The Ghent correspondent of the London _Daily News_ says in a despatch:
“I have just been talking to the latest refugees from Malines. They left
there yesterday about 4 o’clock, during a lull in the fighting. Out of
60,000 inhabitants, a business man among them told me, hardly 200 are
left in town. Many are dead. The rest have fled.
“‘It has been hell,’ he said, ‘since Monday. The town was shelled from
both sides. The cathedral, the square and half the houses are in ruins.
Old people and young have been killed. Yesterday I found a quiet old
gentleman of 83, whom I have known for years, lying in one of the
trenches by the roadside, utterly exhausted by his flight. His face was
in a pool of water.
“‘Of a family of seven who were friends of ours not one is left. A shell
struck their house on Tuesday morning, and all were killed.’”