Wiring his experiences in Brussels, the correspondent of the London
_Daily News_ said:
“I was stopped by an enormous crowd of refugees flocking along the
Brussels road, on foot and in vehicles and by Red Cross cars. The sight
was pitiful. Of the people leaving their homes by far the greater number
were women. Many of them had young children along whose fathers were at
the front.
“Fear and ignorance have seized the mob. As I was going out a peasant
fired his double-barreled gun at my motor, mistaking my fishing hat for
a German helmet. The shot blew the tail lamp to pieces. To prevent far
worse trouble for him, I stopped the car and got the gun from him and
broke it across the breech, for undoubtedly a German soldier will
retaliate on any civilians who use arms.
“Brussels is now curiously quiet. Big crowds are gathering round the
stations to watch the wounded passing through. I do not think the panic
will be great. A gendarme told me of one old woman who arrived at the
barricades driving six sheep. She did not want the Germans to have them.
She was willing the Belgian soldiers should have them if they would keep
her safe.
“‘Perhaps,’ she added, ‘the Queen and princes might need some mutton.’
“Of the defenses at Antwerp it is not necessary to speak. They are as
nearly impregnable as any can be. Details of fighting are of course
difficult. One can get no soldier who knows what happens outside his own
experience. The field guns seem to have done deadly work on the
advancing infantry. The policy of shooting at officers was kept up as at
Liége.
“As I went to Antwerp early in the morning a great German monoplane with
curved wings and fan-shaped tail followed the railway, keeping exact
pace with the express train from Brussels till we were halfway to
Antwerp. The movement of vast bodies of troops in secret is now
impossible with these military eyes everywhere in the skies.”