
but large pieces of the bomb were picked up on the roof and 
shown me later in the day by Inglebleek, the King's Secretary. 
The room at the General Staff where I had been until half an 
hour before the explosion was a pretty ruin ; and it was just 
as well for us that we left when we did. It was a fine b:g room 
with a glass dome skylight over the big round table where we 
were sitting. This came in with a crash, and was in powder all 
over the place. JS'ext time I sit under a glass skylight in .Ant- 
werp I shall Tiave a guard outside with an eye out for 
Zeppelins. 
If the idea of this charming performance was to inspire 
terror it was a complete failure. The people of the tow^n, far 
from yielding to fear, are devoting all their energies to anger. 
They are furious at the idea of killing their King and Oueen. 
There is no telling when the performance will be repeated, 
but there is a chance that next time the balloon man will get a 
warmer reception. 
{To be continued) 
