The gunners in the four destroyers shot magnificently. Their projectiles

were small, but for fifteen minutes they made incessant hits upon the

German ship’s bow. At last their punishment had the desired effect upon

her. Angry at the attack of these puny little antagonists, the German

captain turned to bring his broadside to bear. As he did so, the

destroyers quickened to thirty knots, and altered course. Though the

German guns maintained a rapid fire upon them, they were going so fast

that they escaped out of effective range without any serious damage,

regained their station on their enemy’s bow, and then reduced speed till

they were within easy range for their little guns. But in the interval

the _Kincardineshire_ had perceptibly gained on the German ship, and was

now within extreme range. About 5.50 p.m. she fired a shot from her

fore-turret, and, as it passed over the German ship, opened a slow but

precise fire from all her 6-inch guns that would bear at about 9000

yards range.

The small shells of the destroyers were beginning to have some effect.

The fore-compartment of the _Kronprinz Wilhelm_ was riddled, and water

was pouring into it at such a pace that the pumps could not keep the

inrush down. The trim of the ship altered slightly, and with this

alteration of trim her speed fell by nearly a knot. The

_Kincardineshire_ began to gain visibly, and her fire to tell more and

more. At 6.50 she was only 7000 yards off the German ship, and her

6-inch guns began to make many hits on the enemy’s stern.

To increase his speed to the utmost the captain of the _Kincardineshire_

set all his spare hands at work to jettison coal, and flung overboard

every bit of lumber. The spare water in his tanks shared the fate of his

surplus fuel. At the same time the stokers in the engine-rooms were told

that the ship was closing the enemy, and worked with a redoubled will.

Large parties of bluejackets led by lieutenants were sent down to pass

coal from the bunkers; in the engine-rooms the water was spouting from

half a dozen hoses upon the bearings. The engineer-lieutenants, standing

in a deluge of spray, kept the pointer of the stokehold telegraphs

always at “more steam.” Smoke poured from the funnels, for no one now

cared about the niceties of naval war.

The ship seemed to bound forward, and with a satisfied smile the

engineer-captain came down into the turmoil to tell his men that the

cruiser was going twenty-four knots, her speed on her trials nearly six

years before. Five minutes later the shock and heavy roar of firing from

twenty guns told the men below that the broadside battery was coming

into action, and that the race was won.

At 7.25 the _Kincardineshire_ had closed the German ship within 5000

yards. About this time the _Kronprinz Wilhelm’s_ speed seemed markedly

to decline, and the big armoured cruiser gained upon her rapidly,

spouting shell from all her guns that would bear.

At 7.40 the British warship was only 3000 yards off, and slightly

altered course to bring her enemy broader on the beam and get the

broadside into battle. Five minutes later a succession of 6-inch hits

from the British guns caused a great explosion in the German ship, and

from under the base of her fourth funnel rose a dense cloud of steam,

followed by the glow of fire through the gathering darkness.

A minute later the _Kronprinz Wilhelm_ stopped, and the chase was over.

She hoisted the white flag, while her captain opened her sea-valves, to

send her to the bottom. But the British destroyers were too quick for

him; a boarding party dashed on board from the _Camelopard_, and closed

the Kingston valves before enough water had been taken into the double

bottom to endanger the liner.

In this brief action between two very unequally matched ships, the

Germans suffered very severely. They had fifty officers and men killed

or wounded out of a crew of 500, while in the British cruiser and the

destroyers only fifteen casualties were recorded. The _Kincardineshire_

stood by her valuable prize to secure it and clear the vessel of the

German crew. The _Kronprinz Wilhelm_ was on fire in two places, and was

badly damaged by the British shells. One of her boilers had exploded,

and her fore-compartment was full of water. But she was duly taken into

Milford next morning, to be repaired at Pembroke Dockyard, and hoist the

British flag.

Meantime, the _Lion_ had been attending to the other German vessels.

After taking part in the destruction of the _Kaiser Wilhelm_ she had

turned north and chased them, aided by the _Selkirk_. Five of the

ocean-going destroyers and the ten Devonport destroyers had already

proceeded to keep them under observation and harry them to the utmost.

They were still going north-west, and had obtained about twenty-five

miles’ start of the two big British cruisers. But as they could only

steam twelve or thirteen knots, while the British ships were good for

twenty-one, they had little chance of escape, the less so as the

14,000-ton-protected cruiser _Terrific_, the flagship of the torpedo

flotilla, was fast coming up at twenty knots from Kingstown, and at 6

p.m. had passed the Smalls, reporting herself by wireless telegraphy,

and taking charge of the operations in virtue of the fact that she

carried a rear-admiral’s flag.

The approach of this new antagonist must have been known to the Germans

by the indications which her wireless waves afforded. On the way she had

received the news of a serious British defeat in the North Sea, and her

Admiral was smarting to have some share in reversing that great

calamity.

Before dusk she was in sight of the seven German ships, with their

attendant British destroyers. The Germans once more scattered. The

_Gefion_, which was the only really fast ship, made off towards the

west, but was promptly headed off by the _Terrific_ and driven back. The

_Pfeil_ headed boldly towards Milford, and as the batteries at that

place were not yet manned, caused some moments of great anxiety to the

British. Two of the fast ocean-going destroyers were ordered to run in

between her and the port and to torpedo her if she attempted to make her

way in through the narrow entrance. Observing their manœuvre, the

German captain once more turned south. The other five German ships kept

in line, and attemped to pass between the Smalls and the Welsh coast.

The _Terrific_ had now closed the _Gefion_ sufficiently to open fire

with her 9·2’s and 6-inch guns. The fight was so unequal that it could

not be long protracted. With every disadvantage of speed, protection,

and armament, the German cruiser was shattered by a few broadsides, and,

in a sinking condition, surrendered just after dark.

The _Selkirk_ and _Lion_ passed her and fired a few shots at her just

before she struck, but were ordered by the Rear-Admiral to attend to the

other German ships. Five shots from the _Lion’s_ bow 9·2-inch gun

settled the _Pfeil_, which beached herself in Freshwater Bay, where the

crew blew up the ship, and were captured a few hours later. Thus four of

the ten raiders were disposed of, and there now remained only five

within reach of the British ships clearing the Bristol Channel.

It was 9 p.m. before the _Lion_ and _Selkirk_ had closed on the remnant

of the German squadron which had raided the South Wales ports

sufficiently to engage it. The five German ships had passed through the

dangerous passage between the Smalls and the mainland without

misadventure, and were slightly to the north-west of St. David’s Head.

Right ahead of them were the British destroyers, ready to co-operate in

the attack as soon as the big cruisers came up; abreast of the German

line were the two large British armoured cruisers; well astern of them

was the _Terrific_, heading to cut off their retreat. The German ships

were formed up with the _Cormoran_ at the head, and astern of her in

line the _Sperber_, _Schwalbe_, _Meteor_, and _Falke_. None of these

poor old vessels mounted anything larger than a 4-inch gun, and none of

them could steam more than twelve knots. The only course remaining for

them was to make some show of fight for the honour of the German flag,

and to their credit be it said that they did this.

The task of the British cruisers was a simple one. It was to destroy the

German vessels with their powerful ordnance, keeping at such a distance

that the German projectiles could do them no serious damage. At 9.10 the

fight began, and the _Lion_ and _Selkirk_ opened with their entire

broadsides upon the _Cormoran_ and _Falke_. The Germans gallantly

replied to the two great cruisers, and for some minutes kept up a

vigorous fire.

Then the _Cormoran_ began to burn, and a few minutes later the _Falke_

was seen to be sinking. The British ships turned all their guns upon the

three remaining vessels. The _Meteor_ blew up with a terrific crash, and

went to the bottom; the _Sperber_ and _Schwalbe_ immediately after this

hoisted the white flag and made their surrender. The battle, if it

could be called a battle, was over before ten, and the officers and men

of the British ships set to work to rescue their enemies. The British

casualties were again trifling, and the German list a heavy one. Of the

officers and men in the five German cruisers over a hundred were

drowned, killed, or wounded.

Thus the British Navy had made a speedy end of the raiders in the

Bristol Channel, and, owing to the vigorous initiative of the Devonport

commander and the Rear-Admiral in charge of the torpedo flotilla, had

practically wiped out a German squadron. Only the _Deutschland_ had got

away to sea, but the Portsmouth armoured cruisers had been instructed to

proceed in search of her, co-operating with the cruisers of the Channel

Fleet.

The Channel Cruiser Squadron during the afternoon of Sunday had been

ordered to deflect its movement and steer for Queenstown, so as to get

across the line of retreat of the German ships. Constant communication

with it was maintained by the great long-distance naval wireless station

at Devonport, one of the three such stations for which funds had been

obtained with the utmost difficulty by the Admiralty from a reluctant

Treasury. Its value at the present juncture was immense.

As night came down, Rear-Admiral Hunter, in command of the Channel

Cruiser Squadron, was informed that a large German liner had escaped

from the Bristol Channel. His most advanced ship was now in touch with

Queenstown, and about sixty miles from the place. The rest of his force

was spaced at intervals of ten miles between each ship, covering eighty

miles of sea.

The two protected cruisers of the Devonport Reserve Squadron,

_Andromache_ and _Sirius_, ships of 11,000 tons and about nineteen knots

sea speed, had taken station to the north of the Scillies, with one of

the battleships of the Devonport Reserve supporting them. The other

battleship was posted between the Scillies and the Longships. Off Land’s

End a powerful naval force was fast assembling, as ships and torpedo

vessels came up one by one from Devonport as soon as they had mobilised.

Ten more destroyers arrived at four on Sunday afternoon, and were at

once extended north; at 8 p.m. the two fast Portsmouth armoured cruisers

_Southampton_ and _Lincoln_ arrived, and steamed northwards to prolong

the cordon formed by the ships to the north of the Scillies, and a few

minutes later a third ship of the “County” class, hastily mobilised, the

_Cardigan_, arrived, and placed herself under Rear-Admiral Armitage,

commanding the Devonport Reserve. She was stationed just to the south of

the Scillies.

All the evening, wireless signals had been coming in from the Channel

Cruiser Squadron, as it moved northwards far out at sea beyond the

advanced guard about Land’s End. At 8.50 p.m. a signal from it announced

that a large liner was in sight moving south-west, and that Admiral

Hunter’s ships were in full chase of her. The British cruiser

_Andromache_, off the Scillies, and the three ships of the “County”

class off Land’s End, were at once directed upon the point where Admiral

Hunter’s signals had reported the enemy. Thirteen British vessels thus

were converging upon her, twelve of them good for twenty-three knots or

more.

The captain of the _Deutschland_, after dashing through the British

cordon off Lundy Island, stood for several hours westwards at twenty

knots, intending at dusk to turn and pass wide of the Scillies, and

hoping to escape the British under cover of darkness. He was under no

illusions as to the danger which threatened him. From every quarter

British wireless signals were coming in--from the west, south, and

north--while to the east of him was the _cul-de-sac_ of the Bristol

Channel. All lights were screened on board his gigantic liner.

About 8 p.m. his lookouts reported a large ship rapidly moving north,

ten miles away. He slightly altered course, hoping that he had escaped

observation, and stood more to the south. Two minutes later the

lookouts reported another very large ship with four funnels passing

right across the line of his advance.

The strange ship, which was the British armoured cruiser _Iphigenia_,

fired a gun and discharged two rockets in quick succession. Another

half-minute and the beam of a searchlight from her rose skywards,

signalling to her sister ships that here at last was the prey. Five

other searchlight beams travelled swiftly over the water towards the

_Deutschland_ and caught the liner in their glare. Forthwith from south

and north came the flashing of searchlights and the heavy boom of guns,

and the whole nine cruisers of the Channel Squadron over their front of

eighty miles began to move in upon the German vessel.

Her only chance was to make a dash through one of the wide gaps that

parted each pair of British cruisers, and this was not a very hopeful

course. The German captain had already recognised the British ships from

their build, and knew that the two nearest were good for 23½ knots, and

that they each carried four 12-inch and eight 9·2-inch guns. He steered

between the _Iphigenia_ and _Intrepid_, fearful if he turned back that

he would be cut off by the British cruisers behind him in the Bristol

Channel.

Observing his tactics, the two British ships closed up, steaming inwards

till the gap narrowed to five miles. The _Deutschland_ turned once more,

and endeavoured to pass south of the _Iphigenia_ and between her and the

next vessel in the British line, the _Orion_; but her change of course

enabled the _Iphigenia_ to close her within 7000 yards and to open fire

from the forward 12-inch barbette. Five shots were fired with both

vessels racing their fastest, the _Deutschland_ to escape and the

_Iphigenia_ to cut her off, and the fifth shell caught the German vessel

right amidships, exploding with great violence. The starboard 9·2-inch

barbette simultaneously hit her three times astern, just between her

fourth funnel and the mainmast, but all these shells seemed to pass

right through the ship. The _Deutschland_ doubled yet again, to avoid

the fire, but now found the _Orion_ coming up astern.

The German vessel was going about twenty-four knots, but the _Orion_ put

two 12-inch shells into her from the fore-barbette before she passed out

of practical range. Just then the _Sirius_ came up from the east, and

steering across the bows of the _Deutschland_ at about 5000 yards fired

in a couple of minutes about 120 6-inch shells at her, hitting her

repeatedly.

The arrival of this new antagonist from the east compelled the German

captain to alter course afresh and make one more bid for safety. The

damage done to his ship by the British shells had been exceedingly

serious; two fires had broken out amidships, and were gaining; one of

the funnels was so riddled that the draught in the group of boilers

which it served had fallen, and the speed of the ship had diminished by

a full knot. The big British armoured cruisers, after being for a few

minutes left astern, were fast gaining on her. Nevertheless she now

stood towards them and endeavoured to pass between them.

The desperate effort was doomed to fail. The _Orion_ and _Iphigenia_

closed her, one on each beam, and opened fire with their tremendous

broadsides. The end came quickly. Three 12-inch shells from the

_Iphigenia_ caught her amidships, low down on the hull near the

waterline, and amidst a series of explosions her engines stopped and she

began to sink. The injury done to her was too extensive to save her, and

at 9.50 p.m. the sea closed over the last of the German raiders in that

vicinity.

Those of the crew who survived were rescued by the _Orion_. Meantime the

rest of the British cruisers had set to work to scout in the entrance to

the Channel in order to capture the German ships which had appeared off

Portsmouth. No trace, however, could be discovered of them, and at dawn

on Monday the British Admiral reported that the Channel was thoroughly

cleared. The _Sirius_ and _Andromache_ were then instructed to proceed

to the west coast of Ireland, off which three German liners had

appeared, damaged the Atlantic cables at Valentia, and captured a

British steamer in sight of Cape Clear.

After the hard work in the Channel, most of the cruisers needed coal.

Detachments of the Fleet put into Falmouth, Portland, Milford, and

Queenstown to fill their bunkers. Two of the “County” cruisers were sent

north to watch off Cape Wrath for the approach of any German force from

Lerwick. Two more of the same class were sent up the Channel and took

station between Dungeness and Boulogne. Monday and Tuesday were quiet

days from the naval point of view, as there was great delay in the

coaling, owing to the damage done by the Germans in South Wales.

For military reasons, the Admiralty, which had now at last been freed

from hampering civilian control and granted a free hand, issued orders

on the Sunday night that all news of the British successes should be

suppressed. It was publicly given out in London that the raiders had

escaped after a sharp action in the Channel, and that only one of them

had been captured. The officers and men in the British ships engaged

most loyally observed secrecy, and the large number of prisoners were

sent north to the Isle of Man, control of which island and the telegraph

cables leading to it the Admiralty had now taken over.

It was strange and tragi-comic that, though the German ships which had

made the raid were lying at the bottom of the sea or in British hands,

the public furiously attacked the Navy for its failure to destroy them

or prevent their attacks. The news had come during the afternoon of

Sunday that heavy and continuous firing had been heard off the South

Wales coast. From Newquay, reports had been telegraphed to much the same

effect, of heavy gusts of cannonading during the afternoon and evening

far out to sea, and had raised men’s hopes and expectations.

No one was allowed to telegraph from Milford the news that a great

German liner had arrived there under a British prize crew. The Press

messages were accepted at the post-office and were quietly popped into

the waste-paper basket by a lieutenant, who, with a file of marines, had

been installed there to act as censor. The towns of Pembroke and Milford

were placed under martial law by special proclamation, and on Sunday

night a British general order appeared stating that any person found

sending military or naval news would be shot by drum-head court-martial.

On Monday similar proclamations were posted up in Portsmouth, Devonport,

and Chatham, and caused quite a scurry of correspondents from these

towns. The Government and the Admiralty were most furiously attacked for

this interference with liberty, and, but for the terrible series of

defeats and the rapid progress of the German invasion, the Government

would probably have thrown the Admiralty over and surrendered to the

cries of the mob.

Most violent were the attacks upon the Admiralty for its foolish and

unwise reductions in the Navy, for selling old ships which might in this

emergency have done good service, for its failure to station torpedo

craft along the east coast, and to instal wireless telegraph stations

there. These attacks had reason behind them, and they greatly weakened

the hand of the Admiralty at a dangerous moment. Fortunately, however,

the young officers of the Navy had been taught fearlessness of all

consequences, and they carried out with an iron hand the regulations

which were essential for success in regaining the command of the sea.

Nor were the Germans even on the east coast, where they were as yet left

undisturbed, to have matters all their own way. Their cruisers, indeed,

were stationed right up the coast, maintaining an effective blockade and

transmitting wireless signals. At Lerwick was a considerable squadron;

off Wick was the _Kaiserin Augusta_; off Aberdeen, the _Hansa_; off

Newcastle, the _Vineta_; off Hull, the _Freya_; and farther south the

whole massed force of the German Navy. They levied ransoms, intercepted

shipping, and did what they liked beyond the range of the few coast

batteries.

But in the Straits of Dover they had one very serious misadventure.

People on the cliffs of Dover on Tuesday morning, watching that stretch

of water, which was now empty of all shipping but for the German torpedo

vessels incessantly on the patrol, and but for the outlines of large

German cruisers on the northern horizon, were certain that they saw one

of the big German cruisers strike a mine.

There was a great cloud of smoke, and a heavy boom came over the sea;

then a big four-funnelled vessel was seen to be steering for the French

coast with a very marked list. On the Wednesday it was known that the

German armoured cruiser _Scharnhorst_ had struck one of the German mines

adrift in the Straits of Dover, and had sustained such serious injury

that she had been compelled to make for Dunkirk in a sinking condition.

There she was immediately interned by the French authorities, and when

the German Government remonstrated, the French Ministry pointed out that

a precisely similar course had been taken by Germany at Kiaochau, during

the Far Eastern war, with the Russian battleship _Tzarevitch_.

* * * * *

Very late on Monday night the battleships of the Channel Fleet passed

the Lizard, having received orders to proceed up Channel and join the

great fleet assembling at Portland. Already there were concentrated at

that point eleven battleships of the Devonport and Portsmouth reserve

squadrons, seven armoured cruisers, and fifty torpedo vessels of all

kinds. At Chatham, where the activity shown had not been what was

expected of the British Navy, the Commander-in-Chief had been removed on

Monday morning and replaced, and a fresh officer had also been appointed

to the command of the reserve squadron.

The policy enjoined on him was, however, a waiting one; the vessels at

Chatham, being exposed, if they ventured out, to attack by the whole

force of the Germans, were to remain behind the guns of the forts, or

such guns as had not been sold off by the War Office and the British

Government in the general anxiety to effect retrenchments. The entire

naval force was mobilised, though the mobilisation was not as yet quite

complete.

On Tuesday night the British Admiralty had available the following

ships:--

AT PORTLAND--

Eleven battleships of the Channel Fleet.

Eleven battleships of the Reserve.

Seven armoured cruisers.

Twelve ocean-going destroyers.

Twelve coastal destroyers.

Ten submarines.

Twenty older destroyers.

Ten protected cruisers.

OFF DUNGENESS--

Two armoured cruisers.

Ten submarines.

Four sea-going destroyers.

Ten older destroyers.

Twelve coastal destroyers.

WEST COAST OF IRELAND--

Two large protected cruisers.

MILFORD HAVEN--

Nine armoured cruisers of the Channel Cruiser Squadron.

Eight ocean-going destroyers.

LAND’S END--

One large protected cruiser.

Ten older destroyers.

CAPE WRATH--

Two armoured cruisers.

Ten older destroyers.

Twelve ocean-going destroyers.

And at various points along the south coast twelve coastal destroyers

and a dozen old protected cruisers. The Chatham ships were not included

in this force, and mustered eight battleships, four armoured cruisers,

twelve coastal destroyers, twenty older destroyers, and twenty

submarines, besides a number of smaller and older cruisers of doubtful

value.

On Tuesday evening the Admiralty ordered the Channel Armoured Cruiser

Squadron to put to sea from Milford, proceed north round the coast of

Scotland, picking up on its way the two armoured cruisers and torpedo

flotilla off Cape Wrath, which had taken up their position at Loch

Eriboll, and then to attack the German detachment at Lerwick, and clear

the northern entrance to the North Sea. A large number of colliers were

to accompany or follow the fleet, which was strictly ordered not to risk

an engagement with the main German forces, but to retire if they

appeared, falling back on the Irish Sea.

The squadron at 6 p.m. that night, with bunkers full, weighed anchor and

proceeded at 18 knots. It passed rapidly up the west coast of Scotland

without communicating with the shore, and shortly before midnight on

Wednesday joined the Loch Eriboll detachment, which was waiting its

arrival, ready to proceed with it. At Loch Eriboll it refilled its

bunkers from four colliers that had been sent in advance, and soon after

daybreak on Thursday steamed out from that remote Scottish haven for the

scene of action, leaving four destroyers to watch the harbour. Two more

colliers arrived as it left.

One of the armoured cruisers and eight ocean-going destroyers were

instructed to wait till the afternoon, and then move towards the

Pentland Firth. Six of the older destroyers were to follow them, and

hold the waters of the Firth if the Germans were not in any great force.

The other ten armoured cruisers, with four ocean-going destroyers, would

make a wide sweep at full speed round the north of the Orkneys, so as to

cut off any German vessels in the Pentland Firth. Strict orders were

given that if the German battleships or armoured cruisers in any force

were encountered a prompt retreat must be beaten, and that until the

approach of the British Fleet had been detected by the enemy, wireless

signalling was not to be used.

The great expanse of ocean was troubled only by a heavy swell as the ten

cruisers passed away from sight of land to the north-east. At 10 a.m.

they passed to the north of Westray; at noon they rounded North

Ronaldshay. Up to this point not a vessel had been seen, whether foe or

friend or neutral. Now they steered south, keeping well out so as to

come in upon the Orkneys, where the Germans were believed to have landed

men, from the east. They were a little to the south of Fair Island when

a large destroyer was seen running away fast to the north.

Two of the four ocean-going destroyers with the cruisers at once started

in pursuit, and the armoured cruiser _Lincoln_ followed in support. The

rest of the British squadron continued towards the Pentland Skerries,

and as it moved, felt the wireless signals of a strange force. Five

minutes later a steamer was made out to the south, and, when the British

cruisers neared her, was seen to be the _Bremen_, or one of her class.

She fired guns, and stood away to the east.

The _Orion_ at once gave chase to her, while the other eight British

cruisers now divided, two making a wide sweep south for Wick, to look

for the German cruiser reported off that place, and the remaining six

steering for the Pentland Firth, in which, according to local reports,

the German torpedo craft were constantly cruising. The _Orion_ was soon

lost to view as she went off fast to the east after the German ship.

Three hours after passing North Ronaldshay the six cruisers and their

two destroyers drew in towards the Pentland Skerries from the east. The

sound of shots from the Firth and from behind Stroma told that the

co-operating division of the fleet was already at work. And presently

through the Firth came racing, at top speed, two German torpedo boats,

with eight British destroyers firing furiously at them, astern of them.

The chase was over in a minute. Finding themselves surrounded and their

escape cut off, with the much faster British destroyers astern of them

and the Armoured Cruiser Squadron ahead of them, the two German boats

turned and ran ashore close under John o’ Groats House, where their

crews blew them up and surrendered.

The Firth was cleared, and the co-operating squadron joined hands with

the main force. A fresh detachment of two cruisers was sent off to steam

direct for Aberdeen, and attack the German cruiser off that place, in

case she had not already retired. If she had gone, the two cruisers were

to move direct on Lerwick. But the arrival, two hours later, of the two

cruisers which had been sent to look after the German ship at Wick, with

the news that she had hurriedly left about the time when the _Bremen_

was sighted, no doubt alarmed by the _Bremen’s_ wireless signals,

suggested that there was little chance of catching the enemy at

Aberdeen.

The seven armoured cruisers and the ten big destroyers now steamed well

out into the North Sea, going full speed to get upon the German line of

retreat from Lerwick, before moving up along it on the Shetlands. For

six hours they kept generally eastwards, and at 10 p.m. were extended

over a front of about 100 miles, with six miles’ interval between each

cruiser and destroyer. Two of the very fastest turbine destroyers, which

could do 30 knots at sea, formed the north-eastern extremity of the

line, to the east of the Bressay Bank.

These skilful tactics were rewarded with a measure of success. The

wireless signals of the _Bremen_ had alarmed the German squadron at

Lerwick, about 1 p.m. on Thursday. Its division of fast cruisers put to

sea without a moment’s delay. The older cruisers, _Irene_ and _Grief_,

however, were coaling, and were delayed two hours in getting to sea,

while the two gun-boats _Eber_ and _Panther_ had not got steam up, and

had to be left to co-operate with the garrison.

Two torpedo boats were also detached for the purpose of assisting the

German land force, which had thrown up two batteries and mounted two

5-in. howitzers and two 4-in. guns to protect the mine-fields laid in

the entrances to the harbour. The Germans knew every point and feature

in the island group, as the British Admiralty had permitted them to use

it for their manœuvres in 1904.

Of the German torpedo flotilla, one large destroyer had been cruising

off the Orkneys, and had been seen and chased without success by the

British Fleet. Two torpedo boats in the Pentland Firth had already been

accounted for. Four large destroyers were lying with steam up at

Lerwick, and put to sea with the fast German cruisers. Seven other

destroyers, boats of 750 tons, were engaged in patrolling the waters

eastwards from the Shetlands to the Norway coast, and were speedily

warned.

[Illustration]

The faster German vessels successfully escaped round the front of the

British cordon of cruisers and destroyers. The _Irene_ and _Grief_ were

less fortunate. They were sighted soon after 10 p.m., steaming due east,

and were easily overtaken and destroyed with little more than a show of

resistance. The British vessels which were innermost in the long line

were near Lerwick a couple of hours later, and sent in three

ocean-going destroyers to watch the port, waiting till daylight before

attacking it.

During the night the _Orion_ communicated by wireless signals the news

that, after a long chase, she had overtaken and sunk the _Bremen_, which

had made a gallant fight against overwhelming odds. The _Lincoln_, with

her two destroyers, rejoined the fleet, reporting that the German

destroyer which they had pursued had got away. A British destroyer was

sent south to Fair Island to watch the channel between the Orkneys and

Shetlands. Another destroyer was sent off to Loch Eriboll to bring up

the rest of the older British destroyers and the colliers to Kirkwall,

where the British vessels intended to establish an advanced base. The

news of the successes gained was at once communicated to the Admiralty

by cipher message.

On Friday at daybreak one of the British ocean-going destroyers steamed

into Lerwick under the white flag, with a demand from Rear-Admiral

Hunter for the immediate surrender of the place. Failing surrender, the

communication informed the German commandant that the British ships

would shell the town, and would exact exemplary punishment from the

German force. The commander of the destroyer was instructed, if the

German commandant showed a bold front, to call upon him to clear the

town of civilians and permit the British inhabitants to withdraw.

The British destroyer which took in this communication was not permitted

to approach the mine-field. One of the German torpedo boats came out and

received the letter. If the demand for the surrender was acceded to the

German commandant was instructed to hoist a white flag within twenty

minutes.

The officers of the destroyer could see that four large merchant

steamers and some warships were inside Bressay Sound. Small guns could

be made out on Fort Charlotte and the Wart of Bressay, and two heavy

weapons in position near Lerwick behind newly-raised earthworks.

The British note stated that operations would be at once commenced

against the town, but the Admiral gave his ships orders not as yet to

train their weapons on it, hoping to escape the cruel necessity of

shelling a British seaport. At the expiration of twenty minutes the

German flag still flew over the German works, and it became clear that

the enemy did not intend to surrender. Signals were therefore made in

the international code that a respite of three and a half hours would be

allowed for the civilians, women and children, to quit Lerwick, but that

the British warships would forthwith attack the German positions away

from the harbour.

Four of the smaller destroyers pushed carefully in under Hildesay,

searching and sweeping for mines. They were fired upon from the shore,

and replied with their 12-pounders, shelling the German works

vigorously, but carefully avoiding the town. Apparently the Germans had

not mined the waters to the west of the long and narrow peninsula upon

which Lerwick stands. Mines were seen at both ends of Bressay Sound, but

Deal’s Voe seemed to be clear.

At noon the _Iphigenia_ steamed inside Hildesay to shell the town and

works from the west. The _Orion_ closed in cautiously from the

north-east upon Deal’s Voe. The other armoured cruisers took up a

position about 8000 yards from Lerwick, to the south of the southern

entrance to Bressay Sound. The destroyers were close at hand, and one of

the large cruisers was stationed to the south-east to give timely notice

in case any German naval force should appear.

At 12.5 the first shot was fired by the _Iphigenia_, which trained her

two forward 12-in. guns upon Fort Charlotte and fired them in

succession. Both hit the target, and the two huge shells demolished the

fort, putting the small German guns there out of action, and killing or

wounding their gunners. Simultaneously the other cruisers had opened

upon Lerwick and the German works on the Wart of Bressay, firing their

12-in. and 9·2-in. guns slowly, with extreme accuracy and prodigious

effect. A few shots silenced the four heavy German guns.

The _Orion_ did magnificent shooting with her 9·2’s, which she chiefly

used; these big guns tore down the German earthworks, and set the town

on fire. The cruisers to the south directed several shells upon the

German ships in the Sound, and sank one of the big steamers, setting

another on fire, and badly damaging the gunboats _Eber_ and _Panther_.

Both the German torpedo boats were hit and damaged.

The German force was in a difficulty--indeed, a desperate position.

Seemingly, the German Admiralty had not calculated upon such a rapid

move of the British cruisers by the Irish Sea northward, but had rather

expected them to come up the North Sea. Reports that a movement up the

North Sea was intended had reached Berlin from the German secret agents

in London late on Tuesday night, with the result that the German Fleet

had concentrated off the Suffolk coast.

The troops at Lerwick had not had time to fortify the position or to

construct bomb-proofs and shelters. If the bulk of the garrison withdrew

from the town, the British ships might land parties of Marines and seize

it; if the Germans remained, they must face a terrific fire, which did

great execution, and this though a good many of the British shells

failed to explode.

From time to time the British destroyers came in closer than the large

ships, and, now that the German artillery was silenced, shelled the town

and any troops that they saw with their 12-pounders and 3-pounders. They

were also getting to work in the Sound to clear away the mines,

exploding heavy charges in the minefield, and sweeping for mines under

the guns of the big ships.

They made so much progress that late in the afternoon the _Warspite_ was

able to steam in to 4500 yards, at which range her 9·2-in. guns

speedily completed the destruction of the war-vessels and shipping in

the harbour. She was also able to fire with deadly effect upon the

German earthworks. Her shells exploded a magazine of ammunition and set

fire to a large depôt of food, consisting of boxes which had been

hastily landed, and were lying ashore covered with tarpaulins.

Her smaller guns at this short range were most effective; the 3-pounders

played on the German works on the Wart of Bressay, and drove the remnant

of the force holding them to flight. But as the troops endeavoured to

make their escape they were caught by the fire of two of the destroyers,

which turned their 12-pounders and rained shells upon them.

At dusk the British cruisers to the east of Lerwick drew off, to avoid

any mines that might have got adrift. The _Iphigenia_ remained to the

west of the town, and fired several shots during the night, while the

British destroyers were most active, firing their small guns whenever

they saw any sign of movement.

Early next day the attack was about to recommence, when the German

colonel in command hoisted the white flag, and made his surrender. Owing

to the destruction of his food depôt and the explosion of his magazine

he was short both of ammunition and food. Thus, after a brief spell of

German rule--for the place had been solemnly annexed to the German

Empire by proclamation--the British took possession of a ruined town and

captured a considerable German force, numbering about 1100 men.

While the British cruisers were busy recovering control of the

Shetlands, the Atlantic Fleet, four battleships strong, had arrived at

Portland, and joined the imposing fleet which was assembling at that

splendid harbour. The Mediterranean Fleet, four battleships strong, was

following in its wake, detaching its two armoured cruisers for work off

Gibraltar and the entrance to the Mediterranean, where German

commerce-destroyers were reported to be busy.

The British Admiralty had decided to evacuate the Mediterranean and

leave Egypt to its fate. Orders were given to block the Suez Canal, and

though this act was an obvious infraction of international law, it

elicited only mild protests from the Powers, which anxiously hoped for a

British victory in the war. The protests were formal, and it was

intimated that there was no intention of supporting them by force,

provided the British Government would defray the loss caused by its

action to neutral shipping.

A conflict between the military and civil authorities occurred on the

Saturday following the outbreak of war. The Admiralty up to this point

had succeeded in throwing a veil of silence over the British movements,

and not even the striking successes of the British Fleet were generally

known. But Ministers, and the First Lord of the Admiralty in particular,

fearing for their own lives, and appalled by the furious outcry against

themselves, on Saturday insisted upon issuing an official notice to the

effect that the German Fleet which had raided South Wales had been

completely annihilated, and Lerwick recaptured by the British Navy.

Hundreds of German prisoners, added the proclamation, had been made.

To such a degree had the public lost faith in the Government, that the

news was received with scepticism. The official Press in Germany

ridiculed the intelligence, though the German Government must have been

aware of its truth. It was only with extreme difficulty that the

civilian members of the Government were prevented from publishing the

exact strength of the British naval force available for operations

against the Germans, but a threat by the Sea Lords to take matters into

their own hands and appeal to the nation, prevented such a crowning act

of folly.

Four armoured cruisers of the “County” class, exceedingly fast ships,

had been pushed up behind the Channel cruisers, with instructions to

carry on the work of harassing the Germans while the Channel cruisers

coaled. The new cruiser detachment was to join the two ships of the

“County” class already at Kirkwall, move cautiously south, with six

ocean-going destroyers and six of the older destroyers, along the Scotch

coast, establish its base at Aberdeen or Rosyth, and raid the German

line of communications.

It was to be known as the Northern Squadron, and was placed under the

orders of Rear-Admiral Jeffries, an able and enterprising officer. In

case the Germans moved against it in force, it was to retire northwards,

but its commander was given to understand that on September 17 the main

British Fleet would advance from the north and south into the North Sea

and deliver its attack upon the massed force of the German Navy.

Meanwhile, in preparation for the great movement, assiduous drill and

target practice proceeded in the neighbourhood of Portland. The British

battleships daily put to sea to fire and execute evolutions. The most

serious difficulty, however, was to provide the ample supplies of

ammunition needed, now that the Germans were in possession of so much of

England, that the railway service was disorganised, and that an enormous

consumption of cordite by the British land forces was taking place. The

coal question was also serious, as the South Wales miners had struck for

higher wages, and had only been induced to return to their work by the

promise of great concessions. The officers and men of the Navy could not

but be painfully struck by the strange want of zeal and national spirit

in this great emergency shown by the British people.

On the 11th two of the “County” cruisers steamed south from Dingwall to

replace the two ships which had, earlier in the operations against the

Shetlands, been despatched to Aberdeen, and which were now to rejoin the

Channel cruisers and concentrate in the Dornoch Firth. They reported

that the German cruiser off Aberdeen had made good her escape, and that

they had scouted so far south as the entrance of the Forth without

discovering any trace of German vessels.

On the 12th the four other cruisers of the “County” class and the

destroyers reached Aberdeen early in the morning, and the Rear-Admiral

set to work with zeal and energy to disturb and harass his enemy to the

utmost. The _Southampton_ and _Kincardine_, two of the fast cruisers,

with two ocean-going destroyers, were instructed to steam direct for the

German coast, and sink any vessel that they sighted. The _Selkirk_ and

_Lincoln_, with the rest of the destroyers, under his own orders, would

clear the Forth entrance and move cautiously southward towards

Newcastle, if no enemy were encountered. Yet another pair of cruisers,

the _Cardigan_ and _Montrose_, were to steam for the Dutch coast and

there destroy German vessels and transports. Two of the older protected

cruisers were brought to link up the advanced detachments by wireless

telegraphy with the Forth, when the Germans were forced away from that

point.

About noon the Rear-Admiral, with his cruisers, appeared off the Forth,

and learnt that for three days no German vessels had been reported off

the coast, but that the entrance to the estuary was believed to have

been mined afresh by the Germans and was exceedingly unsafe. The

armoured cruiser _Impérieuse_, which had been damaged in the battle of

North Berwick, had now been sufficiently repaired to take the sea again.

She had coaled and received ammunition, and was at once ordered to join

the Northern Squadron.

The armoured cruisers _Olympia_ and _Aurora_, and the battleship

_Resistance_, which had been badly damaged in the torpedo attack that

opened the war, were also nearly ready for service, and could be counted

on for work in forty-eight hours. It had been supposed at the time that

they were permanently injured, but hundreds of skilled Glasgow artisans

had been brought over by train and set to work upon them, and with such

energy had they laboured that the damage had been almost made good. For

security against any German attack, the ships lay with booms surrounding

them behind a great mine-field, which had been placed by the naval

authorities.

The Rear-Admiral in command of the Northern Fleet ordered a passage

through the German minefield to be cleared without delay, and the

repaired ships to remain for the time being to guard the port, as their

speed was not such as to enable them to run if the enemy appeared in

force. Taking with him the _Impérieuse_, he moved down the coast towards

Newcastle, steaming at 15 knots. At 8 p.m. he passed the mouth of the

Tyne, and sighted the _Southampton_, one of the two cruisers which he

had despatched to menace the German coast; they had chased and sunk a

large German collier, apparently proceeding to Lerwick, and quite

unaware of the sudden turn which the naval war had taken.

The _Southampton_ had returned to report the fact that she

had sighted three German destroyers, which went off very

fast to the south, one now having rejoined the flag. The four

British armoured cruisers--_Southampton_, _Selkirk_, _Lincoln_, and

_Impérieuse_--extended in open order, with the four ocean-going

destroyers in advance and the six older destroyers inshore, on the

lookout for Germans.

In this order the Admiral moved, with all lights out, towards the German

line of communications. Steering wide of Flamborough Head, and clearing

the sandbanks off the Wash, he passed down what was now an enemy’s

coast, carefully refraining from using his ships’ long-distance wireless

instruments, which might have given the alarm.

At about 1 a.m. of the 13th the _Southampton_ sighted a large steamer

proceeding slowly eastwards. She gave chase forthwith, and in fifteen

minutes was alongside the stranger. The vessel proved to be a German

transport returning from Hull empty. A small prize-crew was placed on

board, the German seamen were transhipped to the British cruiser, and

the vessel was sent back to Newcastle under escort of one of the older

destroyers.

At 3.30 a.m. the flagship _Selkirk_ sighted another large steamer

proceeding west, towards the Wash. Chase was instantly given to her, and

in ten minutes the fast cruiser, running 21 knots, was within easy

range. As the steamer did not obey the order to stop, even when shotted

guns were fired over her bow, the _Selkirk_ poured a broadside into her

at 3000 yards. This brought her to, and two ocean-going destroyers were

sent to overhaul her, while the _Lincoln_ and _Southampton_ steamed in

towards her, with guns laid upon her to prevent any tricks.

A few minutes later the destroyers signalled that the vessel was laden

with German troops, reserve stores, ammunition, and supplies of all

kinds. It would have been awkward to sink her and tranship the men, and

remembering the humanity which the Germans had displayed in the battles

at the opening of the war, the Admiral ordered the _Impérieuse_ to

escort her to Newcastle, with instructions to sink her if she offered

any resistance. A lieutenant and ten men were put on board her, to keep

an eye on her crew and see that they obeyed the injunctions of the

_Impérieuse_, which followed 300 yards astern with her 9·2-in. guns

trained menacingly upon the transport.

Scarcely had possession been taken of this vessel, which proved to be

the 10,000-ton Hamburg-American cargo-vessel _Bulgaria_, when two more

ships were sighted, and the sound of alarm guns hurriedly firing was

heard from the _Leman_ lightship. To silence the lightship, which was

known to be in German hands, a fast destroyer was despatched with orders

to torpedo it and destroy it.

As the enemy had undoubtedly taken the alarm, and might be expected any

minute to put in an appearance, the British cruisers made ready to

retire. The destroyers were sent off to the north; the three remaining

armoured cruisers hovered waiting for the Germans to show, as they

intended to draw them off towards the north-east, and thus take them

away from the _Bulgaria_ and her escort.

At 4.20 a.m. a big ship, evidently an armoured cruiser, accompanied by

two or three destroyers, was seen approaching from the direction of

Hull. Simultaneously wireless waves came in strong from the south, and

from that quarter there came into sight another big armoured cruiser,

accompanied by at least six destroyers and two smaller cruisers. They

were the scouts of the German Fleet, and before them ran at 30 knots the

British destroyer which had been charged with the destruction of the

_Leman_ lightship, and which had accomplished her task only two or three

minutes before the Germans appeared from the south.

Noting that his enemy was in no great strength, and feeling minded to

deal him a blow, if possible, the British Admiral now fell back

north-eastward, without increasing speed sufficiently to draw away from

the Germans. His ships, of the “County” class, with their weak 6-in.

batteries, were no match for the German cruisers, but if he could entice

the Germans within reach of the armoured vessels at Rosyth it would be

another matter. Moreover, at any moment his detached armoured cruisers

might rejoin the fleet.

Both forces were keeping well together, the Germans not steaming more

than 20 knots, so as not to draw away from their smaller cruisers, while

the British cruisers and destroyers made their pace with perfect ease,

and for hours maintained an interval of eight miles from the enemy.

After two hours’ chase the British Admiral altered course slightly, and

began to edge away to the north-east. The Germans followed, and at five

in the afternoon of the 13th both squadrons were abreast of St. Abbs

Head, far out to sea. About this time another German cruiser was noted,

following to the support of the German vessels, and simultaneously the

British Admiral opened up wireless communication with the powerful

armoured ships at Rosyth.

CHAPTER X

SITUATION SOUTH OF THE THAMES

The enemy on land had operated rapidly and decisively upon a prearranged

scheme that was perfect in every detail.

By September 24th, three weeks after the first landing, England had,

alas! learnt a bitter lesson by the shells showered down upon her open

towns if they made a show of resistance. She had been taught it by her

burning villages, scientifically fired with petrol, for having harboured

Frontiersmen or Free-shooters, whom the German Staff did not choose to

acknowledge as belligerents, by the great sacrifice of lives of innocent

children and women, by war contributions, crushing requisitions, and the

ruin and desolation that had marked every bivouac of the invading army.

And now, while the Germans stood triumphant in London north of the

Thames, South London was still held by the desperate populace, aided by

many infantry and artillery, who, after their last stand on the northern

heights, had made a detour to the south by crossing the river at

Richmond Bridge and coming up to the Surrey shore by way of Wandsworth.

By their aid the barricades were properly reconstructed with

paving-stones, sacks of sand and sawdust, rolls of carpet, linoleum and

linen--in fact, anything and everything that would stop bullets.

The assault at Waterloo Bridge on the night of the enemy’s occupation

had in the end proved disastrous to the Germans, for, once within, they

found themselves surrounded by a huge armed mob in the Waterloo Road

and in the vicinity of the South-Western terminus; notwithstanding their

desperate defence, they were exterminated to a man, until the gutters

beneath the railway bridges ran with blood. Meanwhile the breach in the

barricade was repaired, and two guns and ammunition captured from the

enemy mounted in defence. There was a similar incident on Vauxhall

Bridge, the populace being victorious, and now the Germans were offering

no further opposition, as they had quite sufficient to occupy them on

the Middlesex side.

The division of Lord Byfield’s army which had gone south to Horsham had

moved north, and on the 24th were holding the country across from Epsom

to Kingston-on-Thames, while patrols and motorists were out from Ewell,

through Cheam, Sutton, Carshalton, Croydon, and Upper Norwood, to the

high ground at the Crystal Palace. From Kingston to the Tower Bridge all

approaches across the Thames were barricaded and held by desperate mobs,

aided by artillerymen.

In those early days after the occupation, military order had apparently

disappeared in London, as far as the British were concerned. General Sir

Francis Bamford had, on the proclamation of martial law in London, been

appointed military governor, and had, on the advance of the Germans,

retired to the Crystal Palace, where he had now established his

headquarters in the palace itself, with a wireless telegraph apparatus

placed upon the top of the left-hand tower, by means of which he was in

constant communication with Lord Byfield at Windsor, where the apparatus

had been hoisted upon the flagstaff of the Round Tower.

The military tribunals established by the Proclamation of the 14th still

existed in the police courts of South London, but those north of the

Thames had already been replaced by German officers, and the British

officers went across the bridges into the British lines. Von Kronhelm’s

clever tactics, by which he had established an advisory board of British

officials to assist in the government of London, seemed to have had the

desired effect of reassurance in the case of London north of the

Thames. But south of the river the vast population in that huge area

from Gravesend, through Dartford, Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Merton,

Wimbledon, and Kingston, lived still at the highest tension, while the

defenders at the bridges and along the river-front kept up unceasing

vigilance night and day, never knowing at what spot the Germans might

throw across their pontoons. In peace time the enemy had for years

practised the pontooning of the Rhine and the Elbe; therefore, they knew

it to be an easy matter to cross the narrower reaches of the Thames if

they so desired.

On the 24th the rumour became current, too, that during the night German

wagons had moved large quantities of specie from the Bank of England out

to their base at Southminster; but, though it was most probable, the

news was not confirmed. On this date the position as regards London,

briefly reviewed, was as follows:--

London north of the Thames, eastward to the sea, and the whole of the

country east of a line drawn from the metropolis to Birmingham, was in

the hands of the Germans. The enemy’s Guard Corps, under the Duke of

Mannheim, who had landed at King’s Lynn, had established their

headquarters at Hampstead, and held North London, with a big encampment

in Regent’s Park. The Xth Corps, under Von Wilberg, from Yarmouth, were

holding the City proper; the IXth Corps, from Lowestoft, were occupying

the outskirts of East London, and keeping the lines of communication

with Southminster; the IVth Corps, from Weybourne, under Von Kleppen,

were in Hyde Park, and held Western London; while the Saxons had been

pushed out from Shepperton through Staines to Colnbrook, as a safeguard

from attack by Lord Byfield’s force, so rapidly being reorganised at

Windsor. The remnants of the beaten army had gone to Chichester and

Salisbury, but were now coming rapidly north, as the British

Commander-in-Chief, had, it appeared, decided to give battle again,

aided by the infuriated populace of Southern London.

At no spot south of the Thames, except perhaps the reconnoitring parties

who crossed at Egham, Thorpe, and Weybridge, and recrossed each night,

were there any Germans. The ground was so vast and the population so

great, that Von Kronhelm feared to spread out his troops over too great

an area. The Saxons had orders simply to keep Lord Byfield in check, and

see that he did not cross the river. Thus it became for the time a drawn

game. The Germans held the north of the Thames, while the British were

continually threatening and making demonstrations from the south.

So great, however, was the population now assembled in South London that

food was rising to absolutely famine prices. The estuary of the river

had been so thickly mined by the Germans that no ships bearing food

dared to come up. The Straits of Dover and the Solent were still

dangerous on account of the floating mines, and it was only at places

such as Brighton, Eastbourne, Hastings, and Folkestone that supplies

could be landed at that moment. Trucks full of flour, coffee, rice,

brandy, canned meats, boots, uniforms, arms, were daily run up to

Deptford, Herne Hill, Croydon, and Wimbledon, but such supplies were

very meagre for the millions now crowded along the river front, full of

enthusiasm still to defy the enemy. At the first news of the invasion

all the coal and coke in London had been expressly reserved for public

purposes, small quantities only being issued to printing establishments

and other branches of public necessity; but to private individuals they

were rigorously denied. Wood, however, was sold without restriction, and

a number of barges, old steamers of the County Council, and such-like

craft were broken up for fuel.

* * * * *

Through the past ten days the darkness, gloom, and ever-deepening hunger

had increased, and though London retained the same spirit with which it

had received the news of the audacious invasion, that portion south of

the Thames was starving. Between the 20th and 24th September the price

of every article of food rose enormously. On the 24th Ostend rabbits

were sold in the Walworth Road for a sovereign each, and a hare cost

double. An apple cost 1s. 6d., a partridge 15s., a fresh egg 2s., while

bacon was 6s. 6d. a pound, and butter £1 per pound. Shops in the Old

Kent Road, Camberwell, Brixton, Kennington, Walworth, Waterloo, and

London Roads, which had hitherto been perhaps the cheapest places in

which to buy provisions in the whole of London, were now prohibitive in

their prices to the poor, though ladies habitually living in the West

End and driven there through force of circumstances readily paid the

exorbitant charges demanded. Indeed, there was often a fight in those

shops for a rabbit, a ham, or a tin of pressed beef, one person bidding

against another for its possession. Tallow was often being used for the

purposes of cookery, and is said to have answered well.

If South London was in such a state of starvation, even though small

quantities of food were daily coming in, Von Kronhelm’s position must

have been one of extreme gravity when it is remembered that his food

supply was now cut off. It was calculated that each of his five army

corps operating upon London consumed in the space of twenty-four hours

18,000 loaves weighing 3 lb. each, 120 cwt. of rice or pearl barley,

seventy oxen or 120 cwt. of bacon, 18 cwt. of salt, 30 cwt. of coffee,

12 cwt. of oats, 3 cwt. of hay, 3500 quarts of spirits and beer, with 60

cwt. of tobacco, 1,100,000 ordinary cigars, and 50,000 officers’ cigars

for every ten days.

And yet all was provided for at Southminster, Grimsby, King’s Lynn,

Norwich, and Goole. Huge food bases had been rapidly established from

the first day of the invasion. The German Army, whatever might be said

of it, was a splendid military machine, and we had been in every way

incapable of coping with it. Yet it was impossible not to admire the

courage and patriotism of the men under Byfield, Hibbard, and Woolmer

in making the attempt, though from the first the game had been known to

be hopeless.

West of London the members of the Hendon and other rifle clubs, together

with a big body of Frontiersmen and other free-shooters, were

continually harassing the Saxon advanced posts between Shepperton and

Colnbrook, towards Uxbridge. On the 24th a body of 1,500 riflemen and

Frontiersmen attacked a company of Saxon Pioneers close to where the

Great Western Railway crosses the River Crane, north of Cranford. The

Germans, being outnumbered, were obliged to withdraw to Hayes with a

loss of twenty killed and a large force of wounded. Shortly afterwards,

on the following day, the Pioneers, having been reinforced, retraced

their steps in order to clear the districts on the Crane of our

irregular forces; and they announced that if, as reported, the people of

Cranford and Southall had taken part in the attack, both places would be

burned.

That same night the railway bridges over the Crane and the Grand

Junction Canal in the vicinity were blown up by the Frontiersmen. The

fifty Saxons guarding each bridge were surprised by the British

sharpshooters, and numbers of them shot. Three hours later, however,

Cranford, Southall, and Hayes were burned with petrol, and it was stated

by Colonel Meyer, of the Saxons, that this was to be the punishment of

any place where railways were destroyed. Such was the system of

terrorism by which the enemy hoped to terminate the struggle. Such

proceedings--and this was but one of a dozen others in various outlying

spots beyond the Metropolitan area--did not produce the effect of

shortening the duration of hostilities. On the contrary, they only

served to prolong the deadly contest by exciting a wild desire for

revenge in many who might otherwise have been disposed towards an

amicable settlement.

With the dawn of the 25th September, a grey day with fine drizzling rain

in London, the situation seemed still more hopeless. The rain, however,

did not by any means damp the ardour of the defenders at the bridges.

They sang patriotic songs, while barrel-organs and bands played about

them night and day. Though hungry, their spirits never flagged. The

newspapers printed across the river were brought over in small boats

from the Surrey side, and eagerly seized and read by anxious thousands.

The lists of British casualties were being published, and the populace

were one and all anxious for news of missing friends.

The chief item of news that morning, however, was a telegram from the

Emperor William, in which he acknowledged the signal services rendered

by Field-Marshal Von Kronhelm and his army. He had sent one hundred and

fifty Orders of the Iron Cross for distribution among officers who had

distinguished themselves, accompanied by the following telegraphic

despatch, which every paper in London was ordered to print:--

+--------------------------------------------------------------+

| =THE KAISER’S TELEGRAM.= |

| |

| POTSDAM, _Sept. 21st, 1910_. |

| |

| GENERAL VON KRONHELM,--Your heroic march, |

|your gallant struggle to reach London, your victorious |

|attack and your capture of the Capital of the British Empire, |

|is one of the greatest feats of arms in all history. |

| |

| I express my royal thanks, my deepest acknowledgments, |

|and bestow upon you the Grand Cross of the Red Eagle, |

|with the sword, as proof of this acknowledgment. |

| |

| Your grateful Emperor, |

| =WILHELM.= |

+--------------------------------------------------------------+

THE TELEGRAM SENT BY THE GERMAN EMPEROR TO

FIELD-MARSHAL VON KRONHELM.

The wharves and embankments of the Surrey shore of the Thames, from

Erith to Kingston, were being patrolled day and night by armed men. Any

boat crossing the river was at once challenged, and not allowed to

approach unless under a flag of truce, or it was ascertained that its

occupants were non-belligerents. Everywhere the greatest precaution was

being taken against spies, and on the two or three occasions when the

Germans had reconnoitered by means of balloons, sharpshooters had

constantly fired at them.

As may well be imagined, spy-mania was now rife in every quarter in

South London, and any man bearing a foreign name, no matter of what

nationality, or known to be a foreigner, was at once suspected, and

often openly insulted, even though he might be a naturalised Englishman.

It was very unsafe for any foreigner now to go abroad. One deplorable

incident occurred that afternoon. A German baker, occupying a shop in

Newington Butts, and who had lived in England twenty-five years and

become a naturalised British subject, was walking along the Kennington

Road with his wife, having come forth in curiosity to see what was in

progress, when he was met by a man with whom he had had some business

quarrel. The man in question, as he passed, cried out to the crowd that

he was a German. “He’s one of Von Kronhelm’s spies!” he shouted.

At the word “spy” the crowd all turned. They saw the unfortunate man had

turned pale at this charge, which was tantamount to a sentence of death,

and believed him to be guilty. Some wild and irrepressible men set up a

loud cry of “Spy! Spy! Down with him! Down with the traitor!” and ere

the unfortunate baker was aware of it he was seized by a hundred hands,

and lynched.

More than once real spies were discovered, and short shrift was meted

out to them; but in several instances it is feared that gross mistakes

were made, and men accused as spies out of venomous personal spite.

There is little doubt that under cover of night a number of Von

Kronhelm’s English-speaking agents were able to cross the river in boats

and return on the following night, for it was apparent by the tone of

the newspapers that the German generalissimo was fully aware of what was

in progress south of the river.

To keep a perfect watch upon a river-front of so many miles against

watermen who knew every landing-place and every point of concealment,

was utterly impossible. The defenders, brave men all, did their best,

and they killed at sight every spy they captured; but it was certain

that the enemy had established a pretty complete system of intelligence

from the camp of the defiant Londoners.

At the barricades was a quiet, calm enthusiasm. Now that it was seen

that the enemy had no immediate intention of storming the defences at

the bridges, those manning them rested, smoked, and, though ever

vigilant, discussed the situation. Beneath every bridge men of the Royal

Engineers had effected certain works which placed them in readiness for

instant destruction. The explosives were there, and only by the pressing

of the button the officer in command of any bridge could blow it into

the air, or render it unsafe for the enemy to venture upon.

The great League of Defenders was in course of rapid formation. Its

proclamations were upon every wall. When the time was ripe, London would

rise. The day of revenge was fast approaching.

London, north of the Thames, though shattered and wrecked, began, by

slow degrees, to grow more calm.

One half of the populace seemed to have accepted the inevitable; the

other half being still terrified and appalled at the havoc wrought on

every hand. In the case of Paris, forty years before, when the Germans

had bombarded the city, their shells had done but little damage. In

those days neither guns nor ammunition were at such perfection as they

now were, the enemy’s high-power explosives accounting for the fearful

destruction caused.

A very curious fact about the bombardment must here be noted. Londoners,

though terrified beyond measure when the shells began to fall among them

and explode, grew, in the space of a couple of hours, to be quite

callous, and seemed to regard the cannonade in the light of a

pyrotechnical display. They climbed to every point of vantage, and

regarded the continuous flashes and explosions with the same

open-mouthed wonder as they would exhibit at the Crystal Palace on a

firework night.

The City proper was still held by the Xth Corps under General von

Wilburg, who had placed a strong cordon around it, no unauthorised

person being allowed to enter or leave. In some of the main roads in

Islington, Hoxton, Whitechapel, Clapton, and Kingsland, a few shops that

had not been seized by the Germans had courageously opened their doors.

Provision shops, bakers, greengrocers, dairies, and butchers were,

however, for the most part closed, for in the Central Markets there was

neither meat nor vegetables, every ounce of food having been

commandeered by German foraging parties.

As far as possible, however, the enemy were, with the aid of the English

Advisory Board, endeavouring to calm the popular excitement and

encourage trade in other branches. At certain points such as at Aldgate,

at Oxford Circus, at Hyde Park Corner, in Vincent Square, Westminster,

at St. James’s Park near Queen Anne’s Gate, and in front of Hackney

Church, the German soldiers distributed soup once a day to all comers,

Von Kronhelm being careful to pretend a parental regard for the

metropolis he had occupied.

The population north of the Thames was not, however, more than one

quarter what it usually was, for most of the inhabitants had fled across

the bridges during the bombardment, and there remained on the Surrey

side in defiance of the invader.

Night and day the barricade-builders were working at the bridges in

order to make each defence a veritable redoubt. They did not intend that

the disasters of the northern suburbs--where the bullets had cut through

the overturned carts and household furniture as through butter--should

be repeated. Therefore at each bridge, behind the first

hastily-constructed defence, there were being thrown up huge walls of

sacks filled with earth, and in some places where more earth was

obtainable earthworks themselves with embrasures. Waterloo, Blackfriars,

Southwark, London, and Cannon Street bridges were all defended by

enormous earthworks, and by explosives already placed for instant use if

necessary. Hungerford Bridge had, of course, been destroyed by the

Germans themselves, huge iron girders having fallen into the river; but

Vauxhall, Lambeth, Battersea, Hammersmith, and Kew and other bridges

were equally strongly defended as those nearer the centre of London.

Many other barricades had been constructed at various points in South

London, such as across the Bridge End Road, Wandsworth, several across

the converging roads at St. George’s Circus, and again at the Elephant

and Castle, in Bankside, in Tooley Street, where it joins Bermondsey

Street, at the approach to the Tower Bridge, in Waterloo Road at its

junction with Lower Marsh, across the Westminster Bridge and Kennington

Roads, across the Lambeth Road where it joins the Kennington Road, at

the junction of Upper Kennington Lane with Harleyford Road, in Victoria

Road at the approach to Chelsea Bridge, and in a hundred other smaller

thoroughfares. Most of these barricades were being built for the

protection of certain districts rather than for the general strategic

defence of South London. In fact, most of the larger open spaces were

barricaded, and points of entrance carefully blocked. In some places

exposed barricades were connected with one another by a covered way, the

neighbouring houses being crenellated and their windows protected with

coal sacks filled with earth. Cannon now being brought in by Artillery

from the south were being mounted everywhere, and as each hour went by

the position of South London became strengthened by both men and guns.

CHAPTER XI

DEFENCES OF SOUTH LONDON

Preparations were being continued night and day to place the

working-class districts in Southwark and Lambeth in a state of strong

defence, and the constant meetings convened in public halls and chapels

by the newly-formed League of Defenders incited the people to their

work. Everybody lent a willing hand, rich and poor alike. People who had

hitherto lived in comfort in Regent’s Park, Hampstead, or one or other

of the better-class northern suburbs, now found themselves herded among

all sorts and conditions of men and women, and living as best they could

in those dull, drab streets of Lambeth, Walworth, Battersea, and

Kennington. It was, indeed, a strange experience for them. In the sudden

flight from the north parents had become separated from their children

and husbands from their wives, so that in many cases haggard and forlorn

mothers were in frantic search of their little ones, fearing that they

might have already died of starvation or been trampled under foot by the

panic-stricken multitudes. The dense population of South London had

already been trebled. They were penned in by the barricades in many

instances, for each district seemed to be now placing itself in a state

of defence, independent of any other.

Kennington, for instance, was practically surrounded by barricades, tons

upon tons of earth being dug from the “Oval” and the “Park.” Besides the

barricades in Harleyford Road and Kennington Lane, all the streets

converging on the “Oval” were blocked up, a huge defence arm just being

completed across the junction of Kennington and Kennington Park roads,

and all the streets running into the latter thoroughfare from that point

to the big obstruction at the “Elephant” were blocked by paving stones,

bags of sand, barrels of cement, bricks, and such-like odds and ends

impervious to bullets. In addition to this, there was a double

fortification in Lambeth Road--a veritable redoubt--as well as the

barricade at Lambeth Bridge, while all the roads leading from Kennington

into the Lambeth Road, such as St. George’s Road, Kennington Road, High

Street, and the rest, had been rendered impassable and the neighbouring

houses placed in a state of defence. Thus the whole district of

Kennington became therefore a fortress in itself.

[Illustration: THE DEFENCES OF SOUTH LONDON

on Sept 26th]

This was only a typical instance of the scientific methods of defence

now resorted to. Mistakes made in North London were not now repeated.

Day and night every able-bodied man, and woman too, worked on with

increasing zeal and patriotism. The defences in Haverstock Hill,

Holloway Road, and Edgware Road, which had been composed of overturned

tramcars, motor ’buses, household furniture, etc., had been riddled by

the enemy’s bullets. The lesson had been heeded, and now earth, sand,

tiles, paving stones, and bricks were very largely used.

From nearly all the principal thoroughfares south of the river, the

paving-stones were being rapidly torn up by great gangs of men, and

whenever the artillery brought up a fresh Maxim or field-gun the wildest

demonstrations were made. The clergy held special services in churches

and chapels, and prayer-meetings for the emancipation of London were

held twice daily in the Metropolitan Tabernacle at Newington. In

Kennington Park, Camberwell Green, the Oval, Vauxhall Park, Lambeth

Palace Gardens, Camberwell Park, Peckham Rye, and Southwark Park a

division of Lord Byfield’s army was encamped. They held the Waterloo

terminus of the South-Western Railway strongly, the Chatham Railway from

the Borough Road Station--now the terminus--the South-Eastern from

Bricklayers’ Arms, which had been converted into another terminus, as

well as the Brighton line, both at Battersea Park and York Road.

The lines destroyed by the enemy’s spies in the early moments of the

invasion had long ago been repaired, and up to the present railway and

telegraphic communication south and west remained uninterrupted. The

_Daily Mail_ had managed to transfer some of its staff to the offices of

a certain printer’s in Southwark, and there, under difficulties,

published several editions daily despite the German censorship. While

northern London was without any news except that supplied from German

sources, South London was still open to the world, the cables from the

south coast being, as yet, in the hands of the British, and the

telegraphs intact to Bristol and to all places in the West.

Thus, during those stifling and exciting days following the occupation,

while London was preparing for its great uprising, the _South London

Daily Mirror_, though a queer, unusual-looking sheet, still continued to

appear, and was read with avidity by the gallant men at the barricades.

Contrary to expectation, Von Kronhelm was leaving South London severely

alone. He was, no doubt, wise. Full well he knew that his men, once

within those narrow, tortuous streets beyond the river, would have no

opportunity to manœuvre, and would, as in the case of the assault of

Waterloo Bridge, be slaughtered to a man. His spies reported that each

hour that passed rendered the populace the stronger, yet he did nothing,

devoting his whole time, energy, and attention to matters in that half

of London he was now occupying.

Everywhere the walls of South London were placarded with manifestoes of

the League of Defenders. Day after day fresh posters appeared, urging

patience and courage, and reporting upon the progress of the League. The

name of Graham was now upon everyone’s lips. He had, it seemed, arisen

as saviour of our beloved country. Every word of his inspired

enthusiasm, and this was well illustrated at the mass meeting on Peckham

Rye, when, beneath the huge flag of St. George, the white banner with

the red cross,--the ancient standard of England,--which the League had

adopted as theirs, he made a brilliant and impassioned appeal to every

Londoner and every Englishman.

Report had it that the Germans had set a price upon his head, and that

he was pursued everywhere by German spies--mercenaries who would kill

him in secret if they could. Therefore he was compelled to go about with

an armed police guard, who arrested any suspected person in his

vicinity. The Government, who had at first laughed Graham’s enthusiasm

to scorn, now believed in him. Even Lord Byfield, after a long council,

declared that his efforts to inspire enthusiasm had been amazingly

successful, and it was now well known that the “Defenders” and the Army

had agreed to act in unison towards one common end--the emancipation of

England from the German thraldom.

Some men of the Osnabrück Regiment, holding Canning Town and Limehouse,

managed one night, by strategy, to force their way through the Blackwall

Tunnel and break down its defence on the Surrey side in an attempt to

blow up the South Metropolitan Gas Works close by.

The men holding the tunnel were completely overwhelmed by the numbers

that pressed on, and were compelled to fall back, twenty of their number

being killed. The assault was a victorious one, and it was seen that the

enemy were pouring out, when, of a sudden, there was a dull, heavy roar,

followed by wild shouts and terrified screams, as there rose from the

centre of the river a great column of water, and next instant the tunnel

was flooded, hundreds of the enemy being drowned like rats in a hole.

The men of the Royal Engineers had, on the very day previous, made

preparations for destroying the tunnel if necessary, and had done so ere

the Germans were aware of their intention. The exact loss of life is

unknown, but it is estimated that over 400 men must have perished in

that single instant, while those who had made the sudden dash towards

the Gas Works were all taken prisoners, and their explosives

confiscated.

The evident intention of the enemy being thus seen, General Sir Francis

Bamford from his headquarters at the Crystal Palace gave orders for the

tunnels at Rotherhithe and that across Greenwich Reach, as well as the

several “tube” tunnels and subways, to be destroyed, a work which was

executed without delay, and was witnessed by thousands, who watched for

the great disturbances and upheavals in the bed of the river.

In the Old Kent Road the bridge over the canal, as well as the bridges

in Wells Street, Sumner Road, Glengall Road, and Canterbury Road, were

all prepared for demolition in case of necessity, the canal from the

Camberwell Road to the Surrey Docks forming a moat behind which the

defenders might, if necessary, retire. Clapham Common and Brockwell Park

were covered with tents, for General Bamford’s force, consisting mostly

of auxiliaries, were daily awaiting reinforcements.

Lord Byfield, now at Windsor, was in constant communication by wireless

telegraphy with the London headquarters at the Crystal Palace, as well

as with Hibbard on the Malvern Hills and Woolmer at Shrewsbury. To

General Bamford at Sydenham came constant news of the rapid spread of

the national movement of defiance, and Lord Byfield, as was afterwards

known, urged the London commander to remain patient, and invite no

attack until the League were strong enough to act upon the offensive.

Affairs of outposts were, of course, constantly recurring along the

river bank between Windsor and Egham, and the British free-shooters and

Frontiersmen were ever harassing the Saxons.

Very soon Von Kronhelm became aware of Lord Byfield’s intentions, but

his weakness was apparent when he made no counter-move. The fact was

that the various great cities he now held required all his attention and

all his troops. From Manchester, from Birmingham, from Leeds, Bradford,

Sheffield, and Hull came similar replies. Any withdrawal of troops from

either city would be the signal for a general rising of the inhabitants.

Therefore, having gained possession, he could only now sit tight and

watch.

From all over Middlesex, and more especially from the London area, came

sensational reports of the drastic measures adopted by the Germans to

repress any sign of revolt. In secret, the agents of the League of

Defenders were at work going from house to house, enrolling men,

arranging for secret meeting-places, and explaining in confidence the

programme as put forward by the Bristol committee. Now and then,

however, these agents were betrayed, and their betrayal was in every

case followed by a court-martial at Bow Street, death outside in the

yard of the police station, and the publication in the papers of their

names, their offence, and the hour of the execution.

Yet, undaunted and defiantly, the giant organisation grew as no other

society had ever grown, and its agents and members quickly developed

into fearless patriots. It being reported that the Saxons were facing

Lord Byfield with the Thames between them, the people of West London

began in frantic haste to construct barricades. The building of

obstructions had, indeed, now become a mania north of the river as well

as the south. The people, fearing that there was to be more fighting in

the streets of London, began to build huge defences all across West

London. The chief were across King Street, Hammersmith, where it joins

Goldhawk Road, across the junction of Goldhawk and Uxbridge Roads, in

Harrow Road where it joins Admiral Road, and Willesden Lane, close to

the Paddington Cemetery, and the Latimer Road opposite St. Quintin Park

Station. All the side streets leading into the Goldhawk Road, Latimer

Road, and Ladbroke Grove Road, were also blocked up, and hundreds of

houses placed in a state of strong defence.

With all this Von Kronhelm did not interfere. The building of such

obstructions acted as a safety-valve to the excited populace, therefore

he rather encouraged than discountenanced it. The barricades might, he

thought, be of service to his army if Lord Byfield really risked an

attack upon London from that direction.

Crafty and cunning though he was, he was entirely unaware that those

barricades were being constructed at the secret orders of the League of

Defenders, and he never dreamed that they had actually been instigated

by the British Commander-in-chief himself.

Thus the Day of Reckoning hourly approached, and London, though crushed

and starving, waited in patient vigilance.

At Enfield Chase was a great camp of British prisoners in the hands of

the Germans, amounting to several thousands. Contrary to report, both

officers and men were fairly well treated by the Germans, though with

his limited supplies Von Kronhelm was already beginning to contemplate

releasing them. Many of the higher grade officers who had fallen into

the hands of the enemy, together with the Lord Mayor of London, the

Mayors of Hull, Goole, Lincoln, Norwich, Ipswich, and the Lord Mayors of

Manchester and Birmingham, had been sent across to Germany, where,

according to their own reports, they were being detained in Hamburg and

treated with every consideration. Nevertheless, all this greatly

incensed Englishmen. Lord Byfield, with Hibbard and Woolmer, was leaving

no stone unturned in order to reform our shattered Army, and again

oppose the invaders. All three gallant officers had been to Bristol,

where they held long consultation with the members of the Cabinet, with

the result that the Government still refused to entertain any idea of

paying the indemnity. The Admiralty were confident now that the command

of the sea had been regained, and in Parliament itself a little

confidence was also restored.

Yet we had to face the hard facts that nearly two hundred thousand

Germans were upon British soil, and that London was held by them.

Already parties of German commissioners had visited the National

Gallery, the Wallace Collection, the Tate Gallery, and the British and

South Kensington Museums, deciding upon and placing aside certain art

treasures and priceless antiques ready for shipment to Germany. The

Raphaels, the Titians, the Rubenses, the Fra Angelicos, the Velasquezes,

the Elgin Marbles, the best of the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Roman

antiques, the Rosetta Stone, the early Biblical and classical

manuscripts, the historic charters of England, and suchlike treasures

which could never be replaced, were all catalogued and prepared for

removal. The people of London knew this; for though there had been no

newspapers, information ran rapidly from mouth to mouth. German

sentries guarded our world-famous collections, which were now indeed

entirely in the enemy’s hands, and which the Kaiser intended should

enrich the German galleries and museums.

One vessel flying the British flag had left the Thames laden with spoil,

in an endeavour to reach Hamburg, but off Harwich she had been sighted

and overhauled by a British cruiser, with the result that she had been

steered to Dover. Therefore our cruisers and destroyers, having thus

obtained knowledge of the enemy’s intentions, were keeping a sharp

lookout along the coast for any vessels attempting to leave for German

ports.

Accounts of fierce engagements in the Channel between British and German

ships went the rounds, but all were vague and unconvincing. The only

solid facts were that the Germans held the great cities of England, and

that the millions of Great Britain were slowly but surely preparing to

rise in an attempt to burst asunder the fetters that now held them.

Government, Army, Navy, and Parliament had all proved rotten reeds. It

was now every man for himself--to free himself and his loved ones--or to

die in the attempt.

Through the south and west of England, Graham’s clear, manly voice was

raised everywhere, and the whole population were now fast assembling

beneath the banner of the Defenders, in readiness to bear their part in

the most bloody and desperate encounter of the whole war--a fierce

guerilla warfare, in which the Germans were to receive no quarter. The

firm resolve now was to exterminate them.

The swift and secret death being meted out to the German sentries, or,

in fact, to any German caught alone in a side street, having been

reported to Von Kronhelm, he issued another of his now famous

proclamations, which was posted upon half the hoardings in London, but

the populace at once amused themselves by tearing it down wherever it

was discovered. Von Kronhelm was the arch-enemy of London, and it is

believed that there were at that moment no fewer than five separate

conspiracies to encompass his death. Londoners detested the Germans, but

with a hatred twenty times the more intense did they regard those men

who, having engaged in commercial pursuits in England, had joined the

colours and were now acting as spies in the service of the enemy.

Hundreds of extraordinary tales were told of Germans who, for years, had

been regarded as inoffensive toilers in London, and yet who were now

proved by their actions to be spies. It was declared, and was no doubt a

fact, that without the great army of advance-agents--every man among

them having been a soldier--Germany would never have effected the rapid

coup she had done. The whole thing had been carefully thought out, and

this invasion was the culmination of years of careful thought and most

minute study.

CHAPTER XII

DAILY LIFE OF THE BELEAGUERED

They were dark days in London--days of terror, starvation--death.

Behind the barricades south of the Thames it was vaguely known that our

Admiralty--whose chief offices had been removed to Portsmouth before the

entry of the enemy into London--were keenly alive to the critical

position. Reports of the capture of a number of German liners in the

Atlantic, and of several ships laden with provisions, attempting to

cross the North Sea were spread from mouth to mouth, but so severe was

the censorship upon the Press that no word of such affairs was printed.

The _London Gazette_, that journal which in ordinary circumstances the

public never sees, was published each evening at six o’clock, but, alas,

in German. It contained Von Kronhelm’s official orders to his army, and

the various proclamations regarding the government of London. The _Daily

Mail_, as the paper with the largest circulation, was also taken over as

the German official organ.

At the head of each newspaper office in and about Fleet Street was a

German officer, whose duty was to read the proofs of everything before

it appeared. He installed himself in the editorial chair, and the

members of the staff all attempted to puzzle him and his assistants by

the use of London slang. Sometimes this was passed by the officer in

question, who did not wish to betray his ignorance, but more often it

was promptly crossed out. Thus the papers were frequently ridiculous in

their opinions and reports.

The drawn game continued.

On one side of the Thames the Germans held complete possession, while on

the other the people of London were defiant behind their barricaded

bridges. West London was occupied in building barricades in all quarters

to prevent any further entry into London, while Von Kronhelm, with his

inborn cunning, was allowing the work to proceed. In this, however, the

German Commander-in-Chief did not display his usual caution, as will be

seen in later chapters of this history.

Once it was rumoured that the enemy intended to besiege the barricades

at the bridges by bringing their field howitzers into play, but very

soon it became apparent that Von Kronhelm, with discreet forbearance,

feared to excite further the London populace.

The fact that the Lord Mayor had been deported had rendered them

irritable and viciously antagonistic, while the terms of the indemnity

demanded, now known everywhere--as they had been published in papers at

Brighton, Southampton, Bristol, and other places--had aroused within the

hearts of Londoners a firm resolve to hold their own at no matter what

cost.

Beyond all this remained the knowledge of Gerald Graham’s movement--that

gigantic association, the League of Defenders, which had for its object

the freeing of England from the grip of the now detested eagle of

Germany.

Daily the League issued its bulletins, notices, manifestoes, and

proclamations, all of which were circulated throughout South London.

South Coast resorts were now crowded to excess by fugitive Londoners, as

well as towns inland. Accommodation for them all was, of course,

impossible, but everywhere were encampments over the Kentish hop fields

and the Sussex pastures.

Some further idea of life in South London at this time may be obtained

from the personal narrative of Joseph Cane, a tram driver, in the employ

of the London County Council, living at Creek Road, Battersea. His

story, written by himself, and subsequently published in the _Daily

Express_, was as follows:--

“Five days have passed since the Germans bombarded us. I have been out

of work since the seventh, when the Council suspended greater part of

the tramway service, my line from Westminster Bridge included. I have a

wife and four children dependent upon me, and, unfortunately, all of

them are starving. We are waiting. The Defenders still urge us to wait.

But this waiting is very wearisome. For nineteen days have I wandered

about London in idleness. I have mixed with the crowds in the West End;

I have listened to the orators in the parks; I helped to build the big

barricade in the Caledonian Road; I watched the bombardment from the

waterside at Wandsworth, and I saw, on the following day, German

soldiers across on West Wharf.

“Since that day we South Londoners have barricaded ourselves so strongly

that it will, I am certain, take Von Kronhelm all his time to turn us

out. Our defences are abundant and strong. Not only are there huge

barricades everywhere, but hundreds of houses and buildings have been

put in a state of defence, especially the positions commanding the main

thoroughfares leading to the bridges. As a member of the League of

Defenders, I have been served with a gun, and practise daily with

thousands of others upon the new range in Battersea Park. My post,

however, is at the barricade across Tarn’s Corner and Newington

Causeway, opposite the Elephant and Castle.

“Every road to the bridges at that converging point is blocked. The

entrances to St. George’s Road, London Road, Walworth Road, and

Newington Butts are all strongly barricaded, the great obstructions

reaching up to the second storey windows. The New Kent Road remains

open, as there is a barricade at the end of Great Dover Street. The

houses all round are also fortified. From Tarn’s, quantities of goods,

such as bales of calico, flannel, and dress materials, have been seized

and utilised in our barriers. I assisted to construct the enormous wall

of miscellaneous objects, and in its building we were directed by a

number of Royal Engineers. Our object is to repel the invader should he

succeed in breaking down the barrier at London Bridge.

“All is in readiness, as far as we are concerned. Seven maxims are

mounted on our defence, while inside Tarn’s are hundreds of

Frontiersmen, sharpshooters, members of rifle clubs, and other men who

can shoot. Yesterday some artillery men arrived with five field guns,

and upon our barricade one has been mounted. The men say they have come

across from Windsor, and that other batteries of artillery are on their

way to strengthen us. Therefore, old Von Kronhelm, notwithstanding all

his orders and daily proclamations about this and about that, has us

Cockneys to deal with yet. And he’ll find the Elephant and Castle a

tough nut to crack. Hundreds of the men in our tram service are at the

barricades. We never thought, a month ago, when we used to drive up and

down from the bridges, that we’d so soon all of us become soldiers.

Life, however, is full of ups and downs. But nowadays London doesn’t

somehow seem like London. There is no traffic, and the side streets all

seem as silent as the grave. The main thoroughfares, such as the

Walworth, Old Kent, Kennington Park, Clapham, and Wandsworth Roads, are

crowded night and day by anxious, hungry people, eager for the revenge

which is declared by the Defenders to be at hand. How soon it comes no

one cares. There is still hope in Walworth and Kennington, and though

our stomachs may be empty we have sworn not to capitulate.

“Food is on its way to us, so it is said. We have regained command of

the sea, therefore the ports are reopened, and in a day or two food will

no longer be scarce.

“I saw this morning a poster issued by the League of Defenders, the

_Daily Bulletin_, it is called, declaring that relief is at hand. I hope

it is, for the sake of my distracted wife and family. The County Council

have been very good to us, but as money won’t buy anything, what is the

good of it? The supply is growing daily more limited. Half a crown was

paid yesterday by a man I know for a small loaf of bread at a shop in

the Wandsworth Road.

“Our daily life at the barricade is monotonous and very wearying. Now

that the defences are complete and there is nothing to do, everyone is

anxious to have a brush with the enemy, and longing that he may make an

attack upon us. As newspapers are very difficult to get within the

barricades, several new ones have sprung up in South London, most of

them queer, ill-printed sheets, but very interesting on account of the

news they give.

“The one most in favour is called _The South London Mirror_. I think it

is in connection with the _Daily Mail_. It now and then gives

photographs, like the _Daily Mirror_. Yesterday it gave a good one of

the barricade where I am stationed. The neighbourhood of the Elephant

presents an unusual picture, for everywhere men are scrambling over the

roofs, and windows of the houses are being half-covered with sheet iron,

while here and there is seen protruding the muzzle of a Maxim.

“I hear on the best authority that explosives are already in position

under all the bridges, ready to blow them up at any moment. Yesterday I

went along to Southwark Bridge to see the defences there. They are

really splendid. Before they can be taken by assault the loss of life

must be appalling to the enemy. There are mines laid in front by which

the Germans could be blown to atoms. Certainly our first line of defence

is at least a reliable one. Now that Londoners have taken the law into

their own hands, we may perhaps hope for some success. Our Army, our

Navy, our War Office, our Admiralty, have proved themselves utterly

incompetent.

“By day and by night we guard our barricades. The life is an idle one,

now that there is no further work to do. Imagine a huge wall erected

right across the road from Tarn’s front to the public-house opposite, an

obstruction composed of every conceivable object that might resist the

German bullets, and with loopholes here and there to admit of our fire.

Everything, from paving-stones torn up from the footpath to iron

coal-scuttles, has been used in its construction, together with

thousands of yards of barbed wire. Roughly, I believe that fully a

thousand men are holding my own particular defence, every one of them

members of this new League, which, encouraged and aided by Government,

is making such rapid progress in every direction. Every man who stands

shoulder to shoulder with me has sworn allegiance to King and Country,

and will fight and die in the defence of the city he loves. During the

past four days I have only been home once. Alas! my clean little home is

now one of suffering and desolation. I cannot bear to hear the children

cry for bread, so I now remain at my post, bearing my own humble part in

the defence of London. The wife bears up in patience, as so many

thousands of the good wives of humble folk are now doing. She is

pale-faced and dark-eyed, for privation is fast telling upon her. Yet

she uttered no word of complaint. She only asked me simply when this

cruel war would end.

“When? Ay, when?

“It will end when we have driven the Germans back into the sea--when we

have had blood for blood--when we have avenged the lives of those

innocent Englishmen and Englishwomen who have been killed in Suffolk,

Norfolk, Essex, and Yorkshire. Then the war will end--with victory for

our dear old England.

“Of tobacco and drink there is still an abundance. Of the latter, alas,

we see examples of its abuse every day. Men and women, deprived of food

in many cases, have recourse to drink, with terrible effect. In every

quarter, as one walks through South London, one sees riotous

drunkenness, and often a lawlessness, which, if not put down by the

people themselves, would quickly assume alarming proportions. There are

no police now; but the Defenders act the part of officers of the law,

and repress any acts of violence or riotous behaviour.

“A certain section of the public are, of course, in favour of stopping

the war at all costs, and towards that end are continually holding

meetings, and have even gone the length of burning the barricade outside

the police station in Kennington Road. This shameful act was committed

last night, and one of its perpetrators was, I hear, caught and promptly

lynched by the infuriated mob. The barricade is now in rapid process of

re-building. On every hand, horses--or the few that now remain in South

London--are being killed and used as food. Even such meat as that is at

a price almost prohibitive. This afternoon a company of military

telegraph engineers came to our barricade, and established telephonic

communication between us and the similar obstructions at London Bridge,

and on our right in Great Dover Street. From one hour to another we

never know when Von Kronhelm may give the order to attack the bridges,

therefore through the whole twenty-four hours we have to be alert and

watchful, even though we may smoke and gossip around our stacks of piled

arms. When the conflict comes it will be a long and bloody one, that is

certain. Not a man in South London will shirk his duty to the Empire.

The future, whether England shall still remain Mistress of the World,

lies with us. It is that important all-present fact that the League of

Defenders is impressing upon us from all the hoardings, and it is also

the fact which stimulates each one of us to bear our part in the defence

of our homes and our loved ones.

“Germany shall yet rue the day when she launched her legions upon us.”

* * * * *

Life in London north of the Thames at that moment was more exciting

than that within the fortress of South London. In the latter, everyone

was waiting in hunger and patience the march of events, while north of

the river the ever-present Germans in foraging parties were a constant

source of annoyance and anger.

All roads leading into London from the west, right across from

Hammersmith Bridge nearly to the Welsh Harp, were now heavily

barricaded. More than once Von Kronhelm was inclined to forbid this, but

the real fact was that he was pleased to allow the people some vent for

their outraged feelings. Londoners declared that they would allow no

more Germans to enter, and for that reason they were blocking the roads.

Had it not been for the fact that the bulk of London’s millions had been

driven south of the Thames by the bombardment and subsequent street

fighting, Von Kronhelm, with his men now seriously reduced, would have

found himself in a very queer position.

As it was, London was, for him, a hornets’ nest.

The disposition of his troops was as follows: Along the northern heights

of London was spread Frölich’s cavalry division. The IXth Corps from

Essex, who were still practically fresh, were guarding the lines of

communication to Southminster and Harwich; the Xth Corps were occupying

the City proper, the IVth Corps were encamped in Hyde Park and held West

London, the Garde Corps were holding the Regent’s Park neighbourhood,

while the Saxons were outside London at Staines. From this latter

quarter constant brushes with the British and with bodies of auxiliaries

were being reported, and Staines Bridge had at last been blown up by the

Germans.

Notwithstanding all Von Kronhelm’s cunning and diplomacy, London was

nevertheless a city of growing unrest. Union Jacks still flew, though

the Germans were on the alert everywhere, and the _Daily Bulletin_ of

the Defenders, encouraging the people of London to hold out, made its

appearance upon hoardings and walls in every quarter. Many homeless

people were living in the ruins of houses, but, alas, hardly living,

such was the acute state of affairs. Daily the enemy distributed soup,

but only in meagre quantities, for, truth to tell, the portion of the

Metropolis under German rule was quite as badly off for food as the huge

fortress across the Thames.

“Courage” was everywhere the Londoners’ watchword. A band of adventurous

spirits, having captured a small party of German engineers in

Pentonville Road as they were about to demolish some unsafe houses with

explosives, seized the latter, and got safely away. The next day, the

26th, with great daring they made an attempt to blow up Von Kronhelm’s

apartments in the new War Office.

The manner in which it was accomplished, it appears, was by two of the

number obtaining German infantry uniforms--exactly how it is not stated,

but probably from dead soldiers--of the regiment who were mounting guard

in Whitehall. Thus disguised, they were enabled to pass the sentries,

obtain access to the long corridor leading past the big room of the

Commander-in-Chief, and there place the explosive already prepared in

the form of a bomb fired by clockwork, just beside the door. They ran

for their lives, and just succeeded in escaping when there was a

terrific explosion, and the whole front behind those columns of the

façade on the principal floor was blown, with its furniture, etc., out

into Whitehall.

Four German clerks and a secretary were killed; but Von Kronhelm

himself, who was believed to have been at work there, had, half an hour

before, gone across the road to the Horse Guards.

The sensation caused among Londoners was enormous, for it was at first

rumoured that Von Kronhelm had really been killed. Upon this there were

wild demonstrations on the part of the more lawless section of the

public, a section which was indeed increasing hourly. Even quiet,

respectable citizens found their blood boiling when they gazed upon

their wrecked homes and realised that their fortunes were ruined.

The explosion at Whitehall resulted in a most vigorous inquiry. The

German Field-Marshal’s headquarters were removed to another portion of

the building, and within an hour of the outrage the telegraph

instrument--which had been blown to atoms--was replaced by another, and

communication with Berlin re-established.

Most rigorous measures were now ordered to be taken for the preservation

of law and order. That evening still another of those famous

proclamations made its appearance, in which the regulations were

repeated, and it was also ordered that in consequence of the outrage any

person found in the possession of arms or of explosives was liable to be

shot at sight and without any form of trial.

The vagabond part of London was, however, to the fore in giving the

Germans all the trouble they could. As the soldiers patrolled the

streets they were closely scanned, pointed at, hooted, and assailed with

slang that they could not understand. Often the people, in order to show

their antagonism, would post themselves in great numbers across a

street, say, in Piccadilly, Oxford Street, or the Strand, and refuse to

move, so that the troops, to avoid a collision, were obliged to go round

by the side streets, amid the loud jeers of the populace.

Whenever a German flag was discovered, a piece of crape was tied to it,

or it received some form of insult. The Germans went about with

self-possession, even with bravado. In twos or threes they walked

together, and seemed as safe as though they were in large numbers.

Sometimes a mob of boys would follow, hooting, ridiculing them, and

calling them by opprobrious epithets. Occasionally men and women formed

around them in groups and engaged in conversation, while everywhere

during that first week of the occupation the soldiers of the Kaiser were

objects of great curiosity on the part of the alien rabble of the East

End.

Hundreds upon hundreds of German workers from Whitechapel fraternised

with the enemy, but woe betide them when the angry bands of Londoners

watched and caught them alone afterwards. In dozens of cases they paid

for their friendliness with the enemy with their lives.

From the confident tone of the Berlin Press, coupled with the actions of

Von Kronhelm, it was quite plain to all the world that the German

Emperor was now determined to take the utmost advantage of his success,

and, having England in his power, to make her drink the cup of adversity

to the very dregs.

Many a ghastly tale was now reaching London from West Middlesex. A party

of eleven Frontiersmen, captured by the Saxons five miles north of

Staines, were obliged to dig their own graves, and were then shot as

they stood before them. Another terrible incident reported by a reliable

war correspondent was that, as punishment for an attack on a

requisitioning party, the entire town of Feltham had been put to the

sword, even the children. Eighty houses were also burnt down. At

Bedfont, too, a whole row of houses had been burned, and a dozen men and

women massacred, because of a shot fired at a German patrol.

The German Army might possess many excellent qualities, but chivalry was

certainly not among them. War with them was a business. When London fell

there was no sentimental pity for it, but as much was to be made out of

it as possible.

This was apparent everywhere in London. As soon as a German was

quartered in a room his methods were piratical. The enemy looted

everywhere, notwithstanding Von Kronhelm’s orders.

Gradually to the abyss of degradation was our country thus being

brought. Where would it end?

England’s down-trodden millions were awaiting in starvation and patience

the dawn of the Day of Revenge.

It now became known that the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs had

sent to the British diplomatic agents abroad (with a view to its

ultimate submittal to the various European Cabinets) a protest of the

British Government against the bombardment of London.

CHAPTER XIII

REVOLTS IN SHOREDITCH AND ISLINGTON

On the night of the 27th September, a very serious conflict, entailing

much loss of life on both the London civilian and German side, occurred

at the point where Kingsland Road joins Old Street, Hackney Road, and

High Street. Across both Hackney and Kingsland Roads the barricades

built before the bombardment still remained in a half-ruined state, any

attempt at clearing them away being repulsed by the angry inhabitants.

Dalston, Kingsland, Bethnal Green, and Shoreditch were notably

antagonistic to the invaders, and several sharp encounters had taken

place. Indeed, those districts were discovered by the enemy to be very

unsafe.

The conflict in question, however, commenced at the corner of Old Street

at about 9.30 in the evening, by three German tailors from Cambridge

Road being insulted by two men, English labourers. The tailors appealed

in German to four Westphalian infantrymen who chanced to be passing, and

who subsequently fired and killed one of the Englishmen. This was the

signal for a local uprising. The alarm given, hundreds of men and women

rushed from their houses, many of them armed with rifles and knives,

and, taking cover behind the ruined barricades, opened fire upon a body

of fifty Germans, who very quickly ran up. The fire was returned, when

from the neighbouring houses a perfect hail of lead was suddenly rained

upon the Germans, who were then forced to retire down High Street

towards Liverpool Street Station, leaving many dead in the roadway.

Very quickly news was sent over the telephone, which the Germans had now

established in many quarters of London, and large reinforcements were

soon upon the scene. The men of Shoreditch had, however, obtained two

Maxim guns, which had been secreted ever since the entry of the Germans

into the Metropolis, and as the enemy endeavoured to storm their

position they swept the street with a deadly fire. Quickly the situation

became desperate, but the fight lasted over an hour. The sound of firing

brought hundreds upon hundreds of Londoners upon the scene. All these

took arms against the Germans, who, after many fruitless attempts to

storm the defences, and being fired upon from every side, were compelled

to fall back again.

[Illustration: SCENE OF THE STREET FIGHTING IN SHOREDITCH on Sept.

27th]

They were followed along High Street into Bethnal Green Road, up Great

Eastern Street into Hoxton Square and Pitfield Street, and there cut up,

being given no quarter at the hands of the furious populace. In those

narrow thoroughfares they were powerless, and were therefore simply

exterminated, until the streets ran with blood.

The victory for the men of Shoreditch was complete, over three hundred

and fifty Germans being killed, while our losses were only about fifty.

The conflict was at once reported to Von Kronhelm, and the very fact

that he did not send exemplary punishment into that quarter was quite

sufficient to show that he feared to arouse further the hornets’ nest in

which he was living, and more especially that portion of the populace

north of the City.

News of the attack, quickly spreading, inspired courage in every other

part of the oppressed Metropolis.

The successful uprising against the Germans in Shoreditch incited

Londoners to rebel, and in various other parts of the Metropolis,

especially in Westbourne Grove, in Notting Hill, in Marylebone Road, and

in Kingsland, there occurred outbreaks of a more or less serious nature.

Between invaders and defenders there was now constant warfare. Von

Kronhelm had found to his cost that London was not to be so easily

cowed, after all, notwithstanding his dastardly bombardment. The size

and population of the Metropolis had not been sufficiently calculated

upon. It was as a country in itself, while the intricacies of its

by-ways formed a refuge for the conspirators, who were gradually

completing their preparations to rise _en masse_ and strike down the

Germans wherever found. In the open country his great army could march,

manœuvre, and use strategy, but here in the maze of narrow London

streets it was impossible to know in one thoroughfare what was taking

place in the next.

Supplies, too, were now running very short. The distress among our

vanquished populace was most severe; while Von Kronhelm’s own army was

put on meagre rations. The increasing price of food and consequent

starvation had not served to improve the relations between the invaders

and the citizens of London, who, though they were assured by various

proclamations that they would be happier and more prosperous under

German rule, now discovered that they were being slowly starved to

death.

Their only hope, therefore, was in the efforts of that now gigantic

organisation, the League of Defenders.

A revolt occurred in Pentonville Road, opposite King’s Cross Underground

Station, which ended in a fierce and terrible fray. A company of the

Bremen Infantry Regiment No. 75, belonging to the IXth Corps, were

marching from the City Road towards Regent’s Park, when several shots

were fired at them from windows of shops almost opposite the station.

Five Germans fell dead, including one lieutenant, a very gorgeous person

who wore a monocle. Another volley rang out before the infantrymen could

realise what was happening, and then it was seen that the half-ruined

shops had been placed in such a state of defence as to constitute a

veritable fortress.

The fire was returned, but a few moments later a Maxim spat its deadly

fire from a small hole in a wall, and a couple of dozen of the enemy

fell upon the granite setts of the thoroughfare. The rattle of musketry

quickly brought forth the whole of that populous neighbourhood--or all,

indeed, that remained of them--the working-class district between

Pentonville Road and Copenhagen Street. Notwithstanding the wreck of

London, many of the poorer classes still clung to their own districts,

and did not migrate with the middle and upper classes across the Thames.

Quickly the fight became general. The men of Bremen endeavoured to take

the place by assault, but found that it was impossible. The strength of

the defences was amazing, and showed only too plainly that Londoners

were in secret preparing for the great uprising that was being planned.

In such a position were the houses held by the Londoners, that their

fire commanded both the Pentonville and King’s Cross Roads; but very

soon the Germans were reinforced by another company of the same

regiment, and these being attacked in the rear from Rodney Street,

Cumming Street, Weston Street, York Street, Winchester Street, and other

narrow turnings leading into the Pentonville Road, the fighting quickly

became general.

The populace came forth in swarms, men and women, armed with any weapon

or article upon which they could lay their hands, and all fired with the

same desire.

And in many instances they succeeded, be it said. Hundreds of men who

came forth were armed with rifles which had been carefully secreted on

the entry of the enemy into the metropolis. The greater part of those

men, indeed, had fought at the barricades in North London, and had

subsequently taken part in the street fighting as the enemy advanced.

Some of the arms had come from the League of Defenders, smuggled into

the metropolis nobody exactly knew how. All that was known was that at

the various secret headquarters of the League, rifles, revolvers, and

ammunition were forthcoming, the majority of them being of foreign make,

and some of them of a pattern almost obsolete.

Up and down the King’s Cross, Pentonville, and Caledonian Roads the

crowd swayed and fought. The Germans against that overwhelming mass of

angry civilians seemed powerless. Small bodies of the troops were

cornered in the narrow by-streets, and then given no quarter.

Brave-hearted Londoners, though they knew well what dire punishment they

must inevitably draw upon themselves, had taken the law into their own

hands, and were shooting or stabbing every German who fell into their

hands.

The scene of carnage in that hour of fighting was awful. The _Daily

Chronicle_ described it as one of the most fiercely-contested encounters

in the whole history of the siege. Shoreditch had given courage to

King’s Cross, for, unknown to Von Kronhelm, houses in all quarters were

being put in a state of defence, their position being carefully chosen

by those directing the secret operations of the League of Defenders.

For over an hour the houses in question gallantly held out, sweeping the

streets constantly with their Maxim. Presently, however, on further

reinforcements arriving, the German colonel directed his men to enter

the houses opposite. In an instant a door was broken in, and presently

glass came tumbling down as muzzles of rifles were poked through the

panes, and soon sharp crackling showed that the Germans had settled down

to their work. The movements of the enemy throughout were characterised

by their coolness and military common sense. They did the work before

them in a quiet, business-like way, not shirking risk when it was

necessary, but, on the other hand, not needlessly exposing themselves

for the sake of swagger.

The defence of the Londoners was most obstinate. In the streets,

Londoners attacked the enemy with utter disregard for the risks they

ran. Women, among them many young girls, joined in the fray, armed with

pistols and knives.

After a while a great body of reinforcements appeared in the Euston

Road, having been sent hurriedly along from Regent’s Park. Then the

option was given to those occupying the fortified house to surrender,

the colonel promising to spare their lives. The Londoners peremptorily

refused. Everywhere the fighting became more desperate, and spread all

through the streets leading out of St. Pancras, York, and Caledonian

Roads, until the whole of that great neighbourhood became the scene of a

fierce conflict, in which both sides lost heavily. Right across

Islington the street fighting spread, and many were the fatal traps set

for the unwary German who found himself cut off in that maze of narrow

streets between York Road and the Angel. The enemy, on the other hand,

were shooting down women and girls as well as the men, even the

non-combatants--those who came out of their houses to ascertain what was

going on--being promptly fired at and killed.

In the midst of all this somebody ignited some petrol in a house a few

doors from the chapel in Pentonville Road, and in a few moments the

whole row of buildings were blazing furiously, belching forth black

smoke and adding to the terror and confusion of those exciting moments.

Even that large body of Germans now upon the scene were experiencing

great difficulty in defending themselves. A perfect rain of bullets

seemed directed upon them on every hand, and to-day’s experience

certainly proves that Londoners are patriotic and brave, and in their

own districts they possess a superiority over the trained troops of the

Kaiser.

At length, after a most sanguinary struggle, the Londoners’ position was

carried, the houses were entered, and twenty-two brave patriots, mostly

of the working class, taken prisoners. The populace now realising that

the Germans had, after all, overpowered their comrades in their

fortress, fell back; but being pursued northward towards the railway

line between Highbury and Barnsbury Stations, many of them were

despatched on the spot.

What followed was indeed terrible. The anger of the Germans now became

uncontrollable. Having in view Von Kronhelm’s proclamation,--which

sentenced to death all who, not being in uniform, fired upon German

troops,--they decided to teach the unfortunate populace a lesson. As a

matter of fact, they feared that such revolts might be repeated in other

quarters.